When the Government’s Beeching cuts of the early 1960s kicked in, it marked the end of the line for many of Britain’s smaller railway stations
As the decade progressed and the 1970s dawned, many stations that had served the North East for decades were struggling for footfall and closed.
There was a long, gradual period of decline. Between the early 1950s and and early 1980s, the likes of Blyth in the north, Allendale in the west, and Gateshead all had stations which were consigned to history.
Read more: Rare images show long lost scenes from Newcastle
In the heart of Tyneside, however, some older stations were incorporated into the new Metro system in the 1980s when it utilised existing rail routes.
The Newcastle to South Shields route had run since the late 19th century when it was opened by North Eastern Railways.
Hebburn sat roughly half-way on the route and its first passengers boarded and alighted at the new station in 1872.
As with communities along both the northern and southern stretches of the River Tyne down to the coast, Hebburn grew on the back of heavy industry.
In the early decades of the last century, huge factories on its riverside - the Bauxite Works, Tenant’s Works, and Tyne Works - produced chemicals and pumped acrid smoke out of numerous tall chimney stacks.
Today the riverside is a pleasant reclaimed grassy, tree-lined area popular with walkers and cyclists.
Thousands of workers were employed at Hebburn’s renowned shipyard Hawthorn Leslie, or at Hebburn Colliery which extracted coal until the early 1930s. Both are now gone.
And there was the electrical switchgear company Reyrolle, founded in 1901, where 12,000 people worked at its peak. In our older black and white image, the eight-storey 1959-built office block visible behind the bridge and housing 700 staff, was home to the company's administrative staff. (The block, later home to the DSS, was finally demolished in 2010).
Plenty of people needed to get to and from Hebburn, with many using the train.
Our older image shows the town’s station with its ticket office and waiting rooms in the late 1960s.
It was “de-staffed” in 1969 and fell into decline, before reopening as a re-built Metro station in 1984
Don't forget to check out our Memory Lane local history website that's packed with archive photographs and has an easy-to-use picture colourisation tool.
