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Low Station Road, HOUGHTON LE SPRING, DH4 6QX

Leamside is a small settlement in County Durham close to Durham city. The road sign in blue and yellow is in colours and a style typically found in the county.

The road to the right of the image is Low Station Road. This led to Leamside railway station, where it crossed the railway on a level crossing. The level crossing was subsequently closed, with a bridge built to take the road across the railway. Station Road, in the centre of the image, leads up onto the bridge. Leamside station closed in 1953.

There is little sign now of the railway station which once occupied this site. The railway line through Leamside formed part of the original railway route from London to Edinburgh. Long distance trains were diverted onto current route through Durham, which is more direct, when that line opened in 1872. Local passenger trains continued to run on the line through Leamside until the 1960s, although Leamside station closed in 1953. The line was also busy with freight and was also a useful diversion route for express trains at times when the main line via Durham was closed for engineering work. The railway line fell into disuse in around 1992. It is currently "mothballed" - still owned by Network Rail, in case it is needed to be brought back into use in the future, but not currently maintained.

The railway line through Leamside formed part of the original railway route from London to Edinburgh. Long distance trains were diverted onto current route through Durham, which is more direct, when that line opened in 1872. Local passenger trains continued to run on the line through Leamside until the 1960s, while the line was also busy with freight. It was also a useful diversion route for express trains at times when the main line via Durham was closed for engineering work. The railway line fell into disuse in around 1992. It is currently "mothballed" - still owned by Network Rail, in case it is needed to be brought back into use in the future, but not currently maintained.

This bridge carries the road over a railway line. The railway is now disused.

The railway line through Leamside formed part of the original railway route from London to Edinburgh. Long distance trains were diverted onto current route through Durham, which is more direct, when that line opened in 1872. Local passenger trains continued to run on the line through Leamside until the 1963, although Leamside Station was closed in 1953. The line was also busy with freight. It was also a useful diversion route for express trains at times when the main line via Durham was closed for engineering work. The railway line fell into disuse and was "mothballed" by BR in 1991. It is still owned by Network Rail. But following the removal of rails at former level crossings and by theft near Penshaw in 2003, the line has been closed permanently. NR started removing all track in 2013. When the line was first built, there was a level crossing here. The bridge was built later, to enable the road to avoid the level crossing. The level crossing was then removed. (Further information on this railway and on Leamside station, including photographs before and after closure, can be forund at http://www.disused-stations.org.uk/l/leamside_second/index.shtml )

Fields at Leamside in County Durham. The railway line to the right of the fields has been disused since the early 1990s.

The 2002 photo Image is a similar view to this. At that stage the line was already out of use but rails remained. That photo showed a white building, the station hotel, which has been removed and replaced by red brick private houses seen on the left. Viwew from road bridge over railway route.

This road from West Rainton to Durham crosses the dismantled railway, once the East Coast Main Line - see Image for history.