Most of these images are of Hartlepool (prior to 1967 West Hartlepool) Station.

'OLD' HARTLEPOOL STATION. The first Hartlepool station was opened around 1840 and according to Robert Wood's book 'West Hartlepool' p.24, appears to have been part of a Dutch ship brought onto land. The cabins housed the Booking Clerk and Station Master. The first proper station building was located at the junction of Commercial Street and Bond Street. It can be seen on old maps as a curved building, to the north of the fish quay, and is often labelled as a Goods' Shed. The later station opened to the west of this in Northgate in November 1878. It was also at this time that a new direct line to West Hartlepool opened. There had been an earlier line which crossed the Slake over sluice gates but this was cut to make an entrance to the Coal Dock. For many years after WW2, Hartlepool Station passenger service was solely for school trains from the colliery towns which carried Henry Smith School pupils. It was closed in 1964 after the 1963 Beeching Act, which  resulted in the closure of the Easington, Horden and Blackhall Stations. Children from then onwards were brought into the town by bus.

WEST HARTLEPOOL STATION. West Hartlepool's first station was at the end of the line from Stockton in Middleton. Trains then halted at Stranton station, which was in Mainsforth Terrace close to Burbank Street. The next station built was opposite the old Custom House which is in Victoria Terrace, now part of Hartlepool Marina area. Next a large station, called the Leeds Northern Station, was opened in 1853 in Mainsforth Terrace and photographs of this station can be seen below.  It was not until 1878 that a new connecting line meant that trains ran again between Hartlepool and West Hartlepool.
Finally the present station was opened in 1880 in Church Street and the Mainsforth Terrace station was for many years a goods' station. 

West Hartlepool station became Hartlepool station in 1967 when Hartlepool and West amalgamated.

SEATON CAREW STATION. The current Seaton Carew station has been on the same site since the mid-1800s.

GREATHAM STATION. This station came after Seaton Carew on the line south. It was well away from the centre of the village and was adjacent to the Cerebos factory. For many years it was very well used as a simple route from town for Cerebos' workers. It closed in 1991.

HART STATION This station was at the north end of the town.It was at what is now the Hartlepool end  of the Hart to Haswell country walk.

Victoria Terrace was one of the first streets in Ward Jackson's West Hartlepool and was to have been a street of some importance with Albert Square as the centrepiece. The first railway station was built in 1845 in Victoria Terrace but this was short lived and when a new station was built in Mainsforth Terrace in 1853, the railway cut off Victoria Terrace from Church Street  and sliced through Albert Square in front of the Royal Hotel. It never regained importance and was demolished in 1965.

The town of West Hartlepool was founded by Ralph Ward Jackson after having established the Stockton & Hartlepool Railway in 1839.

The area, having just one farm house in 1845, steadily grew into a centre for shipping and railway transportation. The West Hartlepool Harbour and Dock (8 acres (0.032 km²)) opened on June 1, 1847. Five years later, also on June 1, the Jackson dock (14 acres (0.057 km²)) opened as well as a railway connecting West Hartlepool to Leeds Manchester and Liverpool. This allowed the shipping of coal and wool products east, and the shipping of fresh fish and raw fleeces west, and the area's population grew as a result. Eight shipbuilding yards were established. Supporting shipbuilding and repair were: a canvas manufacturing firm, Bastown Brothers and W. Taylor iron foundries, block and mast makers and other related machinery.

Streets were laid out along which shops and brick homes were built. Standard town services followed including paved roads, gas and electricity, sewers, a slaughterhouse, cemetery and more.

West Hartlepool was formed in 1854 by the Bishop of Durham. Swainson Dock opened on June 3, 1856, named after Ward Jackson’s father-in-law. In 1878 the William Gray and Company ship yard in West Hartlepool achieved the distinction of launching the largest tonnage of any shipyard in the world, a feat to be repeated on a number of occasions.

The municipal borough of West Hartlepool was created in 1887, and it was promoted in 1902 to be a County Borough outside the control of Durham County Council. In 1967, a county borough called Hartlepool, was established for both West Hartlepool and old Hartlepool, with the inclusion within the new area of local government of the parish of Seaton Carew on the coast to the south.