North Weald railway station is on the Epping Ongar Railway, a heritage railway, located in North Weald, Essex.
The station was opened in 1865 by the Great Eastern Railway, on its extension from Loughton to Ongar. It was latterly a Central line station on the London Underground between Epping and Blake Hall stations. The section beyond Epping to closed in 1994.
North Weald station was opened by the Great Eastern Railway (GER) on 24 April 1865, serving principally as a goods yard, taking agricultural produce from the nearby farms into London. During World War II it was frequently used by airmen travelling to and from the nearby North Weald Airfield. Steam locomotives operated by British Rail for the London Underground ran a shuttle service from Epping to Ongar (stopping at North Weald) from 1949 to 1957, when the track was electrified and taken over by the Central line.
While the Epping to Ongar branch was normally operated as an isolated section of the Central line, for two days every year trains were run from London to terminate at North Weald: these trains served the North Weald Airshow on the Saturday and Sunday of its opening at the aerodrome almost adjacent to the station. The normal Epping to Ongar shuttle dovetailed with this service passing the terminating train on the adjacent line during its southbound journey.
The line from Epping to Ongar is a single-track railway apart from at North Weald, which functioned as the only available passing loop for trains travelling in opposite directions. In 1888, however, the eastern end of the loop was severed and it was used only as a siding. The loop was restored in 1949 after transfer to London Transport, and a second (westbound) platform was built at this time, and both platforms were used from 1949 until 1976, the westbound track being lifted in 1978. Until this time, access to the two platforms was controlled from the original Eastern Counties Railway signal box still sited on the southbound platform to this day.
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