Hartlepool railway station was a railway station that served the Headland area of Hartlepool in the ceremonial county of Durham, North East England. Though originally built as the coastal terminus of the Hartlepool Dock & Railway in 1839, for most of its life the station was the terminus of a shuttle service from the town's main station in West Hartlepool. History Though the first mineral train along the HD&R reached Hartlepool on 1 January 1835, the first passenger station in Hartlepool was not opened until 1839. Facilities at this first station were initially housed in the hull of a grounded ship before a more permanent building was provided, close to Commercial Street. From 1845, the HD&R leased the Great North of England, Clarence & Hartlepool Junction Railway which had opened a line from a junction with the HD&R at Wingate to six years earlier. However just a year after the HD&R leased the GNEC&HJR, both companies were leased by the newly formed York & Newcastle Railway, before being amalgamated into its successor, the York, Newcastle & Berwick Railway, on 22 July 1848. Passengers from Hartlepool were first carried over the GNEC&HJR in 1846. The York, Newcastle & Berwick Railway was amalgamated with other companies to form the North Eastern Railway in 1854 and in 1877 the NER constructed a line linking the former HD&R directly to the former Stockton & Hartlepool Railway in West Hartlepool. As part of the rationalisation of the rail network around Hartlepool, the NER opened a new terminus at Hartlepool, west of the original station, on 16 November 1878 and a new through station at West Hartlepool two years later. Following the opening of the new station, the original one was converted into a goods shed. The growth of West Hartlepool, combined with the decline of "old" Hartlepool led to the diversion of passenger services from the former HD&R and GNEC&HJR lines into West Hartlepool station, leaving Hartlepool as the terminus of a shuttle service between the two towns. The opening of a parallel steam tramway in 1884, and its later conversion to electric traction in 1899, introduced direct competition to this shuttle service. Hoping to emulate the success of the then recently launched Tyneside Electrics system, the NER first launched their experimental petrol electric autocars on the Hartlepool-West Hartlepool shuttle service in August 1904, hoping that they could provide a frequent (10-minute frequency) 5-minute journey