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.

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.

These works are designed with the long-term future of the branch and to enable the use of locomotive-hauled trains (hauled by steam and diesel locomotives).

The branch once again runs locomotive-hauled trains between Ongar and North Weald, with a diesel shuttle towards Coopersale and connecting heritage buses to Epping.