The Bishop Auckland & Weardale Railway (BA&WR) passed through the future site of the station upon its opening between Shildon and Crook in November 1843 and was extended to Waskerley by the WXR in 1845.
[1] The Wearhead branch did retain its goods service until 1961 when it was cut back, first to St John's Chapel and then, in 1968, to the Blue Circle Cement Works (later owned by Lafarge) just to the west of Eastgate.
[3] After major efforts to clear the line of vegetation and repair damaged tracks, passenger services along the section between Stanhope and Bishop Auckland through Wear Valley Junction were reintroduced 23 May 2010[4] and continued until the end of the 2012 season.
[6] In April 2018, the Weardale Railway CIC announced that works had commenced to lift a short section of track at Broken Banks (approximately 1/2 mile west of Bishop Auckland) to enable the embankment to be repaired after subsidence had made the line unusable for passenger traffic.
Once the works are complete it is intended to reinstate the tracks and extend the Stanhope to Witton-le-Wear passenger service back to Bishop Auckland West station from July 2018[7] there still do not currently appear to be any plans to reopen Wear Valley Junction.