My correspondent 'Percy Main' has this to say about Tynemouth Station:"Although it is usually said the scale of the station reflects the size of holiday traffic in the early days, I think this might be a mistake.
When Tynemouth was being built Tynemouth 'village' was the only significant population centre on the coast, Whitley (Bay) and Cullercoats being true 'villages'. It was natural for the NER to think that the station at Tynemouth would be the principal one (on what they called the 'Tynemouth Branch'). Furthermore the new station was replacing the termini of the Newcastle and North Shields Railway and the Blyth and Tyne Railway. It is likely the NER also imagined their new station would function as a terminus, and as the 'junction' for the Avenue Branch. In fact, as we all know, it became just one stop on a circle line and Whitley Bay (and even Cullercoats) were more important as 'tripper' destinations. I doubt Tynemouth ever functioned fully in the way the NER envisaged it would."
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