T. E. Harrison, chief engineer, and William Bell, the architect of the North Eastern Railway. It cost £81,000 () to construct. It soon became a busy interchange on the main East Coast route, thanks to its rail links to Richmond (opened in 1846), and (1862/5) and the Tees Valley Line to (1842) and (1861). The lines to Penrith (closed in 1962), Barnard Castle (1964) and Richmond (1969) have now gone (along with the bays at the northern end of the station, now used for car parking), but the main line (electrified in 1991) and the Tees Valley route remain busy. It is also still possible to travel to Catterick Garrison and Richmond from here, by means of the Arriva North East-operated X26 and X27 buses (which have through National Rail ticketing arrangements). The same company also operated the Sky Express bus service to Durham Tees Valley Airport from the station, but this was withdrawn in January 2009 due to declining demand. Station masters Thomas Waldie: 1840–1866 Robert Wood: 1867–1873 Richard Thompson: 1874–1878 James Bell: 1878–1900 Thomas William Smith: 1900–1902 (afterwards station master at Sunderland) G. H. Stephenson: 1902 George W. T. Laidler: 1902 - 1907 J. Pattinson: 1907 Matthew William Seymour: 1907–1912 (formerly station master at Bishop Auckland, afterwards station master at Boroughbridge) T. Pearce: 1912–1920 Irving Richard Beeby MBE: 1920–1931 Edwin Weavers: 1932–1941 (formerly station master at Middlesbrough) Thomas Allen: 1942–1949 (formerly station master at Sunderland) W. Lake: 1950 W. H. Campbell: 1950–1952 (afterwards station master at Newcastle) W. J. Thomas: 1952–1956 George Renton: 1956 N. Darby: 1963–???? T. Hutchinson: 1965 S. F. Potts: 1965–???? Accidents and incidents On 16 November 1910, an express freight train overran signals and was involved in a rear-end collision with another freight train. On 27 June 1928, a parcels train and an excursion train were involved in a head-on collision. Twenty five people were killed and 45 were injured. On 11 December 1968, a Newcastle to Kings Cross express train was derailed at the south end of the station after passing a signal at danger. No-one was hurt. On 16 February 1977, an express passenger train hauled by Class 55 locomotive 55 008 collided with an empty stock train after failing to stop at Darlington. The guard of the express was slightly injured. The cause of the accident was that the brakes on the carriages had become isolated whilst the train was moving