"On the 18th of June, 1844, the Newcastle and Darlington line - an important link of the great main highway to the north - was completed and publicly opened, thus connecting the Thames and the Tyne by a continuous line of railway. On that day George Stephenson and a distinguished party of railway men travelled by express train from London to Newcastle in about nine hours. It was a great event, and was worthily celebrated.  The population of Newcastle held holiday; and a banquet given in the Assembly Rooms the same evening assumed the form of an ovation to Mr. Stephenson and his son."

Extract from: The Life of George Stephenson and of his son Robert Stephenson, by Samuel Smiles, 1881

Newcastle Central Station was officially opened by Queen Victoria on the 29th August 1850. The station on Neville Street was designed by John Dobson. It replaced three earlier stations, and was jointly funded by the Newcastle & Carlisle Railway and George Hudson’s Newcastle & Darlington Junction and Newcastle & Berwick Railways. 

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"Her Majesty and the Royal Family passed through Newcastle, on their return from Scotland. The Queen alighted at the Central Station for luncheon, and her majesty spoke a few words to the Mayor of Gateshead, expressing her great sorrow at the late calamity in which she was much interested. The Mayor of Newcastle afterwards received a letter from Colonel Phipps, requesting that her majesty’s name might be added to the subscription for the sufferers for £100."

From: T Fordyce, J. Sykes. Local records; or, Historical register of remarkable events which have occurred in Northumberland and Durham, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, and Berwick-upon-Tweed..., published 1867

Newcastle Suffragette, Kathleen Brown, was realsed from Holloway Prison in July 1909. She had been sentenced to to seven days solitary confinement after being ararested for throwing stones in a protest at Whitehall, and went on hunger strike in prison. A large group of supporters met her at Newcastle Central Station, bearing banners and carriages decorated in the suffragette colours of white, green and purple. Following a celebration tea at the Turks Head Hotel, she gave a speech to a large crowd at the Haymarket.