Darlington is known for its associations with the birth of railways. This is celebrated in the town at Darlington Railway Centre and Museum. The world's first passenger rail journey was between Shildon(via Darlington) and nearby Stockton-on-Tees on the Stockton and Darlington Railway in 1825.

To commemorate the town's contribution to the railways, David Mach's 1997 work "Train" is located alongside the A66, close to the original Stockton-Darlington railway. It is a life-size brick sculpture of a steaming locomotive emerging from a tunnel, made from 185,000 "Accrington Nori" bricks. The work had a budget of £760,000.

Darlington Railway Centre and Museum is located on the 1825 route of the Stockton and Darlington Railway which was the world's first steam powered passenger railway. Run by Darlington Borough Council the museum is located in the northern suburbs of Darlington in the ceremonial county of County Durham, England. The site encompasses three significant Stockton and Darlington Railway buildings of the 1830s: North Road railway station, the goods shed and Hopetown Carriage Works.

Exhibits include George Stephenson's Locomotion No 1, built for the opening of the Stockton & Darlington Railway, and Derwent, the earliest surviving Darlington built locomotive, on loan from The National Railway Museum collection. Locomotion No 1 is one of the oldest surviving steam engines in the world and the first ever steam train to carry fare paying passengers.