The first station was opened on 15 April 1844 by the Newcastle & Darlington Junction Railway as an intermediate station on their route from Gilesgate and Ferryhill to the Durham Junction Railway at Rainton Crossing.

[1] On 1 April 1857, the North Eastern Railway opened a line from Bishop Auckland to a junction with the former N&DJR south of the original Leamside station and, due to it becoming a junction station, decided to open a new, more suitable, Leamside station a short distance to south of the previous one.

In 1913 NER statistics show that 11,128 tons of bricks and 21 wagons of livestock were handled at these goods facilities.

William Cowan worked as the Assistant Station Master from 1882 to 1904.

This article on a railway station in North East England is a stub.