Full Steam Ahead!
Stephenson Railway Museum
Stephenson Railway Museum takes a look at the history of trains throughout the ages from the earliest efforts of George Stephenson to the great days of the steam engine through to electric trains of today.
The Museum houses the railway collections of Tyne & Wear Museums and is the northern terminus for North Tyneside team Railway.
The engines on display date from the days before steam power right through to early forms of electric trains. The museums latest locomotive to go on display is the newly restored electric Harton E4 which forms the centrepiece of the Museum's new exhibition The Electric Century.
The exhibition takes a look a how electricity has changed the way we live and its role in revolutionising transport on Tyneside in the early 1900s. Included in the display is an exciting interactive multimedia display which tells the story of the Harton Electric Railway.
In addition to the interesting engines, carriages and parcel vans, the impact of the coal industry on the region's railways is explored in the fascinating exhibition From Pits to Staiths which uses hands-on exhibits to show how trains work.
As well as the exhibitions, during the summer the museum offers visitors the opportunity to take a ride on a real steam from the Museum to Percy Main Village.
Submitted by: Alison Bishop, 25 August 2006
