The museum and railway workshops share a building on Middle Engine Lane adjacent to the Silverlink Retail Park.

As the early coal seams of the Northumberland Coalfield near the River Tyne were exhausted, waggonways were laid to serve pits sunk further north.

[1] Traffic increased as further pits opened, and the corridor from Middle Engine Lane down to Percy Main became congested as companies either shared lines or built their own within a hundred yards of each other, depending on which was more convenient.

In 1839 the Cramlington wagonway built a new line away from the corridor further to the west, while still passing close to it at the Middle Engine Lane and Percy Main ends.

[1] The opening of the route to Blyth also saw passenger services being run to Percy Main from 1841, for connections with the Newcastle and North Shields Railway.

In 1975, the Seaton Burn wagonway alignment was relaid for use by the Tyne and Wear Metro Test Centre, with a 1.5-mile (2.4 km) test track running from Middle Engine Lane as far south as the A1058 Coast Road bridges, and north beyond Middle Engine Lane on the Backworth wagonway alignment to West Allotment.

The last BR line (Percy Main to Backworth) closed in 1983 and the tracks were lifted, ending over 200 years of railway use of the corridor.

[3] In 2007, the Tyne and Wear Museums and North Tyneside Council's head of cultural services have submitted plans for a feasibility study into developing the museum into a premier North East railway tourist attraction, with period buildings, a link to Percy Main Metro station, and all year round opening.

The southern platform, "Percy Main", is immediately south of the point where the Metro crosses the railway, paralleling the length of Brunton Street, to which there is pedestrian access for passengers wishing to leave the train there.

[29] It is a stationary exhibit, mounted on a short stretch of period track with block-mounted rails, to remain compatible with horse-drawn trains.

This 0-6-0 saddle tank was built in 1939 as works number 1970 by Peckett and Sons of Bristol for Ashington Coal Company which operated one of Britain's most extensive colliery railway systems.

In 1969 she was sold by the National Coal Board to North Norfolk Preserved Railway when the Ashington system was dieselised.

It was the last working example of the 1841 patented Stephenson 'long boiler' design,[30] to produce higher steam pressure while retaining a small wheelbase.

Unsuited for high speeds, they nonetheless satisfied a need for powerful shunters at certain industrial railways like the Consett Iron and Steel Company.

Once it became surplus to larger locomotives there, the Stephenson Railway Museum purchased 2994 and repainted it from "Kermit the frog" green to a black livery similar to a NER style.

Restoration of the locomotive has begun with work completed including tyre turning, painting of the frames and overhaul of various boiler components as of January 2024.

Built by Sentinel in 1953, this locomotive began its life at the Totternhoe Quarries in Dunstable, working for Rugby Portland Cement Co. Ltd as their No.

In July 1979, the locomotive found a new home at the Tanfield Railway, arriving alongside RW Hawthorn Works No.

It was later moved to the Heritage Centre at County School, a preservation site initially managed by the Great Eastern Railway.

An early diesel built in 1958, Consett Iron and Steelworks No.10 is the last example of in-house production of locomotives by industrial railways in the North East.

[30] It was conceived in their Templetown workshops to satisfy a need for a 300 hp shunter with mechanical transmission, and was based on a Hunslet design.

Eventually redundant to Sentinel's with hydraulic transmission, it was donated in 1976 to the Tyne and wear Museums Service by the work's later owner, the British Steel Corporation.

[30] Work has begun to return No.10 to operational condition which includes a full rewire and repairs to the compressed air system.

[30] It was stored outside for many years, but after a successful lottery bid and sponsorship from the local Siemens Microchip Company it was restored to working order by using battery power rather than an overhead supply.

The 20-ton Dogfish Ballast Wagon, Salmon Rail Carrier and 20 Ton wooden brake van were all used in the construction of the railway in the late 1980/early 1990s.

They converted it into a four-plank open wagon for use as the carrier for the batteries needed to power the railway's electric locomotive E4.

[20] The other four-wheel flat wagon is a former overhead wire drum carrier used in the electrification of the East Coast Mainline, it sat at Heaton TMD for many years and was donated to the railway in late 2019.

Lambton Van 21 arrived in August 2020 from the Embsay and Bolton Abbey Steam Railway and is privately owned.

[36] Other bus stops on Atmel Way in the adjacent Cobalt Business Park provide other connections, including to the two nearest Metro stations - Percy Main five minutes away to the south and Northumberland Park ten minutes away to the north (on the southern and northern sections of the North Tyneside loop, respectively).

On days when passenger services are in operation, the museum can also be accessed by joining the trains at the southern terminus, Percy Main Metro being around a 300m walk away from the platform through the residential estate of the same name.