The museum is housed in what was originally the 'Bourbon works' Officine di Pietrarsa, founded in 1840 on the orders of Ferdinand II of Bourbon to build steam engines for ships and boilers for locomotives.

He had a small factory built in Torre Annunziata to produce steam engines for ships and ammunition for military use.

The King met the French engineer Armand Bayard, who proposed to build Italy's first railway line from Naples to Nocera.

The development of the railways was so significant that the King soon faced the problem of finding space to build a bigger workshop.

With the unification of Italy, the production was taken over by industry in the north, the Bourbon realm fell and Pietrarsa was first nationalized then reprivatized.

The B and C pavilions housed the furnaces and now display many carriages (a Centoporte wagon, three Littorine, the E.623 and E.626) One important example is the n.10 of the Royal Train built by Fiat for the marriage of Umberto II of Savoy and Maria José of Belgium.