The North Tyneside Steam Railway and Stephenson Steam Railway are visitor attractions in North Tyneside, North East England. The museum and railway workshops share a building on Middle Engine Lane adjacent to the Silverlink Retail Park. The railway is a standard gauge line, running south for from the museum to Percy Main. The railway is operated by the North Tyneside Steam Railway Association (NTSRA). The museum is managed by Tyne and Wear Archives and Museums on behalf of North Tyneside Council. The railway runs along the alignment of various former coal wagonways, which were later used by the Tyne and Wear Metro Test Centre; the museum and workshop building used to be the test facility. The museum is dedicated to the railway pioneers George Stephenson and his son Robert, with one of George's early locomotives, Billy, housed in the museum. History Horse drawn and rope hauled waggonways As the early coal seams of the Northumberland Coalfield near the River Tyne were exhausted, waggonways were laid to serve pits sunk further north. Coal would be unloaded into colliers (coal transport ships) via staithes. The first wagonways used wooden waggons on wooden rails drawn by horses. The first traffic began in 1755 on a line from Shiremoor to Hayhole staithes, and was soon followed by more lines. Wooden rails were eventually replaced by wrought iron. Rope haulage was introduced from 1821, with the museum site being at the top of Prospect Hill. By the 1820s coal was coming from pits further to the north in Seghill, Backworth and Cramlington, while a pit at Murton near Shiremoor had also been added. In 1826 it also became the preferred route for coal coming from Fawdon to the west, to make it unnecessary to use keel boats further upriver. 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. Once they crossed the line of the present A193 Wallsend Road, they fanned out to their respective unloading points. 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. By the 1840s, coal was also coming from Blyth and Bedlington on the east