coast, although this ceased after improvements to Blyth harbour in the 1880s. 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. These were run by what eventually became the Blyth & Tyne Railway. Passenger services ceased around 1864 when they opened an alternative route further to the east via Monkseaton (now the present Metro route). Steam locomotive working & Metro test track At its peak, there were four lines on the corridor, with three stationary engines in close proximity to the museum. Having already been in use on other parts of the lines, gradient improvements on the Blyth & Tyne's line allowed it to use steam locomotives throughout from the 1850s. Others persisted with rope haulage, the Seaton Burn Wagonway being the last to convert in 1900. Coal production began to decline after the First World War causing the Seaton Burn wagonway to close in the 1920s; a new route from the Rising Sun colliery to the west did open in 1939, although this was to replace a line on a different route. In the late 1940s the coal and railway companies were nationalised - the lines on the corridor were now controlled by either the National Coal Board (NCB) or British Rail (BR) (as the eventual owners of the Blyth & Tyne). Rationalisation saw with the Cramlington line to the west closed in the 1950s. As volumes further declined, the last Percy Main staithes closed in 1971, leading to the closure of the NCB lines, although the BR lines persisted. In 1975, the Seaton Burn wagonway alignment was relaid for use by the Tyne and Wear Metro Test Centre, with a 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 two prototype Metrocars worked out of a two-road maintenance shed constructed in Middle Engine Lane. Once the Metro system opened in 1979, the test centre closed and the track infrastructure was dismantled, leaving only the shed. 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. Museum and heritage railway In 1982/4 North Tyneside Council acquired the test sheds as the nucleus for