The Railway Station and Regional Museums Store
Beamish Railway Station, adjacent to The Town, is a typical country station as it would have been in 1913. A wrought-iron footbridge from The Town crosses the railway line and leads towards the signal box, dating from 1896. The passenger station was first built in 1867 and came from Rowley, near Consett. Across the tracks in the Goods Yard is a Goods Shed, dating from 1850. The coal drops from West Boldon reflect the important role of local coal merchants in towns and villages; the coal office, originally owned by James White of Hexham, is of a type which was found in almost every railway goods yard up to the late 1960s.
A variety of wagons can be seen in and around The Railway Station, on a regularly changing pattern of display. Also, from time to time, visiting steam locomotives may appear at the Station.
Near The Railway Station stands the Regional Museums Store. This vast building is based on a late nineteenth-century engineering works and houses many unique items of the region’s rich social, industrial, maritime and transport heritage, most of them too large to be stored elsewhere. Visitors are able to see some of these collections from a viewing gallery and occasional guided tours of the building are also available. The Regional Museums Store is a joint initiative between Beamish and Tyne and Wear Museums.