Nexus has donated the first of the Tyne and Wear Metro’s original trains to The Stephenson Steam Railway in North Tyneside, part of North East Museums, where it will preserve a unique part of the region’s railway heritage.

The train, unit number 4001, dates back to the mid-1970s, and will become an immediate exhibit, which the public will be free to visit.

Train No 4001 is in Metro’s original yellow and white livery and was the prototype train delivered to Metro’s test track in 1975, five years before the system opened in August 1980.

The Stephenson Steam Railway site at Middle Engine Lane in North Shields is where the Metro test track was originally located, and where the first two prototypes were tested before they entered service.

As well as being managed by North East Museums on behalf of North Tyneside Council, the Stephenson Steam Railway is supported by volunteers from the North Tyneside Steam Railway Association, who maintain and operate the railway.

A second Metro unit, No. 4020, is also being retained for heritage purposes and will be donated to Beamish Museum in County Durham.

In August, a replica of unit 4001 recently appeared on stage at Newcastle’s Theatre Royal, as a centre piece for the play Gerry and Sewell, while 4020 is the unit in which HM Queen Elizabeth II travelled when she officially opened the Tyne and Wear Metro

“I’m delighted to say that the first ever Metro train, carriage 4001, has been preserved, and will be exhibited at the Stephenson Steam Railway in North Tyneside. This was our first ever Metro prototype. It’s given us 50 years of service on our system, first at the test track, and then in service for customers, so it’s only right that it’s being retained for heritage purposes.”

It’s a real homecoming for the train, as the Stephenson museum is based on the site of our old test track, where the train was first delivered in May 1975 for trials and driver training in advance of the Metro system opening to the public. Our current trains have been real workhorses over the last four decades. They have helped to change the face of public transport in our region. They have given us outstanding service and have clocked up many thousands of miles, running twenty hours a day, seven days a week. We rightly celebrate the service of these trains, which do have a heritage value that is being recognised. It”s also vital that we look the future. They have become an increasing maintenance challenge and the new Stadler trains will transform the service for our customers and mark a new era for Metro.”

Cathy Massarella, Managing Director of Nexus