GIANT machines from an age when mobile phones and computers were the stuff of fantasy have been put on display in a new £1.6m warehouse.

Boats weighing 24 tonnes vie for space beside an array of historic cars, buses, trams and trains at the centre in Beamish Museum, County Durham.

Some of the more intriguing items stored there include an iron lung and a monstrous-looking hair curling machine.

Much of the equipment was stored away from public view, by both Beamish and Tyne and Wear Museums. The two joined forces to commission the building, created in pre-war style by Darlington architects Niven and Niven, using money from The Heritage Lottery Fund and the North East Museums, Libraries and Archives Council.

Justin Battong, who has been cataloguing the equipment in the warehouse, said: "There are the huge, dramatic items, particularly on the Tyne and Wear Museum's side, but I like the smaller things, like the old bikes.

"We've got penny farthings and a quadrocycle, which are great. I suppose the public would like our gipsy caravan.

But I think my favourite piece is actually an old hearse. It might sound a bit morbid, but it's an old Austin and is the most beautiful looking car."

Also at the museum is a 120-tonne Doxford marine engine, built in Sunderland, and a 24-tonne wherry, a boat unique to the North-East, used to carry stock to large ships along the region's shallow rivers.