THE North-East's industrial past has come face to face with modern technology.

Tyne and Wear Archives Service has launched a website celebrating the region's industrial achievements.

Called Picks and Pistons, more than 12,000 pages catalogue the railway, coal mining, shipbuilding, iron and steel and engineering industries that transformed the region into a workshop of the world.

Liz Rees, chief archivist for the archives service, said: "The impact of the pioneers and industrialists of the 18th and 19th Centuries played an essential role in shaping the region as we know it today and placed it firmly on the world map.

"The birth of the modern railway, iron and steel that built towns and cities, ships that sailed to the four corners of the world and the coal that powered the nation are all associated with the North-East."

The records of the Tyne and Wear Archives Service, Northumberland Record Office and Teesside Archives Service can also be found on the www.a2a.pro.gov.uk website