Experience the sights, sounds and smells of real working steam engines that powered mills all over the North West and helped to shape our world.

Once a railway transit shed, the Power Hall is now home to some of our locomotives and rolling stock, and one of the largest collections of working steam engines in the world.

Learn how energy is converted into power, from the early water wheel and the horse gin, through to vast horizontal steam engines. Look out for the impressive 1907 McNaught Engine, which powered Firgrove Mill in Rochdale.

Watch working examples of Manchester-made oil, hot-air and diesel engines, and gaze up at our towering 30-tonne hydraulic accumulator.

See our replica of steam locomotive Novelty, which ran in the famous 1829 Rainhill Trials and is a forerunner to the largest machine in the Power Hall, the Beyer-Garratt articulated steam locomotive. Made at Beyer, Peacock and Company’s Gorton factory in 1930, this Garratt ran on the South African Railways until 1972.