29 November 2011 Last updated at 09:42

Liverpool museum displays Lion and Overhead Railway carriage

Lion locomotive and Overhead railway carriage

The Museum of Liverpool opens its second phase of galleries on Friday 2 December with some of the largest objects from its collection, including a Liverpool Overhead Railway carriage and the steam locomotive Lion. The museum, which has attracted almost 600,000 visitors since opening in July, will be visited by The Queen and The Duke of Edinburgh on 1 December.

The Great Port Gallery looks at Liverpool's development from the building of the world's first commercial wet dock in 1715. It examines how the city was at the forefront of the Industrial Revolution, and the technical and mechanical developments that followed.

The Museum of Liverpool has about 6,000 objects on display across three floors. It is the largest newly built national museum in Britain for more than a century. Other objects include the stage where John Lennon met Paul McCartney in 1957, Olympic gold medallist Chris Boardman's Lotus Sport bike and the first Ford Anglia car produced on Merseyside.

At the centre of the new gallery is a surviving coach from Liverpool's Overhead Railway, which was demolished in the late 1950s. The six mile long railway opened in 1893 and was carried on iron supports along the city's docks from Herculaneum in the south to Alexandra Dock in the north.

More than 10,000 local people were consulted on the content of the museum which is the first national museum devoted to the history of a regional city. The second phase of the opening includes a gallery dedicated to Liverpool's King's Regiment.

The centrepiece of the Great Port gallery is Lion, a locomotive from the Liverpool and Manchester railway. Built in 1837 Lion was restored in 1928, after spending many years as a stationary pumping engine. It featured in the 1952 film The Titfield Thunderbolt.

National Museums Liverpool runs eight museums in the city. The History Detectives gallery includes a 125ft (38m) timeline spanning history from the Ice Age to the present day.

Liverpool

Liverpool museum displays Lion and Overhead Railway carriage

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