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After the creation of the Lothian Coal Co Ltd this colliery was developed to be the main site in the Newbattle Collieries. Also known as Lady Victoria Pit, The Lady or the Lady Vic. The name was for Lady Victoria Alexandrina, wife of the 9th Marquess of Lothian, Schomberg Henry Kerr.

During construction a temporary was laid from the existing railway west to the site of the Lady Victoria. This crossed the A9 on the level to enter the site and during construction there was no connection to the nearby main line. The permanent way was laid further north.

The mine opened in 1895. Underground it was linked to the Lingerwood Mine. The winding engine was provided by Grant Ritchie & Co's Townholm Engine Works. It was not only a mine but also the chief coal preparation plant and had a direct connection for the private railway system to the Edinburgh and Hawick Railway (North British Railway) (the 'Waverley Route') at the Lady Victoria Pit Signal Box. The main line was to the west of the mine. (This connection replaced the system's older connection at West Bryans Siding.)

The connection to the main line originally allowed entry from, and exit to, the south with the line climbing to the south.

The standard gauge sidings left at Lady Victoria Pit Signal Box and ran north to serve the colliery screens. One line sidestepped the screens to their west and from north of the north end of the colliery screen sidings turned east to north of Lingerwood Mine (a location which could be referred to as Lingerwood Junction [1st]. From here Lingerwood Mine could be reached by reversal or the line followed north to Easthouses Pit and ultimately Shaw's Coal Depot. The portion of line from the Lady Victoria to Lingerwood was newer than the alignment between Lingerwood, Easthouses and Shaw's Depot.

To the south of the Lady Victoria was a yard of holding sidings, only accessible from the private system. The Newbattle Collieries' workshops (Newbattle Central Workshops) were located east of the Lady Victoria, a range of railway served (from the holding sidings) buildings running north-south alongside the main road.

One of the more obscure parts of the Lothian Lines (North British Railway) was a set of reversing spurs south of the Lady Victoria Pit Signal Box alongside the main line. This allowed trains to enter from and exit to the north via the reversing spurs. The lines of the Lady Victoria Colliery Reversing Spur passed under a second Brewer's Bush Bridge, a girder bridge directly east of the original.

The layout became more complicated in 1909 with the opening of the Easthouses Extension Pit. This was served by the Easthouses Tramway (Lothian Coal Co Ltd), a cable operated line which ran from the new pit south to Lingerwood Mine and the Lady Victoria Pit. The new alignment was directly east of the older Easthouses to Lingerwood standard gauge line. Between Lingerwood and the Lady Victoria the alignment ran west immediately south of the standard gauge line before turning hard south to enter the Lady Victoria's coal preparation plant.

The National Coal Board rebuilt the cable tramway in 1949. A secondary set of sidings were built to the south (Lady Victoria Colliery New Sidings), their approach passing under a third Brewer's Bush Bridge, directly east of the original main line bridge. These sidings were directly east of the reversing spurs and main line. Road vehicles could be loaded here from hoppers.

In 1955 the cable tramway was converted for locomotive operation. For this the lines between the Lady Victoria and Lingerwood were reversed, the standard gauge now occupying the route of the tramway and vice versa. A new coal receiving area was built at the end of the tramway north of the Lady Victoria. A new locomotive shed was added to the private lines, close to the Lady Victoria Pit Signal Box.

The mine closed in 1981 and is now the National Mining Museum Scotland.

The restored locomotive No 3 (No 1458 built by Andrew Barclay, Sons & Co in 1916) lives at the mining museum in the undercroft of the surface buildings.

There is a beam engine with a long history. Most recently it came from the Heriot Watt mining school. Before that it was at Highhouse Colliery (Auchinleck), Craigton Pit (Lugar) and a pit in the Dalry/Blair area for which it was made by Walkinshaw in Bridgeton in the 1790s. The engine is known as 'Old Ben' after its operator at Highhouse.

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