Tram 196 Dismantling begins...

Below: 196's truck was removed this morning to enable the wheelsets and motors to be stripped out and receive overhauls and wheel re-profiling. The truck frame will also be inspected, cleaned and painted as part of this work.

Below: Whilst tramway profiles are much finer than railway ones, this is pretty much on the limit, whence 196's withdrawal earlier this season. The tyres have plenty of metal on them to enable turning (and further turnings in the future) so this aspect of the work is expected to be quite straightforward.

Below: Meanwhile, outside Road 4 advances and is filled in, so as to preserve access to the green/hardstanding to the right of the view below.

New Look Blog!

To ring the changes the blog has been given a bit of a makeover and thanks to Andy Martin's efforts it now looks much sharper and more professional (I hope). To reflect the increasing breadth of the work reported it is now the 'Transport & Industry' blog and I hope that as we develop there will be even more to report. Otherwise I will continue to try and update it regularly as has been the case up to now. Andy has also created some buttons at the top to click on, which take you to the stocklist (new one due in January and this time without the computer gremlins that caused some lines to be omitted) and links to useful articles etc. I hope to increase this particular aspect of the blog so that it becomes a useful reference point for the Museum's transport and industry collections.

Any feedback will be gladly received!

Regional Heritage Engineer

29th November 2011

Readers of this blog may be interested in a new post which Beamish is currently advertising on the main website - for a Regional Heritage Engineer. There are full details on the site and applications are being invited by the 12th December. As followers of this site will have observed is that there is plenty underway and plenty more to do and the role we are advertising will enable great strides forward in terms of the ongoing maintenance as well as new restoration of the transport and industry collections, tied in with establishment of workshop facilities to match the potential output and better serve those loyally toiling away in the present buildings.

Volunteer Projects update

28th November 2011

As readers of the blog will no doubt be aware, the Transport & Industry department at Beamish is a great beneficiary of volunteer labour and expertise. The rest of the Museum also, of course, enjoys a great amount of volunteer contribution, but I will confine this blog to those activities more related to the work I do and know about - see more of the volunteer work on the forthcoming 'Volunteering' pages on the main Museum website.

Volunteers contribute either as part of the Friends organisation or directly to members of staff, such as Dave Young does. This creates a wide range of activity and it is one in which we are shortly to invest in quite heavily as we embark on reconstruction of existing workshops and add in new and larger facilities to enable this work to take place on a much bigger scale for both staff and volunteer projects and with an appointed person to assist with the workflow (keep an eye on the Beamish job page on the main website). This should enable an even bigger impact to be made by all those who give so generously of their time and knowledge.

As an example of the range of work being currently carried out in the quite small workshops at Beamish, here is a sample of what the Friends are currently working on, some of which is in conjunction with contractors managed by myself, some of which is pretty much autonomous.

Below: The cobble rammer! The device in the foreground has been made by the Friends team at the request of the street mason who is volunteering his skills down at Rowley Station as part of the group working there.

Below: This is a coal box to be used with the Gallopers and to compliment the coal shipping box previously restored by the Friends.

Below: Great progress is being made with the Hodbarrow side tipper. As seen in an earlier post the body is progressing well and the wheelsets have been completed pending painting. This is the chassis, now in a coat of gunmetal grey.

Below: With the roadsweeper completed the same team is taking over the restoration of this water cart. It has seen some work carried out by Museum staff and Dave Young (to manufacture various missing parts) and so has been seen in these reports previously. It will now be subject of the Friend's treatment to turn it into a working vehicle once again - red and blue livery as has become standard for such vehicles without an established provenance.

Below: Colin Slater filled some photographic gaps by supplying these views, showing (below) the lettering of the signs which will adorn the Colliery Railway gates.

Below: Colin also supplied a couple of views showing the street sweep departing for its new temporary home in the Town Carriage House - seen below with some of the team who worked on it and also in action with John and Lion. With no provenance for such vehicles (as many have been reclaimed from scrap condition!) the livery and lettering adopted has been chosen as 'typical' and representative - we simply do not know what it was originally to this sweep. Blue and red are attractive as well as commonly used, and Beamish RDC (Rural District Council) seems appropriate to a site of several hundred acres!

General News Roundup

25th November 2011

Below: The work to prepare the tram depot floor for partial removal of concrete to allow track laying has been completed. The two views below show the marked out floor, which has been slit to enable channels to be excavated and a bed for the new rail to be cast. As this is Road 4, the space to the right will effectively (once cleared!) become Road 5 - a buses lane. The intention is to remove stored items from the depot, so it will be a running shed only with a new site being developed to store the workshop materials, spare wheels etc.

Below: A taster for the future, Dave Young's next project... He is currently pattern making for the Lewin and Ruston portable projects and this morning we delivered further components to Vince Allen for Lewin. He is preparing the frames for painting, which we will aim to carry out before Christmas and the arrival of the boiler.

Hodbarrow Side Tipper - Body overhaul/rebuild

25th November 2011

Andy Basnett called in today and brought the following photographs showing his restoration of the Hodbarrow side tipper body to date.

Below: The platework was considered beyond repair so has been replaced though most of the strapping has been recovered and reused. This part is one of the corner straps which includes a relief for the door catch as well as the locating point for the door hinge. At around the point of the relief (the kinked bit), the metal needed replacing...

Below: Metal, heated and ready for joining to make the repair (original to the right).

Below: The completed piece, fitted to the body and with the catch in place for the door.

Below: An overall view of the body from the non-door side.

Below: A view from the door side.

Below: A view inside the body. Beneath this the locating ribs which sit on the cast supports have corroded badly and will require a mixture of replacement and repair.

Meanwhile, the cast supporting brackets/stanchions and other ironwork have been sent for shot-blasting and are due to return soon for painting and fitting to the wooden chassis. The waggon can then be wheeled and readied for the return of the body after which a few detail items remain and final painting - I am still hopeful we can complete the project by the April Great North Steam Fair...

General News Roundup

23rd November 2011

Below: This morning a Brimec type lorry arrived to move the Waggonway train from Pockerley to the Colliery, partly to free up space for the Christmas activities and partly to allow for some much needed maintenance on the train. The first two vehicles are seen here being winched aboard.

Below: Coffee Pot was steamed to carry out the Colliery shunting, the first job being to move the repainted van from the shed to the south siding adjacent to the ice rink.

Below: Using the barrier waggon Coffee Pot and I then sorted the train out and placed three of the vehicles into the engine shed.

Below: A close up of the open coach.

Below: The closed coach and guard's chaldron are seen here.

Below: The fourth vehicle, another chaldron was then attached to the rake to make quite an impressive scene in the exchange sidings to the rear of Francis Street. As ever Coffee Pot was a delight to use for this work - on Welsh steam coal it ran on barely five shovel fulls of coal after the initial lighting up fire!

Below: Tram depot Road 4 creeps onwards - in the morning the floor cutter will arrive to prepare the depot floor for laying of rails - the first step being to slit the concrete to allow later removal of the material.

Christmas 2011 season launches with a Sentinel!

22nd November 2011

Our Christmas season opened on Saturday and as part of this Father Christmas was subjected (!) to a trip to Durham aboard Guy Rutter's Sentinel steam lorry. Father Christmas returned to the Museum on the Beamish bus (which runs from Durham to Beamish at weekends), just beating the Sentinel back to take part in a parade down the town street culminating with the big 'lights' switch on. Andy Martin gave chase to this unusual procession - as seen below...

Below: Parked on North Road, Durham.

Below: Market Square, Durham.

Below: Sentinel and cathedral.

Below: Back at Beamish, with Mary Margaret evident among the crowds (and me trying to stay out of site on the big Marshall). You can just make out that Santa is stood in the open Armstrong as seen in an earlier post.

Depot Road 4 - getting longer!

18th November 2011

Road 4 is getting longer, as the two photos below show. The rails are working their way around the traction pole (and fortunately are able to exceed the clearances required as a minimum and still offer a smooth curve through to the centreline of the shed road) and the team is clearing the path as they progress. We have also placed an order for the floor to be slotted which will enable removal of sufficient concrete to allow laying of a base then the rails through the shed.

Meanwhile, the fleet is now decorated ready for the Christmas season to start (tomorrow) with a warm up session tonight - Children in Need. The north east activity is being filmed from the Museum, and with free entry we are expecting to be very busy!

Side tipper waggon wheelsets completed

18th November 2011

Vincent Allen has completed the overhaul of the wheelsets for the Hodbarrow side tipper.

Meanwhile, the ironwork for the chassis has been sent away for shotblasting. Once returned and painted a rolling chassis is something we can look forward to seeing quite soon...

Andy Basnett is making progress on the iron body and completion of this is expected in parallel to the chassis...

Below: The wheelsets showing the wear on the better side (on the right) and the new section on the left. This is a rolled ring, welded then profiled, to the original wheel.

Below: A close up of one of the repaired wheels showing the blending of old and new plus the recreated profile.

Below: The two wheelsets after unloading. The waggon appears to have been stood with one side in a puddle or mud, something which had caused the flange to almost corrode away completely. The other side, whilst worn and thin on the rear, is still considered suitable for occasional use on the Colliery railway sidings. The main role of this waggon will be for ash collection (from Francis Street cottages) and tipping along the line to add to the period 'blackness' of a Colliery railway.

General News Roundup

16th November 2011

Below: Work continues on Road 4 - more rails are being brought in from store and placed ready for laying out and bending.

Below: Few visitors will have missed the developments at the east end of the town street. The former Hunters Tea Store, part of the building that came from Annfield Plain (and also part of the Coop structure) is being extensively rebuilt to become a bakery. The building has never been used, having been erected by a Manpower Services Commission scheme but which was subsequently deemed to be sub-standard. Work will continue into next year but will result in an attractive and operational building at this end of the town.

Below: Routine jobs - repainting the sweetshop frontage.

Below: The station volunteers have nearly completed the cobble path that will give an improved surface from the RMS to the station. This winter we will look at rebuilding the crossing gates and improving the clearance and fit of these. The Y7 is in the background to be lit, it being in steam this week for staff training. At the other end of the station a volunteer has begun the task of clearing the undergrowth that has become quite extensive with the warm wet weather of 2011.

Below: The benches.... Seen previously, the four benches rebuilt by the Friends are now in position to give weary visitors a respite at the top of the hill behind the Resource Centre. These had been built from castings, with all new timber and much work to prepare the metalwork.

Around the site

15th November 2011

Below: Sunderland 101 leaves the depot and crosses the new pointwork in the yard.

Below: Initial marking up of Road 4 is taking place using temporary sleepers, levels and marker posts. The track has to negotiate a drainage channel and swing to the right to clear the overhead pole clearly visible in this view, the line will curve back to take the centre line through the doors and into the depot itself.

Below: Meanwhile, inside the depot the replica Armstrong car has had its lid removed to create an open tourer for Father Christmas' arrival this Saturday...

First World War locomotives

15th November 2011

On Saturday I was at the Apedale Valley Light Railway in Stoke for a meeting. Appropriately for the weekend (Remembrance Sunday) two First World War locomotives were out and about including Simplex 40HP Protected loco LR3090 and Kerr Stuart Joffre No.3014, the latter running with two restored WW1 wagons based on the AVLR. Hopefully in time we might see a visit of the latter to Beamish.

Friday roundup

11th November 2011

Below: Brian has been working on recommissioning the Armstrong Whitworth car. The magneto (which generates the spark - this car does not have a battery) requires attention so has been dispatched to a specialist for assessment. Until this returns work on this project is paused.

Below: Outside the track team spent the morning fitting the turnout and rails adjoining it with cables (called bonds) that enable the earth current to pass from the tram and into the rails and thus complete the electrical circuit.

Below: Darren dresses up the running on rails that link the grooved rail turnout to the flat bottomed rail that leads to them. The rails are more worn than the points, so smoothing out the area and creating a compatible profile ensures a smooth transition between rails.

Below: By the afternoon the track was being filled in and cleaned to enable testing and use by the Saturday service cars.

Below: Back inside the workshop, Dave Young has been fitting the Steam Mule with a new dropping ashplate (which forms the base of the ashpan area) in order to enable easier cleaning of this. This work has entailed removing the boiler and fitting new hinges. Whilst the boiler was off Dave made an additional cross member to support the engine plate, and which was welded into the frame by Davy Sheen - seen below.