25th June 2010

Today was the day we moved Seaham Harbour Coal Drops! Nearly 40 tons of 1840s wrought iron which has sat in a corner of Beamish for 30 years since it was placed there after originally being saved in 1966 – for more on this watch this space…

The brief was to move the coal drops to a new location where they will be in the public eye. The only problem is that since they had been stored, 30 years of development has taken place and what was once the corner of the museum’s original car park was now a difficult to reach embankment behind the Regional Museum Store. Add the railway lines and several other large objects between the drops and liberty and we had quite a challenge on our hands! To make matters more fun, the deadline as the end of June – in order that the drops be seen in their new position for the museum’s 40th anniversary event on the 3rd and 4th July. Phew!

Dowse Cranes were contracted to carry out the move and a series of planning sessions took place to unravel a plan. Needless to say this was amended on the day, and throughout!

First of all a fair degree of shunting was needed in order to release the Smith Rodley steam crane from alongside the RMS and place it out of the way. Not having a diesel locomotive in working order, Furness 20 was steamed for the day to provide motive power. The rest of the day is shown in the following sequence of photographs:

Below: FR20 raises steam early on Thursday morning.

Below: In order that the hired road crane could reach the coal drops (located in the trees to the right of this photo), the embankment was cut back to enable the outriggers to be fully extended.

Below: Meanwhile, a sleeper pad was laid over the railway track for the crane/lorries. This extends from the level crossing and will probably remain in situ…

Below: Gravel is spread into the gaps between the sleepers to further improve the access. FR20 simmers alongside.

Below: Shunt 1 – remove the Armstrong diesel and NER bogie van.

Below: The Armstrong (under repair) and the riding van (which is now the property of the Locomotive Conservation & Learning Trust) emerge into the sunlight.

Below: FR20 shunts the AW diesel clear…

Below: … poses alongside… prior to returning for the bogie van.

Below: Meanwhile, we were taking the opportunity to move one of the egg ended boilers from the colliery to the station as this will become part of a water tower to be constructed there, alongside the RMS.

Below: Lift 1! The 5 ton egg ended boiler is swung clear for loading onto a lorry.

Below: Lift 2 entailed moving the 17 ton Smith Rodley steam crane off its isolated track and onto one of the running lines.

Below: The rather odd (and amusing!) site of the crane mid air, suspended from another!

Below: The view from the footbridge…

Below: And touchdown.

Below: FR20 was then used with an open wagon as match truck to push the ensemble into the RMS for dry storage.

Below: A rare view inside the railway section of the RMS – looking rather empty!

Below: Meanwhile the egg ended boiler was unloaded into a temporary storage location.

Below: The track panel and buffer stop were lifted…

Below: … and swung across for later dismantling.

Below: The weather was very good for this work and FR20 was a popular visitor attraction when not shunting. Seen coupled to the Simplex ‘Ubique’.

Below: Next the crane was repositioned ready to lift the coal drops brake wheel.

Below: The 10 ton brake wheel is lifted clear.

Below: Then placed onto one of two lorries brought in for the movement of the drops.

Below: The biggest challenge was the main section of the drop itself. This was at the limit of the crane’s capacity so was walked towards the crane to bring it into a better envelope for lifting. There were also concerns about the potentially brittle nature of the iron, but it held and the lift proceeded.

Below: 17 tons of beam is swung onto the lorry.

Below: And what a tight fit it was! There was actually less than a piece of paper in clearance!!!

Below: All loaded and ready for the short journey to Clover Field, across the site.

Below: A general view of proceedings showing how much rolling stock was moved just to get the crane inside!

Below: Teatime and the unloading begins. The tramway is to the right of this view, Pockerley behind and the town in the distance.

Below: I was keen the drops were laid out in their correct orientation, so each part was lifted and turned as necessary.

Below: The beam set the datum…

Below: … followed by the brake wheel.

Below: The drops in their new, and temporary, home!

Below: It is much easier to see and understand the drops in this situation and information as well as a painting of them in context and erected will complete this phase of the job – I’ll post more on the blog next week…

So ended a 10 hour day and a lot of work for a lot people, but it all went well and this morning the movement of workshop machine tools began…