Great North Steam Fair - some exhibits confirmed!

Great North Steam Fair – some exhibits confirmed!

13th February 2011

April 14th looms large now in the calendar as the Great North Steam Fair approaches at speed. This year I hope the range of exhibits will be as exciting and interesting as at previous events. There is no particular theme for this one, I am saving that for a rather special idea for September, but there will be a good number of attending exhibits new to the area and to the event. Rather than keep referring back to the blog, we are going to try and create a Flickr page specifically for the exhibits which you will see next week some time to the right hand side – I will initially populate this with confirmed exhibits, then add to it as the event approaches. Hopefully you, the reader, will find this rather easier to access than was the arrangement last year.

Below: Just to give a taste of what is to come, the Ingalls brother’s McLaren heavy haulage engine will be attending (along with another large engine, in the form of a Fowler B5 gun tractor) and be active on the road circuit as part of the Vintage & Veteran Traffic… Photo by Peter Ingall

Below: A very exciting attendee, and one I have wanted for some time, is 1877 built Fletcher Jennings 0-4-0T ‘Baxter’ or ‘Captain Baxter’ depending on which period of its life you favour. Coming courtesy of the Bluebell Railway, Baxter will run alongside Coffee Pot No.1 on the Colliery Railway – the first time the pair have been in steam together since 1949 we reckon. Both were supplied to the Dorking Greystone Lime Company at Betchworth in Surrey, and both led long and active lives there. Coffee Pot left the quarry after many years out of action in 1960, returning to its manufacturer Head Wrightson for restoration and display. Baxter headed for the Bluebell Railway, along with one of the narrow gauge Fletcher Jennings variants, Townsend Hook. We might have one other attraction to create a trio of ex Betchworth exhibits, so watch this space! I am very grateful to the Bluebell for enabling this reunion to take place, and it is anticipated that Coffee Pot will make a visit to the Bluebell in the future in return. Some Fletcher Jennings did work in the North East so it will be good to welcome one back to the region in steam! Thanks to Andrew Prime for the photo, taken upon completion of Baxter’s latest overhaul in 2010. You can see more photos on the excellent Bluebell website and blog.

So, lots more exhibits to be announced and as I said above, these should appear in a dedicated window to the right for you to see and browse through at your leisure. I will be including the home based attractions as many readers may not be familiar with what we have in operation at Beamish. You will also be able to download the new stocklist in time for the event, links to the right hand side of this page. The Autumn 2010 one is still available there and is largely up to date. By the event there will hopefully be two books available on the transport collections, a small colour album/souvenir and a more detailed volume on the history of the Beamish collection and railways/tramway.