Lewin returns to Beamish!!!
Below: The latest stage in No.18/Lewin’s lengthy and comprehensive restoration was completed today (though expected to arrive last week!) when the engine arrived from the Hetton contractor’s workshop and was unloaded and shunted into the Colliery engine shed. It has been tented to allow painting to progress with minimal ingress of dust and debris, with a view to then lining and varnishing the locomotive before the end of July. A final steam test and acceptance trials are still to be arranged.
Below: A short clip of Lewin & Coffee Pot from this morning using a ‘1960s’ iPhone app filter…
Very exciting. We’ll have to visit again soon!
Wonderful. I especially like the shot taken from the cab showing the Coffee Pot and Newcastle. What era does the current depiction of Lewin roughly place it into?
I agree! Looks great!
Richard – it will be 1936. Lewin was subject to an axtensive reconstruction and was outshopped that year in this guise. We have had to make some compromises, due to later modifications to the engine, but I hope to back-date a number of these in due course to create a more consistent reconstruction.
The aim was to back-date the engine as far as was practical within the limits of reusing as much of the surviving locomotive, which is why it has not been rebuilt into as-built form, which would have entailed removal of much of the frames – leaving very little of the original engine.