I realised it had been a little while since I’d updated the blog regarding exhibits for the GNFoT/GNSF in April – work all round has been somewhat hectic this month so whilst there haven’t been as many posts recently, there is no shortage of work under way!

I am very pleased to be able to report that the Museum of Science & Industry in Manchester (MOSI) have confirmed that Planet and its appropriate train consisting of a pair of open coaches (with roofs!) will be visiting Beamish for the GNSF and will operate from the 11 – 14th April at Rowley Station – this means that on the 13/14 visitors will be able to enjoy rides behind Rocket at the Waggonway and behind Planet at the station!  Matthew Jackson’s photograph below shows Planet at its Liverpool Road base, along with the restored Manchester & Birmingham carriage immediately behind (the body of which dates from 1844).  We also have a good response to invitations sent out for road vehicles (of all types) and I hope to start a gallery on the blog showing some of what is coming very soon.  If you are new to this blog, the Beamish flickr pages contain various galleries showing previous events and these will give you an idea of the sheer variety of exhibits, all of which are brought in to be demonstrated in action throughout the event.  It is something not to miss!

Also now confirmed are two visiting engines that have been to Beamish before, but not operated on the permanent narrow gauge lines.  They are Nick Williams’ Barclay o-4-0T ‘Jack’ – which will be reunited with sister engine ‘Esme’ (both being ex Granton Gas Works engines – see earlier post) and Graham Morris’ Kerr Stuart Wren ‘Peter Pan’.  The latter will operate for the GNSF and possibly the Old King Coal weekend, whilst Jack will work on all eight days of these parts of the event (gets confusing doesn’t it?!).  Here are some views taken of the pair during their previous visits to Beamish when running on the temporary contractors railway.

Unfortunately, the much-anticipated (by me at least!) visit from Belgium of the St Leonard ‘Yvonne’ will now not take place due to the very high costs of haulage and the need to carefully observe the budgets for this event.  We are very sorry to have to cancel this visit and hopefully it may be re-arranged for some time in the future but the costs would basically have wiped more than 50% of the budget for that weekend and so with great reluctance we shall have to leave hosting an overseas visitor to another time.