Its been a busy day at Beamish, with preparations for the Great North Steam Fair (GNSF) underway.  One of the most time-consuming and complicated elements (not to mention most expensive) is that of hauling in (and then out) the various exhibits.  This morning Planet (the replica of the 1830 Liverpool & Manchester Railway locomotive) arrived, followed in the afternoon by its train, all from the Museum of Science and Industry in Manchester (MOSI).  All were unloaded this evening, with the assistance of No.22, and the images below show the sequence as well as some of the clearance trials undertaken using No.22 and the coaches (which are usefully dual braked – air for Planet, vacuum for everything else).

Tomorrow Rocket should be heading north to us, and several other exhibits are also due to arrive and set up.  The road-making display should also arrive (intriguingly requiring two articulated lorries and 10 caravans – so it should be an industrious display!) and we’ll set this up in conjunction with the narrow gauge railway.  If anyone knows of a small stone elevator we might acquire, of fairly vintage appearance, I would like to hear from you!

Here are some photos from today…

Below: Isn’t it lovely?!  Saturday and Sunday will be a rare opportunity to ride behind both Rocket and Planet in one location – not to be missed!

Below: There haven’t been many photos of the water tower and coaling stage for Rowley, as it has largely been covered in scaffolding, but here it is with the structure nearing completion.  The tank is still to patch and lift into place, plumb in and also plumb to a delivery pipe for locomotives.  There is a substantial coaling stage as well as stores for oil (with bund) and timber.  This will give the operation at Rowley a much-needed facility, to be followed by a servicing pit at the eastern end of the line (when finance permits, but hopefully soon as we don’t like preparing engines by crawling the cinder path!) and suitable engine shed.

Below: Samson is making progress, with Dave (seen right) having drilled most of the holes required to trial assemble the frames using temporary spacers (accurately machined to provide an exact spacing between the plates).  This was carried out this afternoon, with assistance of (left to right) Chris, Brian, Tom and Dave, plus myself (but someone had to take the photo!).  Dave is now preparing the hornguides and Chris will then carry out a number of welding jobs to assemble some sub-assemblies before these are riveted onto the main frames.  Brian, Tom and Chris are also carrying out final mechanical assembly of the B-Type bus, which will then have the top deck removed so that it can move to the Erecting Shop for Tony to re-canvas the roof and Phil to complete the painting and signwriting.  All of this will be viewable by taking part in one of the four-per-day tours of the RHEC that will be underway throughout the GNSF.