Today has been a filthy wet day, with the site certainly looking lush this evening, if not particularly appealing!  In the workshops Brian and Tom have been working on the B-Type bus which is very nearly complete now that Chris has made the mudguard brackets fit the new rear mudguards that he made earlier in the year.  Shaun battles on with the Bakery fit out (we’ll look at this in detail later on) whilst  Dave and Matt have been riveting the second of Samson’s bunkers.

Below: A view from Saturday showing the Barford & Perkins’ rear rolls being split from the axle to enable an assessment of this area of for restoration.  Our new/overhauled overhead gantry cranes have proved invaluable so far – how did we manage before!  Three were purchased (500kg, 2000kg and 5000kg) complete with new blocks and with new slings to suit.  Though second-hand, they were overhauled and re-certified for us saving a great deal of money on the equivalent cranes if purchased new.

Below: Puffing Billy is on tour this week, today visiting Wylam where the local community had requested it to appear as part of the 200th anniversary celebrations of the Wylam locomotive (I am being very careful not to say 200th anniversary of Puffing Billy itself – it was built a little later, more like 2014/15 and it seeps a march was stolen on the ‘firstcomer’ to beat Stephenson’s 1814 achievements with steam traction).  The engine will return to this location in September as part of our Community Engagement Team’s outreach programme.

Below: Recently purchased from the Darlington Railway Preservation Society is this water column, complete with operating valve.  I haven’t quite decided where to put it – it being a little on the low side for the Rowley development, but there are at least two other locations that will shortly emerge as being very suitable – watch this space!

Below: A close up of the valve handle for the water column.  I was told it was ex NER though am not sure this is true or what the exact provenance of the crane is yet.