For this post we cast our eyes a little more widely than usual and have a glimpse at the Bakery, on which much of the team has been engaged for some months now.

Below: Shaun and Daniel in the shop area of the Bakery, with pretty much everything visible made of wood being their handiwork – either made new or restored/adapted historical material.  They had just fitted the marble counter tops, completing their long involvement in the project.

Below: This is the ‘Super Human Dough Mixer’ – so an industrial feature really!  It has been restored by Andy Basnett to full working order and is seen here during installation yesterday.  Michael, the Site Electrician, is installing (miles?) of conduit trunking – seen here as the black tube on the wall – to carry electricity throughout the period area of this building.  Upstairs and to the rear there are modern preparation areas.  Also featured, though not shown here, is a large bread oven and proving cupboard.  The Bakery is due to be opened later in the year.

Below: One of Seb’s (the Head of Rural Life) hidden collections – an impressive collection of mowers and grass munching machines which are kept in the green hut in the park.  Plans for the future will see more of this collection both visible and maybe even in use…

Below: The caravan is finished! It has now been handed over to the Outreach team, led by Helen who has already admitted being in love with the 1950s Harry Vickers built vehicle.  Brian was seen heading for the road with it on test earlier (but did come back!) and all being shown to be satisfactory it will now be a regular feature of the Outreach programme here.  Internally it is suitably furnished and the cupboards stocked with 1950s fayre and board games (for the rainy days…).  It does look pretty good, though really we need a suitable car to tow it with – my preference (if anyone has one to give us!) is a Ford V8 Pilot or maybe a Ford Consul…

Below: I have been carrying out a re-survey of our chaldron waggons – with an assessment being made of the wheelsets of the 12 runnable waggons.  Four are in need of new wheels (or suitable swaps) due to poor tyre profile, though we have a number of spares to hand.  We are also making a chaldron for the roadside on the way into the Museum as well as refurbishing the last ‘wreck’ as a box-type chaldron, of which none survived and seemingly few were photographed.  This will only leave an example of the Londonderry Brick Waggon to replicate in due course.  So waggon projects in the Colliery in the future will probably centre around creating a short rake of working side tippers of the MSC (Manchester Ship Canal) type.  For the record, here are L1115, L12 (with Vane Londonderry lettering), L1220 and L1219.

Below: Here are L1218, L829, L1210 and L328 – the latter being an early candidate for a wheel swap as it is so useful with the RCH height buffer beam fitted.

Below: L1281, 1209 and L1828 pose in front of the screens.  L1828 has been out of use for some time with ‘sharp flanges’ and will require both wheelsets to be replaced before it is operational once again.

Below: For completeness, here is the flat waggon and Hodbarrow side tipper.  To this line up we will add the box chaldron and brick waggon, and (much) later the ex South Pier tank wagon, flat and crane.