Today our summer season began, it was also the first day of the Great North Festival of Transport (featuring the community led ‘Old King Coal’ theme) and needless to say we have encountered some teething troubles!  A huge amount of work comes to a head for this day each year, so reports from the Waggonway that the brake system needed attention on the coaches (remedied) and that the fencing for the Gallopers was missing should have come as no surprise!  Meanwhile, a number of projects forge forwards, and an Easter deadline looms for some of these.  Here is a look around at what the team are working on or have contributed to…

Below: Poor old Rambler!  Stripping the canopy of its later metal sheet additions has revealed the timber planking beneath to be in poor condition.

Below: With all the sheets removed, the real condition can be seen here.  We will be reboarding this and then canvassing the canopy, per original specification.

Below: Hmmmm…

Below: Five mysterious rods appeared in the car park earlier in the week – a useful means of tripping up the unwary but in fact intended for the signalbox…  Few can have failed to notice the crack in this building in recent years, caused by an absence of real foundation and its settling back against the cutting side – quite prototypical but not particularly desirable!  In the foreground are the wallplates that match the tie rods.

Below: The rods are threaded and, after a huge effort to drill holes in the walls, Paul and Paul (from the building team) threaded the rods and fitted the wall plates which are retained by bolts at each end, stopping the wall spreading.  They then pointed up the cracks and rebuild the brickwork above the left-hand window.  All perfectly historical as a repair – look around at old buildings and you will see more wall plates than you might expect.

Below: Progress on the horse tram has focused on the body, with the new panels being fitted and painted with aluminium primer.  It still awaits lifting to remove the running gear, which we’ll get around to when the event is over.  New brake handles, stands and fittings have also been delivered, after joining in with the Leeds Transport Historical Society in their project to build a new horse tram truck plus brake gear for Ipswich Transport Museum.

Below: Sunderland 16 – a rapidly unfolding engineering challenge for Peter and Tom.  Whilst investigating wear in the hornguides, a discrepancy was found in the relation of these to the correct axle centre lines.  This had caused a misalignment of the axleboxes within their pendulums and so perhaps point to the past noisy performance and excessive tyre wear.  Thus this job is becoming less than straightforward.  We are still waiting on the motors which are away with BTS, and really do hope we will have them back shortly to enable us to progress this project.

Below: Further mystery surrounds the pendulums – these enable the axles to move from side to side, the pendulum carrying the axlebox and contained by the hornguides but pivoted at the base where the primary springs bear the weight.  The truck was originally overhauled, using the worst bits of Leeds 160 and 180s trucks, by a contractor.  It would seem some major defects were either propagated or introduced, but which were not evident when the truck arrived, ready assembled.  Peter’s main observation has been the lack of swing!  This rather important factor may well explain why 16 has not ridden as smoothly as 180 (at Crich) or even Sheffield 264.

Below: The jig surrounds the axlebox.  Note the rounded top – this corresponds with a mate in the pendulum and in theory allows a limited rotational movement equating to a side to side movement for the axle within the truck, improving the performance of the tram around curves and so on.

Below: A corresponding pendulum showing the curved surface upon which the axlebox bears – but we can see from the wear that rather than slide across the arc, such movement has been inhibited by weld build-ups and a poor interface between each curved surface, almost to the extent the pendulums would have been ineffective.  So nothing is quite as straightforward as one might hope.  Now that we know this, an engineering solution can be developed to ensure the full suspension available will work effectively.  But this takes time and 16 is unlikely to operate at Easter (especially as we haven’t got the motors back!).  But it will be worth it and it should be a superb tram once completed.

Below: The cladding work on the Colliery Engine Shed (as opposed to existing Colliery Engine Works) is nearly complete, after which the brickwork can continue.  We have some nice roof vents to fit (nicknamed ‘Knights Knees’ by Mark!  You have to see them…) and the doors will be clad in wood.  Later, we will fit windows and a floor surface to enable public access, but for now the plan is to place Malleable, Newcastle and Coffee Pot No.17 into this shed later in the year.   Later still it will be connected by rail to the rest of the system.

Below: The Sinkers Bait cabin (to replace the Pitman’s Pantry) is taking shape, being a kit of parts made by the contractor off-site.  It looks rather nice and will be a great improvement in catering in the Colliery and Pit Village.  The pink colour is undercoat!

Below: We did a spot of shunting today, in between rain showers.  The bid to get No.18 ready has fallen short, through lack of time, so we’ll finish this after the event.  Coffee Pot is currently running in its as-built condition i.e. without handrails.  These were fitted after a very short time (they are very handy for climbing on with!) and we will replace No.1’s after some repairs are made.

Below: With heavy rain and sleet, 114 was not in use today, but here it is in its revarnished glory, awaiting a dry day to come out and bask!

So, we can truly say there is never a dull moment here at Beamish, and the Transport & Industry team are no exception.  Jonathan has reported on the opening of the Colliery Stables this week – they do look superb and he has done a terrific job attending to the many details.  The ponies are unlikely to appreciate such subtleties (though they will like being indoors with fresh running water which they control with their noses!  A period and ingenious solution and one worth seeing!), but we hope visitors will as this building has real character – and it even has its own railway!

We are building up the event by the day, the crescendo being the Great North Steam Fair.  There is a box on the home page that links to the gallery of exhibits we have received confirmation of attendance from – there are some wonderful vehicles coming.  But after the event we will remain as busy as projects are progressed and completed including No.18, Rambler (which I think we will re-varnish and also partly re-paint) and the Steam Mule, plus, of course, the Sinkers Bait hut and a variety of motive power at Rowley Station through the season.  So, as the title suggests, a hectic run into the season but well worth coming to enjoy…