With the Great North Festival of Transport now behind us, I thought I’d glance back at the Great North Steam Fair, our opening event, having not really had time to digest it as we moved swiftly from one event to another!

It is, as always, unfair to highlight ‘favorites’ but in this case, using a small selection of photos from the appropriate gallery, here are some of the things that caught the imagination of various visitors who I spoke to – both dedicated enthusiasts (the excavator fraternity seemed to have come in some numbers to see the navvy for instance) and the general public, who may never have heard of buses going to war in 1914 or seen a traction engine with a crane on, but appreciate the spectacle on offer.

Below: Graham and David Lee with mechanic Pete must have been the hardest working crew on site – they literally did not stop for four days!  As each demonstration finished, a renewed crowd would gather wanting to see it all again!  As a result some serious earth shifting took place, much of it moving back and forth within the cutting, some finding its way into narrow gauge waggons.  The crowd was often several deep and the navvy must have been the most photographed and filmed attraction at the event!  Graham is keen to come back with it so watch this space…

Below: Many visitors could not believe that the were allowed to ride aboard the ‘Battle Bus’, the London Transport Museum’s centenarian which is currently in its WD guise complete with khaki paint, boarded windows and appropriate stencil, not to mention a crew dressed for the occasion. Hopefully it will ply our roads once again at some time in the future.

Below: The paddock area, managed by the Friends of Beamish, offered a constantly shifting display of vehicles throughout the event, as they came and went as part of their exercise across the whole Museum site.

Below: The saw bench was very popular and very useful, with large piles of firewood emerging as well as a healthy stock of narrow gauge sleepers.  There will be more of this over the Bank Holiday weekend and it is definitely a display to repeat in the future.

Below: Subtle marshalling ensured the street did not become too congested…!!!

Below: When the sun shone (which it did quite a bit), there were some very attractive impromptu scenes to photograph.

Below: I was very taken by this unrestored Ford T flatbed – just the sort of thing I would love to own!  John Young (our regular roller driver and blacksmith) was also taken with it, naming it the vehicle “I’d love to own, but if I was selling, I’d have the Rolls Royce!”.

Below: Even Sunday’s rain enabled some atmospheric conditions – Richard and his DG8 prowl up the bank through Birch Wood.

Below: Those who were there will remember why the evening spent with Mark Allen’s Sentinel was so memorable.  Enough said!

Below: The event has settled down over the years to enable the mixture of Museum attractions to be complimented by those visiting, as seen here in the Fairground area.

Below: Road making/mending – shovel leaning a vital part of the recreation!

Below: It is tradition for Colin Slater (from the Friends team) to kidnap a vehicle or two for some photography – here Peter Jones’ Foden clambers away from the St Helens Church area in the Georgian landscape – a location we don’t make enough of perhaps (though there is always the struggle to harmonise the 19th century with the 20th!).

Below: The event has become notable for the effort expended by exhibitors to dress the part and look right with their machines – this makes such a difference to the scene we are creating and is one of the key things that sets us apart from a rally I think.  The overall picture is suitably enhanced by these small details and there cannot be a charity shop in the north that has not been raided for its waistcoats and flat caps!

Below: A good advert for Phil Anderson’s talents, but also a scene we hope to repeat but with things looking slightly different… Roll on 2017’s event for that one perhaps.

Below: This is not a set up shot – just one moment in many where real traffic built up offering quite a spectacle for those who would shortly have encountered this line up as it arrived on the Town street!

Below: We had a very healthy display of motor rollers (whose fault was that I wonder?!).  Here Anthony and Andrew wield their respective rollers whilst carrying out some surface works around the narrow gauge railway.

Below: Quarry Hunslets are, well, just lovely really.  So two Quarry Hunslets are very lovely – two the same and reunited after long separation – well, that’s something really rather special.  I suspect this won’t be our last such gathering.  Last weekend this pair carried hundreds of footplate passengers as we offered short rides on the narrow gauge railway.  Those who partook of this seemed to really appreciate the chance for such an experience and so Matt and I will look at how we can expand this in the future.

Below: Matt and I – really not enjoying ourselves…!!! 😉

Below: The last photo is of our own No.18, looking well kept but having lost the rather vivid sheen it wore when ‘new’ – doing a job, and settling it to be a regular feature of the Beamish scene.  Very rewarding for me and I am sure for David (Young) too.  I’m sure Samson will settle in just the same – then there are the next round of projects that will begin to appear on this blog over the rest of the year.  Not to mention the massive expansion in passenger transport at Beamish – something we are actively working on and the fruits of which, whilst some way off still, will be pretty transformative in terms of our status as a working transport collection.

It goes without saying that a huge thanks is owed to the small team who deliver the event (we’ve got a great ‘product’ eh Mr Henderson?!!!) and all of those who attend with their superb and precious exhibits, and the visitors who came in some numbers (over 18,300 in total and had it not rained on Sunday I am sure we would have broken the 20,000 mark).  Thank you to all and hopefully you’ll be with us in 2016 (Great War Steam Fair) and 2017 (when we get back to ‘normal’…).

Many more photographs from numerous contributors can be found in the ‘Gallery’ section of this site.