As we approach the Festival of Transport, a host of buses, road vehicles, road steam engines and railway locomotives are lined up to appear over the nine-day event, including a number from our own collections too (some not often seen in operation).  As always, the usual caveats apply about being subject to availability etc.  The Tramway will also be in operation throughout the event.

Visiting locomotives to the Festival of Transport

(dates in steam are shown in brackets at the end of each entry)

Sir Berkeley (below)

This locomotive, MW 1210, was built by Manning Wardle & Company at their Boyne Engine Works in Leeds. It was supplied new to Logan & Hemingway, a firm of engineering contractors who during the latter half of the 19th century and the first third of the 20th century worked mainly on railway (and allied) constructions. They were steady customers of Manning Wardle, working the engines hard, selling the older locomotives when business waned and re-stocking with new as contracts required.

In 1935 Logan & Hemingway went into liquidation and MW 1210 was sold to the Cranford Ironstone Company of Kettering (Northamptonshire) where it received the nameplates Sir Berkeley from a scrapped Manning Wardle engine owned by the Midland Ironstone Company at Crosby (near Scunthorpe). To the Cranford workforce however, it was always known as “Paddy Logan”.

Transferred to the associated Byfield Quarries in 1959, by 1960 Sir Berkeley was yet again made redundant and with its days as a commercially useful engine over it languished in a siding for a couple of years before being formally retired in 1963.

MW 1210 was bought in 1964 by Roger Crombleholme, just in time to save it from being scrapped, and was eventually brought to the Worth Valley Railway where its original weatherboard was refitted, having been discovered at Cranford. Restored to service it took part in the BBC Television production of The Railway Children.

After expiry of its boiler certificate the Vintage Carriages Trust bought the engine and firstly kept it as a static exhibit but in the course of time restoration to working order took place. A new boiler was built in 2006 by Israel Newton of Bradford, thanks to a grant of £50,000 from the Heritage Lottery Fund and donations from hundreds of individuals.  Sir Berkeley returned to service at the Middleton Railway on Saturday April 14th 2007.  It now carries the Logan & Hemmingway livery of its early working life and makes its second appearance at Beamish courtesy of owners the Vintage Carriages Trust and custodians at the Middleton Railway in Leeds (24 May – 1st June).

Dinorwic locomotives reunited, in steam, for the first time in over 60 years

Velinheli

Velinheli is an ex-Dinorwic Quarry Hunslet 0-4-0ST; the first of the Hunslet “Alice” class of locos she was built in 1886 (Works No. 409). It is one of the few Dinorwic quarry Hunslets to carry a domed boiler, but this was not original: before 1952 it used the domeless type from new. Out of use from 1962, it was sold by the quarry in 1965, though not taken away until 1969 when it moved (with Sybil) to Cornwall for restoration.  It became a regular visitor to the Ffestiniog & Welsh Highland Railway, eventually becoming a resident of the railway in 2018.  A new boiler was constructed for ait at the railway’s Boston Lodge works, returning to steam ion March 2024.  The locomotive currently carries nameplates with the correct Welsh spelling Felinheli and appears at our event courtesy of Paul Lewin and the Ffestiniog & Welsh Highland Railway.  Along with Sybil, these are the first examples of ex Dinorwic Quarry locomotives to appear at Beamish (31/1).

Sybil

To complete the Dinorwic pairing, we are very pleased to welcome Bagnall No.1760 ‘Sybil’, built in 1906 and supplied new to the Dinorwic Slate Quarry in North Wales.  It was unusual in not being of the Hunslet design so much associated with the quarry, and though it was well regarded by the quarrymen, no further examples were ordered.  After withdrawal (by 1961) and sale for preservation, Sybil and Velinhlei left the quarry together for a new life in Cornwall in January 1969.  Sybil ultimately became the property of the Sybil Locomotive Trust in 2013, moving to the West Lancashire Light Railway (WLLR) where it was restored to steam in October 2023.  It was shortlisted for the prestigious Heritage Railway Association Steam Locomotive of the Year 2025 award and appears at Beamish courtesy of its owning trust and the WLLR (31/1).

Keighley Gas Works No.2

No.2 is an 0-4-0ST with 12 x 18″ outside cylinders and 3ft 0.5″ diameter driving wheels. She was built by R&W Hawthorn, Leslie & Co Ltd at their Forth Banks Works in Newcastle upon Tyne. The locomotive was works number 2859, ex-works on 27/9/1911 to Keighley Corporation Gas Dept, Keighley Gas Works, West Riding of Yorkshire, where she was numbered 2.

We will also have a return to service of 1871- built Head Wrightson Coffee Pot No.1, fresh from a boiler overhaul (30/31)

The Waggonway will be feature the 2006 replica Puffing Billy, positioned for close inspection and in steam if we are able to staff it (dates tbc).

On the narrow gauge railway Glyder will be in steam (31/1).

And completing the locomotive lineup will be Samson.  This will be departing after the event, for a several-month visit to the Ffestiniog & Welsh Highland Railway, where it will appear at a number of events and also receive a retube and some mechanical attention over the winter (31/1)

Photos by Dave Hewitt, Paul Jarman, Mike Spall, the Tanfield Railway, Velinheli Facebook Page and notes from the Vintage Carriages Trust website and Tanfield Railway Blog.