Just one update this month, largely as there hasn’t been much time to write up the post, not because there isn’t plenty to report!

November is a transition month, marking the end of the daily ‘summer’ opening, but also seeing the start of Christmas and the final set-up of our winter season attractions.  The steam locomotives are winterised and a start made on preparing them for their winter maintenance programmes and statutory boiler inspections, whilst we also get a short period of five-day opening that frees up two days a week for site maintenance work to be undertaken – and there is a lot of it going on!

Gateshead 10

Below: The completed bogies for 10 were shunted out of the engineering area and onto the inspection pit to allow for adjustment and exam, before their order was reversed and a drawbar was manufactured to couple them together.

Below: Nearly there now!  The bogies are as close to the body as they have been for some time, as they sit on the inspection pit on the 12th November, pending test running on site.  I must put the crests on the tram – they have been ageing on my desk for a couple of years now!

Below: The bogies on test on the 14th November (it was too wet on the 13th!).  They performed well and are now stored in the depot pending reinstallation under the body in the next few months – their completion marks a momentous point in the ten-year duration overhaul of Gateshead 10.

Below: As we got into the second half of the month, the bogies were positioned underneath Gateshead 10 and preparations made to lower the body back onto them – for the first time in quite a lot of years!

Below: By the 21st November, the body had been lowered onto its bogies – for the first time in nearly a decade of this project’s life.

Below: A couple of pages from the detailed inventory of work being carried out on 10, revealing work (in red) still to complete or sign-off, but a lot of green for work completed, and orange for work underway.  It’s also a reminder of how long this programme has taken (and we have to allow for quite a lot of pandemic disruption in this) and how thorough the work carried out on the tram has been – what started as a periodic overhaul has become considerably more substantial in scope and what has been achieved.

Blackpool 31

Below: Following repairs to one of the bogies, Blackpool 31 was examined and then re-entered service in November, in time for some bright autumn weather.  It is seen alongside Weardale 909.

Sunderland 16

Below: The damaged lettering which was caused by a film company’s application of alternative lettering to the bodyside of Sunderland 16 has been rubbed down in order for the panels to be repainted.  They will be re-lined and lettered by a signwriter in mid-November, replacing the transfers that previously formed the lettering on this tram.  The crest is a disappointment – as though they are from the same batch as previously used, they have faded and turned almost luminescent – so these are on the list to attend to in due course.

Below: In mid November Aaron arrived on site to sign-write the panels.  Previously, the Sunderland Corporation lettering was applied using a transfer outline, which was painted on the reverse.  This time it is all being sign-written.  The opportunity is being taken to refresh some other areas of paintwork on 16 whilst it is in the workshop, though it will be back in traffic later this month as a key part of the winter transport fleet.

Below: The temperature for painting in the depot is about at the limit of what is practical – a heated and well-lit paintshop area is very much in the plans if funding can be found, as this would enable us to paint year-round, which would really assist in planning the programme for trams, buses and other rolling stock too.

Below: Aaron, in even colder temperature (it snowed the day this photo was taken) adds the red shading to the basic letter shapes.

Below: With the gold leafing and shading complete, and panel lines restored as well, the completed work awaits varnishing before 16 returned to traffic a few days later.

Mention of Newcastle 114 can also be made – with one of the controllers now being with a contractor for some work to be carried out before it returns to Beamish for the overhaul to be completed.

West Hartlepool 36

Below: Work to tidy up the Leyland has continued, with the worst panels being straightened and filled for repainting.  The ceilings have been painted and numerous other details repaired.  Some work on the internal electrical system (such as provides the bells) was also carried out in November.  The seats are due to be re-upholstered, with delivery to Liverpool Coach Trimmers planned for early December (when Rotherham 220’s newly re-upholstered seats are collected).  Once the seats have returned, 36 will be commissioned for use at the museum (albeit not as intensive use as the other double deckers).  It will give visitors the chance to ride in a bus that is in very original condition, and with the splendid centre, split staircase that is a feature of this Roe-bodied bus.

Below: This back corner panel and adjacent side panel have been repaired and are seen in undercoat, awaiting application of the top coat.

Below: The offside front wing has received a lot of attention as well a coat of paint.  The patina, which is being retained, on the other panels is apparent in this view.

Tramway Infrastructure

Below: We have had contractor, SPL Powerlines, examining our Tramway Overhead Line Equipment (OLE) in order to establish the winter maintenance plan and provide an independent view of the condition of this vital infrastructure.

Below: The SPL contractors used the Genie lift to access the OLE, across the whole of the Tramway route.  This winter we anticipate carrying out both maintenance and also component exchange, substituting old stock items for newly manufactured insulators, span wires and fastenings.

Below: No magic lanterns, but a photo that illustrates how useful this plant is – on the left SPL are working on the OLE, whilst on the right a second machine has been engaged on the installation of Christmas lights and decorations.

Below: An in-house job has been the replacement of one of the pull-off stay wires in the Town, with this work being undertaken whilst the museum as closed on the 17th November.

Cockerton Green Bus Shelter

Below: The base being prepared for the concrete pour, upon which the bus shelter will be erected (probably in January now, once we’re closed mid-week).  The cold weather held things up a little.  The work also allows for two lamp standards and a Middlesbrough Corporation Transport bus stop sign, that was recently donated.

Below: The first concrete pour, to establish a deeper perimeter base on the downhill side of the work.  The gate posts for field access were installed at the same time.

Below: In the final days of November, the final concrete pour was carried out and levelled off.  Meanwhile, the engineering team are preparing the shelter for erection and working on the procedure for assembly that will be required.

Model T Crewe Tractor

Below: Some time ago, and in mysterious circumstances, the steering wheel on the Model T Ford Crewe Tractor was damaged, causing the rim to split.  The rim is made of Fordite, a composite of rubber, straw, sulphur, silica and other materials.  This means that is is very hard, but seemingly brittle.

Below: To repair the rim, the centre ‘spider’ was removed, and the rim set up on the milling machine with the broken segments clamped tightly together.

Below: A slot was milled into both sections, in one process.

Below: A brass insert was then made, with corresponding holes so that it could be bolted tightly into place, to rejoin the two parts of the rim again and the nuts be filed flush to the profile of the rim.

Below: The rim, after refitting to the steering wheel centre/spider and before fitting back onto the vehicle.

Vintage & Veteran

Below: The Thursday volunteers are working on a number of projects, including preparing the Armstrong Whitworth engine for removal of the cylinder blocks (which sit on top of the crankcase – it doesn’t have a ‘head’ in the conventional sense).  There will also be some cosmetic work to carry out on the AW this winter as well.  Other work underway includes a restart on the Excelsior motorcycle restoration, after which the Dene Twin will be re-commissioned and later, the Dene single we recently acquired, which will be restored.  The photo below shows work progressing in the garage, an entirely appropriate location for this work to be carried out in.

Below: In the machine shop, a bracket has been manufactured to carry a starter motor for the SOS QL.  Whilst the decision to fit electric-start to the bus is curatorially sensative, the benefits in being able to more readily start the bus, not require potential tow-start movements and generally reduce the risk from hand-starting larger engines is seen as outweighing the negative.  It has also been done in a way that it is entirely reversible.  The bracket carries the starter motor and picks up anchor points on the chassis – the motor and starting ‘dog’ can be seen on the left of the assembly.

Below: A starter ring has been manufacture using a ring from the parts store, which has been fitted to the flywheel on the engine of the SOS using six locating points.

Below: The assembly being test fitted – the motor can be seen towards the top of the view, to the right of the engine block, and the unpainted bracket runs from this towards the bottom of the photo.  The flywheel is the disc with the holes in, to which the ring has been bolted.  It has all been dismantled for painting before final installation and testing/commissioning.  The bus will then be taken into the depot workshop for inspection and rectification of some other items.  Hopefully it will be seen on the excursion runs from Foulbridge at the Fares Please! event in May…

Miscellaneous updates

Below: In November we were visited by a temporary visitor, 1931-built Bedford WLB with Duple bodywork, formerly operated in the South East, but preserved for many years and with local connections since 1985 when it was purchased by local operator (Langley Park, Durham) Gypsy Queen in 1985, Chris Moyes in 1987 and the North East Bus Preservation Trust (its current owners) in 2007.  It was making use of the bus depot for temporary garaging and was not visiting to operate in service.

An update on Dunrobin appears in the Severn Valley Railways online newsletter ‘Branchlines’ this month:

https://www.svrlive.com/blnov25

Below: Two of the narrow gauge waggons have found a role in this year’s Christmas display based at Rowley Station – the train of presents being a new feature for 2025…

Photos by: Charlie Cooper, Phil Doran, Matt Ellis, Paul Jarman, David Moseley and Phil Smith