I am painfully conscious that I still haven’t migrated these posts onto the museum’s main news pages – but as I write them across a number of weeks, it does still work to post them here, for now!

Looking at the first two weeks of June there is already a lot of material gathering, so here is a brief run-down of what has been taking place…

Infrastructure

Below: Contractors have re-erected the wrought iron fence around Samson’s shed, with new posts to support the original panels.  At some point this will all be painted with black bitumen to tidy it up.  The shed window and pedestrian door have been made and painted, and will be fitted when the main doors and frame are installed this summer.

Below: Shaun has been busy constructing the replica NER crossing gates (from original drawings), to be installed at Rowley to replace those that are rather tired, outside the RMS loco preparation area.  Once the four gates have been made, they will be drilled for the stay rods that run horizontally through them, and painted.  They are almost too good to paint and put out in the open!  The timber used is Sapele, a very durable tropical hardwood and one well suited to this sort of application.

Below: We’ve ended up with a buried conduit pipe emerging next to the Darlington Corporation bus shelter at Pockerley, so plan to disguise this in this water hydrant cover – which was manufactured by J. Blackeborough & Sons, a Yorkshire firm that specialised in hydrants and water valves.  Any guesses on WCWW?  This is now at the workshop for completion of a previous refurbishment that wasn’t completed as we didn’t really have a purpose for the artefact – it will be nice to add it to the street furniture on display however.

Dunrobin

Below: Chris is battling the side tanks to insert the bearing pads within the tank’s water space – what seemed quite straightforward has proved to be anything but, and a great deal of cutting and welding is taking place, particularly at the cab end, to set these flush with the tank’s base.  As soon as they are finished they will return to Bridgnorth for trial fitting on the locomotive.

Roker

Below: Visitors to the museum have been intrigued to watch John repainting Roker, which is being returned to the green livery it carried, certainly in its latter days at Doxford Shipyard.  The signwriter is with us for a week at the end of the month so he will apply the lining and we hope to restore name/works plates to the locomotive as well, and eventually re-display the shed area around it to give it more impact within the space (the greens look rather lighter here than they appear in real life!).

Gateshead No.10

Below: The big news for 10’s restoration has been that it moved for the first time under its own power, in a decade, on the 12th June.  This enabled it to reach the pit, for further work on the underside to be carried out.  It is very close to testing on the Tramway now, though there is a long list of snagging and cosmetic work still to complete.  I would love to see the tram enter service this summer, however, as its capacity has been much-missed, and looks stunning in its restored (1930s) guise.

Rotherham 220

Below: The build-up of the new engine is progressing well and the Gardner unit will shortly be installed into the bus.  Again, we are chasing the summer holiday period to return the bus to service, complete with its repainted body and re-upholstered seating.  Weardale KPT 909 is also receiving some cosmetic attention to some of the panels, ahead of signwriting these later this month.

Steam Elephant

Below: Another objective this summer is the return to operation of Steam Elephant.  Elements of this had become scattered during the long hiatus of its overhaul, but the grate has now been fitted (made to fit!) and a steam test and visit from the boiler inspector this month is keenly anticipated…

R025

Below: Our 101 year old Barford & Perkins D4 petrol motor roller made a visit to Newby Hall Tractor Show last weekend, taking part in a large display of historic (and new!) motor rollers.  It gave a good account of itself and is now programmed for some mechanical attention to improve the engine to transmission arrangement, which will make it more usable at Beamish.

Photographs by Phil Doran, Paul Jarman, Shaun Kay and David Moseley