Great North Steam Fair

Great North Steam Fair

7th September 2009 – Great North Steam Fair Review

Well, its been a hectic few weeks, culminating in the four day Great North Steam Fair event last Thursday to Sunday. Unfortunately the weather was not as kind as it was for ‘Power from the Past’ in May and this inevitable had an effect on the visitor numbers. Thursday was a wash out, Friday worse but Saturday had some fine spells and Sunday remained reasonably dry.
The visiting engines were popular, and the footplate rides at the station and on the narrow gauge line in the colliery were very popular. The horse and steam buses were also extremely successful.

Below: COlin McAndrew, star guest for the colliery railway arrives on Friday morning aboard Dave Antell’s trailer.

Below: An overview of the colliery – note the puddles! Colin McAndrew leaves the engine shed while Dave Potter and co’s two foot gauge 0-4-0VBG prepares for a sortie along the narrow gauge line. This proved very popular and has certainly fed an idea already established to develop a network of narrow gauge lines in the colliery.

Below: Fiddler looking very at home in the street.

Below: WST in a very quiet station.

Below: ‘Paddy’ in between trips. Once one family had been given a ride a queue soon formed and then poor Dave never stopped all four days!

Below: A view from the coaling stage.

Below: This Scammell Scarab was posed outside the goods shed before driving around the site on the Sunday afternoon.

Below: Roadmaking in the wet. The stone crusher produced a steady stream of brick dust to surface the road through the events field.

Below: Dave Antell’s Robey portable spent all four days driving a sawbench to produce a mountain of winter wood for the museum.

Below: A Series 1 Field Marshall tractor belted to a corn mill in the farm yard.

Below: A happy man and his motorcycle!

Below: The Friends’ display included the newly overhauled thresher, driven by the Case tractor.

Below: A motorcycle display outside the tram depot. Note the AA box at the right of this view.

Below: Sunshine! A Wallis Advance 8 Ton roller waters in the colliery yard.

Below: Colin McAndrew propels wagons through the yard…

Below: …and under the screens.

Below: A shot showing the front end, which spent much time hidden behind wagons!

Below: The horse bus arrives in town.

Below: Showland! Steam and diesel fairground haulage and power meet in the street.

Below: More rain!

Below: The Sentinel Steam Bus arrives with another full load. This vehicle made a huge contribution to moving visitors around the museum site. It will be appearing at the Tanfield Railway Gala next weekend…