Another mixed bag on the news front this week!  A good deal of work has also en taking place on our ‘Remaking Beamish’ development, with some interesting irons now in the fire for this project, not least the buses and trolleybuses we anticipate operating once the project gets under-way (hopefully in 2016).  Meanwhile, here is a look around the team’s activities over the last 7 days…

Waggonway

Below: Steam Elephant is seen here having its valves set – the Tele-handler being necessary to move the loco in order for the valve events to be observed then adjusted.  This process involves not a little patience and quite a lot of thought, as Matt and David illustrate!

Below: A close up of the two valve chests – slightly awkward to access as both face each other.

Below: One of the valves in its buckle (which imparts the up/down movement from the valve rod).  The valve face is not visible here, but for similar views, look back through the blog at Samson’s construction and the work on No.18 (Lewin) last winter.

Below: Locomotion broke a spring – the replacement for which is seen here (above) and fitted (below).

General news

Below: Access to the RMS as part of the Chemist development (to extract a stored soda plant) involved an excursion into daylight for the Armstrong diesel and NER luggage composite 3071.

Below: With the winter evening events demanding additional capacity on the tramway, Gateshead 10 was recommissioned for operation over a limited number of evenings.  It is not generally available for operation, requiring re-tyring, but its earlier withdrawal from front line service has enable it to remain on standby for use on a number of occasions and the Halloween evenings were just such an event.  It is seen here at the Entrance stop.

We are currently developing our tramway (including buses) fleet plan through to 2o34, and this makes for quite startling reading as well as hopefully having a few surprises for enthusiasts in the years to come…  Meanwhile we should see Sunderland 16 return this winter, with Sheffield 264 due back in service in mid 2015 (this will become a priority project once again shortly, and a number of items, including the motors, are already away with contractors for refurbishment to forward the mechanical overhaul).

Below: Darren and Mark attend to some track packing on the Tramway to the east of the Town.  This type of work is routine but not often seen, so this photo is to make amends for that!  The track is jacked up and aligned, then the two Kango-Packers are used to push ballast underneath the sleepers and restore the correct horizontal alignment.

Below: We have purchased a Mercury Truck (for more info see link below).  This was one of those offers that was too good to resist and it will be very useful as a RHEC runabout (as we can never get hold of our own vans!).  Some remedial work is needed, but it comes complete with a dropside body.  The rear 6 inches of chassis was cut off to fit it into the delivery van (!) so the first job will be for Chris to reattach this then refit the body.

http://tractors.wikia.com/wiki/Mercury_Truck_and_Tractor_Co.

Below: Inside the RHEC all was not quiet earlier in the week when the organ for the Gallopers was tuned – this is not pleasant listening!  It has made a great improvement to the sound, and was achieved using the electric motor seen on the platform to operate the bellows.

Narrow Gauge Railway

Below: Some years ago I bought this ex MOD ‘Ammunition’ wagon (or ‘Bomb wagon as they tend to be known) from the remains of the Cadeby collection in Leicestershire.  It has now been given to the narrow gauge cause and will be rebuilt as a braked open of more Victorian appearance for use on our narrow gauge system.  As it has a brake it will be a useful vehicle in this regard and will be allocated to general stockyard duties such as carriage of bricks or pit-props.

Below: This weekend is our last enhanced transport weekend of the year, and with plans to make these rather higher profile in 2015, we end with some road steam, narrow gauge and Colliery steam (No.18) over the weekend.  Here is Edward Sholto warming up for the weekend to come.  As with last month’s operation, footplate rides will be available (over 16s and one at a time!) on Saturday and Sunday.

Below: Work on Samson has not abated, and the coupling rods and spur gears were delivered to Statfold in the week in order to assist in the completion of the rolling chassis.  We have the boiler components on order from Israel Newtons and once ready, these will be prepared at Beamish for riveting into the shell.  Lots of smaller jobs are currently being completed, such as the oak buffer beams seen here – these are treated with linseed oil and are sandwiched between a steel buffing plate and the steel buffer beam riveted to the chassis.  The wood looks beautiful after two coats of the linseed oil, as seen here.