T&I News 23 2019...

T&I News 23 2019…

/ November 1, 2019 / 3 Comments / Narrow Gauge Railway, News

In this post we inevitably focus on the completion of the bus depot, which has now been officially handed over to the Museum (ahead of a formal opening later this year) to enable the completion of the fit-out and other works to enable it to perform its new role.

Readers might also notice a revised format for the blog – I updated it when prompted and the method of assembling a post has changed as a result! Captions are now below images, and embedded within their code, so hopefully it will still read sensibly and convey what I am trying to say!

Bus Depot

The official handover of the bus depot key, with Paul Bennett (Construction Manager) handing Russell the key on a unique fob! Terry and Charlie to the left, me to the right.
220 and 4 pose inside the doorways. The lettering and clock are yet to be fitted to the gable end of the building, whilst some landscaping work also remains to be completed.
Darlington 4 isn’t quite lost inside the space of the depot, but certainly demonstrates why we needed this building, when compared to the cramped conditions within the tram depot which buses and trams have had to share up to this point in time.
Above: A view of the workshop area of the depot, showing the pit to the left and the storage area to the right. This is closable, to secure smaller items, whilst above it will be the stores for components and spare parts needed regularly by the fitters in this area.
This view shows the pit and workshop walls, with the viewing gallery window clearly visible – visitors will, for the first time, be able to view maintenance work underway as well as see vehicles that might not otherwise have been visible during their visit. Stairs are to be fitted to access the storage area above the lock-up area of the workshop.
A close up of the pit, before the pit walls were painted.
The main depot space, which is functional and plain. Some noticeboards recovered from the Go North East Stanley depot have been restored and will be fitted shortly.
What will become an uncommon view! An empty depot! Buses will be arranged so as to leave the viewing gallery unobstructed so that visitors can see through into the workshop area. The next three to four weeks should see progress made on the completion of our work in the depot, though the team is currently heavily engaged in the Christmas preparations on site. Once these are completed then work will commence in earnest…

Rowley Station

The restoration of the GW Mink van continues, with the painted van being lettered by the team at Rowley. Though not of North Eastern Railway origin, it was the easiest wagon to overhaul and as far as picking off the lowest hanging fruit, made sense to tackle first.

Narrow Gauge Railway

A very short-term visitor to Beamish is this Ffestiniog Railway slate waggon, which is travelling back to Wales from the National Railway Museum at York. As we have a load heading west next week, the opportunity to move the slate waggon to Beamish to join the larger load for the longer distance was taken and so No.364 has made a very brief, non-working appearance on the narrow gauge railway.
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