The week has been dominated by the arrival of exhibits for Wheels of Industry this weekend, and preparing the various railway exhibits for operation.  Here are some photographs to tempt potential visitors…

Wheels of Industry

Below: Sir Berkeley arrived from Middleton on Tuesday, and was quickly unloaded.

Below:  Coffee Pot No.1 provided the motive power (quite a load for it on wet rails up the gradient into the pit yard!).

Below: Safely parked in the shed, in readiness for a fitness to run exam on Friday.

Below: Glyder was used to shunt the visiting locomotives on the narrow gauge, and is seen simmering in the rain during this process.  This really is becoming one of the best narrow gauge views at Beamish – I am pondering whether we put brick stacks in the space to the right (left of the fence) to further reinforce the stockyard-railway theme.

Below: On Friday, Sir Berkeley was steamed in order to carry out test runs over the Colliery railway and also test the compatibility of its chaldron buffers with the chaldron waggons themselves.

Below: Making use of its dumb-buffers for the first time in many years!

Below: Hugh Napier and Britomart were also steamed and tested around the narrow gauge routes.  Glyder was in light steam to warm it up for Saturday.

Below: Sir Berkeley looks very at home in the Colliery Engine Works.

Below: A few traction engines were also displayed in the Town during the day (movements were limited to this location).

Below: First bus of the day on Friday – Sunderland 13 enjoys the sunshine, something rarely seen here lately!

Colliery yard bus turning circle

Below: One job that’s been on the to-do list for a very long time is the erection of some barriers within the Colliery yard, to delineate the bus turning circle.  These are made from 28lb/yard narrow gauge rail, and are based on a real example that sits on our property but outside of the museum’ grounds.  There was a bus turning area on the old Beamish Hall carriage drive, and which remains in the undergrowth today, located behind the Town Stables, on the north side of the Beamish Burn.  This was for Northern General buses that were serving the opencast drift mine in that location.  There are some cast signs to add to these railings, and we’ll probably paint them black/white too (at least the ends of them) as part of this work.