Friday 24 December 2010

merry Christmas

Well what a year it has been for the railway. We have had three very successful running days and have been adding improvements to the tracks. We still are getting more machines for the workshop and new locos are coming to the railway. The biggest restoration job for 2011 is the repainting of the viaduct on the rack railway.
From all the members and myself we hope that you have a very merry Christmas.

Tuesday 14 December 2010

krokidile to the rescue!

Well I finally got up to beamish last Saturday and to my surprise there was hardly any snow there! Because there was no snow I was able to run krokidile around the site doing odd job's. One of these jobs was picking up the last lot of leaves so you can now see what a ridiculous site it is!


When I finally got up to the railway this was the biggest piece of snow I could find. But according to the weather forecast more snow is on the way so I might get snow pic's of the railway.




So this is krokidile hauling the leaf train. Seeing krokidile with oversize loads is now a common thing. The way it works is that we have placed large bags around the site and when the leafs fall down we pick them up and place them in the bag. Then krokidile come and we lift the bag on to the train and krokidile hauls the bag to the compost bin.




Now you know how much leaf's fall down on to the track.

After that was done krokidile had a break so I took some arty photo's of it.

The paint is a bit chipped. Some touching up is needed.



Krokidile on the embankment with the coach.





On the rack bridge and in the sun.



After that break some dangerous looking branches were overhanging the railway and so needed to be chopped down. Krokidile was used to bring the stepladders...




...and to take them away.




Ready to take the step ladders back to the work shop. They just about fitted through the bridge.
Before the snow came krokidile hauled the wood panels that shall be used in the carriage shed from the workshop to the construction site. Some broken sleepers have been found so will need replacing. So it looks like krokidile will still be a busy engine still!

untile next time bye.

Wednesday 8 December 2010

Snow!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Sorry for the lack of updates recently but the snow has not let me go to the railway. Check out beamish's transport blog for pics of the museum under a blanket of snow and how they are trying to clear the tramway. The week before the snow came the railway received the former members workshop machines in form of a lathe and a drilling machine. I would imagine that the railway is covered in snow and the only engine that you would be able to run is krokidile which is also engine of the month. The steam engines are going through winter maintenance like chimney cleaning and small adjustments.


Here is the six wheeled Bridget that was displayed in our September exhibition it is going under trails before it is striped down for painting. If the owner paints it blue we could have a Thomas the tank engine on the railway!!!