A look back on 2012

Hi again. Since the last time I posted ( two years ago!) the railway has had a lot of progress made. Most of this is due to making the railway better suited to public this has included the construction of a new ticket office next to the turntable. In fact dipwood halt is getting upgraded right so the rack railway is now connected to the turntable. A new signal box will be constructed next to the new line with a new platform for it. The water stop (coghill) has also gone through a major visual improvement with the placement of new ballast over the track. the Carriage shed is externally complete. The running lines have yet to be fitted though.     Also krokidile is about to go in for a winter's overhaul. The overhaul will include a upgrade to 24 volt with two new motors and a much better controller. 

That's all for now, I hope to upload some pictures soon.

so until next time bye! 

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.

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.

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!!!

Sorry for the lack of updates recently but computer problems have been holding me back from the blog but it should return to full use very soon. News from the railway is that the carriage shed has progressed a lot since last time it was on the blog and krokidile has found a new job! It is now the engine to pull the "leaf train". It goes round the railway and picks up big bags full of leafs and carries to our compost bin for disposal. Other jobs for krokidile is track tester and being the railways "goods engine". The clearing out of the former members workshop should be finished hopefully this week.

until next time bye.

Let there be fire!!!

On Saturday lumps of old metal came from the former members workshop. We are also preparing for the arrival of the machinery from the workshop. But a momentous event happened on saturday as you will find out.

You may not be able to see it but smoke is actually coming out of the carridge shed's newly fitted chiminey!

One big problem about the railway that it is mostly underneath trees which rain down leaf's in the Autumn. Because of this the railway rescently brought this very useful (and very fun!) leaf blower as for example...

Here is the shed area under a sea of leafs. The leaf blower turned this job, which is a long and tiring to a quick and fun job. After ten minutes the area was transformed to this...


...clean shed area. We have learnt to put a mat over the turntable to stop leaf's from jamming it.

Here we see some steel bar being cut to length. This will make a frame so we can repaint the viaduct.

In the the last post I said there was nothing going on up at the station but I was wrong!! Turns out that a small section of path needed concreated at the gate. Sadly a cat called "FAT-CAT" made a paw mark in the concreate!

And finally we have had a squirrel on this blog before but i can better that now as we have a beautiful (and rare) red kite circling over the railway.

until next time bye!

busy, busy and busy!

By the name of the title there is a lot of things happening around the railway. Things like clearing out a former member's workshop, construction of the carriage shed, repairing the 5 inch krokidile batteries, building a new, light carriage which I believe is to be made from aluminum plus collecting conkers!

The construction of the carriage shed has picked up a gear

and the area built for the stationary engine is nearly complete.

Also the plan is to have raised track inside and partly outside

The chimney for the stationary engine out side the workshop

just after being cut size. 8 feet long!!

A quiet scene at Dipwood Halt.

No more work is needed to be done at the station now as most attention is now on clearing the former member's workshop, building the carriage shed and building the new carriage.

The 5 inch krokidile batteries got attention as the acid levels in the batteries were very low.






The frame for the new carriage. I believe that it is going to be made from aluminum for lightness and indented to be a spare.





And finally we have three fine BCR produced conkers!!!

How to clear out a workshop.

For the past few weeks the members of the railway have been clearing out a former members workshop. Unfortunately there is tones of stuff that is needed to be cleared. As it was cleared this loco was brought to the railway.

This is the 5 inch loco built over eight years ago. Of Swedish design this krokidile is powered by two electric motors. There is a small problem with the batteries but should get sorted out soon.

This is krokidiles new driving truck in form of a BR brake tender. It recently went under gauging trials to see if it could clear all lineside objects and passed. Work should start soon on it.

Most of the stuff from the workshop...


with a tower of video tapes.



And last but not least, a boiler went under a hydraulic test and passed!!
So we could be seeing a new loco at the BCR in the near future!

A 5 inch loco arrives at beamish

Yes it is true. A five inch loco has arrived at beamish. Sadly I did not get any photos but it does keep you guessing! I shall give you some clues then. It is not steam and is not of British design and was built about eight years ago. Can you guess what it is then? Also there are plans to build some portable track so we can put it down on running weekends and run this loco alongside the passengers train.

I hope to post some photos next weekend of the new driving truck and the mysterious engine.

UPDATE: krokidile new driving truck was tested today and cleared all obstacles on the lineside so work can be started on it.

GREAT NORTH STEAM FAIR RUNNING WEEKEND

Last weekend the Beamish Cog railway was running for the museums event called the Great North Steam Fair. The running weekend had four steam locos and 1 electric loco in action. The guest from Ireland came but sadly with no diesel. However the guest was pleased with krokidile as he had a drive of it. On Thursday morning four locos were out of the shed being prepared for four days hard work.

A busy loco shed with four locos.

This event also decided which engine was engine of the month!

Koppel 2 is now back in steam and ran flawlessly over the four days.

Visiting WREN "Nathan" gave a helping hand over the four days

and was the winner of the ENGINE OF THE MONTH competition.



Everything was ready. The ticket stand in the exhibition.
We got 1700 passengers over the the four days, the same as power of the past event!!




First train of the day. Koppel backs down on the train.




WREN "Nathan" is turned on the turntable.






While all of this was happening the engine shed was looking rather empty!




A quiet scene at Dipwood Halt with koppel 2 in the loop waiting for the train to arrive and to take charge over it.



Some pics of the exhibition A under construction traction engine.




5 inch unfinished v2.
Will it have outside steam pipes as some of the v2's didn't and some did.

The engine that started of the railwaysFour rockets in 7 1/4, 31/2, meccano

and if you look closely the fourth one is on top of the 71/4 rocket tender.

A nicely finish steam boat.

Parts of a steam loco.

Vertical boilers.

This shay loco is the first none rack loco to climb the rack railway.

RC boats.

0-6-0 saddle tank engine.

2-4-0 side tank engine.

0-6-0 side tank Bridget.

Newest engine to the fleet is Jessie standing next to a LMS guards van.

All pictures of members and the railway in the early days.

A busy scene at Dipwood Halt.

Here is some views of the museum. traction engine "Mary Margret" .

Newly painted tram 31 hauls a full load of passengers from the town.

The blue circle hauls a train of Charlton wagons.

visiting traction engines down in the colliery.

issin sid a compressed air engine is seen working down in the colliery.

Coffee Pot and Sir Vincent have a quick break between duty's in the colliery.

Future projects for the museum?

Back at the railway the latest addition to the signal box is this fire bucket.

Krokidile ran flawlessly over the four days and

was in action for the guest from Ireland.

Koppel 2 waiting to go down the rack railway.

Visiting WREN "nathan" sits in the loop waiting to take charge of the train.

Koppel sits in the loop.

WREN golden jubilee waits for the off with

WREN "nathan" sits in the loop waiting to take charge of the train.

WREN departs Dipwood Halt in clouds of steam.

Gathering speed.

Crossing the points of Dipwood Halt.

Off in to the distance.

When the train stoped for water we gave the passengers a bit history

about the railway and the group.

Waiting for the off from the water stop.

WREN sits in the loop blowing of steam merrily.

Nathans namepalte

Two of my favourite pics.

The two WRENS sit next to each other at the end of the day.

GOLDEN JUBILEE and NATHAN.

Do I give way to you?!

WREN "NATHAN" departs the station.

Rack engine climbs rack railway.

koppel flys by!

WREN "NATHAN" crosses rack bridge. Note how full the train is with passengers.

The railway has no more running days for 2010.