Beamish 4-7th April2013 "Our Friends Electric" event

[DaveF]

A few photos of trams and railways at Beamish today.  The event is "Our Friends Electric", celebrating 40 years of the tramway at the museum.  It is the first of a series of events over the next three weekends (Thurs to Sun) , the "Great North Festival of Transport".

 

The 11th to the 14th will be the "Great North Steam Fair", then the following weekend is "Old King Coal".

 

All will be well worth a visit.

 

But beware - the staff and volunteers are all very friendly, once you start to talk to them you may never get away!  I heard a fascinating talk on Victorian printing as I happened to go in to the print shop in the Town Street for a quick look round. 

 

There are various visiting trams as well as the normal Beamish fleet.

 

I've kept the captions short, full details are available on the Beamish web site of the events.  http://www.beamish.org.uk/

 

Newcastle tram decorated for the event.

 

3 trams

 

Blackpool tram and steam gallopers

 

Oporto/South Shields 196 by Pockerley Manor

 

Oporto/South Shields 19

 

Glasgow tram being unloaded

 

Grimsby and Immingham tram 26

 

Blackpool Tram

 

Sunderland Tram

 

Steam Elephant

 

Sunderland Tram

 

Barclay WST Number 22 (Bowes Railway)

 

Barclay WST Number 22 (Bowes Railway)

 

Lisbon 730 in the town

 

David

Edited to correct the usual spelling error.

[Plumloco]

Sounds like a great weekend. However, I think you really need to choose your date with this place. I visited Beamish with my family recently and unfortunately it was an expensive disappointment. We had to queue for 25 minutes to get in because of lack of staff, then having toured around on a couple of trams (genuine) and a couple of vintage buses (fake) we discovered that the standard gauge railway, the waggonway and even the mine were all firmly shut. This left us to enjoy the fake shops and houses. The staff were admittedly friendly and helpful and the 'living exhibits' mildly entertaining. Even the restaurants had good food at reasonable prices, but as were primarily attracted by the railway and mining features, it was a waste of time and money. I complained to the manager that they should have told us what was and wasn't open, but she explained that railway station didn't normally have trains at all and the Victorian waggonway was closed as - this was in March - they hadn't yet removed the Christmas decorations from the engines! She had no idea why the mine was shut. I was promised a 'response' to my complaint, but to date there has been none. I live abroad and had fancied a visit to Beamish for many years, but the day was summed up by the bronze bust of the founder in the entrance. It's a plastic fake. 

[DaveF]

Sounds like a great weekend. However, I think you really need to choose your date with this place. I visited Beamish with my family recently and unfortunately it was an expensive disappointment. We had to queue for 25 minutes to get in because of lack of staff, then having toured around on a couple of trams (genuine) and a couple of vintage buses (fake) we discovered that the standard gauge railway, the waggonway and even the mine were all firmly shut. This left us to enjoy the fake shops and houses. The staff were admittedly friendly and helpful and the 'living exhibits' mildly entertaining. Even the restaurants had good food at reasonable prices, but as were primarily attracted by the railway and mining features, it was a waste of time and money. I complained to the manager that they should have told us what was and wasn't open, but she explained that railway station didn't normally have trains at all and the Victorian waggonway was closed as - this was in March - they hadn't yet removed the Christmas decorations from the engines! She had no idea why the mine was shut. I was promised a 'response' to my complaint, but to date there has been none. I live abroad and had fancied a visit to Beamish for many years, but the day was summed up by the bronze bust of the founder in the entrance. It's a plastic fake. 

 

I can understand your feelings, as I live only a short drive away I often go for a couple of hours and so can easily return.  As your visit was recent it was during the winter season, when some parts of the site are closed and others only open at weekends.  The website does give an indication of what is going on at various times of the year.

 

I think that happens because it simply isn't economic to have as many staff in winter and also the weather there can be very bad, even when where I live, on the coast, it is quite pleasant.  March is very definitely winter!

 

As for the fake houses, at least they are real buildings moved from other locations, unlike some museums I have visited  (not in Britain) when some have been totally new.

 

David

[Plumloco]

Point taken. The buildings are well done, though the hallways and stairs gauged for American tourists are a bit of a giveaway. We happened to be in the northeast for that day only and I didn't do any research, just went on spec, so I guess we are partly to blame. I do understand that Beamish is more theme park than railway museum but I wanted to show my teenager the replica waggonway so close to the birthplace of railways. Perhaps I should have forced the family to 'endure' Shildon instead! I rather regret my rant now, but having bothered to politely complain, and been promised a response that has not arrived, I am still a dissatisfied customer. 

[Tin Turtle]

Nice photos, was there myself on saturday and put my photos up in another thread. Love the place, currently live three hours drive away and shortly be even further but my mum lives in the area so I try and pop in when possible. First time I saw the colliery railway in operation, and certainly try and make my yearly pass worth the money even with the distance