The Mighty Whites

We've been painting a lot of stuff white recently. Firstly there was an ex-McAlpines U skip we painted up for the Gala. More recently, we've had a go at the Pickrose battery electric loco. We got this going a couple of months ago following repairs to one of its traction motors. Now the costmetic work is coming along a treat. The following picture shows Cynthia proudly finishing off the new paintwork, although it seems that Cynthia has got as much paint on her coat as the loco. It has to be said that the loco, if not the coat, is a great improvement.

Perhaps the next to enter the paint shop could be "Lady Anne" (CE B0922A/1975). This locomotive was obtained from Hunslet Loco Hire (HLHL) in 2003 and has been resident in the Apedale Heritage Centre since July 2004 as part of the static loco display. However, recently it was moved out to make way for new displays, so our attention turned to one slight problem... the Lady is the wrong gauge. Thankfully, those thoughtful people at Clayton Engineering built her as gauge-convertable, so her modification from 18in gauge to 24in should be straightforward. And indeed it was, on one axle anyway. Lady Anne also has a bit of an identity crisis in more than gauge. Above the rear axle flies a Union flag, above the front a Scottish flag. Quite how this came to be is unknown. However, what did become clear was that they make axles quite a lot more stubborn North of the Border. Fortunately they make people stubboner, in the shape of our resident sledgehammer-wielding Alex (illustrated below).

Anyway, a bit of percussive maintenance soon had that uncooperative axle beaten, and we could drop the loco onto the track and into the workshop. Here, the CME attempted to entice the batteries back into life. In the final photo we see the CME surrounded by his battery-enticing equipment. The more observant amongst you can also play "spot the meerkat" with this photo. Anyway, with a bit of luck we'll lave Lady Anne back in fine form and perhaps ready for a new coat of paint, but that probably depends on how fed up Cynth is with painting stuff white. Benevolent white paint suppliers can contact us here.

Cats and Dogs...

With work proceeding on the Museum foundations, thoughts turned to the exhibits to put in it. Whilst our curator has been busy trying to properly catalogue our vast collection of narrow gauge equipment, we've been working to restore some of the more needy items and also pose him an interesting conundrum. One project just started involves a hybrid Dick Kerr skip wagon that had at some point in its history been separated from its original wheels and mounted rather ignominiously on top of a fairly grotty Hudson chassis. We have managed to locate a suitable set of wheels and running gear from a donor chassis to restore this wagon to its original condition, which will make a pair in our collection. This, of course, leaves a Hudson chassis behind, hence two museum artefacts where only one existed before this weekend!

With focus in the last couple of blogs on our feline friends, we should not forget their canine relatives. Mechanical work on "Tiddles" is nearing completion, so now "Pluto" the Ruston has been receiving attention. Work on this Apprentice project slowed over the last month, partially because of work directed towards preparing for the open day, but also as we were waiting for new parts. The original bulkhead was corroded beyond repair, so new drawings have had to be made and the three sheet metal component parts cut and folded to order. These arrived last week and were assembled over the weekend. The construction is a combination of bolting, welding and folding. With this work now progressing, we can focus on fitting the various controls then cleaning and painting. At this stage our target for completion by the end of the year still looks achievable (if we can keep the apprentices focussed).

So we have two more restored exhibits on the way, but there's still a long way to go on the museum and its contents. If you think you can help us realise our ambitions, contact us here.

Civil Engineering

With the Gala now behind us, work has now re-started in earnest on the Museum foundations. Contractors have been hard at work digging out trenches around the piles which were inserted some time ago. The next step is to insert re-inforcing mesh cages and pour a lot of concrete to form the ground beams. From these beams, the walls of the museum building will rise. Sounds simple when you read it quickly, but this is very expensive work, and given the current state of funding, work will stop at the ground beam stage pending another injection of cash. We hope you all got the pictures of the field railway in September - because the connection to the main system has now been replaced by a very large hole. The site has been exposing some of the fascinating wealth of industrial archaeology, with the top of a drift mine being exposed, and the foundations of some mine building coming to light.

Meanwhile, the passenger train fond an unexpected use moving a display concrete pipe from the Heritage Centre to storage in Aurora North. Based on the long-standing tradition of management by typographical error, the Popemobile made a dignified transit of the railway, and the pipe is now ensconced in its new home. It's steam trains next weekend - the Joffre will be unleashed - because Stanhope will be watching the rain in North Wales. Get in touch here.