Matt Ditch Photography Blog

Peckett 1370 Beamish museum aren't running trains at their Rowley station site this year so Peckett 1370 "May", which normally operates these trains, has been moved across to the colliery railway. It was built in 1915 and is an R2 class 0-4-0ST. It worked at  Yates Duxbury & Sons papermill at Heap Bridge in Bury, Lancashire along with 2 other locomotives. Peckett "Annie" now preserved at the Buckinghamshire Railway Centre and an Andrew Barclay 0-4-0ST also named "Annie".  1370 had been relegated to spare loco by the 1970s and was eventually sold into preservation first moving to Wigan with  Bryn Engineering. It later moved to the East Lancashire Railway with its current owners the  Jubilee Locomotive Company who Beamish hire her off. The above shot shows 1370 doing what it usually does at the museum, hauling passenger trains from the rebuilt Rowley station along the short passenger line they have. The below video captures the  Yates Duxbury & S...

Event recap: Beamish Museum - "Coffee Pot 150"  01/05/21 Beamish museum held their first event since 2019 on the 1st of May 2021. The event was to celebrate the 150th birthday of the museums resident "Coffee Pot" No.1. Which, was built in 1871 by  Head Wrightson & Co Ltd in Teesside for  Dorking Greystone Lime Company for use at Betchworth Quarry. It is believed that the engine was in use up till 1949, although some reports suggest that it was dismantled for inspection in 1950 and returned to steam, steaming till 1952 when it was withdrawn. In 1960, it was repurchased by its makers and along with 2 other "Coffee Pots" both from Seaham. These were No's.21 and 33, which is also a Beamish resident. No.21 is now on static display at Preston Park near Thornaby. No.1 was offered to Beamish Museum in 1962 but did not arrive at the museum till 1970. Between 1962 and 1970 it was stored at British steels Consett Ironworks. At Beamish it was restored to opera...

The Barber line - Harrogate Gasworks railway The Harrogate Gasworks railway was a narrow gauge railway that opened in 1908 to carry coal from Bilton Yard on the Leeds to Northallerton railway to New Park, the site of the Gasworks. Bitumen was then transported from New Park back to Bilton from transport to Middlesbrough. The railway ran for 1 mile and featured a very confined height 800 yard tunnel. Due to the size of the tunnel all the locomotives were built with a reduced height cab and fittings giving them a squat appearance. The lines first locomotive was "Barber" it was built in 1908 by Thomas Green & Sons of Leeds and spent its entire working life on the Harrogate Gas Works railway. It even used during the construction of the railway. "Barber" is based on a similar engine named "Masham" which worked on a nearby reservoir construction railway, both railways were built by Mr Edward Wilson Dixon M.Inst.C.E. "Barber" was named after Francis...