Matt Ditch Photography Blog

My previous visit to Beamish was in less-than-ideal conditions (rain!). So, when I found out visiting Andrew Barclay No.1219 would be running during the week I decided to make another visit. thankfully the weather was much nicer! And, I was able to record a video of it shunting. Which I'll release this weekend on my Youtube channel (Matt Ditch Photography) The attached image shows 1219 passing by the colliery engine shed with a rake of Chaldron wagons. The full gallery can be found here

 Beamish Steam Gala. 01/04/23 Over the weekend of the 1st &2nd of April, Beamish Museum held its first transport-related event of the year. The star guest for the event was Andrew Barclay 0-4-0ST No.1219 visiting from the Pontypool & Blaenavon railway in South Wales. The engine was operating on the colliery railway with museum resident Coffee Pot No.1. 1219  is staying at the museum till early May.  Below are some of my favorite pictures from the event. The full gallery can be found here. Visiting Andrew Barclay 0-4-0ST No.1219 Foden "Mighty Atom" No.1 behind the Colliery engine shed 1219 & Stephen Lewin replica "Samson" Fowler road locomotive and Sunderland tram No.16

  Austerity No.49 returns to steam at the Tanfield Railway Austerity 0-6-0ST No.49 returned to steam for the first time in 14 months at the Tanfield Railway during the late May bank holiday. Here are some shots of the loco at work along the line and a brief history of it. 49 was built in 1943 by Robert Stephenson & Hawthorn in Newcastle for the MOD. It's unclear as to where 49 went immediately after leaving the works. In the winter of 1943 she was put into store at the Melbourne Military Railway in Derbyshire. From here it was moved into WD storage in Essex before returning to the MMR in the Autumn of 1944. The loco was loaned to the Ministry of Fuel and Power's Swannington opencast disposal point in Leicestershire from May 1946 to Bennerley disposal point in Nottinghamshire in February 1947. It had a relatively short stay there and by April of that year it had moved North to Backworth in Northumberland, which would become the locos home. And, where she eventually bec...

  Andrew Barclay 0-6-0ST "Horden"  On Sunday I was fortunate enough to see my first steam loco of the year. It was also my first opportunity to see newly restored Andrew Barclay "Horden" in steam. The engine has been painstakingly restored over the past several years by the volunteers at the Tanfield railway, where the loco will be based.  "Horden" was built by Andrew Barclay Sons & Co in 1904 with the works number 1015. It was built for the Horden Colliers LTD in County Durham. During Horden's working life it was based at the companies collieries at Horden, Shotton and Blackhall. She was also the only Durham area locomotive to be sent to the Ashington Central workshop for repair. To avoid paying the North Eastern Railways' movement charges the loco was once moved by road using four track panels.  Horden became a National Coal Board engine in 1947 while it was based at Shotton Colliery. It was at Shotton where Horden took on a  Q6 0-8-0 and won...

 

  Tanfields Railways 2017 "Legends of Industry" gala. featuring visiting locomotives, Hawthorn Leslie 3931/1938 ‘Linda’ and Robert Stephenson and Hawthorns 7673/1950 “Ugly” "Linda" and a mixed train leave Marley Hill yard. "Ugly" at Bowes Bridge with a demonstration coal train The full gallery can be found here Please consider supporting this website on Patreon. Their are exclusive perks for those who do. Or alternatively visit my Ko-Fi page by clicking here.

South Tynedale Railway - Narrow gauge in the Pennines Hunslet 0-4-2 "Green Dragon" at Alston The South Tynedale railway is built on the trackbed of the standard gauge "Alston branch", which opened in sections between 1851-1852. The Alston branch ran from Haltwhistle on the Newcastle-Carlisle line and was closed in 1976. Although a preservation society was set up to preserve the branch and run it in its original standard gauge state, they were sadly unsuccessful in this and the line was taken up. In 1977 they turned their attention to reopening as a narrow gauge railway. By 1983 the South Tynedale railway officially opened to the public and by 1986 they had reached Gilderdale halt, which lies on the boundary between Cumbria and Northumbria. Since then the railway has opened extensions to Kirkhaugh (1999), Lintley Halt (2012) and to Slaggyford station (2018). This gives the railway a total distance of around 5 miles. The extension to Slaggyford comes on the back of ...