{"id":641,"date":"2016-07-14T11:12:02","date_gmt":"2016-07-14T11:12:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ngtrains-com.stackstaging.com\/blog\/?p=641"},"modified":"2020-11-17T14:01:15","modified_gmt":"2020-11-17T14:01:15","slug":"battle-of-the-somme-commemoration","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ngtrains.com\/blog\/battle-of-the-somme-commemoration\/","title":{"rendered":"Battle of the Somme Commemoration"},"content":{"rendered":"
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The Motive Power<\/p><\/div>\n

Beamish Museum held a commemoration of the 100yr anniversary of the Battle of the Somme over the weekend 8th, 9th & 10th July. There were many exhibits and events on show with the theme of both commemorating and explaining the first world war and the Battle of the Somme.<\/p>\n

As you\u2019ve probably gathered by now I drive on the narrow gauge railway and, occasionally, the standard gauge colliery railway at Beamish and was there for the whole weekend. We ran the narrow gauge railway with ww1 equipment to demonstrate and explain the logistic support the railways provided.<\/p>\n

We were very fortunate to be able to borrow three items of motive power from the Festiniog Railway, effectively hijacking their world tour (France and Staffordshire), along with three wagons from the Moseley Trust at Apedale. With a Simplex (Mary Ann when not in uniform) and A & B four wheel wagons plus a Baldwin Gas Mechanical (Moelwyn in civvies) with a Pershing wagon loaded with a couple of Model T\u2019s we could show a British and an American train.\u00a0\u00a0 We did mix them up through the weekend though.<\/p>\n

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The British Train<\/p><\/div>\n

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The American Train<\/p><\/div>\n

The railway at Beamish is now a triangle with additional sidings so trains were operating around the triangle leaving wagons on odd places then collecting them in a different order.<\/p>\n

Just for added interest Moelwyn wouldn’t go round the tightest part of the newest bit of the triangle (to be honest, we were to scared to try it not wanting to have to re-rail it)<\/em> so we propelled the wagon on to the tight bit and then went back around the triangle to the other end.<\/p>\n

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Buster in picnic table mode<\/p><\/div>\n

There was one other interesting conveyance. A Fairbanks Speeder (Buster in civvies). These were used for officer transport (probably decided they were expendable) at high speed and in one direction only. To go the other way you pick it up and turn it round.<\/p>\n

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Buster in a rare working foray to the extremities of the network<\/p><\/div>\n

It was a bit temperamental through the weekend so it doubled as a picnic table in between occasional runs. A full run with four officers on board on the Sunday finished it off. A new gearbox awaits it.<\/p>\n

On our small railway you could walk the entire line in the time it took to get it started but that wasn’t the point.<\/p>\n

Below is a collection of other photos from the weekend with some more words beyond them.<\/p>\n