Beamish Museum

Beamish Museum is a Living History Museum in North East England, approximately 8 miles north west of Durham station and 6 miles south west of Newcastle Central station. The museum documents life in the North East from the early 19th century to the early 20th century, through World War 2 and up to the 1950s showing the introduction of the National Health Service. The site is around 350 acres and is served by a transport system running around the nearly 2 mile road which creates a loop from the Entrance at the South to the Georgian Landscape in the East, past the new 1950s development towards the 1900s Town in the north and around to the 1940s Farm in the west. The 1900s Pit Village is located towards the centre of the site.

Transport System

Trams

The various locations around Beamish are served by tram and bus routes using period transport from the early to mid 20th century. The tram line is an approximately 1.5 mile circuit around the site with 4 passing loops forming the stops. The town passing loop extends past the end of the town for about 320ft to provide a full double track experience through the town. There is also a crossover in the town extending from near the park gates to the Sweet Shop, which can be useful if trams need to turn short in the Town due to engineering works. Near Home Farm tram stop is the tram depot, which has four roads with rails to house the trams and an extra road without rails which can be used for motor vehicles and trolleybuses.

Buses

Alongside the tram depot is a bus depot, which opened in 2019, and can house up to seven buses in the storage area with a narrow pit in the engineering area to fit most motor vehicles over. The engineering area also contains a set of column lifts which can be used to lift small vehicles and vans which are not able fit over the pit. The buses that regularly serve the museum stops are a mix of replica Edwardian era buses and restored originals from the 1950s. The Edwardian replica buses follow the same route as the tramway, but once they leave Home Farm they serve the Edwardian era Pit Village, where the service terminates. The 1950s buses follow the same route as the trams and are very useful as they are quicker than the trams, and therefore can move more people per hour than the trams. There are plans to run a trolleybus service through the new 1950s development with trolleybuses being stabled in the tram depot so that all electric vehicle maintenance is done in the same area.

Railways

There are a number of different railways on the museum site, three of which are standard gauge (The 1900s Town Railway, The 1820s Waggonway and the Colliery railway). In the Pit Village there is also a narrow gauge railway and a 15" gauge railway which usually only operate on special event days. The Town railway is a passenger carrying line which runs from Rowley railway station, which was taken down brick by brick and rebuilt at Beamish in the 1970s, around 475 yards to the end of the line and then reverses back into the railway station. The 1820s Waggonway is also a passenger carrying railway which runs from a station next to the Waggonway shed around 200m to the end of the line and back again. When the Colliery railway runs it serves as a demonstration line for shunting old coal chaldrons from the pit head down the line and back again, giving visitors a chance to see how wagons and locomotives are coupled together and moved around.

Fleet Lists

Tramway

Original operator	Fleet Number	Year Built	Livery	Seats	Status	Notes
Gateshead	10	1925	British Railways Green	48	Undergoing Overhaul	Painted in British Railways green as carried when in service with Grimsby and Immingham
Sunderland	16	1900	Crimson and Cream	66	Operational
Blackpool	31	1901	Red, White and Teak	86	Operational
Newcastle and Gosforth	49	1880
Gateshead	51	1900
Gateshead	52	1901
Oporto	65	1933	Black and Yellow chevrons	0	Undergoing Overhaul
Newcastle	114	1901	Yellow, White and Plum	53	Undergoing Overhaul
Oporto	196	1935	Blue and Yellow	28	Operational	Carries South Shields Corporation Tramways livery
Sheffield	264	1907	Prussian Blue and Cream	54	Operational
Sheffield	513	1950	Cream and Prussian Blue	62	Operational	On loan to the East Anglia Transport Museum

Buses

Operator Depicted	Registration Number	Fleet Number	Make/Model	Year Built	Livery	Seats	Status	Notes
Venture Buses	J 2007		Iveco, Bodywork by Severn Lamb	2007	Yellow and Red	19	Operational	Fitted with a wheelchair ramp. Four of six bench seats fold up to allow up to four wheelchair users to board.
Darlington Transport	304VHN	4	Daimler CCG5	1964	Cream and Blue		Operational	CCG5 denotes: Commercial vehicle, Crash Gearbox, Gardner 5 cylinder engine (in this case a Gardener 5LW)
Rotherham Corporation	KET220	220	Daimler CVG6	1954	Cream and Blue	56	Operational	CVG6 denotes: Commercial vehicle, Victory (post WW2, fitted with a pre-select gearbox), Gardner 6 cylinder engine (in this case a Gardner 6LW)
Northern General	J2503	CC297	Replica of a Daimler CC	1988	Red	32	Operational	Replica built using a Dodge chassis in 1988
Northern General	UP551	338	SOS QL	1928	Red	37	Operational	Restored by Friends of Beamish, who bring the bus out on special occasions and events. Not used in regular service.
Newcastle Corporation	LTN501	501	Sunbeam S7	1948	Yellow and Cream	72	Stored	Although this trolleybus has run at other museums, it is currently stored awaiting the completion of the dual overhead wires through the 1950s development.
Newcastle Corporation	DET720D	B1349	Replica of London General B-Type	1990	Blue	34	Operational	Replica built using 1966 Bedford TK chassis by E.L. Farrar, St Austel, Cornwall

Railways

Original Operator	Year Built	Name
Dorking Greystone Lime Company	1871	Coffee Pot No. 1
Seaham Harbour	1877	Lewin No. 18
South Durham Steel and Iron Co.	1873	Malleable No. 5