The tramway at Beamish is currently undergoing a programme of upgrade work to ensure that it remains safe and operational in a year that will see it celebrate its 50th anniversary. Beamish have recently appointed a new Transport Infrastructure Manager and he had developed a programme of work which will take place over this winter and spring period.
Beamish are investing tens of thousands of pounds on new grooved and flat bottomed rail, plastic sleepers and more equipment to allow for the smooth process of installing the new infrastructure. The main area of concentration for now will be the section between Town East (the Bank/Chemist corner) and Pockerley.
This will see 25% of the sleepers replaced with the new plastic versions, restoration of the current rails in the cobbled street area and attention to the ballast bed. The first work underway is on the rails in the cobbled street which will not see a full relay as it would be disruptive and more expensive. Instead welding is being used on the track here to restore the rail profile with external contractors being used to complete this work. Its hoped it will be finished before the end of January on the inner circle route with the outer circle to see similar work next winter.
Sleeper replacement is also already underway with one in four being replaced. This allows regular spacing of the new plastic sleepers and allows frequent inspections to ensure the soundness of the sleepers at this interval. This work will continue over the next few years until the whole route is finished.
As winter continues it is also the intention to replace the track on the Town curves (in the tarmacked section) before rerailing is completed on “Bog Bend” (the first curve on the tramway when travelling from Foulbridge to the Town in a clockwise direction).
It seems a bit strange for a museum to be using things like plastic sleepers. It would be good if museums in general didn’t just preserve artefacts, but also perserved the materials and techniques used for tasks in bygone days. Rather than seeing track relaying as a disruption, if it was done in a traditional manner with navies in traditional clothing and using traditional equipment surely it could be an added attraction to the general street scene? Beamish has always trod a very fine line between museum and theme park and I worry it may be leaning more towards the latter these days, which is a shame because it could achieve so much more as a truely living museum.
Indeed if the intention is to reproduce a particular period in history, then the infrastructure must not be anachronistic. Interesting and intricate track formations such as reversed interlaced curves, grand union junctions etc. once a common sight in first-generation tramways, are too difficult to incorporate in living museums, and so the impression given can only be a partial experience of the street scenes of bygone days. I agree that unfortunately the drift towards theme parks is a tendency that seem to be forced upon museums by economic pressures.
Part of the problem (in general, not specifically the sleepers) is that 1st generation hardware is not avaialble, legacy stocks have run out and it is far too expensive to have new made to the original design (no one would role BS2 section8 unless then was a market for miles of the stuff, same with point castings). The technique it to try and hide the most obvious modern stuff.
There is a choice, keep the old and don’t operate or replace with new and run trams.
It should be noted that Beamish has been using ‘new’ infrastructure since Pockerley was constructed with the left overs from the garden festivals, including some European trolleybus overhead. Birkenhead was all new and new rail/components have crept into other museums including track panels used at Heaton Park so its hardly something new. It may not show Tramways exactly as they were but it shows the continued pioneering spirit of British tramways with the upgrading and trying new things. All museums have a santitised ‘theme park’ outlook – its the only way to get interest these days!