On May 25th 1973, the first section of tramline was inspected and commissioned for use at the recently established Beamish Museum, which was the country’s first Scandinavian-style open air living museum. The aim of Beamish was to depict the development of industry and way of life in the North East of England.
The scale of the project was such that, right at the outset, it was envisaged that it would need to incorporate its own transportation system, which would include the construction of a heritage tramway. To begin with, a relatively short length of single tram track was laid. Over time this was extended several times to eventually provide a circular link between the Visitor’s Centre and many of the main attractions on the site, which include a pit village, farms, town area and Pockerley waggonway. By this stage it covered a distance of 1 ½ miles with four passing loops.
Visitor map of the tramway at Beamish.
The first tramcar to run on the track was Gateshead 10, a sister car to No. 5 at Crich. Since then, a number of other tramcars have been acquired to help run the service and several others are currently being restored at the museum. Other parts of the museum complex can be reached by a fleet of buses, and there are also plans to introduce a trolleybus service in the near future.
A number of tramcars from Crich have visited the museum at Beamish over the years including Blackpool 167, Cardiff 131, Glasgow 1068 and Blackpool and Fleetwood box 40. The most recent visit of a tramcar from Crich to Beamish occurred when Blackpool and Fleetwood box 40 participated in the Great North Steam Fair at Beamish in April 2019.
Crich Tramway’s Blackpool & Fleetwood box 40 visiting Beamish in 2019. Photo: Jim Dignan.
In 2014 Beamish Tramway’s Newcastle 114 paid a visit to Crich Tramway Village to help celebrate the 50th anniversary of electric tramcar operations on the site.
Newcastle 114 visiting Crich from Beamish to help celebrate the Electric 50 event. Photo: Jim Dignan, 13/9/2014.
Beamish has recently celebrated the 50th anniversary of their transport system with a special event – ‘Fares Please!’ – with their own fleet of trams and buses joined by a number of visiting vehicles. You can find out more and see photos of the event on the Beamish website here and you can read a blog about the history of the tramway here.
Crich Tramway Village and Beamish has enjoyed a good relationship over the years, with reciprocal loans of vehicles and sharing information and knowledge between staff and volunteers. We hope this will continue for many years to come!