INDUSTRIAL steam on two gauges was the centrepiece of Beamish Museum’s celebrations over the recent early May Bank Holiday, marking the 15th anniversary of its resident Head, Wrightson 0-4-0VBT Coffee Pot No.1.
The museum’s 1900s colliery was the setting for the event, which featured no fewer than five locomotives in steam. These included the 1871-built Coffee Pot, alongside Stephen Lewin 0-4-0ST No. 18 and Chris Beet’s former Yates Duxbury & Sons Peckett‘R2’0-4-0ST May (1370/1915), the latter having been especially transferred by low-loader from the museum’s Rowley station demonstration line to the colliery.