Following its recent ‘Fares Please’ public transport weekend, Paul Williams takes a look at the bus operations at the Beamish living museum
Lots of coach and bus operators have a vintage bus at the back of the garage, to be brought out once in a while for a wedding or an occasional trip. But what if your fleet is nothing but vintage vehicles, and they’re expected to work seven days a week? CBW examined the challenges by talking to the people behind the vintage transport provided at Beamish, the open air museum just on the fringes of Tyneside.
Beamish is a huge complex of buildings and spaces with structures and scenes from the early 19th to the mid 20th centuries. So the streets – and the vehicles – have appeared in TV period dramas including ‘Downton Abbey,’ ‘The War Below’ and ‘An Unfortunate Woman.’
CBW met with Paul Jarman, the museum’s Director of Development for Transport, Industry & Design, and Russell Walker who is its Transport Maintenance Manager. Beamish is a big site – too big for many visitors to walk around – so in practice its 800,000 visitors per year make their way around site on one of the fleet of buses and trams that are part of the experience, and are restored and maintained on site by a team of staff who tackle everything from routine maintenance to nut-and-bolt restorations.
“We employ about 45 people on the operational side running buses trams and trains; and about 15 on the restoration side,” said Paul. “We also have volunteers who come in once or maybe twice a week to work on restoration projects, but for the most part, the work is carried out by the paid staff.”
Safety-conscious
[…]
By subscribing you will benefit from:
- Operator & Supplier Profiles
- Face-to-Face Interviews
- Lastest News
- Test Drives and Reviews
- Legal Updates
- Route Focus
- Industry Insider Opinions
- Passenger Perspective
- Vehicle Launches
- and much more!
