Full steam ahead for a Durham day out

15th March 2011

Categories: Visitor News

Durham has a well-earned reputation as the “cradle of the Railways” and if you love steam you’ll love what’s on offer at some of the county’s leading museums and attractions this spring.

Locomotion: The National Railway Museum at Shildon is offering visitors the chance to drive a steam engine for a day.

The special package includes the opportunity to spend a morning preparing the engine, oiling it up, shovelling coal into its furnace and then driving it around the rail tracks at the museum.

The Steam Train Driver package costs £250 for the day. Half hour packages are available for £50 and involve driving the engine but no preparation. Call Pamela Porter, events officer at the museum to book on 01388 771 445.

Beamish Museum, the Living Museum of the North, is again holding its Great North Steam Fair from April 14-17.

Visiting Locomotives will be in steam at the Beamish Railway Station and Colliery, and there will be a range of vintage vehicles, steam rollers, traction engines and stationary engines for visitors to look at.

There is no extra charge for this event and admission is included in the regular museum entry price.

Nearby Beamish Museum at the volunteer run Tanfield Railway, they are celebrating 40-years of volunteers helping run heritage rail services on the world’s existing railway, which dates back to 1725.

Less than half an hour from Newcastle and within easy reach of Tyneside, Wearside and County Durham, steam trains run every Sunday and Bank Holiday on a picturesque six mile round trip from Sunniside in Gateshead to East Tanfield near Stanley.

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