• Beamish, that wonderful open-air museum in County Durham dedicated
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to showing how life in the north of England was in the good old/bad old days (delete according to whether you lived through them or not), has entered the spirit of the new age and launched its own deregulated bus service.
Maintenance could, however, be a stumbling block, especially when you consider that the new Beamish service will be run on a 1913 open-top omnibus. Has North Eastern Licensing Authority Frederick Whalley been informed, I wonder? Let's hope that the tramway operator next door does not object to the siting of the new service's bus stops or it could be the start of a longrunning battle.
Actually, it is all a bit of a fake. The bus is a replica based on buses run by Gateshead Tramways just before the outbreak of the First World War. Museum worker Les Blackmore drew up plans from photographs and several remaining open-toppers at the London Transport Museum. It was built for Beamish by Osborne Motor Bodies of Saffron Walden on a Renault chassis. It can carry 30 passengers.
Howay, we'll all gun doon the pub, eh?