BEAMISH ‘TOG’ NIGHT REVISITED

From the front line of Beamish’s Great North Steam Fair Photographer’s Night

By Stephen Bell

“Once more unto the breach, dear friends, once more”. For some reason the words of Shakespeare’s Henry V were ringing in my ears as we set off to England’s most popular outdoor museum armed and ready to take on the world. Well actually I travelled quite light with 1 camera, 2 lenses, a tripod, and daughter in tow.

Arriving at Beamish we were ushered into the coffee area for a briefing session. It was there we met up with a bunch of guys from the club all primed and ready for action.

We could be transported to either the town on a tram or the colliery village on a bus. Most of us opted to go into the town as the feeling was there would be more action there. As it turned out some of us detoured to the station for our first port of call as an engine was in steam on the tracks and the light seemed good.

We eventually arrived at the town where the organisers were setting up shots for us. I was not sure if this would work but the idea was to have the participants on one side and the photographers on the other so that no photographers were in peoples shots. This to me seemed a bit regimented but there was still plenty of room to move around the willing characters.

A butcher named Paul proved very popular and obliging as did 2 other young lads Stephen and Cal who were regulars at the event. A chap on a bicycle and another in an old car were well documented also. My thanks go out to them all.

We then decided to have a look down in the colliery village where there were a few vehicles and a guy who had been running an engine up and down the tracks. Unfortunately he had put the engine away when we arrived but happily posed for some pictures.

With only a short time left we had a walk back to the exit passing Davy’s coal fired fish shop that was featured on BBC 2 the previous night. The lights were on and you could catch a tantalising whiff of chips fried in beef dripping but alas it was closed for the day.

Maybe next time ...

Stephen Bell