Slides 1 - 15 taken by John Colquhoun

Slides 16 - 29 taken by David Gambles who adds these comments:
The Aycliffe & District Bus Preservation Society were invited to run vehicles on the free transport services provided by the museum, which provide tram and bus links between the various attractions, situated within the 300 acres of private grounds. (See Beamish website HERE.)
Both the Bristol L and the Bristol K vehicles were used over the four days giving extra capacity to the "in house" system of trams and buses.
One interesting (but not very attractive) vehicle is a bus that has been constructed on a modern chassis to allow the carriage of wheelchair passengers. It is fitted with a wheelchair lift at the rear and has tip up slatted wooden seating along its length which gives space for carrying wheelchairs.
The horse drawn tram was also in use and was demonstrating how the body could be turned around on its chassis by using the horses to carry out this manoeuvre.
It was nice to be able to drive around the museum road system and play a part in moving the crowds that visited the event and it demonstrates how the museum is now starting to relax their "nothing beyond 1913" ruling. Visitors certainly seemed to enjoy their rides on our buses and many were hanging back from boarding a tram in order to take a ride on the Aycliffe vehicles.

*David Gambles provides this information about the bus which he is driving at the top of the page and which features in several photographs in the slide show: 1949 Bristol L5G with 35 seat ECW body ex United Automobile services LHN 860. United ran many of these buses and in 1960 converted some of them to one man operated vehicles. The rear entrance was moved towards the front, just behind the engine and the bulkhead, behind the driver, was opened up so he could turn around and issue tickets. The bus has been preserved in this form. It has a Gardner 5 cylinder engine with 5 speed crash gearbox.