North East Land, Sea And Aircraft Museum Diary

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10 years 5 months

Posts: 11

In April 2013, the North East Aircraft Museum merged with the Military Vehicle Museum to form the North East Land, Sea and Air Museum - Nelsam for short.

Since the merger, there has been dozens of improvements to the museum and we now encompass all forms of transport. We were joined by the North East Electric Traction Trust during 2013 and they moved their collection of Trams to the museum.

This thread is to allow us to inform you of all the changes and our plans for the future and I hope to begin posting lots of good stuff here soon :)

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Member for

10 years 5 months

Posts: 11

Just to get started, here's our Vulcan XL319 in her new colours.

A small dedicated team led by Ian Rutter has been carrying out a major refurbishment with a paint job that is planned to last for several years and help slow the inevitable corrosion that afflicts all aircraft kept outside. We hope to get her under cover one day but that is going to cost a lot of money.

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Member for

24 years 2 months

Posts: 3,000

Wow, the Vulcan looks great! Thanks for keeping us up to date.

Assuming you will be holding the usual remembrance service in November, I hope be along in the new Jeep in a couple of weeks to see the progress.

I've requested the old NEAM thread be locked now so that all future museum updates can be discussed here.

Member for

19 years

Posts: 2,895

......I've requested the old NEAM thread be locked now so that all future museum updates can be discussed here.

Can the content from the old NEAM thread be transferred into this one??

Roger Smith.

Member for

24 years 2 months

Posts: 10,168

The purpose and request for closure of the old thread is due to the Merger of the museum and new name. Merging the old thread with this one would defeat the purpose. The old thread will still remain viewable.

As with past years, NELSAM held a small Remembrance Service next to the memorial at what was RAF Usworth. I've tried to support this every year, usually taking one of my military vehicles along and spending a little in the museum shop. This year is was a clear, sunny day, which was surprisingly warm for November. There were a good couple of dozen people there, and a group of Brownies who were also visiting.

The Vulcan repaint is on hold over the winter of course, but what has been done looks fantastic in the bright sun light. Members are being Health and Safety trained on working with elevated platforms, so the tail will be in reach of the paint brushes when the winter weather passes.

The last time I looked inside the Trident, the cockpit and interior was looking great, having had a complete strip out and refurbish. Since my last visit, painting has begun on the outside of the fuselage, with the top and bottom painted, and it appears just the nose, cheat line and markings yet to apply.

Externally, the tram shed extension is complete, and all but one narrow gauge tram now safe inside. There's still a third narrow gauge track to be laid inside, and then a final surface flooring added around the rails.

The EE Lightning is also looking great out in the sun.

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The Vulcan looks very tidy! Is this the same aircraft that was cowped by the weight of snow a few years back?

My Ford GPW was out for its third event this year since rebuild. Behind is a Trolley Bus belonging to the N.E. Electrical Traction trust. Behind that is the Pucara, briefly outdoors due to an event in the hangar over the weekend.

A view down the side of the Military Vehcile Collection building.

The Pucara, with some close up shots of several bullet/shrapnel holes, and also the rapidly applied camo, painted for its use in the Falklands conflict.

The Vulcan looks very tidy!

Yes, XL319 was the aircraft tipped by the snow.

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16 years 5 months

Posts: 5,999

Good to see the exterior progress on the Trident and Vulcan. Any chance of some interior pics?

Rob

I'll have to have a dig through my older pics. I know I had some Vulcan and Trident interior pics somewhere!

I can't find any of my Vulcan interior shots, but here's the Trident from the middle of 2013, the most recent picture I could find in my backups.

I found the Vulcan cockpit shots, though these date back to January 2010, the day the aircraft was lowered back onto its wheels after the snow incident.

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24 years 2 months

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Vulcan is looking so much better now guy's well done!

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12 years 6 months

Posts: 19

Apologies for my ignorance. Is this museum what was Sunderland aviation museum and if so is it all located in the same place or has it moved. Many thanks.

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14 years 3 months

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Lightning does look great-but perhaps the Vulcan or Trident guys could spare 5 minutes from their (amazing!) work and paint some fin flashes?! :D

raflec-Yes, it's the same museum, but they've just expanded their remit to include a bigger variety of transport machines :)

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16 years 5 months

Posts: 5,999

Thanks for the pics, Stephen. Never ceases to amaze me just what the Trident guys have and are achieving!

Rob

raflec; as TT said above, the museum has developed. What was the North East Aircraft Museum, has joined with the Newcastle Military Museum and the North East Electrical Traction Trust, all on the original NEAM site. They originally had three hangars; a large factory unit, a WW2 Naval Hangar ( I think ) and a Romney Hut. A new longer Romney was built for the Military vehicle collection in 2011, and an extension to the factory unit for the trams was externally completed this year.

What was the entrance and shop in the main hangar, is now the 607 Squadron Exhibition and a re-created 1940's street. Two new portacabins form the new entrance, shop and tea/coffee room, and much of the area between all the hangars has been covered in tarmac to give better disabled access and dryer, cleaner walking areas for the public.

Part of the 607 Sqdn Display

They have a lot of stuff stored off site but even so, there's a great deal of equipment and artifacts in and around the aircraft, and they could really do with another building for storage and display.

I must try and visit more often to bring more regular updates.

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18 years 4 months

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Very interesting, perhaps you should pen an article for one of the magazines?