About the Film

This heritage engineering film is the second in a trilogy I made for Bowes Railway Museum in Gateshead in 2018, documenting the reconstruction of a traditional coal tub. Where the first film followed the blacksmith forging the metal components, this one moves into the engineering shed, where those parts are drilled, reamed, shaped and fitted with exacting care.

Bowes Railway Museum

Bowes Railway, based in Springwell, Gateshead, was originally designed by George Stephenson in 1826 to transport coal from Mount Moor to Jarrow Staithes using a rope-haulage system powered by stationary engines. Today it stands as the world’s oldest working standard gauge rope-hauled railway and a scheduled ancient monument, maintained by a team of dedicated volunteers.

Inside the Engineering Workshop

The engineering shed is filled with legacy equipment: lathes, shapers, grinders. Volunteers talk through their steps in calm, precise tones, adjusting spindle speeds, checking tool heights, preparing to cut metal that must align to fractions of a millimetre. You can almost feel the time held in the surfaces.

The film captures the moment the reamed bore receives the axle spindle, flush and perfect. Then the final parting-off cut is made on the lathe. Later, a grub screw is tapped through the boss to lock it to the shaft. It is industrial, but also intimate. This is what a heritage engineering film can do: make the technical feel personal.

Knowledge Held in Practice

What struck me most during filming was how much of this knowledge lives in the muscle memory of the volunteers. These are not scripted demonstrations or staged reconstructions. The process is real. Decisions are made on the spot, adjustments calculated by feel as much as by gauge. Watching someone dial in the speed on a lathe or eyeball the depth of a thread tap reminds you that heritage does not only live in archives. It lives in practice.

The machinery itself also tells a story. Scuffed surfaces, hand-labelled switches, the light from the old windows. They all carry the texture of lived experience. I tried to let the space speak for itself. In this kind of heritage engineering film work, atmosphere is often as important as action. You need to capture what it feels like to be there, not just what is happening.

Part of a Trilogy

This film sits between the blacksmith workshop and the joinery workshop, three films made at Bowes Railway showing how a single replica tub was built from metal and wood. From axle to wheel, from forge to timber, each film builds on the last. Together, they show not just how something was made, but how knowledge is passed down, preserved and kept active.

What I love about this kind of work is the attention it allows. There is no need for spectacle. You just watch: watch tools engage, hands steady the work, measurements confirmed and rechecked. It is the opposite of fast content. It rewards slowing down.