Threlkeld Quarry and Mining Museum

We were in the Lakes again on a ‘mooch’ and had part intended to go to the Rheged centre to see some dinosaurs.  It had been raining hard and the car park in the Rheged was a pot hole ridden clay mess thing and every space appeared to be occupied.  As I drove slowly-ish through the car park my eyes were searching for a vacant parking spot and failed to notice a deep pot hole lurking right beside a family changing their sodden clothes into dry ones.  As the car dropped into the hole the entire water that had collected in it leapt out onto the Mother and 2 children who in turn let out little screams.  In my rear view mirror I could see a very angry, wet and muddy woman shaking her fists and then decided the place was far too busy to be bothering with.  Once we left the car park we kind of stumbled across Threlkeld Mining Museum, and what a blessing it was.

On the ascent to the quarry I spotted a crane graveyard full of all sorts of cranes, some familiar from my Vibro days and some from early Thomas the Tank Engine. Rushton Bucyrus & Smiths were the ones I’m familiar with but there were steam shovels and all sorts of old equipment. I could feel my accent northening up just like Fred Dibner.

Then when we got to the quarry we were presented with a narrow gauge steam engine, a 0-4-0 ST just like Sir Handel, again from Thomas, Awesome! We took a ride up to the quarry on the back of the train with an enthusiastic couple of lads, the driver and the guard.

Afterwards we pottered about and clambered over all the dead cranes, including a 110 RB, an absolute massive beast. I hired one to do the dynamic compaction at Bluewater Park back in the 90’s.

Any road, what a good old find.








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