Steam Department Induction Day

New boy

Friday morning, and it's up at 5 to get ready for my Steam Department Induction Day at the NNR, where I am to have a couple of hours with the crew for the single steam engine rostered that day and spend the rest of the shift working through the department induction process.

Clad in a new pair of overalls (not bright red & not Hi-Viz!) I donned my flat cap and safety boots and set off for Weybourne for a 6 o'clock start. Of course, Weybourne is a 15 minute drive from here and there was no-one there at 5:30, so I was in 'mooching around' mode for a while. Phil, the rostered fireman for the day arrived to let us in and we were off. Paul, rostered 3rd Man, followed soon after and we were merrily chatting away as the Duty Fitter, another Paul, arrived.

We signed in and read the daily notices, including the driver's report from the previous day. Our loco was to be 76084, the BR Standard 4 'Mogul' which is resident at the NNR and which had been running the Yellow timetable for the past couple of days.

76084 arriving at Sheringham

First job was to put a Not to be Moved notice on a lamp iron, to ensure that nobody would move the loco until we were all in a safe place. Next job was to light up, but before we could do that Phil showed me how to inspect the engine to ensure it was safe to start the process:

• handbrake on
• regulator closed
• blower closed
• ash pan dampers shut
• reverser in mid-gear
• cylinder drain cocks open
• check for steam pressure
• injector steam and water valves, steam heat valve etc. shut
• water visible in the glasses

We drained & filled the water gauges several times for me to get a feel of it, and to make sure they were working correctly. Phil inspected the grate with his torch, and we had a good look at the stay heads and fusible plugs for leaks, and the brick arch for cracks. Paul & I went off to the Cleaner's Store to sort out rags for cleaning & a bucket of paraffin & rags for lighting up.  The previous crew had left a stack of firewood on the footplate, and by the time we were back, Phil had shoveled on the first layer of coal and was covering that with wood. The paraffin soaked rags followed - then a single flaming rag on the end of a long bit of pallet wood set it all ablaze while I watched from the back of the footplate. Fire door closed, and it's time to start cleaning.

Paul was kind to the new boy, volunteering to empty the smokebox of yesterday's ash and when he came out I was glad he did - it was a bit of a breezy day and it went everywhere. We had a look around the smokebox tube plate, inspecting the tube ends, superheater and stays for leaks and closed the door to let the fire take hold. Paul took the other dirty job, cleaning the outside of the smokebox with oil and paraffin.

I was still quite clean, having started at the firebox end of the boiler, cleaning the paint and working my way forwards happily until Phil started the blower and bits of burnt coal began to appear all over the area I'd been cleaning. He invited me onto the footplate to try the blower - it was surprisingly sensitive, in that you could adjust it to allow a waft of smoke out of the firehole or to draw it back into the firebox with a fraction of a turn. It demonstrates that according to the natural draft you have to adjust the blower to avoid wasting steam but also to avoid any possibility of flames blowing back through the firehole.

Re-cleaning the boiler paintwork, I discovered that I'm a bit short to reach the top of the steam dome, so it was tippy-toes on the running boards, one hand on the rail and stretching to the top of the dome. The wind was getting up a bit, and for a while I stood high on the running boards, drenched in the thick smoke as the fire got under way. Just the perfume I like, and it gives your skin the tones only heritage railways can give you but it's probably not so good for the lungs.

Steam engines need water too, and ours was a bit short. I went back to the running shed to collect the yard hose and dragged it down to the tender. Climbing up, I found the tender has two domes as you can see in the picture, one of which is a dummy. What is all that about? Some of these BR2A tenders had water scoops fitted (this one doesn't), so maybe that has something to do with it. I put the hose in the hole, called for the water to be turned on and left it to fill for a while.

Next, armed with some Brasso, I polished the copper steam heat pipes and the injector steam feeds that adorn all BR Standards below the fireman's side of the cab, and very nice they looked too; I learned another lesson - polish the brass & copper before the engine gets too hot! By this time, the driver had arrived and we all transferred back to the footplate for the short trip to the ash pit - my first time on a moving loco footplate since childhood.

In the pit, I carried the oil pump to fill the front bogie axle boxes while the driver inspected all the axle bearings for water ingress. I had expected the pit to be quite deep, but there is so much equipment - mostly brake gear, but also the front bogie chassis, sanding pipes, bits of frame etc. that you need to watch your head at all times. We worked our way to the rear of the loco, stopping to look at the ash pan doors.

At this point, there was enough steam for the Fireman to test the injectors, which he did. It was also at that point that I learned that BR Standards have an ash pan sprinkler which operates from the No. 1 injector - if this is on, the ash pan is sprayed with water which all comes out downwards... I was not quite under the ash pan at the time, and nor was the driver so we didn't get too wet - but the Fireman was most apologetic and it was an easy lesson learned.

Next, coaling. Time to stand back and let the Duty Fitter do his thing with the JCB, as we don't want melon sized lumps of anthracite raining down on us - we are going to have to pick it up afterwards anyway. He came alongside the tender & I stood for a while, spraying the bucketload of coal to damp down the dust, and he dropped it in the tender. Time for more cleaning, tender sides this time.

And that was the end of my practical activity for the day; it was about 09:00 and the trainer had arrived for my induction.

Busy Yard at Weybourne

Training started in the mess room, with a talk about housekeeping and PPE, and a cup of tea - though I must remember to bring some milk on my next turn. We moved downstairs to the signing on point to learn about signing on, notices, timetables and rostering procedures; we moved on to first aid & burns kits, the phone system and muster points.

Next, and thankfully the day was sunny, we moved onto the station platform and looked at the signals - that's something to get my head around. Moving over the footbridge, the Sheringham train pulled in and with it, my Bacon & Egg roll - breakfast at last, delivered by Paul, the 3rd Man on 76084.

Groundframe & oil store

Breakfast demolished and we moved into the yard to look at the Ground Frame and talk about yard signalling on and off the main line. Then it was off to the other end of the yard to get a feel for manual point operation and to look at electric point overrides & reset, the coal & wood store, oil store, Cleaner's Store and the various floodlights & facilities in the yard. The NNR has handy notices set up in these places to show you what products to use in each engine.

Back in the shed, we climbed about on various locomotives to look at controls, hazards, handrails & steps, which bits get hot. We had a look in a few fireboxes - at some point I am going to find myself crawling through the firehole to clean ash & clinker (a job for the 'Bar Boy' back in the days of main line steam) and I was surprised to see the cavernous width of the 9F's firebox compared to the coffin like shape of the B12's 'between the frames' firebox. Still in the shed, we walked around the workshops looking at slips, trips and falls and looking in the boiler shop & carriage sheds. I had a chance to chat to the Duty Fitter about day to day maintenance - washouts, replacing springs, what help they needed. As I expected, the NNR can swallow up any spare time I have.

We made a last stop in the mess room for a talk about training schedules, rostering arrangements and the first three cleaning turns, which are shadowed by an experienced cleaner, followed by normal rostered turns. The training process is quite complicated, so I made a picture:

When you have done ten cleaning turns on-shed, you start your cleaner-Passed Cleaner Training Schedule; I have a copy, and there is a lot to absorb. By the time you start that you are rostered as a 3rd Man (a senior cleaner on the footplate) or as a shed based Cleaner, alternately - which is the beginning or your training to become a fireman. Of course, reading and absorbing everything you can find relating to steam locomotive engineering and railway operations starts now...

And that was about it! I tend to ask a lot of questions, so perhaps it was no surprise that I could not fit the planned footplate ride into the day - the oil industry beckoned, and I had to return to my desk to close out a little job for Total.

I've set up the initial, shadowed cleaning turns and a Cleaner's Basic Training course over the next three months; I'm going to do one turn per month for now, in the interests of domestic bliss; I shall increase that as far as I can - it may enhance domestic bliss sometimes!

Bring it on I say, I can't wait.