It's 06:00 on a cool Saturday morning. There's a special timetable today - it's basically a red timetable day but the Railway are using the B12 and the Vintage Set alongside the Standard 4 and one of the Mk1 sets. There's two full crews already on shed when I arrive, including three other cleaners - we are all here for the MICs as well. Work is well under way, and I join Phillip who's cleaning the B12. The B12s were initially built in the Great Eastern Railway Stratford works between 1911 and 1920 as GER class S69 locomotives; this one was one of a batch of 10 built in 1928 by Beyer Peacock and is the only one of it's class left. She is owned by the M&GNJRS.
The inspection is done and the smokebox has already been cleaned, but there are a number of leaking stays on both sides of the firebox, approximately at grate level. When this happens, you call the Duty Fitter who's responsible for deciding on whether the engine goes into traffic or not.
While we wait for Fitter Alan to have a look at the stays, I set about cleaning the copper brake pump pipes before the fire is lit and everything gets too hot, and Fireman Alan, assigned to the Standard 4, brings everyone a round of tea.
Fitter Alan pronounces the B12 fit for service, and then finds a very worn brake block on the drivers side centre wheel which he replaces in a matter of minutes. For me, it's on to wheel cleaning, which I have never done before. I start on the fireman's side of the loco while the brake block is replaced on the driver's side.
The B12 has 6' 6" spoked driving wheels painted in LNER's lovely Apple Green livery, with 3' 3" wheels in the pony truck; the motion is inside on this loco, which leaves the wheels relatively clean but they do pick up all sorts of muck as you can see from the picture.
You deal with this initially with a pile of rags, a bucket of paraffin and some elbow grease. The picture above shows one of the rear wheels at it's highest point inside a mudguard - obviously parts of the wheel are rather difficult to get to and it's useful if the engine moves occasionally while you clean the wheels.
Here's the B12 moving back over the ash pit:
As it's moved, there's more of the wheel you can get to and you can follow up with the 25% bearing oil/paraffin mix, which gives the wheels a good shine - but does attract the dirt.
A couple of hours later, the wheels are done and I am tired and wet; the B12 moved back again for coaling and I was able to do the last bits of wheel, and rub down the coupling rods as well. That's the Westinghouse brake pump above the rear driving wheel, and yes it does leak hot water and it has just started to rain...
In this picture, you can see the 'Not to be Moved' board hanging outside the driver's window. This is part of the Lock out/Tag out system which ensures everyone can work on the loco safely.
You might also notice that the Standard 4 has moved over the pit. My next job, since I was already wet, was to go underneath with Fireman Alan and remove the ashpan screens. Ashpan screens are fitted to all the locos on the NNR to prevent large hot cinders bouncing out and setting light to the dry lineside foliage we have here in the summer. They are a bit tricky to get in and out in the confined space under the firebox which is fairly warm, gritty and very wet: wet, because you must hose down the ash before raking it out or dropping the hopper doors, or you will have clouds of fine hot dust all over you, all over the brake rigging and all over the motion. Oh, and the damper doors will probably not shut so you won't be able to control the primary air...
All quiet in the yard now - the Standard 4 has gone off to get the cleaners breakfast (and to pick up some carriages and passengers) but before it goes, Senior Cleaner Phillip shows me how to operate the Weybourne Ground frame. The ground frame is a set of levers, switches, lights and relays and it lives in this hut:
The ground frame is there to operate the points and signals which let locos in the yard out onto the yard headshunt and then onto the main line.
When the signalman is ready, he passes a token, housed in a leather bag and with a long looped metal handle to the loco crew which signifies that they can safely work the section of track that the token relates to. As a train enters a section, the token is collected and the previous section's token dropped off :
Here, the Third Man is dropping off one token, which will be collected by the signalman on the platform on an outstretched arm; the Third Man on the loco will collect the next section token from the signalman simultaneously; there is only one token per section and the signals cannot be cleared without the token - they are electrically interlocked.
So, when operating the yard ground frame to let a loco onto the section, the ground frame cannot be operated without the token, preventing there being two trains on a section of track at the same time. We sign for the token when we collect it from the signal box, use it to operate the ground frame and let the Standard 4 onto the main line, and when we are done we pass the token to the loco crew.
There is a lot to learn on the railway quite apart from locomotive engineering. As well as the NNR training material and Mutual Improvement Classes, I am using these books:
Today, we had two classes from senior NNR staff - two Passed Firemen and a Driver, on locomotive preparation and disposal and on the Operating Manual or Rule Book. In the class were five cleaners and a signalman. We started out with engine checks and got some good tips from the more experienced guys, progressing though different methods of laying the fire, cab cleaning, ashpan cleaning, washout & blowdown and coaling. We then moved to activities at the other end of the day talking about what levels of fire, steam and water to arrive on shed with, cleaning the fire and ashing out.
In the lunch break, I went on a bit of a photo tour of the workshop, taking a few pictures:
Here's the 9F 92203, which is in the workshop to have new material let into the backhead to repair some cracks. This next shot shows one of the plates tacked in during the shaping & fitting process:
Here's an early morning shot of the Standard 4 inside the running shed:
Two views of the lovely Y14.
There are always stacks of springs, brake blocks and firebars around the yard. These are consumable items on the railway. That's the wood store in the background.
This is the Carriage & Wagon shop at Weybourne:
The crimson coach is the Great Eastern Railway 1899 4 Wheel Brake Third, which is nearing completion and will become part of the vintage set.
There are always BR Mk 1 coaches in the shop - these are in widespread use around the heritage railway world and form the backbone of the vehicles used for service trains. They are manufactured from timber & steel, and are just as prone to rusting as family cars were in the 50's, 60's and 70's. This I think is a 1957 Tourist Second Open coach from the Eastern Region.
As you can imagine, a lot of sheet metal cutting & welding goes on here.
Prior to the Rules MIC, I took a couple of pictures from the mess room steps. I'm not sure what the boiler on the left is from, other than the fact that it is a wide firebox, fitting outside the loco frames; it's tapered and huge so it is perhaps from a BR Standard. (Update Oct 2019 - it's actually from a Bulleid Pacific)
The smaller boiler on the right? really not sure...
This one is easier - this is the Gresley designed GNR N2, built in 1921. The engine was withdrawn from service at the end of 2018 to be stripped down at the Weybourne Workshops in preparation for the locomotive's 10 year overhaul which we hope to complete by the spring of 2020. It has been fitted with the necessary safety equipment to permit it to operate on the main line and once complete will work the dining trains between Sheringham and Cromer.
You can see the frames and wheels on the right, and the tanks are actually behind the silver car in the middle of the picture.
Going back to the classroom, I took this shot of the Carriage & Wagon shop to give some idea of the scale of the shop. The Mk 1 in the foregound is in the staged area - you walk around at platform level just here. It's not the same coach as the previous one I showed you - it's a 1959 Tourist Second Open from the Midland Region.
After lunch, we had a couple of hours talking about rules and regulations around the railway, starting with basic personal track safety. Since I have recently finished my Basic Rules Test, this was easy; but the quiz on locomotive headcodes was anything but. Headcodes are the patterns of lamps shown at the front of a train, which indicate the service that train is performing. this quiz was followed by another on hand signals and yet another on lamp signals.
My brain was numb at this point and I had not said anything for an hour and I was starting to realise I had a lot to learn.
Time for beer.
That's better. Next, my third and final shadowed cleaning turn is next week, probably on the 7F again. I'm quietly going to try and increase the time I spent at the railway in the coming weeks - it would be great if I can get through my ten shed cleaner turns before Christmas, and start next year rostering as Third Man.
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