Well, I thought Friday was going to be a fairly easy yellow-timetable (one steam loco) cleaning turn, but that statement only goes to reveal my general naivety in this, my first year as an NNR volunteer.
Naive, because I had failed to realise the 1940's Weekend was just around the corner with four of the home fleet locos rostered with only two cleaners.
The day dawned bright and early, and arriving at 5:45 I spent some time realising that I had forgotten where the yard light switches were.
Rostered loco today was the LNER B12, which I seem to be getting familiar with and I cracked into the smokebox clean and inspection after I'd put my NTBM board on and done the safety checks. She had been in service the previous day and had 20 psi on the clock - she was quite warm. Simon was Third Man for the day, but arrived with no boiler suit so I did my first turn in the firebox.
B12 has no drop grate - it is an older design with firebars that have to be removed by hand, and the firebox is very long - this means that if you are to clean the grate with fire irons you are in for a long job, and the easiest way to prepare the grate is to put on a mask, take your torch and get in.
Climbing through a narrow gap into a hot firebox is an odd sensation, but you have a man on the outside to make sure you are safe and not left alone. Here he is, you can see his legs:
Inside, is a warm dusty place where you get filthy. You can see the firebars I have removed and I am brushing the ash down the gap and into the ashpan:
After that lovely experience (not too bad at all - it holds no fear for me now) I lit up the B12 for the second time.
Next, cleaning that lovely Apple Green paint. This time I dived straight in with the ladder, lashing it to the handrail stanchions to stop any chance of it sliding. I use two turns round the stanchion, followed by a turn & two half hitches around the rung.
Using the citrus cleaner, I soak the oily soot coating the top of the boiler wrapper, section by section, above the handrails on each side. I rub it off with a rag and polish up with a second rag; then I apply the wax polish with a third rag and buff up with a fourth, before moving on to the next section.
A couple or three hours later and she is done:
When the driver has oiled up, the last job is to clean and polish the splashers and the lower half of the boiler wrapper. This is quite easy, since you can do it from the running boards and it doesn't get covered in soot.
You can drink your tea off it:
With the B12 finished and going off-shed for it's day in service, I seek out Fitter Bob to find my next job. It's 1940's weekend, and there are three other loco's to prep - Cleaner Jack is working on the 4MT, Fireman Phil on the WD, which leaves me to prepare 9F 92203 Black Prince. None of them have had their grates cleaned...
She's quite a beast. Built in 1958, she represents the peak of BR loco development. Look at all those steps!
Actually, despite the steps, it's not so easy to climb up to the smokebox - those deflectors get in the way, made worse with my NTBM board on the lamp iron.
A glimpse of the future - I park my bag in the driver's seat and perform the basic safety checks.
Don't want it rolling away anywhere...
This loco wasn't in service the day before, but had a steam test apparently. There is not much in the smokebox:
Here you can see the top of the spark arrester and the double chimney:
These 9Fs have a big smokebox as you might expect. You have to get in it to clean it:
Smokebox finished and closed up, you move back to the firebox. These Standard 9Fs have a wide firebox over the frames, so the ash cannot fall into the pan as is possible with a 'between the frames' firebox. They have four of these little doors, two each side, for you to push the ash into the pan and wash it out:
They have a hopper ashpan operated by this lever:
Here's the old fire and the brick arch. You can see how wide it is, but it is not very deep which makes it easier to fire:
These locos have two rocking grates which you can move to riddle the fire, maybe 10 degrees in either direction, or move further to drop the fire. I don't have to get in the hole this time, which is just as well because there are not too many people spare just now:
That lever to the right of the firehole is used to drop the ashpan or operate the grate. This picture shows the lever in position for the left hand grate, in the normal running position:
This next one shows the first lock flipped back (by your dainty boot) to allow you to rock the grate:
This one shows the second lock released - the lever can be used to drop the fire. Not something you want to do by accident:
In this shot, the grate is in the normal position on the right and in the dropped position on the left. You still have to rake around the edges and down the middle to clean the grate:
Here are those little flaps again - you can see the ash:
This is what give the BR Standard it's characteristic look - boiler and running boards very high above the frames.
Having finished the 9F, I repeated the task on the 4MT. Then it was time for breakfast:
Next job, help out Fireman Phil on the WD. Phil was rostered for the weekend, but spent Friday cleaning the WD - a big job for one man! The smokebox was clean, but I was able to help out a bit with his firebox.
The WD has a similar grate arrangement to the 9F - hardly surprising, as they were both designed by Robert Riddles. The centre lever drops the ashpan - you don't want to touch that when you are in the yard.
Similar grate arrangement to the 9F:
And that is about it. My last job for that day was to trim the coal on the 9F's tender. When the JCB drops coal in the tender, it's hard to get it in the middle on these big locos, so it ends up on the edge. The danger then is that it will fall on some unsuspecting person and cause some damage - these lumps of coal are half the size of your head.
All you need to do is scramble up there and rake it into the middle. No sweat there then.
Last picture: the 4MT and the WD go off to the pit to drop their ashpans.
Next, they will have warming fires lit in preparation for service on Saturday - but that is a job for someone else.
Recent railway posts from this blog:
Cleaning Turn 6 - B12 and the Autumn Steam Gala
Cleaning Turn 5 - B12 and basic training
Cleaning Turn 4 - Y14 again and worsted trimmings
Naive, because I had failed to realise the 1940's Weekend was just around the corner with four of the home fleet locos rostered with only two cleaners.
The day dawned bright and early, and arriving at 5:45 I spent some time realising that I had forgotten where the yard light switches were.
Rostered loco today was the LNER B12, which I seem to be getting familiar with and I cracked into the smokebox clean and inspection after I'd put my NTBM board on and done the safety checks. She had been in service the previous day and had 20 psi on the clock - she was quite warm. Simon was Third Man for the day, but arrived with no boiler suit so I did my first turn in the firebox.
B12 has no drop grate - it is an older design with firebars that have to be removed by hand, and the firebox is very long - this means that if you are to clean the grate with fire irons you are in for a long job, and the easiest way to prepare the grate is to put on a mask, take your torch and get in.
Climbing through a narrow gap into a hot firebox is an odd sensation, but you have a man on the outside to make sure you are safe and not left alone. Here he is, you can see his legs:
Inside, is a warm dusty place where you get filthy. You can see the firebars I have removed and I am brushing the ash down the gap and into the ashpan:
After that lovely experience (not too bad at all - it holds no fear for me now) I lit up the B12 for the second time.
Next, cleaning that lovely Apple Green paint. This time I dived straight in with the ladder, lashing it to the handrail stanchions to stop any chance of it sliding. I use two turns round the stanchion, followed by a turn & two half hitches around the rung.
Using the citrus cleaner, I soak the oily soot coating the top of the boiler wrapper, section by section, above the handrails on each side. I rub it off with a rag and polish up with a second rag; then I apply the wax polish with a third rag and buff up with a fourth, before moving on to the next section.
A couple or three hours later and she is done:
When the driver has oiled up, the last job is to clean and polish the splashers and the lower half of the boiler wrapper. This is quite easy, since you can do it from the running boards and it doesn't get covered in soot.
You can drink your tea off it:
With the B12 finished and going off-shed for it's day in service, I seek out Fitter Bob to find my next job. It's 1940's weekend, and there are three other loco's to prep - Cleaner Jack is working on the 4MT, Fireman Phil on the WD, which leaves me to prepare 9F 92203 Black Prince. None of them have had their grates cleaned...
She's quite a beast. Built in 1958, she represents the peak of BR loco development. Look at all those steps!
Actually, despite the steps, it's not so easy to climb up to the smokebox - those deflectors get in the way, made worse with my NTBM board on the lamp iron.
A glimpse of the future - I park my bag in the driver's seat and perform the basic safety checks.
Don't want it rolling away anywhere...
This loco wasn't in service the day before, but had a steam test apparently. There is not much in the smokebox:
Here you can see the top of the spark arrester and the double chimney:
These 9Fs have a big smokebox as you might expect. You have to get in it to clean it:
Smokebox finished and closed up, you move back to the firebox. These Standard 9Fs have a wide firebox over the frames, so the ash cannot fall into the pan as is possible with a 'between the frames' firebox. They have four of these little doors, two each side, for you to push the ash into the pan and wash it out:
They have a hopper ashpan operated by this lever:
Here's the old fire and the brick arch. You can see how wide it is, but it is not very deep which makes it easier to fire:
These locos have two rocking grates which you can move to riddle the fire, maybe 10 degrees in either direction, or move further to drop the fire. I don't have to get in the hole this time, which is just as well because there are not too many people spare just now:
That lever to the right of the firehole is used to drop the ashpan or operate the grate. This picture shows the lever in position for the left hand grate, in the normal running position:
This next one shows the first lock flipped back (by your dainty boot) to allow you to rock the grate:
This one shows the second lock released - the lever can be used to drop the fire. Not something you want to do by accident:
In this shot, the grate is in the normal position on the right and in the dropped position on the left. You still have to rake around the edges and down the middle to clean the grate:
Here are those little flaps again - you can see the ash:
This is what give the BR Standard it's characteristic look - boiler and running boards very high above the frames.
Having finished the 9F, I repeated the task on the 4MT. Then it was time for breakfast:
The WD has a similar grate arrangement to the 9F - hardly surprising, as they were both designed by Robert Riddles. The centre lever drops the ashpan - you don't want to touch that when you are in the yard.
Similar grate arrangement to the 9F:
And that is about it. My last job for that day was to trim the coal on the 9F's tender. When the JCB drops coal in the tender, it's hard to get it in the middle on these big locos, so it ends up on the edge. The danger then is that it will fall on some unsuspecting person and cause some damage - these lumps of coal are half the size of your head.
All you need to do is scramble up there and rake it into the middle. No sweat there then.
Last picture: the 4MT and the WD go off to the pit to drop their ashpans.
Next, they will have warming fires lit in preparation for service on Saturday - but that is a job for someone else.
More in a couple of weeks.
Cleaning Turn 6 - B12 and the Autumn Steam Gala
Cleaning Turn 5 - B12 and basic training
Cleaning Turn 4 - Y14 again and worsted trimmings
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