Turn 13 - Third Man on the 4MT

Turn 13 was another new experience - a turn mostly conducted at night. This year for the first time the railway is running its Norfolk Lights Express, a train of lights which runs up to Holt & back, non-stop through a Norfolk countryside enhanced with Christmas lights and illuminated woodland scenes.

The service was to start on the 20th November and run until Christmas - it has been so popular, that the railway has timetabled an extra week in January.

The train includes the buffet car, three second class open coaches, a brake coach and the CCT. The CCT is a van originally designed to carry cars (it has opening doors at each end with a drop down ramp) which today holds two 30 kVA generators for the lights on the train. The train has been decorated with miles of coloured light ropes attached to nets draped over the vehicles, and with coloured lights slung under the chassis to illuminate the landscape.

The designated loco is the BR Standard 4MT, which is also bedecked with light ropes, powered from the train.

Since the service starts at 16:30, we are signing on at 11:00 - not much point having a train of lights in daylight. Cleaner Paul already has the fire well going when I arrive, so there is no hurry. He has been on shed since 10 and it's raining which means there will be little cleaning today.

In the shed, Wissington's wheels have arrived complete with new tyres and a new axle:

The B12 is in for some winter maintenance:

And the 7F's pony truck is back on!

I busy myself with the cab roof and the buffer beams, and fetch the lamps - these are Fireman's jobs, and as I'm Third Man today I will do them. I check that our flags are on board and that we have spare gauge glasses and seals. As it happens, one of the gauge glasses is weeping - it's a simple job to tighten the seals with your hands only.

Paul has topped the tender tank up, and I put the yard hose away. It's an easy morning so far.

We ash out, and all of a sudden it gets less easy. Whilst the 4MT has a hopper ash pan, which allows you to drop the ash straight in the pit without raking it out, it has spark screens which are very awkward to fit and an arch in the ashpan over the rear axle. What this means is that you are poking the pit hose awkwardly into the pan to try and clean it out, and then you have to dash under the dripping pan to the rear of the loco to struggle with the screen at the back. This is the third time I have done this and it doesn't get any easier. At least Paul clears out the pit while I attempt to dry myself.

We went off shed at 14:50 or thereabouts, Paul handled the ground frame as there was no-one in the signal box. We would be operating Single Train on Line that day, and once Paul had helped us onto the running line we would carry the Long Section staff down to the signalman at Sheringham.

We had 90 minutes to wait, warming the train and learning about the electrical connections for the lights - and the two way radio we were to use to talk to the RO during the trip, to slow us down or speed us up. We decided that I would handle the radio and call out the signals - we weren't at all sure what demands the slow trip would have on the fire - whilst Driver Fozz had done two NLE trains, Fireman Phil and I had not done any so it was a bit of a new experience for us.

While we were at Sheringham, Phil taught me that the optimal way to fire was to keep the fire thin and make sure that your were aware of it's condition at all times. That way you can react and create heat when you need it but you will always have the option of allowing it to cool to prevent blowing off. However, he also said that when you don't have the energy in the fire a boilerful of steam will deplete very quickly when there is a demand. We sat at Sheringham warming the train and eating our lunch for a while. Just before 4 o'clock, with 35 minutes to go, we started to build the fire whilst trying to avoid creating too much smoke.

The run up to Holt was uneventful, with the trains lights coming on as programmed by the Mac living in the BSK. The night time aspect of the trip didn't present the problems I had imagined - a green light is just as visible as a green flag, but you have to remember to acknowledge the guard's signal with a white light held steady.

Returning to Sheringham the wind had picked up to a 25 mph Northerly which was whipping through the cab - I felt my cap lift and before I realised what was going on it was gone, off onto the golf course, the road, or the allotments somewhere. I made a note of where we were in case I could find it on a dog walk or something.

When we reached the station we had about 40 minutes to run around and take on water before the next train. Today I was the man on the tender, grappling with a torch (in my teeth) and the giant water hose from the crane at the end of platform 2. The hose is a bit tired and leaky and coupled with my inexperience I finished the job with leather gloves wet through and one leg soaked. Back on the footplate on the way up to Holt, nothing stayed wet very long.

We left the last train back at Sheringham just before 8, and ran around stopping once again to refill the tender. It's much, much faster to fill the tender from the water crane than using the yard hose, so tomorrow's crew would have less to do. While Fireman Phil was building the fire for the run, a mystery object appeared in the shovel - my cap! It must have blown into the tender, for it had come down on the coal.

Next job was to run up the line again, light engine this time, stopping to switch off all the generators. Without the lights from the train the run up was pitch dark and we were able to go at normal line speed of 25 mph. We took a couple of pictures on the way back:

Then it was back down to Weybourne; we stopped at platform 2 to let me off to operate the ground frame to let the engine into the yard. I used a white light signal, waving the light from side to side, to signal the driver to come forward into the yard. I walked over to the pit which would be their next stop, to switch on the yard and pit lights so we could see what we were doing.

While Driver Fozz made his inspection, I got the pit hose ready to wash out the ash pan. We pulled off the front spark screen and washed the pan out; Fireman Phil cleaned the fire with the fire irons and then we dropped the ash into the pit.

And that was it, my first night turn. All that was left was to empty the pit, get changed and go home.

Turn 12 - Third Man on the B12

A bit of an unusual turn this one - a Saturday and a private lunch train. I don't do Saturdays as a rule and a lunch train is a bit unusual - especially this one, where the passengers were to board the train at Holt and take one round trip to Sheringham and back to Holt; nothing odd in that but the dining set was at Sheringham, so we would make a couple of trips with empty stock. I'd been in touch with Fitter Mark during the week as there was some doubt about the sign-on time (it wasn't shown on the diagram) and late on Friday Mark told me we would have the B12.

Driver Nigel had been in all Friday getting it ready and there had been a warming fire in it all day, which was still hot when I checked it at 06:45 Saturday morning. I cleaned it with the bent dart and lit up:

Lighting up went OK, but the loco was pretty dirty. I spent the next couple of hours cleaning the paintwork:

The tender had been coaled and watered on Friday, which was handy as there was only me to clean. Fortunately, Fireman Ralph was there to look after the fire; we ashed out quite early, and took the engine back to the shed road to finish cleaning.

Driver Nigel is an ex-BR fireman, fountain of all knowledge and a thoroughly nice chap. Here he is getting ready to ash out, having reminded me that on this loco you do the back first, followed by the front if you don't want to get soaked:

Our first trip was light engine back to Sheringham to pick up our set. Nigel asked me what the two methods of working the railway are (meaning signalling). I was pleased to get this right; I've done several turns using both methods. They are:

• electric token block
• one train on line

Having checked the traffic roster, as has become my habit I was able to tell him that all boxes were open and so today we would be using Electric Token Block for the whole day; he was happy with that and asked if I had operated the Weybourne ground frame, which I have. In the event, the Weybourne signalman signed on on-time, which allowed us out of the yard under his control.

Time to get changed. On the way to the changing room, I passed the wheel lathe which had this coach wheelset set up on it. It looks like the near wheel is almost ready for another turn:

On the way to Sheringham, I assumed my usual role, calling out signals and hazards until Nigel told me that he preferred that unless it was an emergency, I was to leave calling out to the fireman - to save him being bombarded by folk calling out the same thing. Drivers are people and have different preferences! Later in the day, when I was firing, I realized this is quite a good approach and prepares you for when you are firing on your own, with out the assistance of a third man.

The train in the background is the Norfolk Lights Express, being fitted with its lights

Having arrived at Sheringham, we coupled up. We were here 90 minutes before we were due out, mainly to get the heating on in the dining train which had sat idle for days and was apparently damp and cold.

I learned that the headboards are kept in the dining set. For this trip we are carrying white discs on the bottom middle & right lamp irons (as you look from the drivers seat) which denote the head code for a Class 5 Empty Coaching Stock train.

Fireman Ralph looked after the fire for most of the day, with us sharing the watering, coupling & run around duties. Watching Ralph's technique, I noticed that he crouched very low to look at the place where he wanted the coal - I took over for the empty trip down from Holt to Sheringham and the light engine trip back to Weybourne, and found that using the same technique I could get the coal much further towards the front of the box.

On the way down, I took over the fireman's duties entirely, keeping the fire ticking over and adding water to the boiler as much as I could - the objective was to make sure that we could arrive at Weybourne with the boiler full and the fire very low. In the event, we needed more fire to get back from Sheringham so build it up a bit more in the station but I was pleased to arrive on shed with the boiler full.

Despite several Third Man turns, this was the first time I had disposed the locomotive; on arrival the signal box was still open so we were able to get into the yard without using the ground frame - the Signalman kindly stayed on for an extra 30 minutes to let us in. We stabled the loco over the ash pit and Driver Nigel & I went underneath - him with the rake and me with the hose and whilst Fireman Ralph cleaned the fire, I soaked the ash and Nigel raked it out.

Nigel moved it to a road outside the shed - there was still about 160 psig on the clock and the boiler was full. I cleared out the pit.

Until next year, that's the last of the rostered services for the B12. My next four turns are on the new Norfolk Lights Express, which will give me four days on the Standard 4MT, two round trips plus prep and disposal each day - most of which will be in the dark!