An early start this one - a Mince Pie Special timetable with four trips starting at 10:30 means I have to sign on, with Fitter Paul, at 05:45. It's a while since I have done a daytime turn and I am looking forward to it.
Today we have the British Rail Standard 4MT, one of the most modern and easiest locos to work from our NNR fleet. I climb aboard, put my bag on the fireman's seat and start the basic checks. There's almost a full boiler, as indicated by the two gauge glasses; one of these is weeping from the bottom gland which is easy to fix especially when the engine is cold.
Next stop, the firebox. The stays, tubeplate and fuse plugs are all good but the brick arch looks like it hasn't much life in it. Not being an expert in these things, I may be wrong but in any event in a few days time the loco will be out of service and in the shed for winter maintenance.
After that, It's time to clean the smokebox. There's a lot of ash in here, since the day before she will have done six round trips - I take two barrow loads of ash to the pit.
Fitter Paul lights the fire.
Later on when the fire is well under way I notice that the smokebox door is hissing - I didn't clean the seal and a bit of ash is preventing it from closing properly. I must remember that for next time.
Lamps next. Today, we don't have to dispose the loco because there are two Norfolk Lights Express trains after our 4th trip, and we will be relieved on the way down at Weybourne. By then, it will be getting dark so today we will need two paraffin lamps. I've got these ready and they are full, but I must admit I forgot to trim the wicks:
I do the other fireman's checks - flags, spare gauge glasses and seals, fill the bucket but there is not too much to do on the footplate so I climb up on the running boards to have a look at the paint - by torchlight, as it is still dark.
These BR Standard locos have wide running plates which make it very easy to get around, and they are very high compared to older designs. It means that you can easily clean the top of the boiler without ladders. I have a bucket of paraffin with 25% bearing oil in it which brings the paint up beautifully and doesn't take very long:
When I have finished both sides, it is starting to get light and I can see what I am doing. Fireman Josh and Driver James are here now; my next job is to pull some coal forward to allow Josh to build the fire. Next, we can go on the ash pit to look at the wheel bearings.
One of the Driver's duties is to see to the bearing cups on the motion & wheel bearings, and the cylinder lubrication using high viscosity steam oil, which is like thick honey when cold. It's the fireman's job to make sure the oil bottles are full:
When he's done, we can clean the ash pan:
This is the view through the front damper. I'm about to wash the ash and someone above will open the doors; on this loco, it's quite difficult to get the rear spark screen off - with the damper open, you can wash down the ash from the front which is much easier to get to. Without getting too wet, I put the front spark screen back on and call for Josh to close the damper.
Next, it's my turn to get changed and when I return to the engine I find it in the headshunt with driver James operating the hand point to let us out of the shed road. Fireman Josh has used the ground frame to let us onto the main running line, and I walk down to reset the ground frame when the loco is out of the yard. Today, there is a hiccup - when the loco has moved out the section and I reset the point lever, the point does not give me the correct indication that it's in position. This means the ground frame cannot be reset, I cannot move the loco and no-one else can get out of the yard...
We elect to call the RO to tell him what is going on, and to go and hand-wind the point. It goes into the correct position and eventually gives us the right indication and we can be on our way. We speak to Roger from the S&T department to ask him to check it later in the day. We will stop at Weybourne for him to check it, since he will need the Long Section Staff which will stop us moving the train.
The trip down proves uneventful; I make a plan with Fireman Josh to fire two trips - starting with the second trip when the engine is warm. We stop for breakfast at Sheringham, and I spend half an hour trimming the coal which is very high on one side of the tender.
We make a round trip, settling in and enjoying each other's company - it's great to have a daytime turn for a change. I call the hazards & signals while Josh gets to grips with the fire.
When we are back at Sheringham, Josh hands over the shovel and it is my turn. We only have about twenty minutes to run around and take on water which James and Josh deal with while I build the fire up. I'm pleased that after my allotment shovel practice I can hit the front of the firebox quite easily, but 76084 has a very short flame scoop which makes it easier. I'm also lucky that I don't have to control the fire for long before we are off, and I feel confident enough to call the signals and pick up the staff on the way while Josh keeps an eye on things.
In the end, I fired three trips - staying on the shovel for the rest of the turn. I'm very grateful to Josh for letting me do that, since after three round trips you can really get a feel for what you need to do since you are watching the fire, the boiler, the driver and the road all the time. Once or twice I forgot to check the fire door position and had a lot of black smoke belching from the chimney - after firing, you close the door to 3" gap and check the colour of the smoke - you can then adjust the door to add more or less secondary air; you can leave door wide open to bring temperature down. I blew off on the second trip being a bit enthusiastic with the shovel getting ready for the 1 in 80 ascent up the bank; I was surprised at how the draught lifts the shovel; I learned to shovel a lot of coal at the beginning of an ascent and use draft to burn it. I found I could use the dampers to control temperature.
More than once, people have told me to fire slow and steady; James winced once or twice when my rhythm was getting a bit ragged and I smacked the shovel into the firehole ring but for much of the day, I felt like I was in control and had a great time.
In this picture, I'm hanging out of the fireman's window as we run around at Holt, relaxing. The fire is burning through (hardly any smoke, see?)
As the timetable today is for four Mince Pie specials followed by two Norfolk Lights Express trains, we handover to a relief crew on our last down trip at Weybourne. there's no disposal for us today and we can wash up and go home.
Today we have the British Rail Standard 4MT, one of the most modern and easiest locos to work from our NNR fleet. I climb aboard, put my bag on the fireman's seat and start the basic checks. There's almost a full boiler, as indicated by the two gauge glasses; one of these is weeping from the bottom gland which is easy to fix especially when the engine is cold.
Next stop, the firebox. The stays, tubeplate and fuse plugs are all good but the brick arch looks like it hasn't much life in it. Not being an expert in these things, I may be wrong but in any event in a few days time the loco will be out of service and in the shed for winter maintenance.
After that, It's time to clean the smokebox. There's a lot of ash in here, since the day before she will have done six round trips - I take two barrow loads of ash to the pit.
Fitter Paul lights the fire.
Later on when the fire is well under way I notice that the smokebox door is hissing - I didn't clean the seal and a bit of ash is preventing it from closing properly. I must remember that for next time.
Lamps next. Today, we don't have to dispose the loco because there are two Norfolk Lights Express trains after our 4th trip, and we will be relieved on the way down at Weybourne. By then, it will be getting dark so today we will need two paraffin lamps. I've got these ready and they are full, but I must admit I forgot to trim the wicks:
I do the other fireman's checks - flags, spare gauge glasses and seals, fill the bucket but there is not too much to do on the footplate so I climb up on the running boards to have a look at the paint - by torchlight, as it is still dark.
These BR Standard locos have wide running plates which make it very easy to get around, and they are very high compared to older designs. It means that you can easily clean the top of the boiler without ladders. I have a bucket of paraffin with 25% bearing oil in it which brings the paint up beautifully and doesn't take very long:
When I have finished both sides, it is starting to get light and I can see what I am doing. Fireman Josh and Driver James are here now; my next job is to pull some coal forward to allow Josh to build the fire. Next, we can go on the ash pit to look at the wheel bearings.
One of the Driver's duties is to see to the bearing cups on the motion & wheel bearings, and the cylinder lubrication using high viscosity steam oil, which is like thick honey when cold. It's the fireman's job to make sure the oil bottles are full:
When he's done, we can clean the ash pan:
This is the view through the front damper. I'm about to wash the ash and someone above will open the doors; on this loco, it's quite difficult to get the rear spark screen off - with the damper open, you can wash down the ash from the front which is much easier to get to. Without getting too wet, I put the front spark screen back on and call for Josh to close the damper.
Next, it's my turn to get changed and when I return to the engine I find it in the headshunt with driver James operating the hand point to let us out of the shed road. Fireman Josh has used the ground frame to let us onto the main running line, and I walk down to reset the ground frame when the loco is out of the yard. Today, there is a hiccup - when the loco has moved out the section and I reset the point lever, the point does not give me the correct indication that it's in position. This means the ground frame cannot be reset, I cannot move the loco and no-one else can get out of the yard...
We elect to call the RO to tell him what is going on, and to go and hand-wind the point. It goes into the correct position and eventually gives us the right indication and we can be on our way. We speak to Roger from the S&T department to ask him to check it later in the day. We will stop at Weybourne for him to check it, since he will need the Long Section Staff which will stop us moving the train.
We make a round trip, settling in and enjoying each other's company - it's great to have a daytime turn for a change. I call the hazards & signals while Josh gets to grips with the fire.
When we are back at Sheringham, Josh hands over the shovel and it is my turn. We only have about twenty minutes to run around and take on water which James and Josh deal with while I build the fire up. I'm pleased that after my allotment shovel practice I can hit the front of the firebox quite easily, but 76084 has a very short flame scoop which makes it easier. I'm also lucky that I don't have to control the fire for long before we are off, and I feel confident enough to call the signals and pick up the staff on the way while Josh keeps an eye on things.
In the end, I fired three trips - staying on the shovel for the rest of the turn. I'm very grateful to Josh for letting me do that, since after three round trips you can really get a feel for what you need to do since you are watching the fire, the boiler, the driver and the road all the time. Once or twice I forgot to check the fire door position and had a lot of black smoke belching from the chimney - after firing, you close the door to 3" gap and check the colour of the smoke - you can then adjust the door to add more or less secondary air; you can leave door wide open to bring temperature down. I blew off on the second trip being a bit enthusiastic with the shovel getting ready for the 1 in 80 ascent up the bank; I was surprised at how the draught lifts the shovel; I learned to shovel a lot of coal at the beginning of an ascent and use draft to burn it. I found I could use the dampers to control temperature.
More than once, people have told me to fire slow and steady; James winced once or twice when my rhythm was getting a bit ragged and I smacked the shovel into the firehole ring but for much of the day, I felt like I was in control and had a great time.
In this picture, I'm hanging out of the fireman's window as we run around at Holt, relaxing. The fire is burning through (hardly any smoke, see?)
In this next picture, I'm climbing back on board as we ready ourselves to run around at Sheringham:
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| Running around at Sheringham |
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