Turn 32 - Cleaning the Standard 4MT, yard work and some spannering on the WD

It's Wednesday so it must be a railway day. It's mid September, and I'm first to sign on at Weybourne shed and it's the first time this year that I've had to switch the yard lights on.

I'm Cleaner 1, and Loco A is the B12 but as luck would have it Fireman Robert has arrived early too, and he volunteers to prep the B12 himself - he will have it all day. That means I can prep Loco B, the Standard 4MT which is back in traffic after a spring change. This is a gift for me since not only is the second loco due off shed at 10:18, an hour later, but it is already clean after the ministrations of the two Cleaners Nick and Oliver who were on yesterday.

I climb aboard and do the safety checks, drop the old fire in the pan and go and have a look at the front, enlisting the help of Fitter Mark since, much to my embarrassment I cannot get the smokebox door undone...

No matter, we clean it out, close it up and I go and lay the fire. Soon I am joined by Fireman Gary - which is another excellent event since Gary will let me raise steam and look over my shoulder while I am doing it.

The fire is soon going nicely, but we have to be aware that it is only 07:00 and we have three more hours until departure - so we need to slow this lady down. The dampers are closed and I turn the blower down until it is just keeping the smoke out of the cab - I'll have to turn it down again as the pressure rises.

Gary shows me that I can keep the fire under control, and react quickly to a need for steam, if I fire around the edges and leave the middle to run to holes. He also shows me this neat feature:

Oil holes for the top of the firehole door! I didn't know they were there. These are to lubricate the firehole door runners and make it much easier to open. I go and get the lamps, trimming the wicks, checking the paraffin and making sure they work:

I look after the fire while Driver Ray completes his inspection over the pit; I open and close the dampers to allow him to check the content of the ashpan. While I'm on board, someone calls to ask if I have checked the injectors - there's a bit of urgency in their voice as we have both heard the safety relief valves starting to lift - I get injector #1 on before she blows off, followed by injector #2. 

Lesson learned - test the injectors before you need them in anger!

A couple of pictures of the fireman's controls:

We move back to take on coal. Driver Ray and I put our shovels, braced with our feet, in the shovelling plate:

That way, when Fitter Mark empties the load into the tender, it won't spill out over the footplate!

Next it's time to blow down the boiler, and I am glad that have the fire hot, the pressure high and the boiler full. We blow down half a gauge glass of water into the pit and for the first time ever, I blow the whistle to tell the Fitter to shut the valve and stop the blowdown.

The loco has two whistles - I use the chain as it is easier to get to.

The next part of the turn was a bit of yard work - tidying the crap out of the wood store, preparing barrows of wood for the morning, chopping more wood and generally tidying up. The B12 had had a couple of firebars replaced the previous day:

These, and the old flame scoop they are laying on, went in the scrap bin.

The WD has been in the shop for a few repairs, notably a large hole in the blast pipe. We're also replacing and reseating the injector steam valves - the driver's side valve is having a new body, which the fireman's side valve had last year and both valves are being refaced.

This is the driver's side. We've just removed the valve body and I am about to clean off the old gasket from the manifold flange and clean up the union nipple.

Here's the new body, after I had fitted it and taken it off again. The body is slightly larger than the old one and the washers foul the body - so in this picture, I have had a die grinder on the body to provide a little relief for the washers. In this next picture, I have coated the gasket - made by Fitter Bob - with Steam Seal:

Here it is finally in place:

Here's the stem, plug, gland and hand wheel from the fireman's side valve:

This will be back together next time I am at the railway, in 9 days time.

I finish the day tidying the ash pit and coal area, just to build up some muscle!