Back to ever-darkening Wednesday mornings, but at least it's dry and there is no wind. I'm in at 05:45 with Fireman Paul and I'm in the smokebox ten minutes later. These BR Standard locos are very easy to prepare with their rocking grates, and the engine is pretty warm. As last week, there is masses of ash and I'm grateful that there are a few guys on shed early - Firing Inspector Joe, Driver Josh and new Cleaner Nathan, who makes heroic bacon butties in his other job at the Sheringham buffet. Fortunately, Joe is on hand to find a second barrow when the ash from the smokebox fills the first one.
Fireman Paul has spent time teaching me in the past and since he is on the driver training programme I am left to light up, and all goes according to plan. I restrain myself with the coal this week - we want to bring it on nice and slow. Driver Matt arrives.
Joe and Josh help out with cleaning - the loco is in pretty good shape from the day before, when the same guys had a good go at it. Even the tender chassis gets a clean - and that's when the direction of the day changes, though not for long.
Josh says "I don't want to worry you guys but look at that spring!" Sure enough, one of the tender springs has a broken leaf. See if you can spot it:
This is a potential failed engine - it can't go on the road like that, and it's 08:15 and we are due off shed at 09:18. We decide to carry on as normal while we get ready for the spring change so we go down to the pit ready to blow down two glasses; I make sure my boiler is full of water and that I have plenty of fire to replace it - but again, I'm a bit too enthusiastic and it blows off. We blow down the first glass, and it's still making steam with the blowdown valve open.
Fortunately it's a weekday and the shed team are soon ready with a spare spring, jacks and a lift table. We go up the road a bit to where they have assembled their kit and I look after the fire while they crack on removing the broken spring. The fire is burning steadily and not making steam, so I elect to go and change. When I get back, they are clearing up the tools and fastening the last two nuts - it's been fixed in 45 minutes, so soon we are back on the pit to blow down another glass, and we are still off-shed early.
I fire the light engine trip down to Sheringham, calling the signals and dropping off the Long Section staff - there is no Weybourne signalman today.
It's raining.
Driver Matt decides to fire the up trip; I go between to tie on and then forward to set the head code - I forget to pick up the disc from the tender. Head codes are indicated by lamps or discs on the leading end of the locomotive and indicate the class of the train. These are used to give the signalman and indication of the priority of the train over others, and come from the working timetable. Each train has a code, e.g. 2M03, which indicates a class 2 train, heading to Melton Constable, and it will be the third train of that class and destination that day.
The guard appears to give us our briefing, and indicates he wants steam heat on so I go back around the loco and go between to connect the steam heat pipes. When I return, I'm reprimanded by Fireman Paul because I haven't told him that I am going between for a second time - this a is a big no-no.
We head up to Holt with Driver Matt firing and Fireman Paul driving - I am observing. At Holt, the RO discovers the power is back on and we can do a normal run around; there is about twenty minutes to wait here. Driver Matt goes between to tie on, after Fireman Paul, driving, has squeezed up. I'm in charge of the fire.
Down to Sheringham, the prevailing gradient is about 1 in 80, with various ups and downs on the way so the drill is to sprinkle the fire, keeping an eye for any areas that are burning through and to fill the boiler as required. This is where knowledge of the timetable is important - we have about an hour at Sheringham, so we should plan to arrive with some water space in the boiler so that we can use the injectors to control the pressure if we need to. We go down uneventfully, with Driver Matt providing pointers to where I should fire and add water.
We arrive with about a third of a glass. I add a bit of coal for the run around and Fireman Paul tells me you should never let it go below half a glass - Driver Matt is less cautious.
We have some tea and cake, and chat to some visitors. Fireman Paul asks if I am happy to fire up and of course I am - he picks up the shovel and shows me how he would load it and with what sort of lump size - he says you should use small shovelfuls of fist size lumps which can be placed more accurately, with less strain on your back and which don't cause too much damage to your fire if you mess up. I always get good advice from Fireman Paul. He tells me not to fill holes with big lumps, but to use small ones before holes form - they will catch more quickly and you won't form a cold spot.
As a newbie, I tend to get a bit ragged when trying to fire in a hurry, overloading the shovel and making mistakes. Paul told me to always treat the right side in the same way as the left, and to never let the foundation ring get cold - holes are more acceptable and more easily repaired if they are in the middle. Paul's sequence is:
- fire the front left & right
- fire the sides left & right
- fire both back corners
- fire under the door
- fire the middle
Talking of drawing the fire, Paul told me to make sure the fire was well built up when approaching a hill, since the draw would pull holes in a thin fire and you would lose the heat - when approaching a hill it's important to fire quickly as all the while you have the door open you are sucking in cold air.
So, I fired up the hill, built up a lot of steam and we charged up Kelling cutting in second valve with a rag over the speedometer - one of the best experiences on the railway.
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