Turn 36 - Cleaning the B12 - with a difference

This Wednesday, I was looking forward to an ordinary cleaning turn, having done a few third man turns which while great, are quite hard work and are for me a bit more stressful mainly because I'm still not quite confident with what I am doing. A cleaning turn promises a bit of hard work until the loco goes out, followed by a few hours of yard work, loco cleaning or mechanical stuff on the bench, peppered with banter from the guys in the shop. It's fun, and since I've been exclusively working at home (or retired) it's great to actually have a job where you see people. 

Moving on from the Y14, the B12 is now rostered until the end of  'normal' services for the traumatic 2020 season - next month, on the 16th November, we start Norfolk Lights Express trains and shortly after, Santa Specials. I start with the smokebox as usual which reveals no drama, but when I get in the firebox I find it is rammed, and it takes ages to clean. There's not been a cleaner on for a few days and it looks like the fire has just been raked through in the mornings. So, I climb in and pull up a few firebars, cleaning all the ash and clinker into the ash pan.

And then I get near the front. I'm on my belly, filthy, my glasses are covered in dust and I am thankful for the new dust mask I took from the store and what do I find? A hole. The B12 has a dropping grate section at the front, which is currently disabled since while it drops when operated from the cab, it won't go up again without considerable grief and it was here that one of the firebars was broken

So, as I am bound I took a picture and showed it to Duty Fitter and Shop Foreman Mark. Mark decided that since we had a spare, and a hole could be a significant problem, we would change it - or, I would change it. So I dived back in the hot firebox with a few spanners since unlike most firebars these are bolted in at one end. It took me the best part of an hour to remove it, starting with a large hammer to break away most of the remains. This created a bit of space for me to attack the bolted end, which was retained with a stud, a nut and a split pin and after a bit of a struggle (the nut and pin are pointing down into the ash pan and I'm reaching down through the gap) the split pin begin to give way. It's usually quite easy to work-harden and break a split pin, but I guess these are well annealed by virtue of their service life and it took ages to get one leg off and pull the head out. Fortunately by this point I had given the nut enough stick to loosen it, and once the pin was out the nut came off and I could remove the last bit of broken bar and clean out the slot.

Here are the bits, retrieved from the ash pit:

Here's the bronze stud. The stud is in pretty good shape:

Putting in the new firebar takes a matter of seconds:

I passed the tools back out through the firehole to Fitter Mark, and crawled onto the cab floor, exhausted. It was about 07:15 - we should probably have been lit up an hour ago. Fitters Mark and Bob had prepared two cups of water and a tea for me, since they knew I would be tired - I did hear someone say "we'll make a steam fitter of him yet, you should hear the swearing". Leaving me to recover with my drinks, Fireman Ralph lit up and once I'd recovered a bit I set up the yard hose to fill the tender tank and began cleaning the boiler:

Next, it's off to the pit to empty the ash pan, and as expected it is rammed and takes me a long time to get it all out, much to Fireman Ralph's concern as he doesn't want the dampers open.

So, it had been far from a normal cleaning turn, and more was to come. Driver George has some problems with his knees, and asks if I can come out with them to give Ralph a hand. Not my call, so he goes off to seek agreement from Fitter Mark, my boss for the day. Mark agrees, so I am off on an unofficial Third Man turn, where I am out assisting with coupling, points, the tablet and watering all day.

During the day, which was my fifth Third Man turn on the B12, I fired two up trips & a down trip. The first up trip I fired was a bit light - the loco was running at between 140 and 150 psi which is way too low, since the ejector on this engine isn't very efficient at those pressures and fails to keep the vacuum low enough, so the brakes will start to come on. I wasn't firing enough, nor was I getting the coal in the front of the box as is essential with this engine.

The second up trip was much better - I was firing more and more of it was getting to the right places and the loco stayed around 160 the whole way up, and sounded pretty good on the run up Kelling Bank. When we got to Holt however, the Pennines had appeared - if you don't get the technique right, coal will come off the shovel and hit the flame scoop; then it loses all it's energy and ends up in a heap in the middle of the grate. You do need coal there, because where the grate passes over the rear axle it tends to burn through so you have to keep an eye on it but of course the heap will stop the coal getting to the front of the box and you will have a cold air coming through the front and you won't be able to make steam.

I wonder if closing the front damper and opening the rear would help if you get yourself in this situation. 

Fireman Ralph fired down to Sheringham and handled the Light Engine movement back to Weybourne for disposal, and to get the fire ready to do that he used the paddle to push my Pennine heap towards the front... 

And that was the end of an enjoyable and instructive day - Fireman Ralph showed my how to clean down to the firebars with the dart & bent dart, and I ashed out again and cleaned the pit.

Time to go home.