Turn 37 - Third Man on the B12

Another day, another railway turn - this time on a Monday. There's a big gap early in November where there is no service, so I'm piling in turns as the opportunity arises. Of course, after the NLEs, Santa's and Mince Pie trains, which finish early January, there will be no service until Easter so there is precious little opportunity to get my training signed off.

This time, Cleaner Nathan and I are in with Fitter Alan, who quietly reminds me that I am not supposed to be in the yard or workshop until he arrives (I was in the yard turning the lights on), which is for my own safety. We get started on the B12, Nathan in the smokebox and me on the footplate, waiting until he is finished to go in the firebox. Climbing in, I pull a couple of bars from each section and brush the debris from yesterdays fire into the pan below. There's no damage today.

I build the fire, concentrating on filling the front as it's easier with the scoop out, and light up. Fitter Alan is on the footplate too, as the fireman's side water gauge has been persistently leaking. I leave the coal to catch and go and make the tea.

Today, I'm crewing with Driver James and Fireman Joe, both experienced guys. Joe is training to drive, so we agree that Joe and James will handle the first trip, Joe and I will handle the second and third trip and finally Joe will drive with James firing for the final trip. Since it's only been a week since I fired the B12, the second trip isn't too bad - Joe has built up the front to a considerable depth on the first trip and his strategy is to top that up and fire to the back and middle; I keep this going, though I don't fire to the front enough. I'm also not injecting water soon enough on the way up. The third trip is better, and I have reverted to the company shovel - it's lighter and smoother than Joe's own shovel that I had been using and abusing on the second trip.

There's still a bit of a hill to be moved forward when James takes over for the last trip. One approach I had adopted was to keep the front damper closed to reduce the coal consumption in the front and reduce the cold air coming in that way, which may have helped.

We take on water at Sheringham on the second, third and fourth trips. Sheringham has a softened water supply which is used for all engines except the Y14, which takes water from the harder supply at Holt - this is thought to preserve the boiler.

Back at Weybourne, we dispose the engine. I clean the back of the fire with the bent dart, and while I am stowing that James cleans the front with the long pricker - managing to dislodge a firebar in the process

More in a few days, when we have a third Man turn on a Yellow service - mixed steam and DMU over six trains.