Turn 38 - Third Man on the 4MT

Saturday dawned warm and bright, the last day before we in the UK revert to Greenwich Mean Time, which means after this 05:00 start we get an extra hour in bed. Fitter Bob is on shed when i arrive, and we spend a few minutes chatting in the mess room before I go down to the loco. We've got the BR Standard 4MT today, since the expected B12 has been failed with a broken spring - successfully repaired yesterday, but not in time to get it warmed up for today.

This is A Good Thing, because this is an easy engine to fire and i am a bit tired, having spent the week shovelling coal, manure and gravel.

So, we set about preparing the engine starting on the smokebox. Fireman Phil arrives, and tells me it's all mine and I am to get on with raising steam; I finish the smokebox, close up and go and inspect the grate and the firebox. The stays and fusible plugs look good, the brick arch is no worse than the last time I saw it but there are a few tired looking bars which I expect we will be changing within the next few months.

On the pit

If I've learned anything over the last few weeks it is that the temptation to over-fire is very strong. I always want to be tinkering with the fire and the result is that I'm always at pressure sooner than I need to be and I'm usually blowing off in the yard. So, to temper that enthusiasm and put a bit of space between me and the shovel, I go and get a bucket of oil and paraffin and clean the boiler barrel which doesn't take long on this little engine.

I head back to the fire and put the flame scoop in, and build up the sides and back a little and step off again to clean the buffer beams.

With the boiler pressure heading towards 100 psi, we go down to the pit to ash out and fit the spark screens. Fireman Phil goes down, the first of many dirty jobs he does today, while I manipulate the dampers and the ashpan hopper doors.

Pushing back for coal

I test the injectors, starting with #1 which starts easily. I understand from Driver Matt that this will work at 80 psi. I struggle with #2, and eventually ask for help. Driver Matt asks what pressure I have and tells me that it needs 120 psi to work.

I need to get these running, since despite the fact that the loco would have been disposed with a full boiler, the boiler is only showing half a glass - and I need to blowdown a full glass. Anyhow, I get a bit of fire on, fill the boiler, Fitter Bob blows down and we refill the boiler again, by which time we are ready to go into the platform.

I go off to change, as time is running by; on the way I notice this valve which I have not seen before - it's the valve that operates the pilot operated cylinder drain cocks.

So, we go off shed and I fire down to Sheringham for the first train:

On the way down to Sheringham, Light Engine

In fact, I ended up firing for the whole day - three round trips and fire to dispose. To start with, I made the fire gently down to Sheringham and just kept building it around the edges. You can see that I have a hole in the middle which I used to keep it cool while we waited for departure:

With about 10 minutes to go, I filled this hole in, hoping that we would get off on time. We did, otherwise I would have been on the injectors and closing the dampers and firehole door to try to slow it down. Once we were over the crossing, I fired again, and again a few minutes later building up steam for Dead Man's Hill. Once we were up, it was on the injectors again and I fired again on the way down. 

I continued firing and adding water whenever there was less demand for steam, and I also fired just before the hills when the driver would use the steam I had made to get a good draw on my fire - I wanted the draft, but I also wanted to make sure the fire was not going to be pulled into holes.

We had three good runs up the bank, each better than the last - with one in second valve at 28 mph - lots of happy passengers, and the grins coming from Phil & Matt was a highlight of my firing career so far.

That last turn didn't quite go to plan though, at least at the beginning. I use an old electric 'Swatch' on the railway, as it is waterproof and more robust than my usual antique mechanical watches. With about twenty minutes to go, we had finished our tea and Cherry Bakewells and I was slowly building the fire for the run up. Matt said, seemingly innocently "10 minutes to go" which made me jump - I looked at my watch and realised it had stopped - I had to bring it round in a hurry. Sensing my panic, Matt and Phil encouraged me to pile the coal in quick - using small bits and gradually adding it to the front and then the back, and filling the middle in. The boiler came around very quickly and we didn't lose any time - this is a splendid engine.

There had been one close call, but I had fired the whole day and still hadn't cause it to blow off!

One thing I haven't mentioned to far: quite early on in the day, Phil had suggested I use his ex-BR shovel. Now, i spent one trip recently using Fireman Joe's cast steel Carter shovel, which is a long and heavy thing, which I self consciously clanged into the firehole door ring several times before handing it back with a red face and going on to the company shovel - this was on the B12, which is the hardest loco to fire in the NNR fleet.

Phil's shovel was a revelation - it is long, light and very well balanced, a superb thing that made a huge difference to my day. Next time I see him I shall be measuring it to see if I can get a similar one.

Alongside firing, I tried to do all the fireman's duties including the tablet exchange, observation, calling signals - though I only did the tablet exchange on the fireman's side.

I did no tying on either - Phil and Matt handled that, and that makes a huge difference to the effort you have to put into your day; I did switch a few points on run around in case you were thinking I spent the whole day in the cab, helping out with watering as well.

Shunting the set into Platform 1

But, all good things come to an end and we need to dispose the engine at the end of the day. Firing to dispose starts with the trip down from Holt - you need to feed the fire carefully to arrive on shed with enough fire to fill the boiler and stable the locomotive, but not so much that you are making steam on shed.

I made sure that by the time we arrived on shed, the boiler was already full, so all I had to do was riddle fire after shaking it through on the rocking grate. Phil removed the ash pan screens - he did all the dirty jobs that day. 

By the time we had finished, there was no fire left and the boiler full. A grand day out.