Turn 42 - Third Man on the 9F

COVID-19 restrictions have meant a number of changes to the railway, and today turned out to be the last NLE of 2020 as Norfolk went into Tier 4. Travel restrictions have also meant changes to the roster and Fireman Paul, who lives in Lincolnshire has been unable to travel this past month. Today in Paul’s place we have Inspector Mike acting as fireman who has been working on the NNR for over 40 years. I’ve not met him before, but fortunately I was armed with Mince Pies and Rocky Road today so there was an apple for the teacher. By way of introduction he asked for my training schedule and I knew the day was going to be a bit different.

The service was four Santa trains, which run from Sheringham, wait at Weybourne for an hour and run back to Sheringham and then a single Norfolk Lights Express which runs non-stop from Sheringham to Holt. Because this entails a 17 hour day there is a crew change while the train waits at Weybourne on the third Santa trip. We were the second crew, which meant we took over the train at Weybourne, crewed it for the last Santa run and the NLE trip and then disposed at the end of the day, about 22:00.

We climbed aboard, and Mike immediately taught me something new. He got the bent dart out of the tender tunnel and built the back of the fire up until it was encroaching on the door and then left it - we went to get the lamps and bags, to talk about injectors and have a look at the ground frame. Mike also asked me about emergency procedures used when getting help and protecting a train failed in section.

When we returned, the bank of coal under the door was well alight and Mike used the bent dart to push it over the grate, and the engine started to make steam. Mike continued building the fire as we headed down to Sheringham and said “it’s all yours” when we arrived. There wasn’t too much to do straight away, but we needed to take on water:

I made the mistake at this point of not pulling any coal forward, and paid the price when firing up as I had a lot of dregs and water from the bottom of the coal space so the firing was more of a struggle than it needed to be. We left the train at Weybourne and carried on up to start up the generators. This gave me a bit of time to pull some coal forward and get my act together.

The furthest generator from Weybourne is above Averies curve, on the way to Bridge 299. I fired down from there to pick up the children and their parents from Santa’s Grotto at Weybourne but of course the COVID-friendly Santa experience takes a while and when I had the loco ready to go at departure time one of the platform despatch staff came and told us we would be ten minutes late. I shut the dampers and the blower valve and started an injector as she was at full pressure and fit to burst, or at least, perform an unplanned safety valve test. We were 25 minutes late in the end.

Back at Sheringham it was time to get ready for the Norfolk Lights Express, which was to turn out to be the last of the season. We ran around and took on water and I got the boiler filled and a good fire fire built up against the back of the box; we left the loco to go to the loo and get some tea. Driver Grahame went into town for chips; Fireman Mike was in the signal box with General Manager Andrew which left me 45 minutes to have a sandwich, warm some mince pies and get some coal pulled down for the run up.

This is a shot from last year, when I must have been cleaner on this service - I had shovelled all the coal into the front of the tender, If I had done the same thing this year life would have been much easier. At least the train looked good lit up:

Despite not preparing the coal well enough, we were ready to go and had a good run up. Nearing Bridge 299 we were a bit light on water - Fireman Mike tapped the glass and looked at the driver. It was low, but not as low as it appeared since we were braking at the time. A comment appeared in my Training Notes later...

At Holt the weather was dreadful, pouring with rain and with a 45 mph northerly. Squatting in the four-foot to unhook, in a puddle caused by many other crews squatting in the same place, my boots and socks were soaked through. The run down was uneventful though it was wet and cold for the crew; I wasn’t too bad except when observing since I was on top of the fire and frantically searching for coal which was hard to reach, wet, and full of little bits. We arrived a bit low on water but that would be fine as we would take on water before the Light Engine trip to switch off the generators which would give me time to build it up again.

We ran around but I was a bit surprised when the Driver picked up speed as we approached the box - normally you are slowing down ready to stop and back up on the water crane when the points change but no, this time we decided not to water. I’d managed to fill the boiler but in doing so I had allowed the pressure to get very low - it had dropped to 160 and now I had no time to recover or pull coal forward.

Fortunately, the 9F is a very powerful locomotive capable of pulling 2000 tons of freight train, and we were Light Engine. I was more concerned with arriving on shed with enough fire to refill the boiler after the run, so we struggled up at 160, recovering slowly, with me shovelling madly and trying not to throw too much water on a cooling fire.

Inspector Mike climbed off at each of the three generators to let me sort the fire and the boiler out and we eventually arrived on shed full of water and with the boiler pressure at about 180, which would do nicely.

Throughout the trip, there had been a lot of water and coal dust thrown around the footplate and I had washed it down twice already. The crew left me to dispose the fire and give it another wash down and that was it for the 2020 season.

Despite what I though was a pretty difficult turn, Inspector Mike signed off three more boxes on my Training Schedule and gave me a good report. Of course, these difficult turns are the ones which provide the experience for the future - for example, I think I will close the tender doors and shovel coal forward next time I am on this loco with the tender half empty, or perhaps when I take over any loco halfway through the day. All I have left to sign off now is the Sheringham and Holt ground frames, all three signal boxes and the the trip up with the guard; and one more thing - ‘driver incapacitated’, which is where the driver pretends to have a heart attack out on the road and you have to fire and driver the train into the next station.

Now that will cause a flutter!