Turn 43 - Third Man on the Y14

After a break of four months, we are back on the railway with most of the over-50's in the country vaccinated at least once and a brighter view of the future ahead of us. Other good news is that the railway has had almost £400,000 donated by the Heritage Lottery Fund to help us through these dark days.

We are still rostered in bubbles this month, but the word is that bubbles will not be used next month which means rostering will be much more flexible. We have a single train service with steam, departing for the one hour round trip four times each day with a 45 minute layover at Sheringham in between, which is a pretty relaxing day. Today we have the Y14 which means we have to take water at Holt which tightens up the time there somewhat.

I'm on-shed at 05:45, to find Cleaners Nick and Oliver; Fireman Steve arrives with Fitter Alan and we are off. I take the lead with the safety checks while Nick cleans the smokebox; Oliver starts the polishing and Steve gets his boiler suit on - he is an hour early since firemen do not sign on until 07:00. 

I find a blocked drain valve on the driver's gauge glass which blows out with a bit of pressure; the fireman's side glass is covered in scale and needs scraping clean. When Nick is finished and closed up I put on my mask and dive into the firebox - it's not too bad in there. I lift four bars out and brush the ash away into the pan.

When I've hauled myself out, Steve builds his fire and lights up. I head down to the store to prepare the lamps. We'll use these two - I think they are GER pattern lamps but I should really find out. People worry about that kind of thing.

These are rather nicely made. The wick control operates through a little collet, so you can lock it in place with this nut:

With the lamps in place I return to the cab. Nick and Oliver are working on the boiler barrel, and I turn my attention to the fireman's duties. We have the hose in the tender so filling is under way and I busy myself checking the flags, spare gauge glasses, bucket, fire irons, burns kit and other bits and pieces. Then it's on to cleaning the cab of the grime from yesterday.

Then we are down to the pit to ash out - there's no blow down on this loco, but when Driver Dave has finished his checks Nick and I dive underneath to wash down the pan and rake out the ash that has accumulated overnight and this morning. I'm glad Nick was there - this was his second turn since we had started running again and he stopped me forgetting to put the spark guard in the ash pan.

Next it's time to get changed; Nick points out that there is no signalman at Weybourne today so we will need to collect the token to get us out of the yard using the ground frame

Steve and I haven't worked together before, and he takes the first two trips. I take over coupling & uncoupling and operating the points during run around; Driver Dave decides to 'splash and dash' - take on a small amount of water on every trip so I'm up on the tender holding the water bag in place. On the second trip, we add the required water treatment as well.

Other than that, it's a free ride for me and I can enjoy the scenery:

Steve hands over the shovel in Holt, on the second trip. This means that the fire on the next 'up' trip will be the fire I've prepared on the way down, which is great. Steve, who won't get another turn this month has given up half of one of his trips to me - I will be firing for the rest of the day.

Now, what you have to remember about this loco is that the firebox is quite small, low down and very accessible - it's easy to fire, but the boiler is small and the pressure will come around very quickly indeed. It's predominantly downhill all the way to Sheringham, and you might think you don't need much fire but I've been caught out like this before. The loco still uses steam, so still uses water and you still need fire to put the water in, so it will need coal. I put a round on to ensure I have enough heat to use the injectors on the way down, but I overcook it a bit and she is blowing off as we leave the station.

Not being one to learn very quickly, I fire too heavily again on the way down and I have it blowing off again into Weybourne - everybody in the shed will hear that and there will be no mercy.

Anyhow, we get down to Sheringham without too much grief and we run around, leaving the loco soaking up the sun. After my performance on the 9F in front of Inspector Mike I make very sure I don't run out of coal and pull a heap forward in the tender.

The day was beset with delays - I don't think apart from the first train we ever got off on time. This is a nightmare for the fireman - you try to build the pressure up and fill the boiler ready for the destined departure time, and then contain it when there is a delay. If you're smart, you will have some space left in the boiler but this soon runs out if there is a much of a delay so you close the door and the dampers - I've seen firemen dig a hole in the firebed to let some cold air in. Anyway, we got off perfectly OK with no drama and no more blowing off.

It was all going pretty well up Dead Man's and down the other side, and through Weybourne until we attempted the section up through Kelling when I realised I was low on water and the pressure was dropping - I fired again a couple of times and kept up with it, but we arrived at the top of the bank with the water near the bottom of the glass - which of course disappeared when we were on the level. The rest of the trip was spent trying to catch up. An empty glass is a horrible sight.

Steve asked if I was OK, so I can only imagine the tale my expression was telling him. He also mentioned that I should be calling all the signals and hazards when you are firing - he was just there as an observer. I tend to assume there is some sort of unwritten role-sharing when you have a third man turn, and the fireman usually fills in the gaps if the third man is obviously struggling - but essentially, a third man should fulfil the whole fireman's role while he is on the shovel.

Heading back down was uneventful and using little steam I was able to refill the boiler and get the fire in some sort of useful state, without blowing off again - it had been a while since I had fired anything, let alone this tricky little engine. I've learned that the fireman's side injector on this loco is very slow - and the driver side injector steam valve is not too easy to get to.

A cold wind had blown up from somewhere, and while I was bent over adjusting the fireman's injector water valve, I felt my greasetop lift and before I could react I saw it rolling into the undergrowth below Kelling Heath Halt. Now I was getting a bit jarred off.

Arriving back in Sheringham it was all rather quiet - there weren't so many passengers waiting for the last train and I went for coffee once we had run around. We chilled out in the cab for a bit discussing where my hat might be until it was time to build up the fire again. I kept it going through the 45 minute wait with a few shovelfuls scattered around. It came around in about ten minutes when the time came, and we headed off up to Holt again.

I was pleased to be heading up through Weybourne at about 150 psi with plenty of fire - she was making steam, as the pressure was holding as Driver Dave climbed the bank, but again I had left the water too late and buy the time we were at the top it was way too low and would have been lower if Driver Dave had not prompted me to put an injector on. The crew blamed this on the fact that we were all looking for my hat - but I was watching the pressure gauge and hadn't given a thought to the injectors.

Too little, too late and horribly reminiscent of the previous turn on the 9F.

We topped up the tender again at Holt and the Guard laughingly tutted at me for the unscheduled stop we were to make on the way down - to pick up my hat. We stopped just below Kelling Heath Halt and there it was - without too many jeers from the passengers!

The journey down on the fourth trip is important because this is the trip where you prepare for disposal. You need to make sure you have enough fire to get down to Sheringham and back up to Weybourne in order to arrive with a full boiler and not much fire - in practice, I don't find this very difficult. I just feed the fire enough to keep it going as we roll down the hill, save a bit for the 1:100 up Dead Man's, but concentrate on getting the water in. If you get into the platform at Weybourne with a full boiler and the boiler has a usable pressure but is not making steam, you've done OK.

Fireman Steve climbed down at the Ground Frame hut and we pulled into the platform - but not far enough, as were still in the track circuit that prevented him from unlocking the ground frame. We moved the loco a bit more.

Once in the head shunt, I climbed off and switch the hand point to let us onto the pit. We stopped, and I agreed with Driver Dave that I would rake through the fire while he did his inspection. There were some fairly hefty chunks of clinker which I broke up with the dart.

You can lose a lot of heat raking through like this. Next job, Steve and I went underneath to ash out, Steve on the hose and me on the rake. The loco had stopped with the fireman's side big end in the bottom rear quadrant - as you can see in the picture. This made it pretty hard to get to the ash pan. 

As usual, I stayed at the ash pit to empty it out while Steve and Dave stabled the loco and used the last of the steam to add more water. A very successful disposal.

564 will be taken out of service at the weekend for washout. After a few hours in Sheringham signal box on Monday, I have a cleaning turn so perhaps I will meet 564 with some spanners...