Turn 63 - Third Man on the 4MT

Today, I am Third Man 1 on a red service, once again with additional trains and we are rostered to the BR Standard 4MT, 76084. Climbing aboard with Cleaner Mark, we have a look around and all seems well so I stand alongside Mark, who's only done a few turns, while he cleans the smokebox. 

Turning our attention to the firebox, Mark gives it a shake and drops the old fire using the rocking grate.

This reveals a hole! Chatting with Fitter Alan later in the day, it appears that someone dislodged a firebar the previous day. It's a simple matter to dive in an replace it with a new one:

Mark & I shovel a layer of coal in once that is done, and he lights up under my guidance. It's all good and we soon have a raging but smoky fire going - good thing he's opened the windows. We open the roof vents as well.

We're a bit short of water, and we later realise the tender water gauge is not working. The problem is we are stabled too far from the shed to get the yard hose in so as soon as we have some steam, by which time Mark and I have cleaned all the paint, we take the loco down to the pit and fill up on the yard water crane.

Next job - blowdowns and ash pan cleaning, which involves giving the ash a quick wash down and fitting the screen to the front. We are finished, and when we are changed Fireman Mike & Driver Andrew take us down to Sheringham for breakfast.

After the first round trip, which is all about warming the boiler up Fireman Mike asked if I would be happy to fire the next trip - Mike & I have never had a turn together before, but now he knows I'm always happy to fire the next trip, or preferably fire for the rest of the day!

As usual, I took over the fire before the next trip such that I could arrive with the fire and the boiler in my preferred condition. I took over the fire on the down trip at at Weybourne and we ran down to take on water.

I had the loco ready for the second up trip, which as usual was late and made sure that when we were ready to leave Weybourne the pressure was hovering just under the red line, controlling it with ten second burst of the injectors. The trip went OK but I was disappointed to see the pressure gauge drifting down to less than 200 psi as we crested Wind Pump, and as the injectors went on the pressure dropped further despite leaving the station on the red line. This is not unusual and reflects my normal performance at this point in the trip.

Fireman Mike was there to provide another one of those railway lightbulb moments that while rare, serve to change your whole approach to firing the loco. He said that while you are complacently thinking the loco will carry you up the hill as you have it close to blowing off under the bridge in Holt, you must realise it will burn the fuel very quickly while going up the hill - so even though it is about to blow off you must fire again as you leave the station.

On the third trip up, we were in position under Bridge 302 at Weybourne with the safety valves close to feathering when we got the green flag, so taking Fireman Mike's tip I put another round on as we moved slowly over the crossover. I fired as quickly as I could as Driver Andrew had the regulator open and I had no desire to let the temperature go down. She was steaming really well and I had the water on in good time, so that we arrived in Holt with the pressure well up and the water in the top half. While driver Andrew unhooked, I went to swap the lamps and operate the run-around permission button. On the way down the platform I ran into a group of happy passengers, pleased with the noise we had been making on the way up!

Before the down trip, we had some more visitors - Richard and his family from Leeds. They were staying at the Kelling Heath caravan park and had sought me out - Richard is an old workmate from Cameron, who comes down every couple of years.

The fourth up was equally successful, but all good things come to an end and I handed the shovel back to Mike at Weybourne on the down trip. Mike fired to dispose at Weybourne, but Inspector Nick & Driver Bryan were waiting to relieve us so they could do a track examination. We didn't have too much disposal to do.

I've used Mike's shovel once or twice - it's the same as mine, but less worn - I might have to put that 1" back on my shovel blade with the TIG welder.