Turn 68 - Third Man on the WD

October is approaching, the mornings are getting colder and the B12 is nearing the end of it's boiler certificate. I wasn't too sure what we might find on shed this week, so I wandered up to the station on Tuesday afternoon with the dogs to have a look and found the WD coming onto it's train. 

The WD, a picture from several turns ago

Therefore, it was no surprise to find it rostered on Wednesday morning when I turned up at 05:45, to find New Driver Paul already there. He had been there since 04:30 in fact, attempting to fix a problem with the 9F and while he did so he instructed me to get on with preparing the WD for service.

With a big pile of wood and a thin layer of coal I had the WD lit up with no problems. I tended the fire and brought it round until we were ready to go on the pit. By this time, Fireman Gary had arrived and I continued raising steam.

On the pit, I topped up the axle boxes under Driver Paul's instruction and by the time I had finished the boiler pressure was close to blowing off. Fireman Gary checked the injectors and used them to top up the boiler.

There was no blow down needed but the ashpan was clogged up as it often is on this loco. We dropped it and used the the ashpan sprinkler, the hose and a rake to clear it properly.

Fireman Gary is a very obliging chap who knows I am in the closing stages of my training, and he suggested that I fire three trips, starting with the first trip down. Thinking that the loco would be quite cold, I fired fairly heavily on the first trip up and managed to get it blowing off Dead Man's Hill - not too badly, I caught it with the injectors but it was not the best start. The second up trip up was no problem.

Gary fired the third up and I fired the fourth, again with no problems but I was not firing particularly accurately and the shovel clanged against the backhead a few times; Driver Paul draw my attention to a rising gauge more often than he should have done which was an indication that I was not on the ball but looking back at my notes on my last turn on the WD, at least I hadn't had to resort to using the fire irons to clear a misplaced mountain of coal. 

I fired to dispose, and managed to bring the loco back with an even fire and a full boiler which was fine, but as we prepared to clean the fire while Driver Paul was inspecting underneath, I switched on the fireman's side injector to top up the boiler. This is not usually a problem, but you should always ask the driver or the person underneath the loco before you start the injector, because he may be near the overflow.

Today, the ashpan sprinkler was on - unbeknown to me. This meant that Driver Paul could have got showered with scalding water and he was pretty angry and had a good go at me, as he had every right to.

So there is an easy lesson - check the sprinklers are off if someone is underneath or in the tender, and ask if you want to put an injector on.

Not my best day.