And this is it - the last turn of the 2021-2022 season, and my 80th turn since starting on the railway in May 2019, almost a year before I retired 2020.
It's a Mince Pie, 05:45 start, signing off to the relief crew at 15:50. We have the BR Standard 4MT, which has been in service for a day or two and is nearly a month into it's washout cycle, meaning that it has only a few days left before the boiler has to be unboxed and cleaned. At 05:45, she has been on-shed for maybe 8 hours so is still quite warm and while she is not showing any boiler pressure, the water is clearly very hot - you can hear it popping & banging.
But what is this? The smokebox is spilling over with ash. I took three full barrows out of it and it still wasn't clean - what was the cleaner doing yesterday? Maybe there wasn't one.
Anyhow, the fire was nice and clean and a simple matter to riddle out with the drop grate. I lit up, raked some coal down, put the water in, made some tea and with Fireman Sid adding a lot of coal - more than I would ever have done, we were on the pit by 07:30.
The cab looked fabulous by the time Sid had finished cleaning it, despite there being very little Brasso to be found. This is his picture.
She need two glasses blown down, but first Driver James had to do his inspection & check the axleboxes whilst I patiently waited with the oil pump, which went back in the store unused.
I do wish people wouldn't fill these things right up to the top though, they are bl%dy heavy.
What I hadn't noticed while I waited was the ash in the pit, left the night before by the disposal crew. This started a lot of shuffling - I couldn't clean the pit with the loco there and we couldn't blow the boiler down with the ash there either, so we had to move the loco for me to clean the pit, then back on the pit to blow down, ash out and fit the screens while Fireman Sid refilled the boiler. Then move the loco, clean the pit, and bring it back for the last blow down. We were done on time for our 08:50 departure though.
Sid fired the first round trip, with James driving; Sid swapped sides for the rest of the day, and I took the shovel for the second trip and the third up trip, passing the shovel to James for the third down and the fourth up.
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| Another Sid picture - waiting for the Right Away |
You fire this loco with a massive wedge in the back, thinning towards the front, and if you can increase the wedge by firing over the baffle, all the better. She will just sit at 220 psi all day. Another one of Sid's pictures:
You let it burn through on the way down, filling holes and keeping it warm.
This one was taken by steam department volunteer James, who was here for the day.
I had both dampers open on the third up, as I had it at 200 psi going into Weybourne and wanted to put a few shovelfuls into the middle. This was burning well as Sid cracked up the bank at 65% cut off, making a glorious noise but he made sure I closed the front saying that I'd never be able to keep it under control!
By the time we got to Holt it had burned through pretty well and whilst I had to knock it back with an injector once, when I had closed both dampers and turned the blower down, it wasn't doing anything it shouldn't. Sid reminded me that you should never completely close the damper while moving or the fire will clinker.
More top tips - and they were coming thick and fast today: don't look through the firehole - paint a mental picture of the grate on the backhead and aim at an imaginary spot. You'll hit it more often than if you watch the shovel go in.
Another one: use the ashpan sprinkler to waste steam if you are close to the red line and have the boiler full. The injector will use the steam, but the water will damp down the ash without going into the boiler - you will need the sprinkler valve full open. Don't forget to close it again! You can also use it coming back to shed to accelerate disposal - when you get back on shed, the ash should be wet enough to drop out without much work.
One new thing I saw today - on the fourth down, the front of the fire was dull and going blue - it was full of ash from when I had burnt it out with the damper open. Sid gave the regulator a blast to attempt to clear it; the next option would be to give it a shake on the rocking grate or use the pricker on it. Since Jim had fired the front, we couldn't see if it had cleared and we were soon in Weybourne where our relief crew were waiting.
And that's it! I've now done 80 turns since I started in 2019 and that is the end of the 2021-22 season. It will be six weeks before we get any more time on the footplate, in February half-term when there will be a week of service starting with the FoBP 'Driver for a Fiver' day on February 19th.
I can't wait.
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