Training - Degraded Operations

 After a few weeks of high winds, rain and hail the gods were in our favour on Friday when we assembled on Weybourne Station for the first Operations Training session for this season. There was quite a number of people, ranging from Signalmen to Guards, Diesel & Steam loco crews and several inspectors.

Pilotman Working

After tea, we split into two groups and the DMU arrived at Platform 1. I was assigned to Group A and we climbed aboard and ran up to Holt, where the signalmen huddled into the signal box to play out a signal failure scenario which would require Pilotman working.

A Pilotman is essentially a 'human tablet' who authorises a train into section when the tablet system has failed, perhaps, as happened to a train I was on a couple of years ago, there has been a power outage at Weybourne which locked the tablet in the signal box.

This doesn't affect loco crew too much - essentially you take authority from the Pilotman to proceed into section, but you don't have to fill in the paperwork - that's the signalman's job.

Point Winding

Back in Weybourne, with the scenario complete, we swapped places with group B and went to do some manual point winding with Operations Supervisor Peter.

I've done an MIC on manual point winding, so I won't talk about it again here - except to say that Peter made the point that if possible, the point lever in the signal box or ground frame should always be set to the position the point is wound to, such that when the power comes back on the point does not try and make an unexpected move; secondly, if the point is clipped and scotched (which it should be) the motor will probably blow a fuse somewhere if the point is trying to move - which will be a call to S&T to get it fixed.

While we were there, I took this picture of one of the crossover points at Weybourne - showing you quite why there is a 5 mph temporary speed restriction (TSR) over that point: it's very worn and is due for replacement soon.

Peter demonstrated clipping a point. Before you clip a point, you should put a wooden scotch in the gap between the stock rail and the other switch blade, to stop it moving unexpectedly. You can then clip it safely.

An unexpected stop

After lunch, Group A returned to the DMU for the next scenario. This time, we took a trip up the line and came to an unexpected halt on the bank - conversations between the guard and the driver revealed nothing mechanically amiss and no obstruction on the line, but the brakes had come on - through no action of the guard or the driver. A walk through the train revealed the emergency chain had been operated in the toilet compartment, operating the Pas-Com valve in the trailer car and allowing air into the brake pipe, bring the brakes smoothly on.

This chain has been operated...

Triggered Pas-Com valve

With the Pas-Com valve reset and the brakes operational again, the train resumed it's journey to Holt where the guard reported our late arrival to the Signalman.

Failed Train

Departing Holt to return to Sheringham, we came to a second unexpected stop. This time, the driver reported that both engines were dead and couldn't be restarted - we were going to have to fail the train.

Making a call to the Signalman revealed that we would be rescued from Weybourne, so we made arrangements to secure the train, left the guard in charge of the passengers and as observers accompanied the Driver to Weybourne signal box, protecting the train in that direction at the prescribed 300 yards with two red flags and a man left to look after them:

It was a nice day for a walk!

We arrived at Weybourne signal box where the Driver introduced himself and described his situation, the Signalman repeating the information to confirm his understanding. We then met Driver Nick, with the Class 08 D3940; DMU Driver Steve briefed Nick on what was required, where we had failed and how our train was protected and we crammed ourselves into the small cab of the Class 08 and proceeded up the line.

Driver Steve had disconnected the driveshafts to both the bogies on our power car, so since we were 'dead' the token was taken by Driver Nick who hauled us back to Weybourne for a tea break.

A bit of Shunting

Disconnecting himself from the DMU, Driver Nick's next job was to re-join Group A in the yard to do a bit of shunting. 

Now, let's get this straight. This is a Class 08 shunting locomotive, or Station Pilot:

The man that drives it is called a Driver or a Pilot Driver - and a 'Shunter' is a man on the ground with a radio, a lamp, or very active hands controlling the whole show.

Safety is always the most important thing on the railway, and one of the most important things to do to be able to carry out a shunting movement safely is to plan the movement thoroughly and then to communicate the plan, and the specific instructions for the movement accurately and clearly.

The plan was to move the restaurant car from the bay road to the carriage & wagon shed road. The first job was to make sure the vehicle was fit to move, so we walked around it checking that the buffers were ready to be used with a screw coupling (i.e. the collars were fitted and they were in their 'long' position), that there were no NTBM boards fitted and that there were scotches in the wheels or that the brakes were on. Actually, the brake cylinders had been bled down and there were two scotches fitted to the sea-side Sheringham end bogie.

Satisfied that the vehicle was safe to buffer up to, we hooked-on and connected the vacuum bag from the Class 08. With the exhauster running, you can hear the brake cylinders charging - there is a little ball valve that buzzes.

With the brakes under the control of the loco, we could remove one of the scotches; the Shunter asked the Driver, using the radio, to 'move away' one foot such that we could remove the other scotch. That done, we instructed the driver to 'move away' into the headshunt, switched the manual point and then asked him to 'come towards' until the vehicle was in it's final resting place in the carriage & wagon road.

And that, pretty much, was the end of a useful day - I learned a lot, particularly through seeing events first hand that I had only read about in the Rule Book.

Turn 82 - Cleaning the 9F

 Today promised to be a busy day. I have a cleaning turn, it's NNRYDC day and it's the FoBP Driver for a Fiver day at Sheringham. I'm on shed with Fitter Bob and Cleaner Henry, and together with Third Man Nick we have to prep these two old ladies:

Today, the Y14 is the service loco and the 9F will be trundling up and down Sheringham yard all day providing driver experience for an enthusiastic public.

Last week, Cleaner Henry did the oil & paraffin thing while I lit the Y14 - this week, I'm cleaning up the 9f while he lights up.

She looks great when we are done. On the pit, I wash down the ash pan and blow down half a glass with Driver Ben. The Y14 is behind us in the headshunt, and when we are finished we move back towards her and I hook on - we are going down together, and the Y14 will go straight onto her train in platform 1. This means that she will control the braking, and needs the vacuum bags connected; we will take the token.

We go down to Sheringham for breakfast, and stop at the signal box - I climb down, unhook the Y14 and replace our lamp. When she is passed the signal, the Signalman sets the dolly against us while the Y14 goes onto her train; the Signalman sets the points for platform 2, clears the dolly and we go in.

My plan was to go back to Weybourne after breakfast, on the Y14 - but we have run out of time and she is off before I have time to get on - I've missed my train. I took the opportunity to have a chat with Inspector Ben about plans for my firing test.

I could either wait and chat to the passengers, or I could go back with Driver Alistair in the DMU which goes in 35 minutes - I'd be waiting 90 odd minutes for the next steam hauled train. I asked Alistair if I could ride in the cab and that made it an easy choice. We did most of a round trip in the cab, learning about DMU controls - 1950's bus technology, apparently - going up to Holt, changing ends and going back to Weybourne.

Whilst at Holt I had a coffee, walked around and took some pictures, chatting to Tom in the museum.

Finally getting back to Weybourne, the NNRYDC meeting was in full swing with dozens of children cleaning the WD 90775 and a Lowmac wagon. My job was to strip this toolbox trolley & paint it:

Two and a half hours with that die grinder saw the paint transferred to my boiler suit. Five minutes later and it had a couple of coats of paint.

The next turn will be something a bit different - an Operations Training Day, intended to train us in degraded modes of operation.

Turn 81 - Third Man on the Y14

And we are back! Today is the beginning of the 2022-2023 season, which we all hope will continue towards pre-COVID normality, with the usual galas, visiting locos, sunny days and hoards of visitors. It's a green service, with four steam hauled trains and four DMU hauled trains and I have a third man turn with Fireman Richard and Driver Andy.

As you know, we've spent a few turns on the Y14 getting it ready, and Fitter Alan has kept it inside for as long as possible so the variable weather doesn't have too much of an effect on it's shining repaired and polished paintwork. There's four of us on shed this morning - me and Fitter Alan, with Cleaners James and Henry. I've not touched the wheels and frames, so I ask James and Henry to clean them up.

That done, they follow up with the bare steelwork - the buffers and drawhook.

I lit up and kept control of the fire; I asked Fireman Richard if I could fire the first and fourth, thinking that I had not fired many/any first trips on this loco. Checking my records later, it transpires that I have fired more first trips on this one than any other...

When the signalman arrived, we were ready waiting to go off-shed and I fired down to Sheringham topping up the boiler and the fire as we went; breakfast came and went and I built the fire up, adding more coal and water than expected as the the steam carriage heating equipment was clearly using it rapidly.

I had it hot enough to get out of the platform and across the AOCL without having to touch it - the next round I put on was past the section starter. Using my new-ish Bulldog shovel I was getting coal right where I wanted it but I was actually over-firing the front, unbeknownst to me at the time. I had the small injector on from the top of the 1 in 97 to the beginning of the 1 in 80, and I fired again as we went through Bridge 299. 

I was a bit concerned that I had overdone it, given that we have to stop - there was an MIC running at Weybourne and the last thing I was going to do was let it blow off in front of all our footplate colleagues! As it was, it dropped off more than I expected and with a couple of minutes stationary I fired the back, and then the front again as we approached the up section starter.

Driver Andy likes to make full use of the regulator, and we went up the hill, again, in full second port. The injector went on again just past the P-Way hut, and stayed on as I fired again on the 1 in 214 down to Aviaries.

We arrived at Holt in fine shape and ran around, only to find that the water crane was turned off; thankfully we had left shed with the tank brim-full.

The trip down caught me out. Either the coal was burning very quickly, or it was the effect of the steam heat but by the time we had come out of the station and back down to Aviaries again the pressure was falling to 100 psi and the brake ejector was starting to fail to maintain sufficient vacuum. Fortunately, I retrieved it before it got too embarrassing and soon had it north of 120 psi and rising.

We took water and tea in Sheringham and I handed Fireman Richard the shovel as we had agreed, and he fired the next two trips. I had managed to find out, quite discretely, that the safety valves were lifting 5 psi light - he checked that and confirmed they were, and got caught out by the falling pressure too. On the third stop at Sheringham, he had a look in the fire when it was low and saw the blue flames across the front - poking about with the pricker showed a layer of clinker had formed, possibly due to me over-firing the front. You are supposed to keep a thin bowl shaped fire in the Y14 and it was a bit thicker at the front than was perhaps desirable. The third trip was definitely better, though of course by then it was very warm.

On the third down, we were told by the Weybourne Signalman to stop at Sheringham Down Home and call the Sheringham Signalman on the Signal Post Telephone - the story was that their route indicator was not working. I was please to put the communication protocol into practice for once, telling him I was the Fireman on 2C09 - our head code - and what the message was, repeating his instructions back to him as prescribed in the rules. He recorded a fault with the route indicator.

I fired the fourth slightly differently - I ran with the damper wider open, and used a shorter, cranked shovel - the Bulldog is a bit long for this loco. I spent a lot more time with the small injector on - firing against it and turning it off only when I was certain I didn't need it. In this way I kept the water much higher all the way to disposal - I was also turning the heating on and off, and opening the door to keep the whole plot under control - the fireman's juggling act.

Heading back up from Sheringham, Light Engine, I was careful to keep the water up and to fire just enough to get us up the hill. I was pleased to arrive on shed with the water just visible in the glass and the fire thin and dying - it was a very easy disposal, but we did find a big raft of clinker across front which Driver Andy and I spooned out with the slice.

A good turn, with plenty for the memory banks.

Shed Turn - cleaning the Y14

 Next Saturday is the beginning of the February Half Term service - a green service with four round tips each for a steam hauled train and a DMU. If the weather is good, we are going to use the Y14; second in line is the 9F.

You'll recall last week I set up the loco axlebox trimmings on the Y14; Driver Dave did the tender axleboxes the week before and we cleaned it together. This week, I set about giving it a bit more TLC.

I start with the footplate - cleaning all the paintwork, the ceiling and the wooden seats not forgetting the paintwork on the front of the tender.

I move outside, using some oil & paraffin on the rough smokebox and chimney, and with some Peek I polish up the whistle, the brass trim around the safety valves and the window frames. As there has been some paintwork repairs, I get some wax polish onto these as well.

After morning tea break, I've finished the boiler, safety valve bonnet and smokebox and I use a chunk of wood to remove all the accumulated oily gunge around the running plate and the splashers, before using some oil & paraffin on the running plate, sand boxes, buffer beams, vacuum pipes and the buffer heads. I'm careful to polish this back so the shine is still there but it's not slippery.

After lunch, it's time to clean the brass:

The number plates are best done with a solid pad and a smear of Peek, so you don't fill up the letters with polish. You have to dig all the old polish out and clean up with a toothbrush.

Part way through the afternoon, Fireman Paul and I helped fitter Tom out in the yard - he had the job of shovelling a tonne of ash into the various potholes that had appeared in the 'four foot' - between the rails in the yard.

Back in the cab of the Y14, I set to with the Peek again and by the end of the day the brass was sparkling, the paint was clean and you could see the backhead reflected in the ceiling!

The next time I will be at the railway will be next Saturday, when I am third Man on the first service of the February half term, followed by a cleaning turn a week later; then it's shed turns until March, when we start services at the weekends until Easter, which will be the Spring Steam Gala.

I've got two cleaners on Saturday - I shall set them on keeping the paint clean after we light up and washing down the wheels.

Shed Turn - Trimmings for the Y14

Today, I spent the day making trimmings for stock and fitting axlebox trimmings to the Y14. In case you had forgotten, trimmings are used to assist and control the flow of oil into the many bearings in the motion of the engine, around the valve gear, piston and valve crossheads & guides. Here's the box of trimmings we had at the beginning of the day:

The Y14 has two tail trimmings in each axle box, which fit into two holes and wick oil from four reservoirs. The axle box looks like this from the top:

This one is on the driver's side centre driving wheel and is relatively easy to get to. The rear driving wheel axle boxes are hidden on the inside by the ash pan and the brake gear, and the front ones are hidden by the crosshead guides and crossheads - its best to access these through the spokes, from the outside.

From the top, the reservoirs look like this - there are two 2 1/2" holes to the bearing, and a 1" blind hole; you need two tail type trimmings with 10" feeders for each box:

Here's some I made. The very dark, oily ones are the only three that were fitted to the twelve axlebox trimming locations on the loco - most of them were missing or with useless, 1" feeders which would not reach the reservoirs.

You have to soak them in oil before fitting:

Getting the trimmings in was fiddly but not too difficult with a pair of long surgical forceps:

Once I had the wire in the hole, I could manoeuvre the woollen feeders into their reservoirs.

This was a bit more difficult working through the spokes:

Of course the problem with doing them from the outside is that the motion or the connecting rods prevent you getting access to all the wheels at the same time. I thought that it was 'game over' until we could get a shunter to the loco (and the 4MT was behind the Y14) but Fitter Bob and Driver Dave introduced me to the wonders of the Pinch Bar, a handy tool that allows you to move the whole loco on your own:

Basically it's a heavy wooden lever with a foot that pushes on the ground and a moveable pad that lifts the wheel, so you can move the wheel a few degrees at a time. It took us 5 minutes to move the loco 1/4 of a turn, which allowed me access to the last axlebox.

With the Y14 done, I turned my attention to making up various other trimmings to fill up the box. Starting with some 1.0 mm² twin & earth, I made up some 6" lengths of wire:

I bent these into a U shape:

Next you make a loop in the end around a bit of bar:

No picture, but with the pure new wool (100% wool) that you bought from the craft shop that very morning (they don't seem to mind some bloke turning up in filthy overalls) make a batch of strands of your desired length by wrapping them around a suitable bit of wood, card, or your fingers.

I later learned that you should use worsted, as the fibres are very long. I few months later I discovered a couple of the wool trimmings I'd made prematurely broken... 

 Lay the number you need into the twisted wire:

I was making a 'Plug & Tail" type here

By close of play, I had filled the box up more or less. I could have got on a lot quicker had I remembered that the Black Book has a neat table of instructions:

No matter.

Cracking sunset on the way home: