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.