Here we are again, a couple of days later and I'm at the railway at 06:00 and the car park is mysteriously full. It turns out there is a lot going on - the 4MT is out on a training day for the Cromer crews, due off shed at 09:00 and Fitters Alan and Alex have been here since 05:00 fixing the ash pan screen on the 7F, which is causing some concern.
There is a tense atmosphere, not least from Driver Paul who is already here; I learn that we will have no Third Man today as Fitter Alan, who was due out with us, will run out of hours since he has been here since 05:00.
The 7F is a loco with which I am not very familiar - I've done 2 third man turns on it, including 5 trips up and 4 trips down reasonably successfully though I know the safety valves will drop 20 psi before re-seating - so blowing off loses a lot of water and coal, and I know that the water level is critical to the operation of the ejectors - get it too high and the brakes will come on. The first time I fired this, I was encouraged to build the back end up really well and this resulted, with the addition of my inexperienced hand in the train grinding to a halt on the AOCL. This will be the first time I have fired the first up trip on this loco which can be a challenge on any loco...
Anyhow, let's get on with it. Fitter Alan has cleaned the smokebox, but Fitter Alex is still in the four foot laying in the mud under the loco fitting the ash pan screen. When he comes out, I go and light up with a lot of wood and rags on top of a little coal, under the rear edge of the arch more or less in the middle of the length of the grate.
Wrong. For the first time today, I have incurred the wrath of Driver Paul - whilst it's alight and not making much smoke, it's better to light it right at the front and work the fire backwards - you get the heat into the arch and minimise the smoke at the door - you can also see what you are doing.
Having lit up, I sort out the irons, trim the coal and tidy up the footplate, getting ready to do a bit of cleaning when Fitter Alan asks me to light up the Y14, which is on a lunch service today - so I have two fires to tend, though Driver Fozzy arrives very early to take over the Y14.
Steam raising goes very well on the 7F and we are soon ready to go down to the pit. Driver Paul has a look underneath while I test the injectors - and soon he is ready for me to go and rake out the pan. There will be no blow down today. I take the opportunity to fetch a lamp and a couple of discs, as we are near the lamp store.
We take a bucket of coal; Driver Paul asks me if I am happy with one bucket in a way which means that 'yes' would be the wrong answer, but I'm thinking of the last time I put two in the 9F and ended up clearing it up off the footplate for the first two trips. We take another half from Fitter Bob on the loader, and I climb up to trim it for safety.
True to form, I didn't get the footplate clear until the third trip but then I didn't spend much time raking either!
Since we are second off-shed we go back up the yard for the 4MT to come on the pit. We are ready 50 minutes early, but spend too much time chatting in changing room such that by the time I am back on the loco the back of the fire needs more wood to get going again. Fortunately, I have made sure I am first back so I can recover before anyone notices!
Down in Sheringham we collect our train and our breakfast and I build the fire. Responsible Officer Peter comes down for a briefing, telling us that we are to pay utmost attention to prevent lineside fires - minimum regulator, don't work it hard, and don't fire it in vulnerable areas - Kelling Bank, for example.
And that's where it all goes a bit pear shaped.
The first two trips were difficult. Too much fire, too much steam, too many hands on the shovel, too much water. I've lost count of the number of times we blew off, blasting soot off bridges 305 and 302. The worst bit was on the way down on the second trip, where I was topping up on that usually peaceful journey down to Bridge 303 and up to Dead Man's and managed to forget I had the injector on. As we climbed the hill, I was looking at the gauge and wondering why, when we had hardly used any steam, the gauge was dropping to 140 psi and the train was slowing more than it should at that point - the vacuum was falling off.
I switched the injector off, but it was too late - we ground to a halt. The pressure started to recover but there was way too much water in the boiler - I thought that I could lose some water by getting it to blow off, and as I reached for the shovel Driver Paul, who had been complaining about how difficult I was making his job, told me to stoke it up and get it to blow off.
At least I was thinking along the right lines. In the end, after a couple of minutes the vacuum had recovered sufficiently for us to move without me adding much to the fire at all - which was actually the last thing I needed since I had no water space.
Back in Sheringham, the NNR bush telegraph had been working and everyone seemed to know why we were late. Ironically, we'd been a little late out of Holt as the train handbrake had been left on and we couldn't pull the vacuum - that cost a couple of minutes but was nothing compared to my FUBAR on the hill.
The relationships on the footplate were a little icy after that.
From my perspective, the rest of the day was OK. We'd been joined by Driver Steve, ostensibly to help out with the ashpan which was dropping hot embers - you could smell wood & weeds burning whenever the loco was stopped for a while. Driver's Steve and Paul washed the pan down at Holt for the last two trips before we watered and perhaps this diverted attention to other things; I was able to get on with firing the loco as I wanted; OK, I left the injector on a bit long on the third up trip and arrived at 299 a bit lower than I wanted, but soon recovered and the fourth trip was fine, preparing for disposal with plenty of water and sufficient fire to dispose - in fact, the water was almost over the gauge steam valves as we stabled the loco.
The ash pan was absolutely rammed though.
In the end, a couple of days later, this was one of those painful days where stuff goes wrong but you learn something; you take the criticism, however harsh, on the chin and try not to do it again. I had a full day on the shovel, no help, and I had two good trips out of it, disposed well, it was off shed on time and only pride was hurt!
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