Turn 93 - Fireman on the WD

Third firing turn, on a Friday for a change.  Driver Dave and I have the WD, and since I know there is no Third Man I arrive at 06:00 to get the Old Lady lit up - she takes awhile sometimes. Checking the smokebox, I find virtually nothing there which looks a bit odd, but might be the coal we have at the moment; there's half a glass in the boiler which is typical of the WD, whose regulator doesn't always close too well.

So, with a lot of wood I lit up with a big fire at the front, widening it and moving it back as it warmed up. Although she had been in service the day before, I was surprised how quickly the needle lifted off the stop

The smoke wasn't too bad either!

When Driver Dave had finished oiling up we had about 80 psi, so we removed the NTBM board and checked our brakes before going onto the pit to test the injectors and blow down.

A check of the ash pan revealed plenty of space, and I tested the sprinklers whilst refilling the boiler. We moved back for coal - two scoops from the loader, with a fair bit of nutty coal and dust in amongst the fist-sized lumps. I was surprised to find the coaling plate and tender door on the WD doesn't seem to spill coal on the floor like the 9F, and the floor remained clean all day.

I had the boiler in the top quarter by the time we moved off-shed, and having had a few turns to get used to this coal, built a light fire to take us down - it was 09:15 and we were on time. In Sheringham, we had 20 minutes to sit and eat at one of the tables before I had to build the fire to take us up.

Throughout the day, I fired a heavy back end though not up to the door, making sure that I had the front and sides well covered at all times - this grate goes thin on the sides, just back from the front corners when I fire it and I was pleased to see it doing this all day - my firing was quite consistent. We had four great trips, apart from the third up, where I had left the two back corners too thin and it was only just 200 psi by the time we crested Wind Pump - the rest of the day it was sitting at 220 or pushing the red line, and the water very high in the glass.

Why keep the water in the top nut and the boiler pressure on the red line? Because I over-fire and have to use water to keep it under control, basically. All very well on this loco, but can have a disastrous effect on the 7F, where you will stop the ejector working.

Maybe I need to impose a lower water level on myself and let it blow off when it wants to, if I let it get too hot. Maybe that way I will learn not to overdo it.

Anyhow, a couple of other things to mention today - someone told me a while back that the water gauge valve on the tender had been fixed - the water gauge on the WD is basically a vertical pipe with holes in it, bent at the top, with a plug valve at the bottom You turn the bent bit to open the valve and fill the gauge with water, and then the water dribbles out of the holes to show you how full the tender is, like this:

Very simple and cheap, unless the valve fails - then you lose all the water in the tender. Maybe not so clever, but very fitting on an Austerity locomotive.

Another feature of the locomotive footplate is the crew wash room - a bucket of clean water, some coal-tar soap for that authentic '40's smell and a bottle of washing up liquid to clean the floor, or to shift greasy stains from the hands. The water is cold, but you can always warm it up with the slacker pipe if you don't mind washing your hands in tannin.

Back in Sheringham, Driver Dave checks the big ends and coupling rod bearings:

We arrived back on shed for disposal with 200 psi on the clock, to which I added a bit by firing to a couple of holes when we arrived, and a full boiler. The fire was pretty thin and the current batch of coal disposes easily as it doesn't clinker but breaks down into small lumps of ash - good for disposal but not so good if you are trying to avoid lineside fires, but I had kept the sprinkler going for most of the day.

Stabling the loco, we found the usual WD problem - the regulator passes steam, as witnessed by the steam passing through the open drain cocks - which explains why you arrive in the morning to find the boiler half empty. I know that I left it full over the top nut, but apparently when the crew arrived next morning there was 1/4 of a glass left...

In the end though, it was a cracking day out. No disasters, boiler full all the time and boiler pressure on the mark the whole day.

It doesn't get much better than that.