Turn 103 - Fireman on the Y14

Wednesday comes again at last - it's been ten days or so since my last turn, which was a Saturday evening diner. I make the (bad) decision to rock up in time for my booked sign-on time of 07:00, actually arriving at 06:40 to find Driver Christian lighting up with three fitters and new cleaner Michael - nothing wrong in that technically, but what if we had had a more difficult loco and there was only the Duty Fitter about, and there had been a second loco to light up? I resume my normal duties and take over the fire, which has been lit up on the pile of ovoids left in the tender and needs some more wood.

I go and collect the lamp and discs:

New cleaner Michael makes a lovely job of the paintwork, and we are on the pit just after 08:00. There's not much ash.

It's going to be a good day. Duty Fitter Alan treats us to two scoops of real, bituminous coal - the only ovoids are in a slowly decreasing heap I have moved to the side of the tender where I can dip into them when I want.

We make four round trips: I'm doing most of the hooking on & off, Driver Christian does all the tea runs which makes life much easier for me as I hardly have to leave the footplate. We have a dining train running in the 'third path' in the latter part of the day, so I am careful to 'go between' from the platform:

On the fourth up, Driver Chris motions me into his seat above Weybourne to take the train into Holt - he's already got it in second valve and all I need to do is notch up until we get to Wind Pump, where I shut off and go into full forward gear as we coast down the other side. The Y14 is a slide valve engine and coasting is done in full gear. I open up again as we negotiate Averies, shutting off to pass the crossover going into Holt Platform 1. I stop about 10 yards short, and Chris unhooks.

I run the loco around and back onto the water crane, which I overshoot by several feet and have to go back. Coming forward again, I overshoot by about two feet which is workable...

The problem with being two feet from the stopping point is that it's hard to hold the bag in the tender - and I end up with a wet leg.

Later in the day, when the lunch service started, the importance of having a bucket of water on the footplate became apparent. On the third up, we had two sleeper fires to put out; on the fourth, there were five! There's been no rain around here for weeks and the ground is tinder dry. When sleepers reach the end of their life and start to disintegrate, there is a lot of dry rotting wood around which catches tiny bits of hot ash...

Because of this risk, we are encouraged to keep the dampers closed as much as possible to prevent sleeper fires and to avoid firing with the regulator open, which encourages sparks and hot ash to fly up from the fire and pass out of the chimney resulting, if you are unlucky, with lineside fires.

Back in Sheringham after the fourth down trip, we waited for the 4MT to head back to Weybourne after the conclusion of the lunch service. While we waited, I ran the loco around to Platform 2 to wait for the platform starter signal.

With the starter cleared I drove back to Weybourne Light Engine, to wait again at Weybourne Platform 1 for the down diesel to clear platform 2; we were then signalled up to Bridge 301 and back down into the yard, where we waited a while for the 4MT to finish on the pit.

I think I must have been pretty excited about all the driving I'd been doing, because I forgot to clean fire before ashing out and had to do it again!

Next time it's a cleaning turn with the Youth Development Club, then a new experience, a Second Man turn on the Class 25 - the current plan is that to reduce the fire risk during this hot spell, the summer red service will be supported by a steam loco and a diesel loco, in place of two steam locos.