Yard lights are the order of the day as the Summer draws to a close. Today Driver Paul and I are rostered to the WD 'Austerity 2-10-0 90775, a loco with which I am very familiar, though we have an odd time timetable that involves 5 round trips between Sheringham and Weybourne due to a track defect at Holt - hopefully this will be fixed for the weekend in time for perhaps the railway's premier event, 1940's weekend.
So with nothing in the smokebox I can drop the old warming fire and build a new one, with a lot of wood and a little coal. Heat is the name of the game, to get the old girl breathing though that long boiler and those meagre dampers. She goes easily with little smoke.
I stay on the footplate and build the fire, starting the process of cleaning the footplate when there is no more black smoke emanating from the firehole. This done, I progress to the boiler and give that a dry wipe which comes up well.
On the pit, it's time to ash out. Unfortunately, yesterday's warming fire must have been mostly ovoids, and there is dry ash everywhere despite Driver Paul and Fitter Alan washing the pan down before we drop the hopper door - there is just so much of it, all over my nice clean loco. Fitter Alan kindly hoses it off the running boards while I go and get changed.
Nearly ready to go, Driver Paul draws my attention to something in my fire - there is a dead bit at the back. I have a look.
This was one of those things that gives you pause for thought - it was the remains of the warming fire - I thought it would perk up again as I ladled new coal over it. It didn't, and just produced a cold spot in my grate.
I attacked it with the fire irons, which was hot work as my fire was ready to go and managed to clear it all out.
As usual, the boiler was a bit cool first trip - it was dropping below 180 as we finished filling it coming down Dead Man's but once she had warmed up we did four other good trips. Driver Paul helped me out with a lot of raking from the back of the tender, and operated the driver's side injector whenever I needed it - if you recall, the driver's side water valve on this loco is under the driver's seat in the most awkward place for avoiding embarrassment.
At the end of the day, I was pleased that I had learned to fire to the conditions - once it was hot, I was using very little coal to keep it hot. I didn't blow off and I didn't touch the dampers - I was adding more coal for the up trips than I was for the down trips, but after the first trip the boiler stayed over 200 psi all day. I was firing when I new there would be a demand for steam, and I was firing when I had already used the previous charge to bring the water up, so I wasn't firing and adding water at the same time.
I was firing wherever I needed to, a routine which would be different when there is danger of lineside fires. in those situations I would fire more in the safer locations, and perhaps change the way I added water, perhaps leaving more space if there was a vigorous fire that needed controlling.
One thing that Driver Paul pointed out, as I swore for the umpteenth time about the handbrake column, was that the shovel I was using (my tin Carter shovel, with the cranked blade that I use on this and the 9F) was very long - he suggested using the company shovel:
It's 6" shorter in the handle, and flies in and out of the firehole so smoothly... That Carter shovel is going to be trimmed. However, the Carter shovel is good, in that it is well cranked and has high sides that retain the coal better than the flatter company one. It'll be the best of both worlds when I am finished with it.
There was a Fish & Chip crew taking over from us so we hauled out the clinker, and there was a lot of it, to give them a clean fire to start their service. The boiler was full.
With the sun setting and Driver Paul needing to get home early, I stayed behind to clean the pit and have a look at the loco that I will hopefully be firing at the weekend.
I'll tell you about that next time.
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