Turn 115 - Firing 4270 - Steam Back to the Forties

 It’s gala time! This weekend was the first post-COVID 40’s weekend - called ‘Steaming Back to the 40’s’ and I was lucky enough to have a firing turn - my first gala turn as a Passed Cleaner. 

Sign on for me, Fireman 6, was at 12:50 - Driver Christian and I relieved the first crew who had been on since 04:45. I arrived early and spent the time mooching around the station with a cup of coffee and chatting to Signalman Robert.

Now here’s a stroke of luck! Today I’m rostered on a visiting engine, GWR Class 4200, in fact 4270 from the Gloucester Warwickshire Steam Railway:

She's quite a beast. This was my first turn on a visiting steam engine, first on a western engine, and first on a tank engine.

Fortunately Minder Andy was there to talk us through the controls and to tell me how to handle the fire. He also did 90% of the raking! The GWSR looks like a great railway on the edge of the Cotswolds. We must go down there sometime:

With this loco, whose firebox looks a lot like the 7F, the drill is to fill the back up to the door to give yourself a bank of heat while you wait, and fill the front in as well, just less thickly. It will thin in the middle, so you can use this to control the heat - just fill the middle when you go. The 7F will let you play this way as well - let it go in the middle and pressure will fall. 

My first up trip was from Weybourne to Holt, using part of Fireman Steve's fire and adding to it from Minder Andy's instructions. When I was back in Sheringham ready for my second trip, I discovered that you shouldn't put too much in the middle as it will make a lot of steam - I had it blowing off most of the way up Dead Man's. We were using bituminous coal which makes a lot of heat very quickly.

As a tank engine, 4270 fits neatly under the water crane and you can just leave the bag in the filler and let it flow. It's got a 4" balance pipe between the two tanks, which take a while to even up - so you have to slow the flow down to match that of the balance pipe if you are to fill both sides. It takes a while, so you have time to watch the entertainment.

Coming back into the cab, I was getting the hang of what she needed and the third up trip was much better - she's an easy loco to fire, though I found the damper controls a bit awkward. Talking of controls, let's take a look around the footplate. These are the two injector steam valves:

Boiler pressure and steam heat pressure gauge, with the single water gauge and the two test valves. That water gauge has a handy bracket for the gauge lamp:

Here are the two water valves and the handbrake, with the shutter for the coal hole between them. Yes, you do get coal all over the floor and your back is considerably less bent on a tender engine:

Here's the pole reverser and lubricator. That wooden handle is the blower valve, and the steel handle below the lubricator is the cylinder cocks lever. See the shiny mushroom head and nut at the end of the reverser rack? That's a foot rest to help you when you want to give the lever a proper heave.

Back to the trip, and a struggle with the platform starter meant I had to visit the signal box to find out what was going on - I took this picture on the way back to the loco, having collected the token.

Once the starter finally cleared we were on our way back to Sheringham for the last time, and as usual I prepared the fire for the light engine trip, filling up the boiler and building a decent fire to get us back up and to replace the water on the way. We topped up the tanks once more, as Driver Christian had the loco the next day, and I was very happy to get the opportunity to drive the loco back to Weybourne and put it on the pit.

The fire got a good raking through when we arrived, but as we had been on bituminous coal all day it was pretty clean with none of the clinker we get with ovoids these days. Good job really, there is no drop grate on this engine.

Here's the smokebox and screens: 

Now, western engines have a reputation for being a bit unusual, and here's an example - there is no steam brake. The loco brakes are vacuum operated (there is a good diagram of the system in the Black Book) and you have to blow up the vacuum before you use the brakes. Here are the brake controls - the two wooden handles in the middle are the brake lever (left) and the ejector (right):

Here's another part of the system - instead of two ejectors, this western engine has a vacuum pump driven from the driver's side crosshead. It's hard to see on the 42XX because it's essentially mounted under and behind the lower part of the side tank:

The pump operates all the time the loco is moving, maintaining the vacuum. If you've stopped and destroyed the vacuum, you'll need to use the ejector.

This view is from under the back buffer beam - that's the brake cylinder.

Big isn't it.

So that was another grand day out on the railway - another day of firsts - first tank engine, first firing turn at a gala, first turn on a visiting steam engine (I'm not counting the Beyer Peacock Class 25 I drove a few weeks ago), and I got to drive it too.

And not too many cock ups!