Turn 116 - Firing the WD

Well, let's get the apologies out of the way - there aren't going to be too many pictures in this post. Excuses:

• we were very busy
• it was chucking it down 
• I was doing a lot of concentrating

Last night, I wandered up to the railway to see if the blackboard which customarily sits outside the ticket office at Sheringham could be seen from the station car park, because it would tell me what engine had been in service that day and would hint at what we would be rostered to today. It could, and it did - it showed the 7F, 53809.

So it was with a bit of a surprise that I found we were rostered to the WD, and that the 7F was assigned to the lunch service. No worries, I had arrived in plenty of time and set about preparing it for service. The grate was nice and clean and so was the smokebox - no worries there, but why was the grate clean? Eventually I twigged that she hadn't been out the previous day and there hadn't been a warming fire lit, so I added to my heap of wood and got her going as usual, adding coal and wood as needed to build a decent fire.

She took ages to come around - she often is a bit slow. I tried using the dampers but adding primary air at the back caused a lot of smoke, especially from the fire hole - Driver Alex later suggested that if I had waited to put the flame scoop in until I had enough pressure to work the blower, I could have used the dampers without the smoke from the door.

Ho hum. Every day is a school day.

I had about 20 psi on by 08:00 or so, way too late really. We managed a bit of a blow down, but not the full glass Fitter Bob was after; one thing worth watching at low boiler pressures is the blower valve - just crack it if you don't have much steam, you can waste a lot of steam through it if it is too wide open.

With a tender full of ovoids, we went off shed at 09:55 - with the first train due out of Sheringham at 10:00. I fired heavily on the way down, we were full of water and eventually got the first train away at 10:20 - we hadn't had a drink since 07:00 and hadn't ordered any breakfast, but RO Josh had it sorted for the second trip.

I'd fired pretty thoroughly through the first trip, such that we had 180 psi and a full glass by the time we got to Holt, ready to turn around and come straight back. We were catching up.

I kept on it all the way down, and we ran around in Sheringham stopping long enough to pick up our breakfast and by the time we were back in Weybourne, the DMU was waiting for us and the signalman had our token ready, so we were only there for two minutes. By the time we reached Holt we were on time.

Driver Alex is a busy chap who doesn't do many turns, and was keen to fire. As it was raining, he decided it would be good experience for me to try driving with wet rails. I drove the 2nd down, the whole third trip, and the 4th up. I took the shovel again in Holt for the 4th down to prepare for disposal.

Now, I'm getting the hang of braking a train - it's made easier, as Driver Christian told me once, if you keep your eye on the vacuum gauge as you will not have enough experience to do it be sound and feel alone - but there are procedural things I need to get in my head, things like easing couplings, and opening the blower religiously before you shut the regulator. I'd like to write up the driver's instructions for these daily tasks: 

• Driving light engine 
• Approaching the train and hooking on 
• Moving off with the train 
• Stopping and restarting the train 
• Stopping the train and preparing to unhook 
• Watering

Another fun thing we had to contend with was a temporary speed restriction of 5mph around the up distant into Weybourne, in both directions. It was there all day until the 4th up, which we did with a bit more gusto.

I must learn the speed limits:

• Normal line speed 25 mph
• Sheringham - 3 mph while running around at Otterndorf Green
• Crossing the AOCL - 10 mph
• Weybourne - Sheringham end crossover, both directions:
• 10 mph through platform 1
• 5 mph through platform 2
• Holt - Weybourne end crossover, both directions
• 5mph into platform 1 
• Entering a terminal platform - 15 mph (entering a through platform is 25 mph) 
• Shunting - 5 mph

The other thing to remember is that a speed restriction applies for the full length of the train, so you must watch the end of your train through the end of the limit. 

Other useful stuff I picked up:

• Use reverser to get the loco moving if the valves stop in wrong place
• Operate reverser notch by notch to find optimum running position 
• Regulator is just a two port on/off valve - use the reverser to control speed.
• Use the curves, points and slopes to slow you down and speed you up. You don't always need the brakes, and you may find enough pressure in the steam chest to start you moving 

Back to braking again, it's tricky to know exactly how far your loco will roll and how quickly it will stop - getting the loco in the right place for watering, when you are light engine, seems to be more difficult than stopping in the right place in a station, though you must remember stopping lengths and positions for the length of your train.

This is the Gresham brake valve & ejector fitted to the WD. The big hexagons are the access plugs for cleaning the ejector cones, and the little lever on the left operates the small ejector. Vertically down is off, and vertically up is the running position. The big lever on the right applies the brake - it is shown here in the normal running position; push it up towards vertical and it will start the large ejector; pull it down and it will apply the brake.

You keep the vacuum handle in the full on? position when running light engine (i.e. vented train pipe) to guarantee that when you hook on or off the train wont move. No vacuum in the train pipe will also bring the steam brake on. Need to check this paragraph! 

When you arrive at the end of your trip, you bleed the vacuum reservoir using that red toggle while you wind the reverser. This is to ensure that the whole vacuum system is vented and that the brakes are on all along the train - you don't want the train to move while you squeeze up. When you've done that, you can give the regulator the merest squirt to move the loco a little and then get straight on the steam brake. Leave everything as-is whilst uncoupling. 

I'd been talking to Driver Alex about the ovoids off and on through the day and had mentioned how they clinker, so I was pleased to see him get the bent dart out at Holt on the 3rd up and pull it through the back - and there was the usual plates of clinker which he broke up on the grate. This paid dividends later - the loco was steaming well and there was hardly any clinker on disposal.

Next challenge? A Silver Driver Experience in two days time.