Turn 120 - Firing the 9F, Second Man on the 31

The sun was still hidden deeply under the horizon as I made my way to shed on Wednesday. Expecting to have an easy day firing the 4MT, a little foray onto the NNR Volunteers Facebook page revealed that the 9F would be out for a week to test the newly repaired No. 1 injector. I didn't hang about as I guessed she might not be too warm...

In the event, prep was very easy, as it is with the BR Standard locos with their rocking grates and hopper ashpans. The smokebox was spotless, having received the attentions of the NNR Youth Development Club at the weekend, and the spark screen was clean too - I made sure to check it, after waiting for hours for her to wake up several weeks ago when the screen was sooted up. Learned that lesson!

I lit up under the arch and then when that fire was going I built it out and back with more wood and small coal, feeding the fire with small coal and with the scoop out until I could get the blower working. 

She was getting through the coal very quickly, but I wanted to make sure she was good and hot for the first trip up. I dropped the pan on the pit as it was pretty full - I guess she had had a lot of yard testing as the tender tank had been a long way down as well.

Whilst I had her up to the red line when we were on the pit, with a hot fire, after our run down to Sheringham, hooking on, collecting the tea and having a bit of breakfast she was very thin again so I set about building a big fire; in fact, I was feeding her on the down trips much as I would on an up trip, it was burning so quickly. 

As we were testing the exhaust injector, Duty Fitter Alex came out with us for the first trip, and it was very handy for me to have him along as he performed the 'Third Man' duties as I worked the fire. We got up to Holt OK, but the run up Kelling took it out of her and I was down to 160 psi by the time we got to the top. Thin in the middle.

The No. 1 exhaust injector had been OK - Chief Engineer Keith asked us to favour it, and for the first part of the trip it started well enough, though by the end of the first trip Alex and I had spent a lot of time hanging out of the window, watching the overflow and fiddling with the steam and water valves. Here's another of Mick Ladner's pictures: 

I was very glad Alex was there to witness it playing up - it would be up to him and Driver Andrew to fail the loco as we couldn't carry on with an unreliable injector - you are obliged to have two independent means of putting water in the boiler, and if injector No. 2 had failed we would have been in a risky situation.

Sitting under the bridge at Weybourne we decided enough was enough and called the RO. We would head up to Holt, come back down to Weybourne and the Class 31 would relieve us there.

Back in Weybourne I unhooked the 9F and we took her into the yard; I transferred my kit to the 31 and while Alex and Andrew put the 9F on the pit for disposal Driver Peter and I hooked on to the train.

You don't have to do much as a second man - basically its the fireman's job without the boiler and fire management, so just observation, hooking on, and handling the token. And the tea of course!

A very easy afternoon - or so it seemed. Having completed the 2nd down trip to Sheringham, we heard, when we arrived in Weybourne on the 3rd up, that the 9F might be OK and that we should prepare to come off the train on the 3rd down - this would be a short day for Driver Chris who had arrived to replace Driver Peter, who had to resume his many other duties. In the event, the 9F's injector was still playing up and Chris and I finished the day on the 31.

Back in Sheringham though, Driver Chris relinquished his seat and gave me the opportunity to drive the Class 31 back to shed - which I leapt at of course, taking it into the yard and stabling it nose to nose with the Class 37.

That's another 15 minutes on my Second Man Driving Record.

The poor 9F is on the naughty step again. Will I see her when I am back on the railway in a month's time, for the first of the Norfolk Lights Express turns for 2022?

Turn 119 - Firing the Y14: Autumn Showcase

This summer's heat wave brought about the cancelation of the usual NNR Steam Gala, and the plan was to run the gala in conjunction with the October M&GNJRS Member's Day, when the risk of lineside fires had receded. In the event, no suitable visiting locos were available to add to the home fleet, so the Member's Day was extended to become the NNR 'Autumn Showcase' with the M&GNJRS owned Y14, WD and EE Class 31 supplemented by the 7F.

For me, the day promised another Grand Day Out with a full 12 hour shift firing the Y14, with the vintage set on the back - with some warm sunny weather to top it off. I signed on at 06:30, as the diagram had us booking off at 18:30 - we can't do more than 12 hours. Fitter Bob had lit up the Y14.

She'd been out the day before, so all I had to do was raise steam, get some water in the tender and clean her up a bit. 

Driver Ed and I made our way down to Sheringham, waiting in platform 1 whilst the 7F hauled the Quad-Arts out of platform 2. Our set was waiting behind them, so we had to move back over the points and into platform 2 to tie on. The great thing about the vintage set is that there's a lot of space to stand while you are hooking on, even if you have an audience from the veranda of the Wisbech & Upwell Tramcar!

We made four uneventful round trips; I was pleased to arrive at Holt on the first up with 150 psi on the clock and a full boiler. After the second trip, I had the irons in the fire breaking up clinker. I wasn't going to have a repeat performance of the last time I was out on this loco, and as suspected it was building a nice thick layer at both the front and back of the grate.

That's ovoids for you.

On the second down trip, Driver Ed requested that I aim for 1/2 to 3/4 of a glass, rather than the full glass that I normally end up with. I decided with his agreement to let the engine blow off some steam to bring the level down, and we spent the rest of the day at a lower level - it's tricky though, I found the pressure yo-yoing on the down trips as I fed it lightly to avoid having to use the injectors to control the pressure - I used the blower, the door and the damper to keep the fire under control, using the injectors only when I was sure he would use the steam. 

As is usual for a gala weekend, or call it what you will, there were lots of people about to chat and ask questions, lots of people taking pictures, and two little chaps with their Nan who asked if I remembered them when they came last time when I was Second Man on the Class 37. As it happened I did - they were both very engaging and delightfully bowled bits of coal into the firebox for me as we waited for the goods train to come up.

I cleaned the fire again on the 3rd trip, whilst waiting in Holt, and again after the fourth while waiting in Sheringham for the set to be pulled off. Both times it was worth doing, and all I had to do at disposal was break up some of the biggest lumps.

We'd arrived with a full boiler and 140 psi on the clock, which easily replaced the water lost while we cleaned the fire for the last time.

A great turn.

Turn 118 - Firing the Y14

Well, I'd been looking forward to a nice easy day out with Driver Graeme on one of the three steam locos that are in service at the moment - the 7F, the Y14 or the WD. Keeping my eyes open the day before revealed that the tool of choice was to be the Y14, so we were in for a fun day out: nothing unusual, just prep, four round trips and dispose.

First surprise was finding cleaner Jacob in the car park - it's great to have some help, as I probably wouldn't have done so much cleaning without him. He started on the smokebox while I got myself ready to light up. There was a lot of clinker in the box, so with a return to traditional methods I dived in and cleaned it out, pulling a couple of firebars and brushing it all into the pan.

Lighting up involved a lot of wood as has become the norm, and in deference to Driver Alex' comments last week I left the scoop out until I had 30 psi on the clock, which as the loco had been out the day before was pretty quickly.

It wasn't entirely smoke free, but that's mostly paraffin burning off... 

A couple of hours later, Jacob and I had got it nice and clean and the boiler pressure was coming up well.

Jacob's looking proud of his handiwork!

There was a bit of coal left in the tender after steam raising and we took most of a bucket from Fitter Alex. Later, I was to wish I had taken two - like I usually do! It was mostly ovoids, which is OK if you know what to expect.

We ate breakfast at Sheringham, from the splendid railway buffet: 

The Wednesday S&T team admired our shiny engine:

Today we were hitched to Set A, with four Mk1s and the RBR - five full size coaches in all. Until last week, when I was driving the WD with four on the back and had started thinking about stopping distances, I hadn't paid much attention to what we were hauling about the countryside. More of that later.

The day started pretty well, full boiler and a good fire starting out but a bit light on water and steam on arrival - not atypical for the first trip but had I fired it on all three hills it could have been better - a good tip for the weekend, when I have it again.

Adding coal on the way up the various hills and using the chuffs to get the new coal burning, I managed to over fire on the second trip, blowing off but I didn't have any water level problems; this trip was mostly bituminous coal, and the heat was coming around much more quickly. I cut back a bit on the third, paying more attention to my instinct, and the fire, water levels and boiler pressure were fine. I'd spoken to yesterday's crew about cleaning the fire part way through the day, and they had had the irons out twice even on a mixture of bituminous coal and ovoids. Talking about this with Driver Graeme we decided that we didn't see the need - she was steaming well. We didn't have a huge amount of coal but it was so hot that I wasn't worried.

The fourth up was fine as far as Weybourne - I mean, we had seen the rain clouds forming on the way down and we were congratulating ourselves that we would be heading into it protected by the cab, and hoping that it would pass by the time we had to come back, but the rain start to tip down. It was very wet by the time we came to leave Weybourne, and although I had built a good fire and we were full of water ready to leave we could not get past the crossover for slipping.

Having tried to get going several times, we gave up and had to come up with a new plan. With the help of Signalman Phil, we backed down into the station and had another go.

I built the fire up again, because all that slipping and full forward gear action had taken heat out of the fire and water out of the boiler - slipping causes the blast to increase dramatically. We still couldn't get past the crossover: we had the railway's smallest engine on the largest set of coaches - and wet rails.

I've been through the Y14's toolbox many times, checking flags, gauge glasses and stuff - and the lightbulb went on. Under the driver's bag, under the rags and under the canvas tarp lies a bag of sand. Leaving Driver Graeme in the cab, I walked off up the line pouring sand over my feet and over the rails, as far as the crossover. 

There weren't going to be too many more chances - people had been talking about cancelling the remains of the trip - but we had two coach parties on board and the train was full. So, with one last chance I built the fire up again, 150 psi and close to blowing off but full of water. I'd used about half a bag of sand.

We crawled gently out of Weybourne, very slowly but without slipping, and we got through the crossover and beyond the section I had sanded and we finally started  to climb the hill. 

All was not well however. The trip up the hill was taking a lot out of the boiler and the fire was not keeping up despite further investigation. As we went up, pressure quickly dropped and we were getting short of water. We stopped to recover after Aviaries curve. We were now very short of coal, we had only ovoids left and it was all soaking wet.

We arrived in Holt to a row of cheering, clapping passengers who must have been warned that we were struggling. 

We stopped and cleaned the fire. It was a mass of clinker all over the grate, with fire on top and no air getting through at all. We'd had the dampers fully open on the way up, which had no effect - this is always a sign of a problem. 

By the time I had cleaned the fire and built it up again, there was very little coal left:

Earlier in the day, we'd been asked if we would shunt the Quads and the Vintage Set from the loop to Platform 2 at Sheringham, but there was no way that was going to happen - we just didn't have the coal. If we hadn't made three attempts at the hill, we wouldn't have used so much. The RO decided to mobilise the Class 31 to relieve us of our train - so all we had to do was get back to Weybourne. 

Lessons learned? Well, I won't be going anywhere without two scoops of coal in the tender. And second? In three years I've never had to put the irons in the fire before the end of the day, but now? I think I might do it every time.