Turn 155 - Firing the 4MT: Fish & Chips

 It's Wednesday evening, and we are on shed at 16:30 for the Fish & Chip service with Driver Fozz, a nice easy one-trip turn where you get fed!

Fitter Alan coals the 4MT for the next day - the loader is going for service and won't be available in the morning, so we are coaling today. The day crew have ashed out, and amongst to merry banter on the footplate I keep the fire hot while we wait for the Signalman to lock out the box for us to travel One Train On Line.

It's come to that time of year, at least for the chipper - the lamps are lit for a non-stop Class 1 service, though we don't need steam heat yet.

The chipper has a 30 minute non-stop trip time to Holt, which gives the driver time to eat his dinner as we chuff slowly along. The slow pace takes it out of the fire though and I'm on the shovel out of Sheringham, down Dead Man's, into Weybourne and down into Aviaries. I'm very pleased to arrive in Holt with 3/4 of a glass though.

Going down, I keep the fire hot with little & often around the box and we have more than 3/4 in the glass when we arrive in Sheringham. I fire lightly before we run around and the pressure is coming up as we take water; I fire a bit more heavily to take us up as I want to make sure I have a virtually full boiler by the time we get on the pit.

She doesn't drop below 200 psi all the way up and I'm pleased to find very little water space in the glass as I clean the fire.

Next turn, as Driver Fozz reminds me, is my assessment - in two weeks time.

Gulp.

Turn 154 - DMU Driver Training

It's been a busy week, but this turn is a bit less physical as it's a DMU Driver Training turn on the newly turned out M56182 driving trailer, restored and owned by the Birmingham Railcar Group. It's a beautiful thing:

The driving desk is a little different from the Class 101 railcars we are used to, but in detail only. All the usual controls are there.

In my previous driver training turn Inspector Dan signed me off for driving passenger trains, and I started this turn by taking the empty coaching stock down to Sheringham to collect the guard and the provisions for the buffet and then back up to Holt.

Later, while Driver Rod in the front I took a trip with the guard to establish the difference in his activity compared to operating a loco-hauled train. Essentially:

• at the beginning of the day the guard is briefed on the state of the train (windows & doors working, all equipment in the guards van present) by the driver, as the driver prepares the train before the guard arrives.
• after confirming with the platform staff that their duties are complete he uses the buzzer to signal the 'right away' to the driver - two pushes on the buzzer, which are acknowledged with a further two pushes by the driver.
• when there is a request stop, the guard takes no action with the driver - there is no flag signal at all. If there is no request stop, the guard gives two pushes on the buzzer (the 'green flag' signal) which the driver acknowledges to tell him not to stop - so the driver's default action is to stop at every request stop unless told not to.

Guard Ron signed that off on my DMU Traction Training schedule. 

DMU turns have a lot of sitting around, because of course you don't have to run around, stop for water or pull coal forward. I spent the time working on my DMU Theory assessment:

Driver Rod is very knowledgeable on DMU technology. I learned that there is a final drive dog position indicator:

I drove my first DMU passenger train as the 4th round trip:

Top tips - while you can hold the train with the brake handle in the lap position at 15" Hg, the vacuum will rise and the brakes will come off. The DMU, and particularly the 104 DTCL, rolls very easily and if you are not careful the train will move with the doors open.

Driver Rod signed a lot of stuff on my Diesel Driver Training Schedule. There's a lot more to do, particularly route knowledge in parts of the railway I hardly visit, and then there is all the DMU preparation to work on.

At the end of the day, I drove ECS to shed and assisted in the disposal of the unit. Next week I have a firing turn, then a Second Man turn, then several more firing turns in October - and then we are into the Norfolk Lights service and Santas.

That might be the last DMU training before next year.

Turn 153 - Firing the Y14

With the mornings darkening and cooling, and no Cleaner rostered I signed in at 06:00 to light up the Y14 once again. She was warm from the previous day, but not so warm that I couldn't dive in the firebox to clean her out from the inside. Someone had clearly got a new pair of safety boots as the skeletal remains of the old ones came out with the ash:

On fossil coal, the Y14 lights up easily I must, must, must remember to keep the smoke under control - two reprimands today, one from CME Keith who saw it from the village. I opened the firehole door in a hurry.

We went off shed on time with a tender full of fossil coal. The Y14 got a dry wipe all over the boiler to get the oily smuts off:

The rain started after breakfast and didn't let up. I did a couple of trips which were a bit marginal, not maintaining steam very well with the pressure doing the yoyo throughout the trip.

I drove the third, with Driver Dave on the shovel. Dave's got a lot of experience on the railway and soon made me see how I mess up firing this loco. He fired much more often, on both hills, and had a lot more in the back.

It was still raining. We put the cab tarpaulin up for the fourth, and I made sure I had more coal in the back corners - my Lucas shovel is quite long (I can reach deep into the tender) and quite flat, which means you have to concentrate on getting coal into the back corners. Cover the grate! 

We went up at 150 psi the whole way.

The jury is out on the shovel - I used the Lucas, but recalling Third Man Michael on this a couple of weeks ago a more bent shovel might be better.

Next stop - more DMU training!

September YDC

Days at the railway are not all about firing turns. Today it is the first September Youth Development Club meeting, and out job is to dispose a few locos and clean the 08, before chopping some wood.

First though, the lovely Class 104 joins the fleet on it inaugural running day:

Our first job will be to dispose the Y14 which was on the lunch service yesterday:

The group meet at Sheringham, and come up on the first train. Today it's hauled by the 4MT:

We gather the team on the footplate and go through the usual morning checks - valves, handbrake, reverser and have a look in the firebox, before going forward to clear the smokebox:

Some of the guys have birthdays in September and so will be adult volunteers in a few weeks. They get to do the firebox, as they will be doing it for real soon:

The adult helpers get stuck in too:

It's not a big firebox and they are soon back in daylight:

The 104 looks resplendent in the sunshine while we have lunch:

Driver Tony kindly provides the group with a guided tour of the Class 31 before we go to the wood pile for the rest of the day.

Turn 152 - Firing the Y14

Another Wednesday, but not too early a start for me and Driver John as we arrive to find Third Man Mike has lit up our fine steed for the day, the GER Y14. It's a bit overcast & misty but promises to be dry.

Mike cleans the boiler, I set to work on the cab.

Down in Sheringham for breakfast, the weather shows us what it has in store - a sea fret. These are mists formed out at sea where warm air is cooled by the sea, blowing towards landfall. The warmer land heats the air again, and the mist disappears leading to a strip of mist just along the coast. Typically, there will be fog on the beach and in town, but head half a mile inland and it will disappear.

Mike, who lit up and raised steam fires the first two trips. I drove the second with some excellent stops in stations, on the water crane, and at Kelling Heath Halt. Again I found myself going onto the train quite hard - but not much worse than many drivers. Next time I'll try to pressurise the steam chest, then release brake to inch forward. 

This small square of tarmac is the perfect stopping point to get the Y14 on the water column.

I fired the third and fourth; the third too heavy, the fourth better but still with the pressure varying way too much. A couple of weeks later, a very experienced Driver showed me that I'm not firing often enough and that it's OK to fire on a hill!.

We had a few troubles with the displacement lubricator, which occasionally stopped working on the driver's side. It pays to keep any eye on it through the day.

Disposal was great disposal - lots of pressure, arrived on shed with the boiler full and the fire thin. I discovered the injectors still work at 70 psi when the water went over the top of the gauge.

Turn 151 - Firing the 7F

 Another Tuesday, another firing turn, and another chance to enjoy the S&DJR Class 7F, 53809.  Third Man Ben, cycling in with a lot of time to spare had spent his morning with buckets of oil and paraffin and the engine was gleaming; the weather was a bit overcast and the picture doesn't do it justice.

We have plenty of time to get ready on this turn which makes a relaxed start to the day and we loped down to Sheringham with 140 on the clock - we have an hour to wait.

In contrast to last week, we had a tender full of fossil coal - this is excellent on this loco which is quite hungry, but steams really well if you feed it in the right places.

I took the first trip up, over firing as it turned out. As usual, I had the boiler full and the fire raging as we left Sheringham, watered on the way over Dead Man's & fired in the cutting. We had a nail biting six minutes at Weybourne waiting for the down service. Driver Mark was taking it easy - we didn't use much water as its a powerful loco and we had the Quad-Arts on the back, so I still had very high water while we waited. I resolved to ease back on the second up, and made use of the slacker and the ash pan sprinkler.

Firing again in Weybourne, we sailed up the hill easily and I was on the injectors again in the cutting, arriving in Holt with plenty of water and a fire which needed managing for a few minutes but settled to around 180 while we ran around.

The second up was a repeat performance, but I left the shovel alone at Dead Man's and arrived in Weybourne a little more relaxed.  

Ben took over at Holt and fired the next two very happily; I took over for the fourth down & disposal, keeping the water high and feeding it gently. A little bit too gently as it turned out - I fed it a lot more at Dead Man's and again, with dust and small bits of fossil coal as we went into the yard. The boiler was already full, but I wanted something in reserve so we could top it up after cleaning the fire. That few shovels of dust gave me 20 psi.

On disposal, I cleaned the pan twice - once to get rid of a lot of ash, and again after we had cleaned the fire. I thought there would be a lot of ash, since the pan had been quite full after prep, but I'm sure I didn't need to go to that effort.

Same time next week? 

Turn 150 - Firing the 7F

 It's Tuesday and it's a maroon service - two steam locos and a diesel, the Class 14. We are second off-shed after the BR Standard 4MT and I'm pleased that Third Man Henry has been in touch and will light up for us - I don't have to arrive until 07:30. It's not that I mind getting up early, but this turn is over 11 hours and if you start before your scheduled hours you will run out of time - you are only permitted to do 12 hours straight with 12 hours between shifts.

With Henry there, I was able to give the paintwork a good clean. The frames look like a job for later though:

It looked pretty good by the time we were ready to leave:

 

We took coal - a bucket half full of ovoids and half of fossil coal. The ovoids were on top, so I got to fire the first and second trips on ovoids, and Henry fired the 3rd and 4th on fossil - a lot of which was dusty.

There's no blow down valve on this loco; you treat hard water with tannin which keeps the solids in solution until you wash it out - which you do more frequently than on engines which you can blow down. These use soft water, which precipitates the solids out to the foundation ring so they can be blown out on a daily basis, which extends the washout cycle.

This loco is very sensitive to water levels, so I agreed with Driver Ed that we would aim at half to 3/4 glass throughout the day. Firing the first and second showed the engine wasn't too happy with the coal, my technique, or a bit of both - it wasn't maintaining pressure very well and we were arriving with it heading down to 140 - it redlines at 180; the water levels were spot on all day.

Having a look in the box, I realised that with a big back end in I was allowing the middle to get too thin, like the illustration from the Black Book - I've not fired this for a while and an unfamiliar loco takes a bit of getting used to; filling the hole in resolved the problem and I fixed it on the second trip.

It wasn't the magic bullet though. When people say 'big back end' and 'keep the front covered' that might work for fossil coal but on ovoids you need a lot more thickness - they don't shake down, any more than the coal in the tender moves forwards to avoid you double handling.

Next time I fire this I'll need to put a lot more in the front with more bed thickness; my back end was fine.

On the way back, I fired the front to keep the pressure up and let the back burn through - we had suspected it had clinkered and a few minutes with the bent dart proved that it had, though not badly. I cleared it out in Sheringham and laid a bit in the back end to save Henry a bit of time.

The third trip was a relaxing one for me - just a bit of hooking on & off. Henry, now through the ovoids and into the fossil coal had it just under 180 the whole way up with some smoke signals from the chimney. One of the features of using ovoids is that there is virtually no exhaust smoke, so you can't really tell when it has burned through.

Driver Ed was planning a little surprise for Henry. He'd been looking a little pale all day, mainly because he was covered in Factor 50 against the scorching Norfolk sunshine so it was perhaps less of a shock for Henry when Driver Ed claimed to be incapacitated at Kelling on the fourth up, and that he should take over. I sat back and watched as Henry took the train over Wind Pump and to a safe stop at Holt, with the miraculously-recovered Ed looking over his shoulder; all I needed to do was get a bit more water in the boiler. 

That's Henry another step closer to Passed Cleaner. 

I drove the fourth down, reminding myself how the Midland brake valve works and drove Light Engine back to shed. The stops were all good, including a yellow flag stop at Kelling; the Midlands style valve is easy to control using the vacuum, but personally I find the BR Standard combination brake valve easier to stop smoothly when you are Light Engine. 

Disposal went well; Henry was in charge under Ed's tutelage. 

I hope someone adds a chain to hold the upper ash pan door open though. 

Next turn? Same time next week, probably same loco. 

See you then. 

Turn 149 - Firing the Y14: Fish & Chips

A nice easy turn today, firing the Y14 on a Fish chip service - that's one round trip, non-stop on the way back, and starts with relieving the day crew of the 'A' loco and then disposing it afterwards. Here it comes light up from Sheringham:

The day crew usually ash out, and they had just taken water - all I had to do was warm up the fire and since we were a bit late we built it up a bit more then usual. We waited a little while at the yard exit signal to find that the signalman was locking his box out and we would be non-stop both ways.

It pays to keep the fire a bit thinner while waiting for the right-away on a chipper, because there is always someone who arrives late and you don't want to be blowing off in the station. The Y14 blows off a bit light anyway...

Our tea arrived, and with it a bag of chips for the signalman:

We made our round trip with the 37 on the back since there had been reports during the day of our brake ejector playing up. Taking no chances with safety, we had the twin exhausters of the 37 to supplement our vacuum if necessary, 

We had an excellent trip up with plenty of pressure. There were a couple of blows from the safety valves as we were late out, but we arrived with a good fire and plenty of water. Class 37 Driver Alistair came up with 600A on the power handle, taking his own weight  - about 103 tonnes, so we could work our engine harder to entertain the passengers.

The stop at Holt included one of the highlights of volunteering on the railway - fish & chips and tea, sitting on the footplate in the sunshine.

There was no run around at Holt - we decided that Driver Alistair would lead the train back down the hill, so all I had to do was keep the fire hot and the boiler full. Back in Sheringham, fed and watered, we uncoupled the 37 and haled the stock into the loop; the 37 moved over the crossover into platform 1 and we shunted the train back into platform 2, so we were positioned near the water crane. Filling up the tank took a few minutes as the sun set and with the 37 in tow we headed off up to Weybourne.

Driver Fozz was taking it easy and I had the boiler well up - I'd been feeding the fire gently for a while and it was thin, but hot and the gauge was still over 140 psi. By the time he had made his inspection and I had cleaned the fire, filled the boiler and ashed out it was almost burnt through.

A very successful disposal and a highly enjoyable turn.

Next, 12 days away from the railway to get my root canal fixed, do some work on the house, do a bike trip and see the kids and grandkids, and (most importantly) keep Mrs. H happy. I've done 16 firing turns this year so yar - there are five more booked before the end of September along with a Second Man turn and a Driver Training turn, and then we are into the October green service (one steam and DMU), and then it's Santas and Norfolk Lights. 

Will I get to thirty turns this year?

Turn 148 - Driver Training on the DMU

Finally, the day I’ve been looking forward to for weeks comes around - my first NNR driving lesson. OK, it’s not a steam engine (but I get to drive those pretty regularly) but it is the first turn I can properly call driver training, and it will enable me to get some extra experience and more learning done sooner than waiting for the time when (if) I’m invited to train for driving steam.

Anyone who reads my blogs will know I get pretty enthusiastic about stuff, and want to live and breath it all - that’s why I have four Ariels and still hanker for more. This is the daily rider:

It’s a 1942 350cc machine, which spent most of it’s 71 years in Italy until I brought it back to the UK in 2016.

That enthusiasm for old-tech inevitably gets directed at other old stuff with wheels and an engine (internal or external combustion, I’m not fussed). I’d been given the traction handbooks - the owner’s manual in effect, and that was a chance to get some background on how these DMUs work - the engines, fluid flywheel, gearboxes, freewheel and final drive along with the electro-pneumatic control system that looks after it all - not forgetting the twin-pipe quick release vacuum brake system.

 Fitter Dave was around before prep started and we had a walk through underneath together (forgetting to put a 'Not to be Moved' board on the unit - a big no-no). This was good chance for me to see all the big bits and to check the final drive oil levels.

Driver Daniel and I worked through the prep pages in the Traction Handbook, and we left the yard for Sheringham to collect the guard and the stock for the buffet. One element of DMU prep is that the driver, who is usually flying solo has to prep the guards area and the passenger areas and having done this in the yard he hands over responsibility for these areas to the guard when the guard joins the train.

Our first trip was an Empty Coaching Stock move from Sheringham to Holt. During the Induction Day, Driver Daniel had told us that this move has to be signed off in your Driver Training Schedule before you are allowed to driver passenger trains - so I drove this trip, and Driver Dan signed me off when we washed up at the end of the turn.

I observed Dan for the rest of the day, watching what gears he used, how he used the quick-release vacuum brakes and how he used the ‘lap’ position. At the end of the day, I drove the ECS move from Sheringham to Weybourne.

I was a bit slow, it has to be said, but you get the hang of it. The stops were mostly OK, some were a bit sudden but it's easier than five Mk1s and a CCT with a heavy loco on the front. For the record, the 2-car DMU set weighs 58 tonnes.

A few notes from the first lesson:

• The trip up to Holt with this Midland power car and the Eastern trailing unit needs gears 1 and 2 - you don't need gear 3. You must let the revs drop completely before changing up, and you must always pause the throttle in notch 2 (there are four notches) before you speed up.
• The release pipe has a high vacuum and is there to allow the brakes to come off quickly. When you take the brakes off using the vacuum from the release pipe, the vacuum in the release pipe will drop - if it equalises with the train pipe and the brakes are still not off, you are going to have to put it in neutral and sit tight, speeding up the exhausters to get the brakes off. 
• Engine failures mean you are going to lose control air pressure and without that none of the controls will work (this is why you have to use local engine start in the morning). If you break down and need a tow, you will have to use the last of your air pressure to set the final drives in the right direction.
• If you're driving alone, there's a few things that you will do a little differently - for example if you break down, you will have to look after the train protection yourself - there's no fireman or second man to take the flags, lamps or tablet for you. If you are using the Long Section Staff to get into the yard, you are going to leave staff in ground frame, drive in, then go and get it - there is no-one to help you. 

Like most diesel services, disposal is a breeze. Switch it off, shut the windows, lock the doors and check it over. Drain the air receiver and you are about done. 

I can see this new activity is going to force me to learn drivers rules - there is a fair bit I don't know or don't know very well. I'm sure the technicalities of driving the DMU are going to come reasonably quickly - it is certainly easier than juggling the demands of a steam engine so I will have to put some effort into getting the rules questions signed off.

Next turn - back to steam with a Fish & Chip service in a couple of days.

Turn 147 - Driving the Y14

This week’s blog post has a bit of an odd title for a firing turn but the reason will become clear. After signing on and reading the notices I joined Third Man Brad on the footplate of our steed for the day, the GER Y14. The fire was blazing, we had three hours to go and the boiler was already at 40 psi - heaven knows how it got up so quickly, though it’s quite a small boiler and it had been out the day before. 

We agreed that Brad would fire the first two, and I would fire the last two. Brad must be near passing out, so we planned that he would do the whole job including hooking on, tablet, signals etc. as well as firing so there was little for me to do for a bit: I filled the tender axle boxes, checked the loco axle boxes and replace one of the trimmings, ashed out and cleaned the pan:

I spent a bit more time learning about the brake pump. This is the oil filler for the air side:

You fill the little priming cup with Westinghouse oil twice.

For various reasons we were late off shed and had very little time in Sheringham. RO Peter was waiting with our breakfast, and I hooked on; we left minutes later. Brad made a great job of the trip up.

Back in Sheringham, Driver Chris offered me his seat for the 2nd trip, and then again for the 3rd. I decided that with two complete trips under my belt including running around, taking water and buffering up I would suggest that Brad make a day of it and fire to the end, so he had a full day on the shovel; I mentioned this to Driver Chris and he suggested I take the 4th up as well.

The weather turned itself around nicely - during prep it rained more or less solidly for three hours; when we went off-shed it stopped and the day was warm and sunny. 

So, with three more trips driven (after one last week) the Y14 pips the 4MT as the loco I have driven most - hauling passenger trains, that is. Here are the statistics:

What did I learn this week:

• I remembered not to wind the reverser to the end - it didn’t get stuck, and I didn’t have coffee, tea or Henry’s clock in the way of the handle;
• The reverser securing chain comes loose in some positions, which Third Man Brad drew my attention to;
• You need the regulator in second port going up the 1 in 80 hills, otherwise it’s all a bit sedate. When you come out of second port, you close the regulator fully and whack it open again to full pilot port; however, sometimes you will catch a cushion of steam somewhere and it won’t shut. I’ve had this happen on the 4MT as well. The secret is, at least on the Y14, not to open it fully in second port.
• Controlling the vacuum brake is easy with the little trigger on the handle. What I didn’t know was that if you push the handle towards the front of the loco, it operates the large ejector which obviously brings the vacuum up quickly, but wastes steam (and makes a lot of noise) if you leave it on. 

• Due to a spring problem on the 9F, the Y14 is passed it’s due date for washout, and when this happens the boiler, whose water is contaminated is more prone to foaming. Now, Driver Christian had warned me that after going into second port I must notch back the reverser very gradually to avoid the boiler pressure dropping too fast and allowing the water to foam, which is dangerous (liquid water in the cylinders leads to hydraulic damage). I was successful at this several times until, on one occasion, the boiler was blowing off and the injector went on, which serves to churn up the surface of the water and bring on foaming. You get a dense exhaust with small particles of liquid water (not like priming where you get water on the windows) and soft fluffy chuffs. When this happens, you open the cylinder cocks, switch off the feed, notch up and close the regulator. 
• During the day, stopping was a bit variable. Each time I went onto the water crane I stopped in the right place; I learned from the DRS Drivers that the secret to stopping in stations was to come in on minimum regulator, slowly and under control and ease yourself to a stop - at one point, realising I was going to stop short I gave the engine a bit of regulator and moved it further before we came to a stop; I stopped on the down home twice and once at Kelling very successfully. What wasn’t so good was buffering up - I was giving the loco either too much brake or too much regulator and stopping short or coming onto the train too hard. Next time, I will leave some brake pressure on if I need to nudge it onto the train.
• I’d been passing Sheringham West Box quite slowly, since there  is a 10 mph speed restriction over the AOCL. Driver Chris suggested I speed up towards crossing as you don't want to encourage people to go in front of you. I was only doing about 5 mph…

Lastly, I need to develop and document some routines - for buffering up, standing, squeezing, ready for the right away. More of that later.

Back in Sheringham for the last time, Driver Chris took the set into the loop and we topped up the water tank. Back in the seat again for the last time I took the loco up to Weybourne light engine where we run through the station & back down into the yard, stopping nicely on the pit. 

Following my usual routine, I ashed out and cleared the pit while the guys stabled the engine.

A grand day out, again. Next it’s the NNRYDC meeting on Saturday, followed on Monday by my first DMU Driver Training turn.