Shed Turn - Prepping for Part 1

It was a dull day here in North Norfolk, and after a couple of days plumbing the bathroom I'm back at Weybourne for another shed turn.

The BR Standard 4MT No. 76084 has done done most of the half term service and now needs disposing, so I don my dust mask and head torch and begin the first of several dirty jobs on my list for today, starting with the firebox:

You can shake most of that out with the drop grate, but I decided to climb in to clear the fixed bars down the sides. The toolkit is pretty simple:

I took a bit of care to clean all the way down to the foundation ring, just to let folk get a good look at the stays:

From my position in the firebox I could get a close look at the firebox tubeplate - my purpose was to look down the flues and prove to myself something that I heard at the recent boiler MIC - that you can see the end of the superheater tubes from here. And yes you can!

Once I had cleaned out the smokebox, the next job was to put a barrow load of wood on board for the next crew that light it up.

The weather was still awful.

The next job was to help Fitters Alex & Alex to get the Y14 ready for it's Part 1 boiler exam.

Boiler inspection is carried out by an independent certifying authority to confirm to the railway and to the railway's insurers that the loco boiler is safe for use. Inspection is directed by a Vehicle Maintenance Instructions document agreed between the railway and the insurer.

Inspection is divided into two parts. Boiler inspection part 1 is performed cold and unboxed and part 2 happens a maximum of 28 days later with the boiler in steam. Successfully passing both parts of the inspection results in a certificate authorising use of the boiler for a further 14 months.

So, while Alex & Alex were engaged pulling plugs and removing the safety valves & water gauges, I cleaned out the smoke and fireboxes ready for the boiler inspector.

On the way, I removed fusible plugs from the firebox and the last of the washout plugs from the smokebox. I made sure to brush over the walls so that the boiler inspector could see what he was doing without getting too filthy.

After tea, I spent the rest of the morning cleaning plugs, doors, and safety valve bits on wire wheel. We were done by lunchtime.

The afternoon was a bit more gentle and a lot let sooty - I stood in the cleaning hut for a few hours chopping sheets, curtains, shirts and trouser on the guillotine, filling up the rag bin. There's always something to do here: