Turn 138 - Firing the 4MT

It's Thursday and time for the second turn of the week, another maroon service on the BR Standard 4MT. Third Man Ben and Cleaner Peter are there when I sign on at 06:30, and Ben already has the fire lit.

The loco is pretty clean already, but Peter is going over it with oil & paraffin. I check the fire, and since all is well I pull some coal down to enable Ben to carry on steam raising while I put the hose in the tender; once I've sorted out the lamps I head off to the next important job:

On the pit, I clean yesterday's ash out of the pan, surprised there is so much. With the spark screen fitted, we go back for coal and I take one bucket - there is plenty in there already and while we will use one bucket we won't run out. In fact, by the end of the day we were using the previous day's coal for the disposal trip.

I fire down to Sheringham for breakfast:

Breakfast done, I fire the first round trip and the second up. As usual, the first up is a bit cool, but there's plenty of water coming in to Holt; on the second, we arrive with 3/4 of a glass and 200 psi, and I'm pleased with that. I try to avoid firing on the ascent, though Driver Andrew is being very economical - he's notched up to 35% at times.

There lots of people about, and we push the clock at Holt; Ben fires down, to be ready for his first up trip, our third. We take water at Sheringham as Ben prepares his fire. Driver Andrew offers me his seat for the third or fourth - I elect to drive the fourth and support Ben as he fires the third.

Driver Andrew vacates his seat at Holt. On the way down I'm prepared for the distant to be yellow but we get a yellow flag from Guard Don, which means we have to stop at Kelling.

I over-brake and stop short, twice, but at least when we arrive in Weybourne I'm going at a reasonable speed and manage to stop in the right place, and then again at Sheringham. We squeeze up, and when Driver Andrew has unhooked we set back into the headshunt and I am very careful not to pass the stop board.

Heading forward again, we stop at the water crane. The stopping point is a yellow-outlined slab at the bottom of the ramp, which is supposed to be adjacent to your window - again I am a couple of feet short, but the bag goes in and we fill up.

The up trip starts steadily and I'm quick to notch up and avoid taking too much steam out of Ben's boiler; we head up the hill with a quick brake test at Dead Man's followed by a steady climb at 40-50% up to Weybourne. I stop with the front of the train on the mark, to learn that that mark is used for a four coach train - we have five coaches and I need to have the chimney and safety valves beyond the bridge.

Ben has been working hard on the fire and I pull steadily out of the station and over the crossing. Watching his boiler pressure gauge and water level, I let the speed build gradually until we are doing 20 mph or so up to Kelling Halt, but seeing he is holding at 200 psi I notch up to 50% and speed up. The exhaust sounds glorious, and I'm rewarded by some encouraging comments from passengers at Holt.

I take the run around, managing to stop 2' short in the head shunt and have to move the loco. Running back to the dolly is nice and steady and we stop at the water crane to top up, since we won't get a chance in Sheringham. Driver Andrew is worried that the regulator is passing. A bit of investigation reveals nothing, but Andrew decides to put the loco on the train and drive down himself which reveals that I have left the regulator with second port cracked. While we search for the problem Ben prepares the fire and unfortunately, during a particularly enthusiastic swing while firing the front manages to hit the firehole ring with his shovel, transferring a lot of unexpected energy to his fingers which puts him out of action for the rest of the day. He assumes the third man job which is limited by now to handling the token while I fire down. 

Back in Sheringham all we have to do is stop, disgorge our passengers and wait for the diesel to haul our train on it's last trip, dropping us off at Weybourne. Unlike Driver Edmund, who allowed the diesel to take the load, Driver Andrew assists the diesel and I have to catch up - I have prepared the fire to fill the boiler (and I've filled the boiler) but I've not got enough heat to drive the loco up the hill - some rapid firing, blower and damper brings it around quickly enough and we dispose with a full boiler and a good dying fire.

Every day is different on the railway!