Turn 141 - Firing the 4MT

 Summer is here, and the dehydration tablets are dissolved in the water bottle - we don't want to get into trouble on a hot footplate in the midday sunshine. On shed at 06:30, half an hour before I’m supposed to be there but you never know what’s gone wrong…

Cleaner Dave lit up and went to clean the paint while I brought fire on ready to blow down. By the time we went on the pit the tender was completely empty and we were treated to a bucket of coal followed by a bucket of ovoids, so I could do the first few trips on decent fuel. Ovoids are OK actually, just different.

Driver Andrew and I were unexpectedly joined by Third Man Harry as we arrived to collect the token in the platform. It’s good to have a Third Man along, it makes for a much more relaxing day!

I did all the firing except for the 3rd trip. I made sure that we had plenty of coal in the back, right up to the fire hole door and filled in the front before we went out of Sheringham and whilst we waited at Weybourne, and was rewarded with a full boiler and a hot fire at the end of both ascents. Of course, repeating what I did on the first trip for the second trip resulted in a bit too much heat, but the 4MT is relatively easy to control and I didn’t blow off.

For the third, Driver Andrew gave up his seat after the second down trip and took control of the fire for the run around and watering, as well as the third up, He was worried that it wasn’t making much steam on the way up, and I was notching up to 35% as soon as I could to avoid taking too much out of the boiler.

The fire needed cleaning - there was a lot of ash but no clinker. Feeling rather guilty, we ate ice-cream while he cleaned the fire.

The driving included two run rounds and watering which went well. After the Mixed Traction Gala I had realised that the professional DRS drivers do all their braking outside the station and then crawl in, so I tried slowing right down to 5 mph on the approach and then going in, leaving the final braking until I could see where I was going to stop. The train almost stops itself and it’s much easier to stop in the right place, though my stops were a bit more sudden than I would have liked. Andrew was happy and said so which was very kind.

We did the last trip on ovoids which true to form took ages to get hot but when they did they stayed on the grate as a hot thick mass. We arrived on shed full of water at about 180 psi which was fine.

Next, same service, probably same loco, next Monday. Bring it on.