Turn 142 - Firing the 4MT

 Another green (one steam and the DMU) service, on a Monday this time. Third Man Ben has just lit up and Cleaner Dave is working on the boiler when I show up at 06:30 and after I’ve checked out what is going on I do the most important job of the morning:

After tea I collect the lamps and make sure the water is filling the tender, then pay a visit to Ben who is raising steam using ovoids - this is quite a challenge as you need to get them hotter than fossil coal to get the fire going. We get some extra wood and then head over to the Y14 to collect some fossil coal with a barrow. This can generate the heat to get the ovoids burning:

We got a call from RO Peter to tell us that Driver Steve wasn’t going to make it but that Driver Keith was on the way. As it was already 07:30, I suggested I oil up the loco.

Starting with the motion on the driver’s side, I worked forward taking in the lubricator and the oil boxes for the pony truck, then down the other side and moving onto the running plate to drain the lubricators and oil the regulator. When Driver Keith arrived, I explained what I had done and he pointed me at the bearing surfaces on the back of the pony truck wheels, the cross head guides, the buffers and couplings and the buffer between the loco and tender.

We don’t normally clear hopper ash pans in the morning, since they survive better if the new, hot ash is made to drop onto old wet ash, so they are cleaned in the evening the morning ash wetted and left to protect the pan throughout the day. You always have to check though and this morning there was too much ash to get the damper open, so we cleaned half of it out.

I fired the light engine trip down to Sheringham, followed by the first round trip and second up trip. Third Man Ben took over for the second down so that he would be ready for the third up, and he fired for the rest of day. We planned to get him to do the first and second with no help next time, then after that he would do a full day on the shovel.

I spent the rest of the day coupling on and drinking tea:

There were lots of TRs at Holt, with a couple of MGs thrown in. A TR Driver Club run?

After a relaxing day, we disposed the loco and I cleared the pit, keen to get my hands on a shovel again.

I’ll be back again tomorrow for a First Aid Training course.