Wednesday dawns again with a regular red service firing turn on the BR Standard 9F, 92203. Third Man Will lit up for us and went off to clean when I arrived.
I raised steam using a lot more wood and rags and we were ready in plenty of time though Fitter Ben didn't need a blow down, according to the water TDS test results. Checking the ash pan, I decided not to open the hopper. It's a good idea to check the ash when you are raising steam if you can as it's easy for folk to leave the pan partly full with ash stuck in the upper parts of the pan, which will prevent primary air getting in. In any event, you will do it on the pit and on locos with no hopper you will wash them out; locos with hopper ashpans are only washed out if there is excess ash & no space for the day's running.
Fitter Ben treated us to 1/2 bucket of ovoids overladen with a full bucket of coal. This means you do the first two trips on coal, the third on a mixture and the fourth on ovoids - works nicely as the fire should be nice and hot by the time you use the ovoids.
I fired down to Sheringham, the whole first trip and the second up with no low pressures or water levels. Will fired the second down very successfully then fired the third up, which was a bit light - there was a gap at the front. It was his 7th turn - better than I was doing at that stage!
I fired for the rest of the day.
Heading back to the yard after the fourth trip, we dropped the ash in the pit and were relieved by the chipper crew.
More next week, when I am firing the Wednesday lunch train.
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