Turn 149 - Firing the Y14: Fish & Chips

A nice easy turn today, firing the Y14 on a Fish chip service - that's one round trip, non-stop on the way back, and starts with relieving the day crew of the 'A' loco and then disposing it afterwards. Here it comes light up from Sheringham:

The day crew usually ash out, and they had just taken water - all I had to do was warm up the fire and since we were a bit late we built it up a bit more then usual. We waited a little while at the yard exit signal to find that the signalman was locking his box out and we would be non-stop both ways.

It pays to keep the fire a bit thinner while waiting for the right-away on a chipper, because there is always someone who arrives late and you don't want to be blowing off in the station. The Y14 blows off a bit light anyway...

Our tea arrived, and with it a bag of chips for the signalman:

We made our round trip with the 37 on the back since there had been reports during the day of our brake ejector playing up. Taking no chances with safety, we had the twin exhausters of the 37 to supplement our vacuum if necessary, 

We had an excellent trip up with plenty of pressure. There were a couple of blows from the safety valves as we were late out, but we arrived with a good fire and plenty of water. Class 37 Driver Alistair came up with 600A on the power handle, taking his own weight  - about 103 tonnes, so we could work our engine harder to entertain the passengers.

The stop at Holt included one of the highlights of volunteering on the railway - fish & chips and tea, sitting on the footplate in the sunshine.

There was no run around at Holt - we decided that Driver Alistair would lead the train back down the hill, so all I had to do was keep the fire hot and the boiler full. Back in Sheringham, fed and watered, we uncoupled the 37 and haled the stock into the loop; the 37 moved over the crossover into platform 1 and we shunted the train back into platform 2, so we were positioned near the water crane. Filling up the tank took a few minutes as the sun set and with the 37 in tow we headed off up to Weybourne.

Driver Fozz was taking it easy and I had the boiler well up - I'd been feeding the fire gently for a while and it was thin, but hot and the gauge was still over 140 psi. By the time he had made his inspection and I had cleaned the fire, filled the boiler and ashed out it was almost burnt through.

A very successful disposal and a highly enjoyable turn.

Next, 12 days away from the railway to get my root canal fixed, do some work on the house, do a bike trip and see the kids and grandkids, and (most importantly) keep Mrs. H happy. I've done 16 firing turns this year so yar - there are five more booked before the end of September along with a Second Man turn and a Driver Training turn, and then we are into the October green service (one steam and DMU), and then it's Santas and Norfolk Lights. 

Will I get to thirty turns this year?