Speed to the West Day 3

For day three of the Speed to the West gala, I had been rostered for an afternoon turn on Wells.  Now normally that would have been an exciting prospect however for a couple of reasons I wanted to swap the turn.  First, for the weekend following the gala, I have been rostered for Wells on both the first round trip on the Saturday and then for all day on the Sunday.  Three trips out on the same visiting loco seemed to be plain greedy.  Secondly, being a humble wage slave, the day job expected me to be in the close vicinity of Newcastle-Upon-Tyne, bright eyed and bushy tailed the morning after the gala.  If I did an afternoon turn on Wells, by the time I had showered and changed, it would be too late to drive up north and I'd have to set off a stupid O'Clock on the Tuesday morning instead.  If I could swap for a morning shift though, I could get cleaned up and still be able to drive up there at a sensible time.  Dan was down for a morning shift on Wadebridge for the Monday of the gala and then again a shift on Wadebridge on the following Saturday.  He was keen for a swap as he would otherwise have missed out on Wells.  The deal was struck and I signed on bright tailed and bushy eyed on the Monday morning to fire Wadebridge.

My driver for the turn was Mark:

Mark oiling one of the axles of Wadebridge

The details of times off shed etc weren't at the signing on point when I arrived and Wadebridge had no pressure on the clock either.  I wasn't going to be the cause of fouling up the gala's timetable by being late on and off the pits etc, so I got cracking with getting the fire going.  In truth, I got cracking just a bit too well.  On a certain social media site, I have yet to be allowed to forget this fact.

Oops!

John C came by asking for my credit card details to charge the coal and water to.  I am advised by Martin, the owner's rep for the morning, that the safety valves lifted three times before we were off shed.  I didn't count them myself, but it seemed like more to me.

As usual the SLD maintained it's reputation for boiling plenty of small kettles as well as the rather larger ones.

Sean (l) and Andy front runners in the national beverage drinking championship.

Apparently, Mikhail Gorbachev has now joined the SLD, well that or Ian has had a bit of a contretemps whilst oiling one of the locos.

Ian Gorbachev?

A month or two ago, Steve (head of training) had mentioned whilst looking pointedly in my direction that we have qualified firemen who have never fired a loco with a wide firebox.  A wide firebox wasn't the only difference that the Bulleids had to our now entirely GWR operational home fleet.  For a start, the lamps were rather different.  They seemed straight forward enough once I had prised the lids open.  I quite liked the little red filter that could be flipped into place when required.

Southern style lamps

Many of the cab controls were laid out rather differently too.

Speedo, vacuum and cylinder pressure gauges

The water and steam feeds for the injectors

Steam reverser

Large and small ejector plus brake and regulator

Various manifolds, including steam heat

For reasons that eluded me, Wadebridge had an LNER cylinder pressure gauge fitted.

Just a wild stab in the dark, but I'm guessing that it's not an original fitting

Once on the road, it soon became apparent that the view ahead was severely restricted by the air smoother case reaching a log way ahead.  I would need to pay close attention to signals and crossings that Mark on the other side of the cab would not be able to see.

Restricted visibility

Once again, I was as keen as possible to get some cleaners out on the footplate, on the two round trips, Steve, Rob, Chris and Paul took it in turns to join us.

(l-r), Steve, Martin (owner's rep) and Mark.

I had received plenty of advice from no end of people regarding the firing of wide firebox locos.  The common themes were "Keep the back corners filled", "Keep coal away from the thermic syphons unless you need to get the pressure up quick" and "Wear long sleeved gloves".  Martin confirmed that all of this was good advice, so as best I could I heeded all of these instructions.  Welding gauntlets had already been obtained in anticipation.  Once we were off shed, the pressure gauge stayed where I wanted it and there was no more blowing off.  A fair achievement for a first attempt considering that Wadebridge isn't fitted with any dampers, the means of regulating the pressure is down simply to the shovel in your hand and the injectors.  Well ok,the generator too, but as I discovered whilst on shed, it doesn't soak up as much surplus steam as you might like.  The blower tends to just get set on far enough to keep the fire in the firebox then mostly left alone.

The weather on Saturday had been excellent and visitor numbers were correspondingly high.  The Sunday had been rather overcast and visitor numbers were accordingly lower and few lineside photographers were out and about.  The Monday was somewhere in between the two weather wise, and lineside photographers festooned the railway once more.

I'm amazed that Pete had room to exchange tokens at Gotherington

Crossing Dinmore Manor at Gotherington

We had a short wait at Winchcombe for the train that we were to cross with, I took the opportunity to grab a photo of Wadebridge alongside 35006.

34007 and 35006 at Winchcombe

Mark, happy with his steed for the day

Wells arrives, all three Bulleids in one shot

At Toddington, something else (5542?) attached itself on the back and we pulled it down to Laverton.  Once at Laverton, it pulled us back to Toddington, where we took water and it headed off with our carriages.

Being pulled back to Toddington.

We then made ourselves into a photo opportunity for a while

Wells (l) passing Wadebridge at Toddington.

For the end of our turn, we attached onto the rear of the train hauled by Wells, got dragged down to Laverton and then Wells ran round and dragged us down to CRC where Mark and I got off of the footplate and handed Wadebridge over to our relief crew.

Wells running round at Laverton, Dan leaning out of the cab

Dan was by this time on the footplate of Wells in what until we had swapped would have been my turn.

Oops.

The first time through Greet tunnel, I had left the firebox doors closed for the simple reason that in a strange cab, I couldn't locate the handle in the dark without fear of burning myself.  The generator had been switched on, so it wasn't as if I couldn't see the gauges anyway.  On the last time round, I had my hand on the handle as we went into the tunnel just to make sure.

Paul by the light of the firebox

As mentioned in a previous post, one of my plans for the gala had been to get some sort of a photo line up of the three Bulleids together.  Thus far I had been largely thwarted.  The return journey (I was about to say on the cushions, but it was standing room only) presented me at last with my best chance.  The platform was of course far too crowded with people to allow for a clear shot, but I had a cunning plan.  I should say at this point, that ascending our signal posts to take photos is strictly forbidden for our customers.  Don't try this at home folks, and certainly don't try it on the GWSR.

The trio together at last

 As my camera is capable of taking video, I thought that I'd give it a whirl, I even opened up a Youtube account to stash it in.  Other odd bits of video from around the GWSR may just find their way in there over time.

My plan had been to grab the next service back to Toddington, which turned out to be the light engine move of our thunderbird engine, 4270. Thanks to Neil and Phil for giving Mark and myself a lift back.  It turns out that from their vantage point in the yard, Neil had seen me up the signal post:

Neil:  "Who's that idiot up the signal post?"

Phil:  "Probably Ray".

It was a fair cop.

Neil (l) and Mark in 4270.

Well, that was it, the Cotswold Festival of Steam done and dusted for another year.  Ok, so I know that there is a lot of clearing up to be done, I wish I was able to be there to help with it.  

On behalf of the organising committee, Paul, Ben, Andy, Ian, James and myself, I would like to say thank you very much to everybody who contributed their time to putting on the gala. I know that there are many people in all departments of the GWSR who pulled out all the stops to make the gala the great success that it has been.  Thank you too, to the Keighley & Worth Valley Railway, the Mid Hants Railway and West Somerset Railway for agreeing to loan us their locos along with their owners, the 34092 Partnership, Wadebridge (34007) Locomotive LTD and Jeremy Hosking.  Special thanks to Allelys without whom we would have been one loco short of a gala.   Finally, thank you to everybody who visited us over the gala weekend, I hope that you all enjoyed it as much as I did.