Buckets, Spades and Steam

As you may be aware, 7820, Dinmore Manor, one of our resident locos has been spending much of the summer playing on the Dartmouth Steam Railway (DSR).  That seemed like a good excuse to Dinmore Manor Locomotive LTD (DMLL) to pay her a visit and see how she was getting along in her home from home.  Friday was the chosen date and we all packed our buckets and spades and set off bright and early to converge on Paignton.  For a certain few of us, a last minute decision was taken to set off even earlier and call in at the South Devon Railway (SDR) on the way, which is technically the home of 5542, the Planet's Favourite Prairie (PFP). After a recent well publicised contretemps on the mainline, the workshop at Buckfastleigh was playing host to a certain celebrity loco:

Number 9, feeling a bit sorry for itself

Plans were hatched to kidnap Union of South Africa and take her back to Toddington with us.  Sadly there wasn't enough room in the boot of my car.

Dan was keen to try out the driver's side of the cab for size

 Amusingly, a photo of Dan stood in front of 4920, Dumbleton Hall taken shortly after this, which was posted to a certain well known social media website led to ill informed speculation that DMLL had purchased Dumbleton Hall and was about to return it to steam.  Never believe what you read on the web, especially on this blog!

The South Devon Railway is very well equipped for all manner of work with wheels

Turning a new tyre

Furnace for expanding tyres to fit onto wheels

Machining bearing surfaces

 One of DMLL's other locos, 3850, which is shortly to finish her 10 year boiler ticket and come to Toddington for her next overhaul is in need of a new set of tyres.  The tyres have already been made and are somewhere at Buckfastleigh waiting to be fitted.

Ray Lee from the 5542 group, who works at the SDR and who often turns up at Toddington when the PFP needs some attention, has his own office down there.

I thought better of investigating any further.

After the warm hospitality of the South Devon Railway, we set off on the short journey across to Paignton to catch catch up with Dinmore Manor.

Dan & Mark with the star of the show

They've been keeping her nice and clean down there.

DMLL had reserved the Devon Belle observation coach for travel in both directions.

7820 enters the run round loop, passing the Devon Belle

They're a cheery lot, the DMLL group.

Plush upholstery and large picture windows in the Devon Belle

The weather was typical British summer seaside drizzle in the morning.  Once we'd taken the ferry across to Dartmouth, we set off for the eating establishment recommended by the footplate crew on Dinmore Manor.  Mark had a bit of a surprise when he got there!

He didn't know it, but he was booked as the evening entertainment

There was time enough for a trip out on the river Dart on the paddle steamer, Kingswear Castle.  Not the sort of castle that you might have seen heading the Cornishman along our line back in the 1950s, but a fine beast nonetheless.  Power to the paddles was provided by a 2 cylinder coal fired condensing steam engine, spinning at a leisurely 42 RPM max.  I don't think that the general public are supposed to visit the engine room, but we managed to blag our way in.

The beating heart of Kingswear Castle

I was a bit disappointed to notice that all the tools were metric though.

How's this for a nice bit of kit!  I reckon that we should get one of these fitted in the cabs of each of our locos.  The guard could set this for us rather than wave a green flag.

Full steam ahead

Our paddle along the river Dart coincided with Dinmore Manor pulling out of Kingswear station which proceeded to race us, needless to say 7820 won the day

Dinmore Manor heads back to Paignton

Paddle Steamer Kingswear Castle as we took the ferry back to Kingswear

These kind of turn outs always seem to end up with a group photo of the usual suspects.  This one was no exception.

The usual suspects and the Devon Belle.

Dinmore Manor got in on the act too.

The great and the good of DMLL, plus the star of the show herself

On the return journey, crossing 7827, Lydham Manor at Churston.

The mist and drizzle had curtailed the view from the observation carriage in the morning, however the return journey proved to be much clearer

One of the local beaches

Not only does the DSR have a manor not unlike ours, but they also have a 42XX, theirs being 4277, ours being 4270.

4277 at Paignton

4277 sports a historically inaccurate name plate.  I'm not a great fan of it, but if it makes the customers happy and helps to keep them coming and consequently helps to keep the loco running, then it can't be such a bad thing.

Not sanctioned by Churchward

The following day, I was rostered down for another day on the PFP (we do have other locos, honest).  It was to be a driver training turn for Ade, under the tuition of Steve.

If I need a warming fire putting into a loco for the weekend, I usually ask Dan to do it as he lives not too far from the railway.  Dan of course was with me on the DSR, so clearly he wouldn't be able to coiver it.  Many thanks to Roger for coming in on Friday and sorting it out for me. 

We didn't have a cleaner rostered, but James turned up and soon had the PFP sparkling ready for the day's service

James on top of the PFP as the sun rises

The Cotswold Diesel Railcar group have just acquired another DMU car, bringing their fleet up to 6 vehicles, all of which are interoperable.  Before we get messages from the livery police, she won't be staying like this for long.

New (to us anyway) DMU

A few weeks ago, when down for a turn on the PFP, I was unable to track down the hand brush.  Assuming that it had met its demise one way or another, I did the only thing that I could do under the circumstances, which was 'borrow' one from one of the other locos.  Whilst doing the tool check on Saturday, I finally tracked down where the original hand brush was hiding, it was tucked into the narrow gap between the fireman's side tool box and the edge of the cab.  Being pricked by my conscience, I returned 2807's hand brush back to where I had found it a few weeks ago.

Returning to the scene of the crime.

The PFP's hand brush is lurking in there.

The day went well, Ade was having a good day and the PFP was steaming well

Crossing 4270 at Winchcombe

We even had an audience at times

The audience even extended to a line side photographer between Winchcombe station and Greet tunnel.  His idea of hi-viz caused some amusement on the footplate as he had an orange plastic supermarket bag tied round his chest with a piece of string.  Lineside passes, which include a proper orange GWSR hi-viz vest are available for a very reasonable price and can be obtained by following this link.

Breakfast warming up... thanks Steve.

Ade and Steve in the office

The passengers were very friendly, this one engaging me in conversation from the nearest carriage whilst we were on the move

Friendly passenger

James who had cleaned the PFP in the morning joined us for the last round trip. The PFP is crowded with three, so four is definitely a bit cosy.  Being stuck in the middle of the cab next to the fire, far from a cab window can be a little warm to say the least.  I opted to lurk at the side of the cab by the window and let James deal with transferring coal into the firebox and water into the boiler.  It was his first go at it, he didn't do badly.

Ade looks happy, James perhaps a little more apprehensive.

The timetable left us sat at Winchcombe for ten minutes to twiddle our thumbs.  A perfect opportunity to pay a flying visit to the discovery coach sat in the bay platform.  As well as plenty of information on the history of our line, there are also a few models.

Live steam Collett 0-4-2T, 1451

OO gauge Model of Toddington station, featuring Dinmore Manor

Not to be outdone, Foremarke Hall was there in O gauge.

The discovery coach is well worth a visit if you have a free moment to spare at Winchcombe.

More progress has been made with Dinmore Manor's own tender.  It needed to be raised a bit higher in order to get the wheels underneath it sometime in the next few weeks.  A number of people were involved in that, but only Mike & Mark remained by the time that I had finished disposing the PFP.

Mike (L) and Mark with the elevated tender frames.

The news that 35006 had made her first moves under her own steam in preservation  on Monday August 10th has generated some interest in the press.  Toby Jennings, assistant editor of Steam Railway magazine, turned up to interview Andy about progress.

Toby (L) and Andy, posing with the wrong loco, but never mind.

On Saturday morning, John had bemoaned the fact that of the 25 nice new white mugs that he had bought for the mess coach at the time of the gala, only 9 now remained.  My suspicion is that the washing up fairy has been a little clumsy of late.  Regardless, mugs now need to be signed in and out.  It remains to be seen how effective this measure will turn out to be.

Sign out sheet for mugs.

And finally, in what will almost certainly turn out to be a career limiting move, I present an undated, yet clearly not recent photograph courtesy of John Longhurst.  The two gentlemen featured have both appeared on this blog in the past, in fact one of them as recently as last week.  I'll leave it as an exercise for the reader to identify them.

Would you buy a used steam loco from these men?

At John's best guess, the loco was 6106 and the era was sometime in the 1990's.