One Less Fireman

We recently had an articulated lorry load of pallets arrive for use in lighting up our locos.  I was a little amused to note that they arrived in a refrigerated lorry, as if that might help.

Not every railway has temperature controlled lighting up wood you know

 The steam loco dept is once more assisting in the Broadway Station project... yes, I know that the station is already very much open, but there is still much to be done before it can be declared finished.  The task in hand at the moment is the footbridge, which although it spans the tracks is currently bereft of steps.  Neal is busy creating the steps in the David Page shed.  Once complete, the steps will be put in place at Broadway.  Platform 2 is still a building site, so the footbridge will initially be blocked off to prevent access to the platform, but you will at least be able to get up to the deck of the bridge and watch the trains as they come and go underneath.

Framework for the footbridge steps in the David Page shed

 We don't just build bridges between GWSR departments, we do active maintenance and overhauls of our steam locos as well.  The current project that is getting a lot of attention is 3850 and what will be its tender (previously used behind Dinmore Manor).

Roger, wire brushing part of the tender's sump

Kenneth priming under the running plate

Sam, perusing the soon to be changed cylinder block

Eleanor painting 3850's wheel splashers

The running plate has moved on to being in black undercoat now.

 I recently noticed on an Internet forum a heated debate about which livery 3850 should be painted in when it re-enters traffic.  I refrained from comment, but I'd like to make the following observations.  First and foremost and usually completely overlooked is that the primary purpose of painting steel is not to make it look pretty, but to prevent it from rusting.  Secondly, steam loco restoration projects start off costing 6 figure sums and go up from there, 3850 is no different in this respect. Views regarding livery will have more importance attached to them if accompanied by significant contributions of cash to assist with getting 3850 back into steam.  

On Tuesday, I stood in for another fireman who had been unable to cover his turn.  I had been forewarned both that our usual supplier of Welsh coal had been unable to make a delivery the preceding week, and that we had had another delivery of Scottish coal, but even that was now running low.  I feared arriving and finding a quarter full tender of mostly dust with the odd lump thrown in, but as it turned out my fears were groundless.

Plenty for the two round trips of the purple timetable

The previous batch of Scottish coal had been largely used up whilst I was on holiday, so I missed it, but I knew what to expect, it catches fire quicker, burns through quicker and if you're not careful can create lots of dense black smoke.

John disregards the smoke & cleans 2807's smoke box

We had a further delivery of Scottish coal on Tuesday morning, so at least we should have enough supplies to keep our trains running for a while.

Tartan coal arriving

The supply of cleaning rags appears to have fallen very low, if you have something suitable, please pop it into the green bin by the entrance to the yard.

Won't clean many locos with just that!

There would also be a diesel running on Tuesday, we were asked to shunt it out of the diesel shed before it was started up.

37215 emerges into the morning air.

Train 2 on the purple timetable has its loco hook on at the south end to do a brake test on the stock, then wait until train 1 has gone, before running round to the north end and departing for Broadway.  After hooking on at the south  end, I noticed that we have some unwelcome visitors

"Caution Wasp Nest"

I didn't see any wasps myself, so hopefully the problem is now past.

The other running steam loco, 35006 was being fired by Chris, who rather cheekily pointed at the darker than it should have been smoke emanating from 2807's chimney and said that he would be checking every time that we crossed at Winchcombe to make sure that I wasn't creating too much smoke.

Chris & his Winchcombe challenge

John kindly provided bacon rolls for breakfast.

John, tackling his breakfast

We also had a visitor on the footplate, Alex from the Pontypool & Blaenavon  Railway, a friend of Andy's who was the rostered driver.

Alex (l) and Andy enjoying their bacon rolls.

Keeping Chris' challenge in mind, I made sure that there was very little smoke at Winchcombe. 

Not too bad!

Chris however had the disadvantage of being held at the bracket

Regardless of smoke, teddy bears (for it was the last of the summer holiday teddy bear Tuesdays) were out in force.

If you go down in the woods today...

The cleaner, John, is well advanced into fireman training, so I let him have a go on the shovel for a while.

John hooking on...

...and of course feeding the fire

Usually I just let the cleaner deal with the firing aspect and deal with the remainder of the fireman's job myself, but in this case I let him get on with everything.  My faith in him was well placed, he was alert to all of his duties and displayed excellent boiler control, in spite of it being his first time of firing with Scottish coal.

Passing the 37 at WInchcombe

You end up shovelling far more of the Scottish coal to generate steam than you do with the Welsh.  What had looked like a healthy supply first thing in the morning was reduced to a small pile of dust by the time that we finished the day

Andy clearing up the last vestiges of coal in tender

The crew of train 2 also get to shunt release the diesel when it gets back from Cheltenham Race Course at the end of the day

37215 escapes after we had shunted its stock out of the way

There was no digger driver available at the end of the day, and we were down to just a few shovels full of dust in the tender.  Andy & Alex shovelled three wheel barrow loads of coal up onto the footplate so that the following day's fireman would at least have something to light up with.

Andy shovelling coal up onto the footplate

Meanwhile, underneath 2807, John got to grips with emptying the ash pan on 2807.

There was plenty to rake out.

 Before setting off on Tuesday, I noticed that Roger had turned up, intending to add another top coat to 3850's wheels.  Being otherwise engaged on the footplate during the day, I cheekily asked him to provide photos for this blog himself:  The next two photos courtesy of Roger Tipton.

Roger, struggling to take a selfie with one hand and paint with the other

The finished job

The Wednesday gang have been fettling 4270 this week, which had a steam leak through the left hand piston gland.  The left hand piston was also running hot and when the packing was removed, it was found to be very dry.  The oil supply was simply a drip feed onto the piston rod, but this has now been modified to be like that on 2807 and Foremarke Hall, by incorporating a bit of felt which should retain the oil in place a bit better and help to distribute it around the circumference of the piston rod more evenly.  The next five photos were all provided courtesy of Peter Gutteridge

As it started, just an oil drip feed

Holder for felt tried in position

Bruce (I think) cutting the felt to shape

The cup, used as a template for cutting the felt

The whole lot, put together

Hopefully the lubrication modification will allow 4270 to enjoy many more miles of trouble free running.

And finally, we've got round to that time of year when trainees start to graduate.  I'm very pleased to be able to pass on the news that we have one less fireman, but of course, also one more driver.  Andy has now hung up his shovel and crossed the chalk line down the middle of the cab.  Congratulations Andy.

Andy (l) with Inspector Lacey having passed out as a driver on 4270 (Photo courtesy of Tom Wright)