Pheonix From Ashes

Environmental issues are at the forefront of all our thinking these days.  Until fairly recently the ash that was generated from running our locos was sent off to become land fill.  I am now pleased to be able to inform you that the ash gets taken away, combined with cement and gets turned into breeze blocks.  Who knows, the new welfare building inner walls could have started out life in the fireboxes of some of our locomotives.

The digger, getting a bucket load of ash... (photo courtesy of Chris Blake)

...and loading it onto the lorry. (photo courtesy of Chris Blake)

Somebody somewhere is bound to say "Like a pheonix rising from the ashes", so I might just as well say it first.

Last Saturday saw a continuation with work on 3850's tender, specifically needle gunning and wire brushing inside the coal space.

David getting on with the wire brushing

 I made a start on the places that still needed needle gunning.

I'd done the bit on the left, the right was about to be done

 By the end of the day, I'd wire brushed and and put on a coat of rust inhibiting primer as well.

A start has been made at least

 The outside of the tender has seen much more progress, Roger has moved on from applying primer to grey undercoat.

Or perhaps it's "Work's Photographic Grey"?

Meanwhile, Martin and Keith have been continuing to dismantle 2874.  It is going to be shot blasted and primed by an outside contractor in the near future, but first some more bits need to come off and of course some items need protecting from the shot blasting. 

2874 on its accommodation bogies

The target for Saturday was to remove the reverser.  2874 is 101 years old now, and the reverser had probably not been removed in all that time.  It had grown quite accustomed to being where it was thank you very much and not at all inclined to go somewhere else now.

Keith applied some heat.

The mortal remains of the AWS box did come off

 At the end of the day, all bolts holding the reverser in place had been teased off, but the rust still holding it in place was a force to be reckoned with.  It will have to wait until a telehandler driver is available to lift it off.

Refusing to budge

 Meanwhile, David had been removing some of the grime from the frames and found them for the most part to be in excellent order.  One or two of the frame stretchers will need to be replaced and the drag box is also far past being fit for further service.

David, cleaning the frames...

...the drag box... or what is left of it anyway.

Just in case there wasn't enough work to be done on the locos, we seem to have adopted a wagon to repair.

John putting the brake mechanism to rights.

 The welfare building is shooting up, the breeze block inner walls have stopped for the moment and the brick external walls have been started.

The larger view...

...and a close up of the brick work.

 The standard of the brick work has come in for compliments from many quarters.  The aim is that it will blend in seamlessly with the original GWR goods shed.  It's looking pretty good thus far.

 2807 was out running on Saturday, so its owning group had little to do other than continue with their boot scraper production line (available from the Flag & Whistle).  All proceeds towards funding 2807's heavy general overhaul starting next year.

Bruce painting a boot scraper

 35006 has been having issues with its brakes, Saturday saw a team of people gathering around it.

Or at least there had been, I obviously wandered past at tea break time.

 Testing brakes when a loco is not in steam is a bit tricky as you can't use the ejector to pull up a vacuum. The 35006 group weren't to be defeated though and used an electrical vacuum creating device instead.

 This new-fangled electricity will never catch on!

 I was back again on Sunday, this time as the rostered fireman for Dinmore Manor.  The driver, Mike had hatched a cunning plan.  It was the cleaner's (Mark) birthday.  He arranged for Mark's dad to join us for a round trip of the line without Mark knowing. Mark was dispatched to the Flag & Whistle to obtain bacon rolls for the crew.  Once Mark had gone, Mike sneaked his dad onto the footplate.

Mark returning with breakfast

 We had expected Mark to be surprised when he returned to Dinmore Manor, but as it happened, he had spotted his dad's car in the car park on his way to the Flag & Whistle and put two and two together.  Best laid plans...

Mark & his dad.

Dinmore Manor running round at Broadway

 Being on the prep turn, I only did one round trip before handing over the fire to Tina for the remainder of the day.  On Saturday, just before he left, David had rather cheekily said "If you fancy hanging around until midnight, you can prime the section of 3850's tender that I have needle gunned & wire brushed".  For some unaccountable reason, I didn't fancy hanging around until midnight... I'd have been in breach of our lone working rules & working hours rules if I had.  On Sunday afternoon there were plenty of people around (the DMU group prefer to work on the bubble car on Sundays), so I got out the rust inhibiting primer once more.

Another section of the tender coal space in primer.

 It seems to be the season for painting stuff,  Bryan had fetched his 04 shunter into the shed and was busy wire brushing off the old paint

Bryan wire brushing...

...and Dan followed behind with the primer.

 You may remember from the last blog post that Anthony was my cleaner and I was keen to let him fire a round trip.  I knew of course that he was only a week away from being assessed as a fireman and wanted to make sure that he had a bit of last minute practice. He fired perfectly then and obviously fired perfectly again on Sunday, as he has now been passed out as a fireman.  Congratulations Anthony.

Inspector Meredith (L) with Anthony

A new head of locomotive training has recently been appointed who I have it on very good authority was extremely pleased at this first passing out of an engine man during his tenure. His enthusiasm to update the online operations website didn't go entirely to plan. It turns out that when you try to upgrade somebody from cleaner to fireman, it is possible to convert them to being a locomotive for rostering purposes. Although the new training manager had the permissions to make this change, he didn't have the necessary permissions to undo it. For a couple of days, Anthony existed as both a fireman and a locomotive. A grovelling email had to be sent to the Operations Manager to get the anomaly corrected. The reply when it came was "Done. No chance of anyone accidentally lighting him up now 😉"

That is normally where I would leave off a blog post, however on this occasion, there is one more thing to add. For the last few years, the GWRT website on it's volunteering page has included words to the effect that the steam loco dept is full and don't bother applying. It has been recognised that with the recent change to running split shifts that we need more footplate crew and also we need more people to work on our running fleet and restoration projects. The web page has now been updated with rather more welcoming words. It takes a few years of cleaning locos to get to the point of being qualified as a fireman like Anthony and there is classroom training, written exams, a medical and of course a practical assessment to go through. The hours are long and antisocial, you'll get roasted/frozen/soaked to death depending on the season, never mind getting more than than slightly grubby (Swarfega will become your new best friend). If this is for you and you would like to know more, then please click on the now rather friendlier link.