Messy McMessFace

I have been berated in some quarters for the dearth of blog postings lately, the commencement of the busy season in the day job, allied with enhanced duties at the GWSR have conspired to keep me away from recording the activities of the steam loco dept for a while.  The pressure of the day job will not relent for a while longer yet, but I will do my best to keep you informed.
The "Welfare Building" is progressing incredibly well, the ground floor is now in place, complete with ceiling and scaffolding has temporarily blocked the unloading road to facilitate the construction of the next storey.

A view from earlier in October, ground floor complete...

...and more recently, second floor in progress

The brickwork is in keeping with the goods shed to which is effectively an extension and so far, it looks marvellous. It is hoped that the shell of the building, including the roof, will be erected by the end of the year assuming that the weather doesn't bite us (fingers crossed).  The building will contain mess facilities as well as showers, toilets, training rooms and more workshop space.  An official competition has been launched to name the building.  I understand that over a dozen entrants have this far been received, two or three of which were "sensible".  My personal favourite, and one by which the building will probably be unofficially yet affectionately known forms the title of this blog.  The official name will be determined by a panel of the GWSR's great and good at some point in the future.  Regardless of its name, it will be a major step forward in the facilities currently available to the steam dept, which would be best described as Spartan.

More has happened to 2874

Stuart & Tracy cleaning up 2874's pony truck

2874's sanding levers have been parted from the frames...

...and the cab fittings are now completely removed.

The running plates have been freed but not removed.

2874's frames will soon be moved into a tent placed on road 6, where contractors will grit blast the frames and then give them a coat of rust inhibiting primer. 

35006 has had a boiler hydraulic test.  This involved removing lots of bits to seal the boiler including the regulator.  The good news is that she passed the hydraulic test and will be back in traffic for the last five Santa specials leading up to Christmas.  At the time of writing, many dates for the Santa Specials are already sold out.  If you want to take your child(ren) or grandchild(ren) to see Santa at Winchcombe The North Pole by steam train, then this is the link to click on.

35006 ready for her hydraulic test

Unusually for me, I had a turn on a Wednesday (16th).  This was with Chris & Steve on Foremarke Hall.

The thing that struck me, wasn't that we had bacon rolls for breakfast, that's pretty much par for the course.

Chris (L) and Steve with the usual order for breakfast

Nor was it that Steve was pretty good with the shovel or at hooking on and off:

Steve at work

It wasn't it that Hunting Butts now had stop boards whilst vegetation clearance took  place

Not that we wanted to go down there anyway

The thing that struck me was the sheer quantity of biscuits that they consume on a Wednesday:

Several packets and a whole box of biscuits

And as if that wasn't enough, there was a sizable selection of home made cake as well.

Yum!

I think that the idea is that they all get dosed up on sugar and then go out into the yard and work it all off on the many jobs around the place that need doing.  It's that or their wives/significant others don't let them eat cake and biscuits at home, and they use that as an excuse to binge when they get to Toddington.  If the latter is the case, then I've just dropped them in it... sorry chaps!

I was back again on the Saturday (19th), a morning spent painting the coal space of 3850's tender.

David & Tracy applying primer to the coal space of Dinmore Manor's tender

With thanks to inspector Meredith, in the afternoon I was "pre-assessed" as a driver.  In other words I drove well enough for a round trip of the line to be deemed of a sufficient standard to be worth training as a driver. 

9466 has done a few trips up and down the line.  The usual prelimary checks were done which included amongst other things weighing the loco to make sure that the weight was spread evenly between the axles.

9466 moved onto the scales... (photo courtesy of Peter Gutteridge)

...springs being adjusted. (photo courtesy of Peter Gutteridge)

 

 

9466 went out for a double headed proving run, then successfully ran on her own for a weekend.  My camera chose the day that I was there to have a flat battery, so in the end I had to make do with a photo of the event on my mobile phone at the end of the day:

Eleanor alights from the cab of 9466 at the end of its first weekend in traffic

Fans of this delightful engine will be pleased to know that it is rostered to run on all the Santa specials up until the 15th of December and then again from Boxing Day until New Years day inclusive.

Dinmore Manor has enjoyed a successful couple of weeks at the Battlefield Line's gala and is now back with us:

Dinmore Manor arriving back at Toddington (photo courtesy of Peter Gutteridge)

Friday the first of November was an owner's day for Dinmore Manor Locomotive LTD (DMLL).  The plan was to run Dinmore Manor up and down the line for a couple of round trips, with various of the DMLL supporters being given the chance to have a go at firing and driving as a way of saying thank you for all that they had contributed either financially or in practical terms over the previous 12 months. Mark & I were the qualified crew showing them how to do it.

Martin had organised the whole event.  He had decided that arranging On Train Catering (OTC) to be on board would be an excellent way of keeping the DMLL supporters fed and watered during the day. He also rather wisely in my opinion decided that just one bacon roll for breakfast wasn't really enough and that we should have two each.  This is the sort of commendable thinking that I heartily approve of.

Martin even had a turn on the footplate himself.

One of the DMLL supporters grabs the regulator, Mark enjoys his second bacon roll.

That big red handle thing seemed to be popular

 The opportunity arose for other footplate related tasks such as filling the tender with water

Turning on the water...

...Roger is more used to painting tenders, but here he is filling one instead.

 The obligatory group photo capturing most (it was like herding cats I'm afraid) participants and GWSR volunteers involved in the day took place at Broadway.

DMLL supporters

 Just in case you had run away with the idea that restoring/operating steam locos is an all male preserve, you will notice that the guard (fourth from the left sat on the platform edge) is a lady.  Bryony (for that is her name) is in the process of joining the steam loco dept with a view to becoming footplate crew.  She will still be maintaining her commitment to the guards dept as well, and no doubt she will appear on this blog from time to time has her career with us progresses.

Some of the DMLL supporters are ladies as well, this one brought along her dad too... or was it her dad brought her?  Never mind, they both appeared to be enjoying their time on the footplate.

I'm sorry to say that I didn't catch their names.

 The dad was left handed, but that didn't stop him firing by holding the shovel as a left handed person would, but stood in the right handed orientation to fire.  I was more than slightly amazed when it turned out that he could actually manage to get coal into the firebox where it was needed.

This shouldn't be possible

Somebody seemed to enjoy using the whistle more than the regulator

 Devindra is more at home in the machine shop turning up whatever items DMLL needs for its fleet of locos, however he had a go on the footplate too, along with the GWSR commercial director, Graham.  In the dim and distant past, Graham was a fireman on the Keighley and Worth Valley Railway, so he was more conversant with how to operate Dinmore Manor than most.

(L-R) Devindra, Mark & Graham

 The various emails that I have seen subsequently suggest that everybody had an enjoyable day on Friday.  That included Tom, who will be starting practical fireman training shortly. 

Tom, off to a poor start as he's on the wrong side of the footplate for firing.

 In contrast to the left handed gentleman mentioned earlier, Tom is right handed for most things, but fires best left handed.  It's a confusing world at times!

One of the things that I had noticed on Friday was that the new wood store had acquired a concrete apron in front of it, and a gate, but no fence had been added. 
 

Preparing the ground (photo courtesy of Peter Gutteridge)

Pouring the concrete (photo courtesy of Peter Gutteridge)

Waiting for it to set (photo courtesy of Peter Gutteridge)

 I had intended to take a photo on Sunday of the solitary gate and title it something along the lines of "A gate that only a purist would use".  Come Sunday morning, when lighting up Dinmore Manor for another turn, I was too late, the fence had been largely erected around the gate.  The Saturday gang were too efficient by half... and it had been pouring down with rain all day as well.  Whoever put it up deserves a medal.

A gate that has taken offence.

Dinmore Manor on the "Cotswold Express"

 Sunday turned out to be a nice sunny day for the most part, unlike Saturday

Tom (cleaner) did very well when handed the shovel

A nice enough view from the office window

 And finally, there is much to report on the assessment of trainees front.  Alex has been moonlighting as a trainee signalman as well as being a cleaner in the steam loco dept.  I am now extremely pleased to be able to report that she has qualified on Toddington signal box.  She has been a signalman on the big railway before, so there was no doubt that she would pass.

Alex, on the day she passed out as a signalman in Toddington signal box

I thought that I had the inspectors well trained, they have been very good at getting photos to me in the past of firemen & drivers passing out if I haven't been around to capture the event for posterity myself.  I am afraid to say on this occasion they let me down,  newly qualified fireman Luke, managed to elude the paparazzi on the day that he passed out.  I have had to scour previous blog posts to find a suitable picture.

Library photo of Luke at work on the shovel.

The inspectors redeemed themselves when driver Smith qualified

Inspector Irving (L) congratulates driver Smith on passing out. (Photo courtesy of Chris Irving)

Congratulations to all three in attaining their qualifications, with grateful thanks as well to the team that trained them and also to those that inspected them and passed them out.