It's not over until the fat lady sings

I rather like the purple timetable.  It only runs on certain Sundays throughout the year, but sees us with three locos in steam during the day. Consequently there are plenty of people around and plenty to do.  I was down to clean train one (which was 8274) driven by Sean (under the instruction of Andy) and fired by Paul.  Whilst cleaning 8274, I noticed that some of the wooden panels of the wood store had been removed and Paul was stood nearby looking guilty.  Paul has some previous when it comes to burning the wrong wood so I feared the worst.

Paul caught in the act

Disappointingly, it turned out that it was Dan who had removed the rotten wooden panels, with a view to replacing them with new ones.

The crew of train three (the dining train) had a very leisurely day ahead, late start, early finish and a long lunch break with free food somewhere in the middle.  They decided that getting rostered down for train three had been a wise choice:

Andy, Tina and Paul.  The three wise monkeys.

The GWSR publicity machine is gearing up for next year and a 2014 brochure has been commissioned.  Shots of suitably photogenic railway volunteers doing whatever it is they do are required.  To that end, Jack Boskett had been requested to do a photoshoot of some of the more visually appealing volunteers last Wednesday at Toddington.  Obviously Tina had been invited (I guess my invite must have been lost in the post) but was unable to manage to be there on the day due to work commitments.  She rather foolishly asked me if I would bring my camera along on Sunday to take some publicity type shots of her on the footplate for possible inclusion in the aforementioned brochure.  This was a first for me, people usually run for the hills as soon as I pull my camera out of its bag, even my own daughters run and hide.  People who are cornered and can't escape try all sorts of tricks to get out of it, such as Andy here:

Nice try Andy, you'll have to do better than that.

I had planned to try to get Tina to wear a grease top hat, or possibly even a flat cap and bought along an example of each to try out on her.  Before I even got myself fully up onto the footplate of Foremarke Hall, she had sussed out my cunning plan and informed me that she doesn't do hats!   I decided to quit whilst I was ahead not too far behind on that one. I distracted her with the last of my stash of Jelly Babies, which she still claims not to like, but eats anyway and proceeded to grab a few photos of her at work on and around Foremarke Hall.  I even roped Ben in to operate a reflector to try and reduce some of the harsher shadows caused by the strong sun.

Not quite like that Ben!

That's more the idea

I'll be working over the shots in Photoshop in a few days time.  I asked Tina if she'd like me to tweak them a bit for her.  She replied "Can you fix the wrinkles so that I look about 30?".  I now have the highly unusual task of having to add enough wrinkles to age her by 9 years.  With a bit of luck one or two of the resulting shots will find their way into the relevant publication next year.

Meanwhile, train one had departed without me, but I had arranged with the crew to join them when they got back from the first trip down to Cheltenham.  Hanging around on the platform for ten minutes or so before they arrived was rather pleasant.  As I was loitering on the platform in footplate gear, several conversations with passengers ensued who thought that I would be able to assist them.  Two separate groups had arrived at Toddington looking for the dining train, which was a pity as it starts from Winchcombe.  I was at least able to give them directions to Winchcombe and assure them that as the loco for their train was still stood on the ash pit, that they had plenty of time to get there.  For several others, it was a case of demystifying the timetable to enable them to see as much of the railway as possible in the limited time available to them.  I can see now why the platform staff enjoy their job so much.

Train two setting off from Toddington whilst I wait for train one to arrive

The other nice thing about the purple timetable is that steam gets a lamentably rare outing up to Laverton and back, so when 8274 appeared bang on time, we didn't simply run around the train and head for Cheltenham, but took the scenic tour over Stanway viaduct to Laverton.  

Either Andy was a little slow in switching off the water when we filled up at Toddington, or I called stop a bit too late, either way I found myself with my own private swimming pool.

In at the deep end

The timetable permits a half an hour break at Toddington for train one. Sean and Paul took advantage of the break to work out how to get out of being with me on the footplate for the rest of the day:

Plotting

Paul eventually decided that feigning death would get him out of it:

Paul plays dead (not sleeping at all).

I offered to save his relatives the cost of a funeral by shoveling him straight into the firebox there and then, at which point he made a miraculous recovery.

For the next round trip, Paul decided that his best hope was to throw the shovel at me and hide in the corner of the cab.  It seemed to go fairly ok, thanks Paul.

The third trip gave me an opportunity to grab a few photos along the length of the line.  It seems that real wild life along the route is no longer enough.  I noticed a green woodpecker, several buzzards and a kestrel at different points along the line which isn't too unusual.  What was unusual though was a pair of giraffes peering over the fence of the Harvest Home at Winchcombe:

Giraffes at Winchcombe

The consensus of opinion on the footplate was that logging into eBay on a Saturday night after a few too many beers was not a good idea.  

Not only did the line now have giraffes, but down at Laverton we seem to have acquired a python:

According to the sign, it's 'The Laverton Python'

 It looked a bit dodgy to us, so we made the guard get out and operate the ground frame for us rather than risk getting off the footplate ourselves:

Nigel operating the ground frame

Nobody was too sure if orange hi-viz would have the same effect on pythons as red rags do to bulls, but I can happily report that no guards were injured in the making of this blog.

 Later on back at Winchcombe, Ben was waiting with the dining train to taunt us with how good his free lunch had been.

Ben taunts us.

I've often fancied taking a few footplate shots by the light of the fire whilst in Greet tunnel, but not done so before.  I gave it a whirl on Sunday and quite like this study of Andy that I came up with:

Asleep on the footplate?

 I know his eyes are shut, he just blinked at the wrong moment, he wasn't stood up fast asleep.

The footplate of a steam locomotive lacks many creature comforts.  Yes you can cook on the shovel (if the regulator isn't open or blower on) and yes you can keep a can of tea hot on the warming plate, but aside from that it's fairly spartan.  The most obvious thing that it lacks is a convenience.  I'm sure that in days long past, when steam ruled supreme, crews caught short between stations would just judge carefully which way the wind was blowing then stand in the doorway of the other side of the cab to attend to the call of nature.  A bit unfortunate for any passengers who might be leaning out of a carriage window perhaps, but effective nonetheless.  In these rather more enlightened times, such a recourse isn't really on, so when Sean informed us that he needed to make a pit stop somewhere around Winchcombe yet still hadn't done so by the time we had turned round and were leaving Cheltenham again, we were all getting a bit concerned. Eventually Sean told us that it was not a problem, he found it easier to stop the train at the right point on the platforms when his legs were crossed.  He also mentioned that he really ought to be more guarded in what he says when I'm around.

Sean drives cross legged, Andy blocks the doorway just in case

So there you have it, if you are a trainee driver and find that you have difficulty judging where to stop the train, just drink plenty of fluids and omit to attend to the call of nature until you sign off at the end of the day.  Remember, you read it here first, you don't get advice like that anywhere else.

Speaking of Cheltenham, Andy very kindly purchased refreshments for the crew:-

Yes I know the point of focus is on the background rather than Andy. In my defence I was too busy eating the one he had bought for me at the time to concentrate on operating my camera properly.  Lets hope I did better with the photos of Tina.

Gratuitous shot of us crossing train two (5542) at Winchcombe

Finally, we have yet more good news.  Chris Blake passed out as a fireman during the week.  There are no photos from the day itself, but his agent has provided me with this publicity shot of him:

Fireman Blake (photo courtesy of Chris Blake)

A little bit of artistic licence has been employed here as Chris is apparently firing from the wrong side of the cab.  Chris spent over 30 years working for the Fire Service, so he has done extremely well in overcoming his natural instinct to put fires out rather than keep them burning.  Chris's first turn out after qualifying was on a particularly rainy day.  Footplate crews are hardy souls and just get on with the job, regardless of what the weather chooses to do.  Not so some of our signalmen.  Chris was offered the token at Toddington on the end of a broom to spare the poor signalman from having to lean out of his nice warm and dry signal box into the pouring rain.

Photo courtesy of Ben Evason