Don't Mention the War

That time of the year when the GWSR slips into a slightly different time warp has come round again.  Rather than being somewhere in the late 1950's, we stepped back a bit further to the early 1940's to relive what it was like to be alive in wartime Britain.  I was rostered to clean Dinmore Manor on Sunday. Recent rain had made the ground rather soft in places.  I was slightly concerned when I discovered that the field at Toddington that I would need to park in on Sunday had become rather too soft, Ben and the Fork Lift Truck Thunderbird 4 had to be summoned to rescue George on Saturday:

The perils of front wheel drive and a lot of weight in the back.  Photo courtesy of Dan Wigg

It was with a measure of trepidation then that I parked my car in the field on Sunday morning:

My exit route didn't look too promising

Should you wish to visit the GWSR on one of the few days that we open the field at Toddington for parking purposes, and you think that the ground might turn out to be a bit too soft for comfort, you'll find plenty of much better drained parking at Cheltenham Race Course station.  Hopefully we'll get better weather for the Back to Black gala in late May, but if we don't, then parking at Cheltenham Race Course and taking our trains from there would be advisable.  Speaking of the Back to Black gala, it seems that our resident 8F will now be converted for a short while over the gala period to BR livery, assuming the number 48274, which was at Stourton shed (55B) for nearly all of its career.  That's something I'm very much looking forward to and I am very grateful to all involved at the Churchill 8F group for making happen.

So, back to Sunday morning,  it was raining.  I've probably mentioned this before,  but cleaning a loco in the rain is a bit of a thankless task.  You can wash over the boiler barrel, but trying to dry it off again so that it doesn't leave any streaks is fairly futile. I gave it a go anyway.  Cleaning brass in the rain just doesn't work at all.  I tried applying a bit of diesel/oil mix to the smokebox, but that just turned to a white emulsion and looked dreadful.  I had to wipe it off again on the bit that I tried.  Fortunately, Tina wanted Dinmore Manor's grate clearing of ash whilst she got on with something else, so I was able to check out how well the drop grate works from within the nice dry cab.  I am pleased to report that it works extremely well and more importantly that whilst using it you remain perfectly dry.  When I'd finished that, as the water sample container was on hand, I proceeded to run in a sample from the water gauge test cock and save Tina another job.  The fact that his too had to be done in a nice dry cab had no influence on my decision whatsoever.  Job done, I stepped back away from the backhead, only to discover too late that Tina had just shifted some lighting up wood up onto the footplate. Tripping over it,  I fell over backwards and landed surprisingly softly in the coal space in the tender.  Ben was quite impressed that I managed to land flat on my back yet keep the water sample container upright and not spill a drop.  He mentioned something about it being a useful talent if you inadvertently fall over with a pint of beer in your hand.  Tina's concern amounted to saying "I'm not laughing really" whilst splitting her sides.  Mercifully, the only thing damaged was my pride.  Well one or two of the lumps of coal were probably injured too, but me crushing them was the least of their worries!

Having three locos in steam, meant that there was quite a few people about, though given the rain, much of the work done seemed to be performed from either in the cab or somewhere underneath the locos.  Dinmore Manor has a fairly exposed cab when running tender first, nowhere to hide in there.  The crews of 5542 and the 8F in their nice warm enclosed cabs seemed to perfectly happy with their lot:

Chris relaxes with a brew in the cab of the 8F

I discovered that Jonathan can do a pretty realistic Nelson (Simpsons, not naval hero) impression:

Jonathan keeping dry

Eventually there was some respite from the rain, and I was able to get some cleaning done.  Although buffing up the copper chimney cap with Brasso is still a bit of a pain, I was pleased to note that I could at least reach all of the smoke box and chimney from the running plate, when it came to applying a diesel/oil mix. Foremarke Hall being similar, but just that bit bigger was too far to reach for me.

Other copper/brass cleaning products do exist

When one of the tea breaks came round, Ben was underneath Dinmore Manor oiling her lubrication points.  A plaintive voice was heard to come from somewhere down below "Am I missing biscuits?".  Surprisingly as wartime rationing was in force, the answer was "Yes", so Ben emerged from underneath Dinmore Manor in what must have been some sort of record time:

Ben and the rationed biscuits

I think Ben must have absconded with those biscuits, he certainly tried to cover his tracks as he set off shed:

Were the biscuits in there somewhere?

As mentioned last week, here is 35006 sporting one of her smoke deflectors, the other one is still waiting to be fitted:

Well at the least the driver will be able to see clearly, shame about the fireman

So what happens at 'Wartime Weekends'? Well for a start, people turn up in 1940's vehicles and wearing 1940's clothes:

Chris & John, looking dapper and singing in the rain

I'm not up to speed on buses, but this one looked suitably old

A Sherman tank fits the wartime theme very well

As well as the rather nifty tank transporter that it came on.

You'll probably have spotted by now that my road vehicle preference is for two wheeled transport rather than four, I had quite a chat with the owner of this rather handsome 1940 Velocette.

I wouldn't kick it out of the garage for leaking oil.

As for the people, even the ones in civilian attire managed to look the part... up to and including lipstick marks on this chap's face.

Best clean that off before he goes home to the wife!

I quite like 1940's prices, less sure about what was on offer though:

Spam at 2d, don't tell Monty Python

The RAF let us down at one point, there was an air raid warning:

Air raid warning... very loud, it would have scared off Goering all by itself!

 Having studied the GWSR's air raid precautions handbook, I knew that the best thing to do in an air raid is to take cover and find some breakfast.  I needed no second bidding:

Nick, bereft of tin hat and gas mask, but at least he has his breakfast

That little lot must have made quite a dent in his ration book.

Back in the car park, John was keen to tell me about his car collection:

Would you buy a used car from this man?

 I had hitherto been blissfully unaware that BSA had made cars as well as motorbikes.  Being the one time proud owner of a 1955 BSA B33, I was interested in finding out more about the erstwhile four wheeled products of the Small Heath factory:

Birmingham Small Arms

The diesel shed had been commandeered by the RAF and turned into a war time Operations Room.  They even re-enacted an air raid and dispatched three squadrons of 'friendly' aircraft to see off the hostile ones:

Who do you think you are kidding Mr Hitler

 When the air raid started, it got serious, the WAAFs not only put on their tin hats, but they even put their knitting down too.

RAF 1: 0 Luftwaffe

 The first two locos off on Sunday morning made quite a pleasant GWR scene, sat side by side at Toddington. The crossing monitors in their hi-viz vests (insurance requirement apparently) obligingly stepped to each side out of the shot.

5542 & Dinmore Manor ready for wartime service

We'll gloss over the fact that Dinmore Manor, although a GWR design, wasn't built until 1950 by British Rail.   You'll notice too that I chose an angle that largely excludes the younger still BR MK I coaches. Still, if Steve McQueen (or more accurately his stuntman) could escape from Stalag Luft III on a 1961 Triumph TR6, then I'm sure that we can get away with such minor indiscretions.

Meanwhile, over on the narrow gauge railway, there was a German spy in the camp:

Henschel 1091 of 1918

There was some speculation as to whether or not there were lady crews on mainline locomotives during the war years.  Tina believed that there had been, others thought not.  I'll confess to having no idea, well it was long before my time. If you know the answer, do tell. Either way, it didn't deter Tina in the slightest, or Tonia for that matter:

All-female crew of the future?  Tina and Tonia

Ben couldn't resist getting in on the act too:

I'll leave working out what comments were made as an exercise for the reader

We were distracted by a German spy attempting to infiltrate the footplate:

The RAF came to the rescue though.

It wasn't just Toddington that was in the 1940's timewarp, Gotherington had become an army camp:

Note the pump trolley in the background, that looked like fun

We had a spot of bother at Gotherington.  We only use one platform, the main station building and its platform forming a private residence.  A group of passengers had got on the wrong platform expecting the train to take them back from there.  The lack of track by that  platform had somehow escaped their attention.  We had to pull forward far enough to clear the crossing to allow them to come round to the platform that we use and then get on the train.

No, we hadn't badly overshot the platform.

I found the Morris dancers at Cheltenham this year.  They appeared to be ready to repel any invading Nazis with their wooden clubs.

Keeping old traditions alive.

There was a Battle of Britain Memorial Flight (BBMF) Spitfire overflight at about 14:30, but we were at the wrong end of the line to see it when it passed over Winchcombe and Toddington.   Having missed the photo opportunity myself, I thought that I might have to raid my archives and do a 'Blue Peter'.

Here's one I prepared earlier

The BBMF have several Spitfires, here's another one I prepared earlier

It's not just Spitfires that they have either

As it happens, I didn't really need to have raided my archives, as Matt Willis has kindly allowed me to use this excellent video clip of it passing over the skies of Winchcombe, it's well worth a view:

 The highlight for me was none of the many things listed above, good as they all were.  The highlight for me was the first opportunity to fire Dinmore Manor. She certainly seems to be able to produce steam quite well, yet still be fairly controllable.  The driver has to work her slightly harder to get the same sort of effect compared to our larger locos, so she sounds just as good as she looks too.   

When running tender first, it gets a bit draughty in the cab.  I don't tend to notice the cold too much, I was still happily wearing a short sleeve shirt at this point however at least one other person present on the footplate was finding it all bit too cold.  A head popped out from under there every now and then to make sure that I was keeping the pressure and water in the right places before hiding away again. 

Just wait until the winter comes around.

 The day closed out with another Niagara Falls moment.... either Tina called 'Stop' too late, or Ben was too slow to react, either way, Tina had to work hard to keep her feet dry.

Tina and her own private swimming pool.

 When we loaded up with coal at disposal time, it became evident that the FLT had been distributing bales of hay around the field car park in an attempt to make it easier for the cars to get out, as some of the hay was now mixed in with the coal

Hay in the coal... presumably to help coax an extra few horse power out of 7820

Finally, you're probably expecting some sort of tale of woe relating to how much difficulty I had getting my car out of the parking field at the end of the day, well you'd be wrong.  Ian kindly offered to fetch round our cars whilst we got on with disposal.  By the time we had finished, all of our cars were sat in the car park ready and waiting for us, thanks Ian.  No, I intend to finish with a different tale of woe.  At last year's gala, we found ourselves extremely low on rags.  We need rags to clean our locos with and more importantly to start lighting up the fires with.  We get through quite a lot of rags every operating day.   It got to the point last year that we ran out completely and ended up pilfering perfectly good towels from the mess coach to clean and light up the locos.  Once again, our stocks are perilously low and the gala is now less than a month away.  Back in the blitz, one of the many slogans that people were bombarded with was 'Make Do And Mend'.  In other words, don't throw old clothes etc out, darn the holes and carry on.  Well, times have moved on, I for one wouldn't have a clue how to darn a pair of socks and would probably only manage to do myself an injury with a needle if I tried.  So if your curtains are looking a bit threadbare, or your t-shirts have been got at by moths, go on, treat yourself to some new ones and send us the old ones for recycling as only the steam loco dept know how.  I have made it easier for you, I have obtained a green wheelie bin, labeled it appropriately and placed it by the entrance to the yard.  

Green wheelie bin in its new home

The yard gates at Toddington, wheelie bin to the right.

So yes please, to any old items of clothing/fabric/towels etc that you may have lying around that you were considering throwing out.  Old towels in particular are prized for their loco cleaning properties, but a surprisingly large amount of other fabrics are suitable too.  Don't worry if your curtains or bedsheets are labeled as being 'flame resistant' or suchlike,  resistance is useless.  Please don't use the wheelie bin for general rubbish though, there are plenty of other bins around the site for that.