Champagne and Chips

 This week starts with a couple of items from other people, the first from Peter Gutteridge who posed the following quiz:

Identify the safety valve cover, photo courtesy Peter Gutteridge

Yes, for a while, last week as locos were going through boiler washouts/steam tests etc, we had a line up of three GWR safety valve covers.  Feel free to try to identify which safety valve cover belongs on which of our locos.  All safety valve covers have since been refitted, hopefully to the correct locos.

I have also received a collection of photos from an anonymous source regarding work taking place on Friday.  We had both 7820 and 4270 lined up for boiler insurance tests and both needed putting back together after their boiler washouts and warming fires put in before the steam tests could take place on Saturday.

The day started with a shunt, to get the milk wagon topped up with RO water ready to be pumped into the boilers of the locos that have just been washed out.

Until mentioned in the notes, the following photos were provided by my anonymous source.

The 04, collecting the 8F and milk tanker

Filling up the milk tanker

I've heard of watering down beer before, but never watering down milk.

Mark may like his steam locos to be nicely cleaned, but that doesn't extend to his car it seems, which was to be seen in the car park sporting the phrase "Doris the Dirty Dutton" scrawled on the bonnet:

Perhaps he's keeping it that way for the benefit of an upcoming photo charter?

 A newly welded up steam pipe for 35006 arrived on Friday, and the last one for attention was sent away at the same time:

Newly welded steam pipe arriving

 The steam pipe was hydraulically tested the following day.

The last one just about to go off for welding

 Dinmore Manor was the focus of most attention during the day, here Len (l) and Mike refit the safety valves:

Len & Mike at work

 All of the washout plug holes in the boiler needed tapping out to clean up the threads followed by the washout plugs being reinserted.  Then mud hole doors needed refitting too.  The weather over the previous night had involved rainfall measured by the yard rather than the inch.  The puddle in Dinmore Manor's smoke box was as a consequence of that rather than anything more concerning.  Apparently it made the tapping out of the washout plug hole threads a decidedly damp experience for my anonymous correspondent:

Soggy smokebox

 Mark discovered the same thing as he refitted the washout plugs

He forgot his snorkel

 After a long day, 4270 and 7820 were ready for warming fires in anticipation of the steam tests to come on Saturday:

Pete has just lit a warming fire in 4270

 Ray and Graham from the 5542 owing group were on hand to do some winter fettling on the Planets Favourite Prairie too:

Bit of a clue there relating to the identity of the third of the safety valve cover competition locos.

 Our anonymous correspondent signs off with a couple of views of 7820 and 4270 in the gathering gloom at the end of the day on Friday.

7820 & 4270 with warming fires lit

Dinmore Manor with a warming fire at the end of the day

 That's the end of the photos from the anonymous source.

Saturday (in fact Friday too) was a day of race train specials from Toddington to Cheltenham Race Course for race goers who wanted to arrive at CRC in style.  The fact that they would miss the traffic jams around the race course would be an added bonus for them.  The one steam train would run passengers to CRC in the morning and return with the empty coaching stock .  At lunch time a fish and chip special would take place and then at the end of the day, a third round trip taking the empty coaches down to CRC and fetching back the race goers.   The day had been split into two shifts for the crews and I had the luxury of the late shift, something of a gentleman's turn, arrive very late, go down to CRC on the cushions, then just one and a half round trips later, a very relaxed day would be complete.  None of this getting out of bed at stupid O'Clock in the morning to be at Toddington in time to light the fire and bring the loco into steam.  I set my alarm for half past lie-in and dozed through the morning, bliss!

Upon arrival at Toddington, I still had a bit of time to myself to check up and see what was happening.  That steam pipe for 35006 that had been delivered the day before was now undergoing a hydraulic test.

Pumping up the pressure

Sat at 375 PSI or thereabouts, all welds held tight.

As has been mentioned on here before, Dinmore Manor was still rather grubby from having been 'weathered' for a couple of recent photo charters.  The monsoon a couple of nights before had not had the desired effect, so Ben set to the task of getting 7820 presentable again:

Ben restoring the shine to 7820

You'll be pleased to know that both 7820 and 4270 passed their boiler tests with flying colours.

For some considerable time now, a certain party has nagged mentioned on a number of occasions that it would be nice if I arranged for a trip out on the footplate for her.  Stupid O'Clock in the morning is not really her thing, so Saturday with its civilised start time seemed like the ideal opportunity.  I negotiated with the relevant drivers and procured a pass, we were all set to go.  The party concerned is an annoyingly talented (by which I mean better than me) photographer and most of what follows from here on, unless otherwise stated is courtesy of Fiona Sami.  Needless to say there were many photos of me which have ended up on the cutting room floor.  

A fine study of 4270, 7820 and 5542

The early shift fireman was Ade and our steed for the day was 2807.  

Ade relaxing before the start of the lunchtime fish and chip special

The Cheltenham Flyer Fryer

For the trip down to CRC, we were going down on the cushions, according to the OTC staff on board, the first class coach at the back was the place to hide out away from all the diners.  I needed no second bidding.

All was in good order when I arrived on the footplate at CRC

 Although Ian (driver) and myself were kicking off at a civilised time, Aaron, the cleaner had been on the go since well before dawn.  He's a keen lad and had obviously made a good job of cleaning 2807, as it was shining like a new pin.  I gave him to opportunity to fire back from CRC to Toddington.  Being left handed, he was at a little disadvantage on a GWR loco, but he did ok anyway.

Better suited to a left hand drive loco

Ian on the regulator.

The racing fraternity are noted for quaffing liberal quantities of champagne during the trip down to CRC and then consuming even more on the return trip to either toast their successes on backing the right horses, or more likely to drown their sorrows.  Consequently the buffet on the train starts the day well stocked with bubbly.  Surprisingly, the diners on the fish and chip special managed to polish off the last of the champagne at lunchtime, requiring more stock to be procured in a hurry, ready for the last train to fetch back the race goers. 

 For the last round trip, I took the shovel.  Looking back at it now, I'm not entirely sure that we should have had the Races Express head board in conjunction with the empty coaching stock lamp code, but what the hell.

Empty coach express

It has been brought to my attention that there are certain miscreants on other heritage railways who peruse this blog with the sole intention of discovering mistakes, mishaps and misdemeanours with which to harangue some of our volunteers.  Such occurrences are of course few and far between, but occasionally one or two sneak through.   Here's another one:

Aaron called for the water to be switched off just a bit too late

Note that it was Aaron that called for the water to be switched off too late, not that (I think it was Ade) reacted too slowly.  Rule number 1, it's always the cleaner's fault.

The return trip was the first time that I had fired in the dark for quite a while, I'd forgotten how different it is. It's still extremely enjoyable though.

Aaron posing.... in wet boots....

....whilst yours truly empties the smoke box

 I got sweet talked into doing a little light painting at the end of the day.  I'm much more used to being on the other side of the camera for this sort of thing, it's more difficult than it looks.  The following shot was the result of at least half a dozen retakes.

That's supposed to say "2807"... you just can't get the staff!

And finally, another correspondent (thanks K.M.) has pointed me in the direction of an interesting video titled Steam Locos in Profile: GWR Manors . The video features a number of scenes shot on the GWSR featuring Dinmore Manor.  In particular there is a short footplate sequence featuring Neil and Phil at 7:28 as well as Cliff at 10:37.  A further video from the same production team "Steam Locos in Profile: the GWR 28XXs" features a great deal of footage from the GWSR, mostly of 2807 and 3850 during the 2014 "Back to Black" gala, though our resident 8F, 8274 manages to sneak in briefly near the beginning.  

I know that there are more than a few people who scour this blog looking for mistakes to beat me up with, so I take no joy in pointing out that there is an error in the 28XX video, at 12:14.  If you want to know what it is, here is a pretty heavy (about 75.5 tons) clue:

They also had 3801 listed instead of 3802.