Gone Fishing

Last weekend saw the visit of the "Really Useful Engine" from the Island of Sodor.  It was touch and go, as Sodor is still part of the EU, and given the recent Brexit vote, it wasn't clear whether or not Thomas would need his passport to get into the UK.  The Fat Controller had some very stern words indeed at the border control, and eventually Thomas was allowed in.

Thomas arrived with a small amount of coal in his bunker, which definitely wasn't Welsh in origin, it created quite a bit of clag when I lit the fire.

Has Thomas' emission control software been written by VW?

 I wasn't so bothered about that, as by the fact that there was similar clag appearing in the cab of Thomas too.  Had I not known better, I might have thought that he was wearing a chimney cap.  Even with 20 PSI on the pressure gauge, and the blower wound fully open, the cab was still full of acrid smoke.  Ian (Thomas' driver) suggested that the holes in the blower ring might be blocked and that I might want to take a look in the smoke box and give the blower ring a dust over with the hand brush.

Thomas' blast pipe, with the jumper ring on the top

 I was pleasantly surprised to discover that that did the trick, the blower started working as advertised and the smoke miraculously disappeared from the cab.

There was another small matter to attend to, Thomas rather naughtily takes water from the stream twice a day, the Fat Controller tells him off, and somebody in the crew has to go fishing in Thomas' water tanks to find that a fish has got in there.  All well and good, but it was known that the usual fish used for such purposes had been lost.  A new one had been obtained, but it still needed a fishing rod and line.  Ian located a spare bit of wood that could stand in for a rod and somebody else rummaged up a piece of string.  I tied the lot together as best as I could (to the only obvious attachment point, a label in the fish's belly) and we got Tony (Thomas' cleaner) to demonstrate how he would do the fishing later.

You should have seen the one that got away!

Fish in the tank, and rod and line easily accessible, before we set off to Winchcombe

Disappointingly, the weather forecast wasn't as good as it might have been, and there was plenty of surface water around indicating that it had been raining recently

Thomas reflects on the poor weather

 Thomas' water tanks were some little way down, so we elected to replenish them using the newly installed parachute tank in the yard.  Tony wasn't quite as quick to call for the water to be cut off as he might have been.

Wet boots for Tony

 With next to nothing in the bunker either, Thomas took delivery of a bucket or two of coal to see him through the day.

Coaling up

 Before we set off with our first train of the day, 2807 Henry the big green engine set off down the line.  Given the weather forecast, Henry's crew were more than a little apprehensive.

Henry sets off, Thomas waits to go into the platform and collect his train

 I have noticed that Thomas always seems to visit on his birthday... regardless of the date.  In fact, we have him running for 4 different days each year, and every one of those days turns out to be his birthday.  That's twice as many birthdays as even the Queen has each year.  Given that Thomas was born in 1937, I think that makes him 316 years old.  He's not doing badly for his age.

The combined age of Thomas' crew was far less than 316.

 All the usual fun of the Thomas event was had.  Somehow, Ian & I managed to convince Tony that the cleaner was supposed to do all the activities, such as the fishing in the tanks...

Fish fingers for dinner tonight

...and the pouring in of water from the buckets:

Tony fills the tank, the hard way.

 Ian & I opted to remain in the nice warm cab, especially when it rained:

A decidedly damp Fat Controller

 Well OK, Ian occasionally mixed it up a bit by sheltering in a handy Toad brake van.

Ian, keeping dry

 Tony maintained his unenviable record of getting his boots wet, by calling for the water to be turned off just a little too late once again.

Wet boots again

 Every now and then, Thomas had to leave the platform at Winchcombe and wait in a siding for other trains to come and go, before he could return to Toddington

Thomas & Henry whistle to each other

There was also a friendly diesel running, not sure of his or her name

I noticed that a bus was doing some sort of shuttle service between Toddington & Winchcombe.  It wasn't Bertie, as he's only a single decker.  Nevertheless, it always seemed to be in the right place to greet us when we arrived at each end.

Bertie's friend waiting at Winchcombe

I suspect that Steve Parker took advantage of the bus service, as he appears to have taken the photo below from on board the bus:

A buses eye view...

...A worms eye view

Tony got the hang of calling for the water to be turned off, a little while before it really needed to be after a couple of false starts

Dry boots

After 4 trips to Winchcombe and back, entertaining many young people, fishing in the tanks (twice) and filling up with buckets (twice), it was time to shunt the stock away and head off to the shed for disposal.   The advantage of not having run for too many miles, was that there wasn't a great deal of ash to dispose of...  that makes Thomas "Really Useful" in my view.

I dampened the ash, Tony raked it out

 At the end of the day, I noticed several things, firstly that the loading road (road 5) had been lifted and was in the process of being replaced.  This hampered Thomas' return to Sodor, and he was to be collected on Sunday evening from Winchcombe, instead of Toddington.

Loading road under repair

 Road 6 in the David Page shed is the last one to have the floor concreted, the back half of it having been excavated during the day

Road 6, soon to be concreted

 3850's boiler has been a bit problematical recently, the smoke box had refused to budge when tried initially some weeks ago.  Some measure of brute force at least, if not ignorance had clearly been applied during the day, as the two were separated at last

3850's boiler & smoke box

And finally, Foremarke Hall is back in traffic for the first time since the gala.  She featured on a double header on Thursday, and will be operating on all running days during this week at least.

Foremarke Hall, basking in the sun on Saturday