The Sound of Steam

The day job beckoned on Saturday, however I was fortunate enough to have a firing turn on Sunday... well, if you regard prepping and operating a loco in storm Callum fortune, then I was fortunate.  Occasionally the rain diminished to the point of merely being torrential.  As an indication of how bad it was, a tray of tea soon filled up with rain water. 

After just a few minutes stood out in the rain!

Not only was it raining, but we have got round to the time of year when it's dark when you start in the mornings.  Clearly the number one priority was to get the tea under cover, so as the Saturday crew hadn't put the storm sheet up for us, we had to do it ourselves.

Storm sheet up, the tea would be diluted no further.

It wasn't too cold, but Steve (Dinmore Manor's driver on Sunday morning) decided that he wanted the "cab heater" switching on:

I duly obliged

 Ben had sent me an email saying that I should expect a footplate passenger called Alessandro who would be making sound recordings for possible use in DCC chips for model railway locomotives.  I am very much hoping that this means that there will be a modern version of a OO gauge Manor class locomotive offered by one of the model railway manufacturers in the near future. It is a glaring omission that needs rectifying at the earliest opportunity.  It seems that Alessandro had made a start on Saturday, as there was already a bunch of cables snaking their way around Dinmore Manor's cab when I arrived.

Cables in the cab...

...and trip wires more cables on the running plate

 Back in the mess coach, more books had appeared for reading by the discerning.  These two appear to be extolling the virtues of Sir Nigel Gresley and in particular his A4 class of locomotives.  I'm not sure if the donor by leaving them on the same table as "Great Train Disasters" was trying to make some sort of a statement.

Gresley books

Not a Gresley book!

Speaking of the things left in the mess coach, the Dinmore Manor jigsaw puzzle mentioned last week has been completed by Mrs blogger & myself:

Dinmore Manor in 1,000 pieces

 I have to confess that Mrs blogger did most of it.

 Meanwhile, there was real work to be done out in the yard if Dinmore Manor (the locomotive, not the building or come to that the jigsaw puzzle) was to be ready for work.  Peter rather wisely decided that cleaning the underneath of the front bogie would be as dry a place as any.  I stuck to cleaning inside the cab once I had the fire going and had done the tool check.

Peter cleaning the front bogie

 Alessandro on the other hand needed to attach microphones to all of the cables that he had put in place previously.  In order to keep them dry, the more exposed ones were temporarily encased in plastic bags

Not a poor man's safety valve bonnet, but a bag over a microphone

Alessandro connecting up his microphones...

...there was even one under the buffer beam to record the drain cocks...

...and a number scattered around in the cab.

 I'm not entirely sure how many microphones he had set up altogether, but I don't doubt that I would have needed to take my boots and socks off to count them all.

Alessandro checking the volume levels on each channel

The recording equipment looked far too expensive and fragile to survive for long on the footplate

 Alessandro's day started off badly, when we attached to the stock, we found ourselves parked up next to the class 20, AKA the "Whistling wardrobe" owing to the distinctive and rather loud sound that it makes.  I'm sure that he was picking up little else on any of his microphones.

The whistling wardrobe.

 Having said that the footplate is probably no place for modern digital sound recording equipment, I also take the view that it is not the best place for mobile phones either.  Steve has got round the problem by getting some armoured cladding for his phone and happily used it to check the timetable.  There was no point in him checking the weather forecast, we already knew full well what was in store for us.

Steve checks the timetable

 It was a pink timetable on Sunday, I don't think that I had done one of those before.

In spite of the fact that our recent coal deliveries have been of Welsh coal, Dinmore Manor appeared to have a tender full of Scottish coal.

Scottish coal, the clue is in the thick smoke

 Steve rather wisely inched a little way past the 8 coach stop board when we pulled up at Winchcombe to spare us from having both the chimney and the cab underneath the road bridge

No good would have come of it

 The rain was still quite relentless

Alessandro made use of a hi-viz vest to protect his sound recorder from the elements

 We even collected breakfast as we passed the buffet car during the run round at Cheltenham race Course to save getting wet.

Better than the average drive-through.

Allesandro took off his headphones for long enough to eat a bacon roll.

 Dinmore Manor returned from the West Somerset Railway facing south this time, so it was tender first into the rain all the way up to Broadway

Running round at Broadway

 That was it, one round trip and then we handed over to the afternoon crew of Andy M  (driver) Eleanor (fireman) & Andy T (cleaner).

Eleanor bolstering the fire before departure...

...whilst the two Andy's fill the tender.

Eleanor found the same seam of Scottish coal that I had.

 Sunday is a relatively quiet day for volunteer activity, but the work on 3850 and its tender still carried on:

Anthony painting the tender horn ties...

...Sam wire brushing the horn tie mounting points

And somebody had gone some way towards priming a cab side.

Roger meanwhile put what I think is the final top coat on 3850's wheels

 The people working on the Peckett, John had disappeared by the time that I turned up with my camera, but there is much evidence of work having taken place on it.

Plenty of primer and undercoat applied

Much of the motion and other fittings were in primer

A cross head and slide bar looking ready to be fitted

 Later on, when Dinmore Manor returned for disposal, Alessandro needed to spend some time removing his microphones

He could have at least used copper capped microphones!

No, a dog hadn't died in the yard, that's a microphone!

There had even been one down by the fireman's side injector

Evenually, the fruits of Alessandro's labours will be available via his website.    I'm looking forward to hearing the Manor when it becomes available.

And finally, you may recollect that I said last week that I had no photos of 4920, Dumbleton Hall when it ran on the GWSR, well one of this blog's readers has come up trumps and provided the following four photos.  Many thanks to Neil Herapath for sending these to me.

Dumbleton Hall with express lamp codes at Winchcombe

Dumbleton Hall having it's tender filled from the parachute tank at Toddington (since relocated to the yard)

Dumbleton Hall at Toddington

Dumbleton Hall at Winchcombe

The last photo is of particular interest as it predates the footbridge and building on platform 2 as well as the C&W extensions to the goods shed, never mind the Tim Mitchell building.