All Change Please

This week, we have a Wednesday report from Chris.  It has been known for some time that the wood store has pretty much reached the end of its life and that a replacement is required.  The embankment behind the wood store is also not as stable as might be wished, so we are waiting for a JCB to be hired in to deal with the foundations, then a 40' container will replace the existing grounded Fruit D body that currently serves as the wood store.  Roger is the man in charge of keeping the wood store filled, and he was delighted to hear that a replacement had just turned up.  His joy was short lived though, when he discovered that it was in fact a 5" scale covered wagon body that had been delivered.

Roger inspects the 5" scale replacement wood store (photo courtesy of Chris Blake)

The "new" wood store is now apparently stored in the old wood store waiting its turn to be used to light up a loco (photo courtesy of Chris Blake)

 The 76077 group have taken delivery of a new 20' container to replace the old one which had succumbed to the attentions of the tin worm.

Richard watching as a container arrives (photo courtesy of Chris Blake)

Moving on to Saturday now.   Regulations relating to working hours have meant that like last year, we need to split the shifts.  That is a bit tricky with the locos being prepped at Toddington, then spending the day running between Cheltenham Race Course Station and Winchcombe The North Pole as there is no easy way to get the relief crew to a location where they can take over.  The deal is, that we have a prep crew to do the light ups in the morning, then a day crew turns up and does everything from there on.  The Santa specials start early meaning a correspondingly early sign on time... which for those of us who live a fair way away from Toddington setting our alarm clocks for a time roughly half an hour before we go to bed.  So my plan for Saturday was book on at 04:45 (just don't ask about the alarm clock time), light up Foremarke Hall and Dinmore Manor, spend the morning finding something useful to do around the shed, a railway related meeting in the afternoon followed by the steam loco dept's Christmas dinner in the evening.  There was even talk about taking a few minutes off in the morning and buying a Christmas tree from Toddington garden centre.  All in all it was going to add up to a very long day indeed.  I wasn't exactly distraught then, when I got a message from Ben (roster clerk) on Friday lunchtime saying that Andy T (fireman on train 2) could no longer cover his firing turn, but he was available for the prep turn if I was happy to swap.  Ben went on to say that he that he could even wangle it so that I got train 1 instead of train 2 which would mean that I was back in time for the Christmas dinner.  Confused... you should be!  I still had my meeting to deal with of course and after a swift phone call to Eleanor, we arranged that I would do the start of the day and she would take over from me at the North Pole when train 1 pulled in at 13:36.   I like it when a plan comes together, particularly when it means that I get an extra few hours in bed in the morning.

I arrived at Toddington as the sun was beginning to show the merest hint of being about to rise, Andy was on hand with Dinmore Manor and Foremarke Hall nicely warming up ready for the day's services.

Andy T, smoke at the chimney and pressure on  the gauge.

 My steed for the day, or at least that part of the day that I was doing, was Foremarke Hall, Andy M was the driver and for the first trip, Inspector Irving who would be conducting Andy's biennial reassessment.

Andy M (L) and Inspector Irving.

 Needless to say Andy passed again with no problem at all.

 

 I had fetched along sausages and rolls to supplement the bacon rations provided for the prep crew, however as I was now no longer part of the prep crew, I declared them to be for the day crew.  I had even remembered to fetch along some oil to cook them on the shovel with. What I had forgotten was a knife and fork... the knife to separate the sausages out as they were linked and a fork to turn them with whilst cooking them.  Doh!   Mike was on first aid duties at Cheltenham Race Course and on the promise of a share of the sausages, he disappeared off to rustle up a knife & fork.

Mike having located some cutlery

 Mike is better known on this blog for his role at maintaining the loco lamps, we break 'em, he fixes 'em!

Andy got on with the cooking...

...done to a turn

Crossing Dinmore Manor at Gotherington

My relief fireman taking over in the office

 My 14:00 meeting tied in perfectly with a 13:36 arrival at the North Pole... if only the 13:36 had been on time.  It seems that these days the boys and girls visiting Santa are taking rather more time than they did in previous years, spending too long posing for selfies with Santa, or "Elfies" with Santa's little helpers.  Never mind, it means they leave happy and many social media accounts are buzzing with how good our Santa trains are.  

Not quite so good is the fact that Dinmore Manor has yet to be adorned with any festive tinsel... although there are a few of the bah humbug brigade in the department who see that as a good thing.  I tried to find some in the shops last week and failed to turn any up, I have managed to find some this week, so unless I forget to bring it with me, she will have some next week.

Dinmore Manor, a tinsel free zone, photo courtesy of Matthew Harris

 Meanwhile, back at Toddington, the DMU was in service on the northern section of the line with some chap in a red suit and white beard on board.  There were plenty of assorted elves on hand to make the day go well.

Assorted elves and festive folk at Toddington, photo courtesy of Chris Blake

On the good news front, 2807 has had her valves re-installed and subject to a successful steam test during the week, will be back on Santa duty at the weekend along with Dinmore Manor.

I mentioned last week that you could take advantage of Ecclesiastical Insurance's Christmas Giveaway to benefit 2874 to the tune of £1,000.  The link I initially posted appears to have been erroneous, it is fixed now, but here it is once again if you didn't manage to get it to work last week.  Please nominate "The 2874 Trust" quoting charity number 1166258.  Speaking of 2874, there is a very nice article on it in the current edition of Steam Railway magazine.  The article is slightly out of date now as the plaques commemorating the staff of the GWR who died in military service during both world wars have now been cast.

2874's commemorative plaques

 The steam loco dept's Christmas party was held in the Corner Cupboard in The North Pole Winchcombe as it has been for the last few years.  The food was excellent as always and this year, Tina's quiz was fiendishly difficult.  In spite of including me, team "No Hopers" came in top with a score of 13 out of 29 indicating just how tough the questions had been.  One team was disqualified for having nicked the piece of paper with the answers on out of Tina's hand bag.  Mark romped off with the Christmas jumper competition prize, sporting his elf outfit.

Mark (in the middle flanked by the other contestants)

He'd even sprayed his boots gold!

And finally, by tradition, the last working Wednesday before Christmas sees the delivery of a Christmas cake baked by John's wife, Margaret.

Margaret applying the marzipan (photo courtesy of John Cruxon)

Ready for icing (photo courtesy of John Cruxon)

I have been fortunate enough to have sampled Margaret's Christmas cakes in years gone by and can attest to the fact that they are excellent.  Here's hoping that some survives again to the following Saturday.