There's no such thing as a free lunch... or is there?

On Saturday, I was rostered as the cleaner for the Elegant Excursions dining train.  The loco being used was 5542, which was also the down for hauling one of the two steam service trains during the day.  My first thought had been to pitch up at 05:30 and help out with whoever was down to clean it in readiness for the first service train however once I had checked the timetable and realised that it wasn't scheduled to be back at Toddington until 11pm, I swiftly changed my mind.  So it was that I arrived at Toddington at the distinctly more civilised time of 10:15, anticipating spending a fair chunk of the day cracking on with the top coat of paint on the mess coach.  As I arrived, the second service loco was just leaving shed, being driven by Ian Butler.  As the current head of department, Ian is always keen to make sure that department members are fully conversant with the rule book and tested me with one of the hand signals as he went by.  I checked later and couldn't find the one concerned in the rule book anywhere.  Perhaps I misunderstood and he was just indicating that he wanted two sugars in his tea, or there again, perhaps he was just predicting the score that he would give my blog article this week, though two out of ten would be rather disappointing compared to last week's eight out of ten.

Ian had just disappeared back inside the cab of WD348 by the time I had my camera out

Anyway, before I could join Chris Bristow in applying the final cream top coat to the mess coach, Ed Brooks & myself were collared by Mark Young who was looking for assistance in tidying up the area by the ash pit.  A small team of people had been in on Friday, and now the extended coal dock and the new ash dock had been concreted and would both be ready for use in a few days once the concrete had fully hardened.

The completed ash dock

The extension to the coal dock

A bit more area concreted over behind the loco sheds.

The team that turned up on Friday to do the concreting comprised of Mark Young, John Cruxon, John Longhurst, Chris Blake, Time Bazeley & Neil Cooper.

The plan now, was to dismantle the old ash dock.  Being built of wooden sleepers, the idea was to separate out those that could be re-used as sleepers from those that were no good. The no good pile would then be further sub-divided into ones that might be OK for use by gardeners who apparently like to have old wooden sleepers in their gardens and those that were too far gone for even that and would need to be disposed of.  Sleepers as it turns out are deceptive, ones that looked perfectly serviceable to my untutored eye were soon rejected by Nigel Black of the Permanent Way gang and few passed the test.

Good pile of sleepers on the right, rejects on the left

The last sleeper that we moved from the old ash dock turned out to the the residence of a large brown mouse, who after a brief hesitation darted off like a scalded cat.... or perhaps more like a scalded cat was chasing it.  No chance to grab any photos I'm afraid. So anyway, we now have three piles of sleepers in different places at Toddington, some of them were a little large and presented something of a challenge to shift.  Mark apparently likes a challenge:-

Mark being challenged by a rather large sleeper

You will notice that the fence posts that were erected last week now have wire fencing attached to them, I think done by the same team of people that did the concreting on Friday.  The fence now extends some way South of the wood store too. 

Fencing to the South of the wood store

Note what I believe to be the remains of a garden shed awaiting being broken up, if so it is probably the one provided by Michael Speake who contacted me last week through this blog.  It will shortly be used to assist some of our locos into steam.  Ed and Cheyenne broke this lot up a bit later and placed it in the wood store.

Eventually all the sleepers by the ash dock along with others scattered elsewhere around the yard were graded and moved to the correct locations.  Now back to plan A which was crack on with painting the mess coach.  Chris had already finished off the right hand side of it, but had to disappear elsewhere, so I picked up and carried on.  I've noted all sorts of odd behaviour amongst the other volunteers since I started this blog.  Some avoid me (even  more than the public at large avoids me), some make comments to the contrary, but quite transparently want to appear in here and one (no names or pack drill) even wanted to check the photos that I'd taken to make sure that his bald patch wasn't visible.  If I had a five quid for every time that somebody had said words to the effect of 'you'd better not quote that on the blog', then I'd be able to afford to buy Flying Scotsman and finish off her overhaul myself.  Never before though had I had any approach quite as transparent as that of the crew of WD348 who having noticed me painting the mess coach as they arrived, sent word that I should bring my camera up to platform 1 where they were currently waiting to head off back down the line again to Cheltenham.  Apparently Ian had written the word 'Fireman' in the soot on the cab roof of the 8F with an arrow pointing to where the fireman should stand in the cab.  I have no idea why this might be considered newsworthy, but I obligingly grabbed a few photos anyway.

Ade knows his place

Ian trying to look serious

George having a relaxed lunch

Mark managed to look cool even on a hot footplate

Cheyenne took a trip out on a later run

Once I had returned to my labours after this brief interruption, I finally got on with what I had intended to be doing. Carrying on from where Chris & Ed had left off earlier, I continued with putting the top coat of cream on the mess coach.  Just the chocolate to do now and the lining then she'll be ready to go.  She is starting to look like a proper coach again at last.

The mess coach is starting to look respectable at last

Rumours that the mess coach will be named 'Tina' in honour of our Facilities Manager remain just that, a rumour, however if she buys the right people (well ok, me) enough beer, then it could conceivably happen.

In a round up of news elsewhere around the department, Foremarke Hall is having a boiler washout and the turn out to the old ash pit is also beginning to take shape thanks to the sterling efforts of the permanent way gang:

Foremarke Hall during her boiler washout

Excellent progress on the ash pit turn out!

One of the PW gang members rather cheekily suggested that the mess coach would look better in blue & grey.... I may just have offered a view on the matter!

5542 appeared back on shed for a quick emptying of her ash pan and then it was off down the line with Paul (driver) and Mike (fireman) for an evening of elegant excursioning. So it was light engine down to Winchcombe where we picked up the stock.

Light engine to Winchcombe

5542 wears the Elegant Excursions headboard, Paul & Mike greet the customers

Then we were off to Cheltenham and back a couple of times at a leisurely pace whilst the diners enjoyed the fine food delivered to their table and the fine views of the Cotswolds and Malvern Hills which glided past their windows.

Me and my shadow.... and Cleeve Hill

Mike looking back for the 'Right Away' from the guard

Paul taking a moment to admire the setting sun over the Malvern Hills

It was I have to say something of a magical evening, with a glorious sunset over the Malvern Hills followed by a clear starlit sky.  Mike was kind enough to allow me to fire the second round trip, which seemed to go off ok, although I had rather more fire than was strictly necessary by the time that we got back to Toddington. It struck me whilst firing, that coal, being black, is rather hard to see at night, you stick your shovel into the bunker door and hope that you come up with something.  There is a clear opportunity here for some entrepreneurial type to invent a form of hi-viz glow-in-the-dark coal for use at night on heritage railways.

Paul, Mike & I were provided with our evening meal sat on one of the platform benches at Cheltenham on the second trip, and jolly good it was too.  I abandoned all my journalistic instincts and just tucked straight in without bothering to take a photo first.  Paul did manage to hold off for long enough to grab a shot to taunt his wife with and after only a small amount of cursing about the fact that our phones being of two different brands were refusing to talk to each other, he eventually managed to send this shot of his dinner to me.

Paul's elegantly excursioned dinner

By the time that we had the diners back to Winchcombe, the washing up had been done, the stock shunted and 5542 taken back to Toddington and safely tucked up in bed, it was about 00:45 and high time that I got myself off home, showered and safely tucked up in bed too.  I was quite glad that I had opted for a later start in the morning.

And finally,  I know many who read this will have seen this already, but just in case, last year Rory Bremner filmed a series on 'Great British Views'.  One of his views was from the footplate of Foremarke Hall as she ran up and down the line from Winchcombe to Cheltenham and back. It was broadcast last week and you can find the film on the ITV website where it will be available until somewhere around the end of May. The crew are Chris Irving (driver) and Paul Richardson (fireman) who both did an excellent job of representing the railway.  The bits of interest can be found from 02:57 until 13:50, so we got close on 11 minutes of coverage.

Don't mention the war!

Well it seems that Wartime in the Cotswolds kicked off a little early.  All it takes is to make one innocent little mistake on this blog regarding the number of one of our locos and all hell breaks loose.  I managed to amalgamate the numbers of surviving 4F's 44027 and 44123 into 44023, which sadly was cut up around 50 years ago.  At least I now know that some of you out there are paying attention, though heaven only knows why.  Anyway, I digress.  The Wartime Weekend kicked off bright and early on Saturday morning for me.... and dozens of other members of the steam loco dept.  Cleaning the three locos that were rostered was done in short order and quite frankly, most people then seemed to mill about drinking tea & eating biscuits.

Ben wasn't to be moved

In fact, most of the volunteers present weren't moving

Sean, Cliff & Andy are now passed out at leaning on shovels

Kev gets into the wartime spirit with his tin hat

Somewhere, Ed has a picture of me taking a picture of him

and unusually, Cliff had brought along his camera to capture the proceedings for posterity

Eventually, after enough tea to float a decent sized battleship had been drunk, the locos started setting off for their front line duties.

2807 sets off for the front

2807 will shortly be off to Great Central Railway for a little while to help them through a loco shortage.  (Edit:  apparently not any more, she's stopping with us now)

The planet's favourite prairie had only arrived the day before and was already passed fit for active service.  I don't know who her rostered cleaner was, but he managed to overlook buffing up those rusty smokebox door locking arms in his quest to drink tea on Saturday morning.  You just can't get the staff!

5542 fighting fit and ready to take on the Nazis

Meanwhile, the 8F has been kitted out in war dept livery for a short while.  Wearing her WD 348 numbers and sporting an air compressor plus two compressed air tanks, she made a fine sight.

WD 348 AKA 8274/45166

The war dept livery will have to be replaced shortly with the LMS numbering in readiness for the Big Four Five Cotswold Steam Celebration Gala at the end of May, so if you want to see her running like this, you'll have to get your skates on.

Out in the car park at Toddington, all sorts of merriment was taking place, military vehicles and re-enactors of all shapes and sizes were to be found along with Morris dancers and what purported to be an unexploded bomb

IED in the car park

Cleaners were deemed to be expendable, so I was nominated to defuse it. I decided that if discretion was the better part of valour.... and indeed if cowardice was the better part of discretion, then I should leave the Luftwaffe's calling card for somebody else to deal with.  All of a sudden, the long list of duties waiting to be performed around the yard took on a whole new appeal.  Chief amongst those was to erect a new fence alongside the West boundary between the yard and the narrow gauge line.  We had made an attempt to do this last week, but had met with only limited success.... limited mostly to abject failure in fact.  Even employing the Matbro to press the fence posts into the ground had only resulted in around two or three of the posts being solidly installed, the remainder of the thirty or so posts had struck something solid before they had gone in far enough and were looking decidedly wonky.  So it was that we rolled up our sleeves for round two of this frankly unequal fight.

Tim & John tried the subtle 'hit it with a sledge hammer' technique

Ed & Tim look on as Mark puts the full weight of the Matbro into the job.

It's quite disconcerting to see the front end of the Matbro raise itself by 6 inches or so as the fence post strikes something solid and refuses to budge. In the end we managed to get all of them in far enough, though many had to be concreted in to keep them solid. 

You'll have noticed from the last blog entry that I had been around on Wednesday.  Whilst I was there, Mike Hoskin had collared me and asked me if I could do a spot of videoing of the 8F in it's WD livery for him.  He had been roped into helping out in the Flag & Whistle on Saturday and would be driving the 8F on the Sunday, so he couldn't do it himself.  That was all the excuse that I needed to come along on the Sunday and indulge in a little line side photography.  Mike loaned me his video camera which turned out to be remarkably easy to operate. I just perched it on a tripod and let it run, whilst I grabbed a few photos with my own camera.  In spite of the dreary weather forecast, the sun actually shone for a bit in the morning and in fact it turned out to be a distinct improvement on the Saturday when we had been on the receiving end of a fairly heavy shower of hailstones at one point.  Here is an edited selection of photos from the day.

5542 approaching Dixton cutting.  Note the fine display of primroses.

WD 348 in Dixton cutting.

Sadly the sound of the hill climb at Prescott will have spoiled the sound track of the video

The gala freight train assembled at Winchcombe, 14 vehicles plus 2 brake vans

2807 approaching Greet tunnel

5542 exiting Greet tunnel

5542 again

WD 348 about to enter Greet tunnel

At this point I headed back off to Toddington for a bit of a look around as all of the locos would be facing the wrong way for a while.  As I wasn't booked on to do any particular duty, I thought that I ought to pay my way in rather than wave my work permit at the people on the entrance.  I'd like to think that it was because of my youthful good looks that they only charged me the price of a child ticket however my illusions were shattered when they informed me that it was just because it was so late in the day.

Late in the day or not, the car park at Toddington was still a seething mass of activity.  The Morris Dancers caught my eye, several had appropriate WWII slogans painted onto their faces:

Shh!  Walls

Have.... ice cream?

OK, cue a very old joke....
Q.  Why did God invent train spotters?
A.  So that Morris Dancers would have someone to laugh at!

I even found time for a rather belated breakfast in the Flag & Whistle before setting off down to Chicken Curve for the final shot of the day.  This would of course be the spectacular shot of the setting sun glinting off the side of the 8F as she rounded the curve.  Unfortunately, although Mike did as he had been requested and gave the 8F plenty of chuff as he came round Chicken Curve, my instructions to the sun had fallen on deaf ears.

WD 348 rounds Chicken Curve

If the video turns out to be any good, I'll see if I can get it onto this blog along with ones that I have or have been promised of the double headed halls of a few weeks ago.

Finally on a sad note, one of the railway's better known supporters Brian Peacey passed away on the 12th of April.  He would always give a cheerful wave from his garden at the first train of the day as it passed his house in Bishops Cleeve.  Brian will be much missed by the members of the steam loco dept and several expressed an intention to attend his funeral which was held this afternoon.  Yesterday, Ben halted the first train of the day outside his house and presented a card and some flowers as a mark of respect before carrying on to Cheltenham. 

Best laid plans.....

I don't usually have a plan when it comes to writing this blog,  I just take along a camera to the railway, grab a few photos of whatever happens to be going on and scribble some drivel afterwards. Hopefully it will turn out to be of some sort of interest, if not to the man on the Clapham Omnibus, then at least to the person on the Cheltenham Express from Toddington.  This week however I had a cunning plan!  The Planet's favourite Prairie was arriving during the week and would be hauling the historic first passenger service from Cheltenham to Laverton since BR ceased services. My plan was, nip over to Toddington for stupid O'Clock on Saturday morning, spend a while cleaning up 5542 (she'd only just arrived, how dirty could she be?) grab a few photos, catch a few shots of her leaving Toddington and then chase her in my car round the line taking in shots at Laverton/Stanway Viaduct/Chicken Curve etc and bring you a report on how much of a roaring success it had all been.  My nice shiny new lineside photographer's pass had just arrived in the post (complete with yet another hi-viz vest to add to my collection) and there should even have been an opportunity to grab few shots of Battle of Britain class, Tangmere steaming through the Cotswold mainline on the 'Cotswold Venturer' rail tour.  I had even fondly imagined that the sun would shine for the event.  What could possibly go wrong!

Anyway, stupid O'clock on Saturday morning arrived and I turned up at Toddington MPD to start cleaning 5542.  Now remember she had only just arrived, I rather expected her to be pretty much shining like a new pin, in reality she had been used on a fire & drive course the day before and was now more than just a little grubby.  Never mind, there was a good turn out of cleaners and we all selected something to clean and got cracking with it.

Andrew (Left) & Karl proudly show off their handiwork

Andrew would doubtless like you to know that he spent ages with some emery paper making those smoke box door locking arms shine (they were a fairly rusty before he started), Karl on the other hand would probably want to direct your attention to the gleaming brass work that he had just given some therapy with Brasso.  I'd point your attention to the pit that I had filled with ash from her ash pan and the black smokebox.... not quite such glamorous jobs, but I like to think important nonetheless.

Students of Collett small prairies, would probably like to know just what detail changes have taken place on 5542 during her winter holiday down on the South Devon Railway.  If you look closely, you will notice that she now has autocoach gear just under her front buffer beam which wasn't there before.  If only we had three or four autocoaches to run with her.  Something that  came as a bit of a surprise to me was that she now has a tilting grate fitted.  Clive Norton the fireman for the first shift today seemed to be pleased to find it there.

It's a bit late now to show it tilting, but somewhere in there is a tilting grate

You can find out about these things and more on 5542's official web page.

Emptying out the ash pit isn't usually the world's most interesting job, however Cliff and Ade set to the task and Cliff discovered that he wasn't alone in the pit.... in fact he was very much playing gooseberry to a pair of amorous interlopers who were in there with him.

Cliff and Ade emptying the pit of ash

Toad of Foremarke Toad Hall.... and Lady Toad

The amorous interlopers were none other than a pair of toads (not the GWR brake van variety) who were engaged in making more toads and seemed oblivious to the fact that I had dumped a pile of ash on top of them (well it was still dark when I emptied the ash pan) or that Cliff had nearly sliced them in two with his shovel.  They didn't even seem to notice Karl picking them up and taking them to safety. Clearly a very single minded pair of toads.  Nature lovers will be pleased to hear that not only were no animals harmed in the making of this blog, but that Karl even washed the ash off of them in a puddle by the wood store and left them to carry on with whatever they were doing underneath a hedge where hopefully they would get a bit more privacy.

Now that 5542 was nicely spruced up ready for her meeting with the history books, there was time in hand before she set off, to repair to the Flag & Whistle for one of Val Hoskin's delicious full English breakfasts!  Just as well really, as it turned out to be the last I'd eat for another 12 hours.

Well so far the weather wasn't behaving, but everything else was going according to plan.  The allotted time came and wearing my nice shiny new hi-viz I set off to grab a few photos of the first departure from Toddington.

5542 stands at Toddington station, ready to depart

Off she goes

 I overheard the fireman, Clive Norton say to Ian Windscheffel his driver as he approached Toddington signal box 'I'd better not drop the token or it'll be all over the blog tomorrow'.  Although I was poised to catch the perfect shot of the token being dropped, Clive managed to catch it and they proceeded on their way without mishap.

Well so far, so good, the plan was starting to come together.  Having plenty of time before 5542 got down to Cheltenham and started coming back, I headed off back into the yard to see what wanted doing.  As it turned out, both 2807 and Foremarke Hall both needed lighting up.  Not having done a light up since passing out to do them sometime before Christmas, this seemed like a perfect opportunity to get some practice in and soon enough I was whizzing around the loco running through the safety checks before cleaning up the grate and getting a fire going, meanwhile, Chris Chewter was doing the same with 2807.  As it turned out, the goal posts were running around all over the place.  It was initially supposed to be a case of bringing her up to steam enough to check that after some work, the lubrication system was getting oil through to the front end, but that was changed to joining 2807 as double headed light engines on a fitness to run exam for 2807 up to Laverton and back.  You can't abandon a loco when it's lit up, so both Chris & I spent much of the day from around 10am through to 4pm minding our engines and keeping them from blowing off.  As a consequence, my plan to report on this blog of the historic return to Laverton by steam etc came to nothing.  I shall have to refer you instead to excellent reports on the matter elsewhere, such as the Steaming to Broadway blog and of course the main GWSR website.

The best that I could manage from my vantage point on the footplate of Foremarke Hall was this shot of 5542 returning from Laverton to Cheltenham

5542 on first run from Laverton to Cheltenham

 At least after a small shunt had taken place, I was alongside 2807 so Chris & I could at least compare notes and generally chinwag for a while.

Chris taking a break from getting 2807 into steam

Dan Wigg & Sean Nielsen returned later on to inform me that Tangmere had rushed past on the mainline at some fantastic speed and that the sun had momentarily appeared just at the right time affording them superb photos of the event.  Dan has kindly allowed me to show you what I missed.

I suspect that they may have told me a porky pie as regards the sun!

 Now remember that the locos were supposed to be off shed and down to Laverton together at 4pm.  I had a bit over three quarters of glass of water and sat steady at about 220 PSI by about quarter to four.  I'd been sat there for nearly 6 hours and kept her from blowing off in all that time.  By and large I was feeling fairly pleased about it.  The fire was a bit run down at this point, so I decided to fill up a few of the points where it was a little light and have her perfectly ready for setting off at four.  No sooner than I had done that, than the news that we would now be leaving at twenty to five came along.  Needless to say my water space was all used up and she was blowing off nicely by then.

I had been meaning over the last month to take a ride out to Laverton on the DMU to learn the route, but had always found other things to occupy my time on the railway,  so I was keen if possible to grab a ride there and back on the footplate.  Cliff & Adrian not only allowed me to join them on the run, but Cliff left me to do the firing, though in reality I don't recollect that I needed to shovel in any coal, just keep the fire spread out over the grate and bung in some water now and again when she was getting close up to the red line again.

2807 leads Foremarke Hall back to Toddington from Laverton Loop

Upon getting back to Toddington, both locos and 5542 now had to play a game of musical chairs to get each one in the right place on the pits in readiness for tomorrow's services.  As far as I could make out the collection of photographers that had been hanging around earlier on had now all disappeared and missed the show.

2807 heads off first, 5542 will follow her onto road 9, then we will head off down road 8

Somehow of all three locos in steam I had to be on the footplate of the only one that has an evening disposal, the owning groups of the other two leave theirs until the morning.  Whilst everybody else ran through a few swift checks and toddled off for a beer or two, Adrian, Cliff & myself got on with drawing up the fire and banking it up along with emptying the ash pan & smoke box etc.  

I had cause to be at Toddington again for a bit on Sunday morning too.  As it was passing whilst I was sat in the mess coach, I grabbed a photo of 5542 heading off for Cheltenham.  Andy Beale remarked to his crew as they went by 'Looks like we're going to be on the blog tomorrow chaps', so I'd best not disappoint them.

Andy Beale driving 5542 yesterday

Trainee fireman Howard Parker was on the shovel under the supervision of Ben Evason.  Howard maintains his own website and made an entry about the trip.