Sun in the Cotswolds

Another Saturday, another loco to clean.  This week it was Foremarke Hall's turn to be out.  We've taken on another shipment of the Russian coal, which is more prone to create black smoke than the Welsh coal that we've been using lately.

Shiny copper capped chimney and black smoke

Once again, the path to the wood store is blocked

Trainee fireman Martin Ryan gives a hand with the cleaning

Driver Tony Stockwell takes a break from oiling up Foremarke Hall for a cup of tea

Firing Instructor Cliff Faulkner bought us all sausage & bacon rolls for breakfast, so as a reward for his kindness, I've let him off having to have his picture on the blog this week.  Should any other members of the steam loco dept wish avoid the embarrassment of appearing on this blog, you know what to do :-)

Foremarke Hall sets off under (and apparently floating on top of) her own steam

Next weekend is the 'Wartime in the Cotswolds' weekend. We've been encouraged to attend wearing suitable wartime attire.  This presents something of a problem as a fair number of our members who are more advanced in years don't possess any clothes as modern as that.  Derek's plan is to attend wearing his old footplate gear from when he was a BR fireman at Gloucester.  Derek still maintains his athletic build from those far off days of BR steam but sadly his footplate gear has shrunk in the wash over the intervening years.  He has had to resort to tying a red boot lace around his waist to hold the trousers up.

Neil and Mark admire Derek's old footplate attire

In the end Derek decided that modesty would be best preserved by sporting a prep coat on top.

Derek and his modesty preserving prep coat

 George has particular problems with the wartime weekend as he has long hair, which wasn't in fashion during the blitz.  He didn't appear to be too concerned about that though.

George, keeping calm and carrying on

You can't fail to have noticed that the weather for the last year or so has been dreadful. Not so on Saturday, the sun shone all day. This was therefore a perfect opportunity to catch up with all the outdoor painting jobs that had been put on hold.

Tim painted the yard gates with special security paint to deter unauthorised visitors

Dan de-rusted the metal posts that retain the concrete sleepers being used as walls for the new ash dock....

....and then he painted them

The mess coach refurb gang got into full swing finishing off the grey primer, and even getting on the first coat of the chocolate primer.  The colour of the chocolate primer is so convincing that several people had to be restrained from eating it.

Chris gets cracking with the chocolate flavoured coloured paint

If Derek stays there much longer, he'll get painted

Clive smoothing out the filler

Ian applying more filler

Tina resisting the temptation of eating the chocolate paint (just)

Nick wielding a paint brush

Part way through the painting of the mess coach, Foremarke Hall pulled out of Toddington station.  The effects of the Russian coal are only too obvious. The mess coach painting gang were aghast at this and even from where I was stood beyond the signal box I could hear words of discontent.

"Bother we'll get soot smuts on our wet paint"

The mess coach by the end of the day

It seems that Tina has become so proud of her mess coach refurbishment project that she has even put her name on it.

Tina's coach

I took a break from painting the mess coach after lunch as 2807 needed a warming fire in her in readiness for Sunday.  Now ordinarily this wouldn't have been a problem, but she was currently red-carded with a note saying "Condensing coils T cock" whatever that might mean.  Subsequent enquiries established that indeed works had taken place, but that now she was ready to have a warming fire put in her.  Ian Carpenter, the 'boiler responsible person' would however only sign off the work done in the morning when 2807 was in steam. So far so good.  Next to get 2807 shunted out of the shed and onto the pit (thanks Mark) and then start off the warming fire process. She failed the pre-check procedure by only having a quarter of a glass of water in the boiler.  I had visions of having to get her shunted out alongside the mess coach and running out fire hoses to the new RO water supply like we'd done last week with Foremarke Hall which would have upset the mess coach painting gang.  Fortunately the relevant attachments were believed to be in one of the tool cabinets on Foremarke Hall which was off down the line somewhere, so the owning group members present agreed to filling her up with non-RO water using a regular hosepipe connected up to the water gauge.

Filling the boiler through the water gauge

As has already been mentioned, the Russian coal is much smokier than the Welsh...  and before anybody asks, yes I had removed the chimney cap.

Conflagration with contamination

The peace was shattered by the Peak parked on road 7 being started up (it's surprisingly loud when you're only a few yards away from it).  Eventually it made a few movements up and down the yard under it's own power.  I think that may have been the first time that it has done that.  Certainly there seemed to be a few happy souls wandering around taking photos for posterity.

Peak on the move

 The GWSR has quite an active 'young person's group' and one of them wandered up onto the footplate of 2807 as I was in the process of getting the warming fire going. Ashley as it turns out is 14 and keen to join the steam loco dept when he reaches 16. As he seemed so keen I let him put on a few shovels of coal onto the fire.  When I left 2807 for the day, I found that he'd written his name in the dirt on one of the cylinder covers.

Ash

 When he reaches 16, we'll have to show him how to clean dirt off rather than write in it.

Good news comes in threes

Saturday morning started off bright and early... and it was just about bright too, no need for a torch to illuminate my way into the yard at Toddington first thing. Unfortunately none of the other cleaners started off bright and early; either I'm using the wrong soap or have said something on here to annoy them. Even Sean, the rostered fireman for the morning was a bit late, apparently he'd managed to sleep through the first of his alarm clocks going off. Never mind, it was looking like a nice start to the day and I set to buffing up 2807 for the day ahead.

The sun rises over the peak of the er... Peak

I set about cleaning her in my preferred order, smoke box first as it may start off hot, but will only get smokier & hotter as the morning progresses, followed by the brass safety valve bonnet (again as it won't get any cooler) then wash over the boiler, then clean the wheels & motion, finishing off with the running plate.  Near the end, Ade (afternoon fireman) and Andy (RSF) appeared with a tray of tea, very welcome indeed.

Andy & Ade with the tea

Cliff was down for a driver training turn and had just finished oiling up the bits of 2807 that needed it.  Apparently it's thirsty work oiling up 2807.

Cliff guarding his cup of tea

I can't remember the last time that one of the locos set off in sunshine... in fact I'm not too sure that I can remember the last time that I saw the sun, so it was a pleasure to watch 2807 set off shed bathed in the morning light. 

A gleaming 2807 setting off

It was at this time that my thoughts drifted towards  getting some breakfast at the Flag & Whistle, however John Cruxon appeared.  Apparently the boiler on Foremarke Hall was only partly filled and needed filling.  I should have asked the question why the boiler was only part filled, but I failed in my role as investigative journalist.... I fear that there would have been no Watergate scandal if I had worked at the Washington Post during Nixon's term in office as President of the USA. I'm guessing that she had just had a boiler washout.  Anyway, regardless of why she was short of water, she wanted shunting over to siding number one and the 5 lengths of fireman's hose run out from the new RO water supply wanted connecting up to her injector overflow pipe to continue from where they had left off filling her up a day or two earlier.

Foregoing breakfast, I joined Foremarke Hall on her shunt over to siding 1

Fireman's hose attached to injector overflow

2807 sets off for Cheltenham as 7903 fills her boiler

No sooner had I got the water in the boiler up to three quarters of the glass and my thoughts had once again turned to getting that much anticipated breakfast, than Tina turned up looking for victims volunteers to crack on with painting the outside of the mess coach.  Once again, thoughts of breakfast were put on hold and I joined in with the team of conscripts volunteers that Tina had rounded up.   Tina had emailed me in advance about trying to get together a working party for painting the mess coach and had promised to wear make-up so that she would allow me to grab a few pictures to put up on the blog.  She renaged on her promise and turned up without make-up.  Chris announced that it was ok to take photos of him though as he was wearing his make-up

Chris filling in the worst of the blemishes on the mess coach

And sanding the filler down when it had dried

Ian gets to work with painting on the primer

Steve Oddy hands back the token as 2807 returns from her first trip up to Cheltenham

Tina without make-up anyway

 At least I took a photo of Tina from this side, she had managed to get a fair amount of grey primer into her hair on the other side... or at least that's what she said it was.  Eventually rain stopped play and we packed up for the day.  The mess coach wasn't quite finished, but at least was progressing in the right direction.

Spot the bit we missed!

Personally I was quite grateful for the rain, it meant that I could finally get some breakfast.... though to be strictly correct, by now it was more of a late lunch.

After breakfast lunch, it was a case of finding things to do that involved staying dry.  Now Richard & Ian haven't quite got the hang of that bit yet and were to be found giving Foremarke Hall a bit of a clean up in the rain:

Richard & Ian hard at work on Foremarke Hall

Three items of good news to finish off with:  Firstly, after a tip off from Ian Carpenter, I took a look in the smoke box of 4270 which is safely tucked away in the nice dry David Page shed to find that it is nearly finished.

4270 smoke box

Since the last time I checked in here, the main steam pipes & super heater elements have been fitted along with final fixing in place of the ejector pipe & the petticoat.  All that remains in here is the oil feed to the cylinders. You can see where that pipe will enter the smoke box just below the one that feeds the regulator towards the top left hand corner of the picture.

The second item of good news came from Paul Richardson.  Apparently he and Chris Irving are now stars of the small screen and will soon be appearing on a tv set near you.  For as much detail as there is at the moment, please click here. Currently believed to be scheduled for May 2nd.  For the benefit of Paul's children if they're reading this, the concensus of opinion around the railway, is that this does make him a celebrity and that you should join his fan club, tidy your rooms, do the washing up and do your home work  (you can pay me later Paul). 
  Once again, in a valiant attempt to keep out of the rain, I joined Dan as he lit a warming fire in Foremarke Hall under the guidance of Sean.  

Dan, building up a warming fire in Foremarke Hall

Dan made only one mistake, if you manage to break a broom whilst sweeping the floor, for heaven's sake try and hide the evidence quick and whatever you do, don't let some fool grab a photo and splash it all over the interweb!

Dan failing abysmally to hide the evidence

Anyway, the third bit of good news, is that Dan is now passed to break brooms light warming fires.  Congratulations Dan.

And finally.... you can stop wearing out your F5 key now Ian Butler

Back in Black

The Easter weekend started off on Good Friday with feverish activity in the biting cold to get 2807 and 8274 spruced up and ready to face the public.  In truth both were fairly clean to start off with anyway and soon both were sparkling in the morning sunshine.  Most of us had forgotten what sunshine was and had to go and look it up on the internet.

2807 departs from shed on Good Friday morning

Once again, a long list of outstanding infrastructure tasks awaited those hardy souls who were not off out on either footplate and between us we decided that continuing to clear the trackbed of the parlour road out of ash would be a good idea.

Ed emptying a wheelbarrow full of ash

The start line of the Toddington 2013 wheelbarrow handicap hurdles, Andy Webber applies a handicap shovel full of ash into Nick's wheelbarrow, whilst Ed psych's himself up for the start.

The Toddington handicap hurdles about to commence

For the 3rd trip out of the day for 8274, I joined Andy Beale & Chris Brooks on the footplate.  Andy was keen to point out an omission from this blog last week, not only had Ben Evason been out on the footplate of Kinlet Hall during the Double Headed Halls run last week from Tyseley to Newport and back, but he had too.

Andy driving 8274 on Friday

Chris was on the footplate on a fireman training turn, under the watchful eye of Ade. Firing a steam locomotive is not too dissimilar to playing a piano, anybody can hit a note on a piano keyboard or spot for a signal's aspect/shovel coal into the firebox/ inject water into the boiler/exchange line tokens/watch trains in and out of platforms etc.  The trick with playing a piano is of course to hit all the right notes in the right order at the right time, likewise with firing a steam locomotive, doing the right things at the right time is key. The beaming smile on  Chris' face for most of the journey spoke volumes, although this was his first firing lesson of the year, he was getting it pretty much right. He knew it and was enjoying every minute.

Just handed the token back at Toddington

Chris on the shovel

Finally, as I'm sure that many of you are aware, 7903, Foremarke Hall is now into the last year of her current boiler ticket and will be withdrawn from traffic at the end of the year. Some members of her owning group have been scratching around looking for innovative ideas as to how more funds can be secured to cover the cost of her impending rebuild.  It hasn't escaped their attention that if you want to attract business by photo charters and the like, then you need to have an engine in a desirable livery.  Hitherto she had been painted brunswick green, but the shade of 'brunswick green' on her tender didn't quite match that of the 'brunswick green' on her boiler.  To break into the lucrative steam photo charter market, something needed to be done. Not strictly authentic, but in keeping at least with the period that she was first built would be BR blue.  This livery is currently worn to great effect by the recently restored King class, 6023, King Edward II.  Like Foremarke Hall, King Edward II spent time in Barry Island scrapyard before being rescued and restored to running order. 

6023, King Edward II in BR blue

Apparently the BR blue option was seriously considered, but eventually lined BR black was chosen which is at least an authentic livery for Foremarke Hall and will no doubt please steam photo charter organisers.

Foremarke Hall resplendent in BR black yesterday

This has been something of a well kept secret and few members of the railway were aware of this change except those who were involved in the re-painting and anybody who caught sight of her out on the line yesterday for her first day of running in lined BR black in preservation. Everybody who saw her yesterday commented on how good she looks.