Looking for trouble

After some begging, pleading, cajoling and finally, the use of cattle prods, I am delighted to be able to report that articles from other members of the steam loco dept for this blog have been flooding in.... well ok, an article has flooded in.  Without further ado, and with grateful thanks, we have this report from Geof Adlington on the progress on 2807:

We're a daft lot, those of us who volunteer to maintain steam locos. You quickly learn that complaining about things going wrong is waste of breath and simply invites comments such as " Ha, ha, that's steam locos for you!" and others less printable. But it is all done in good humour and when the chips are down most everyone will muck in and help you get the problem sorted. And it can be very mucky work!

A good starting point is that "if nothing looks wrong then you're not looking hard enough" closely followed by "if something can go wrong then it will sooner or later" With that in mind and having a few weeks before the loco is needed for Santa Specials duty, I asked the question "When was the last time we looked the tender axle boxes?" "Er, not recently" was eventually tracked down to mean not since the tender had come back from restoration work at Tyseley - 20 years ago. "Ah" I said and set off for some spanners hoping for inspiration about exactly how one strips down a tender axle box and thinking it couldn't be too different from doing the driving wheel axle boxes which I had done before.

So to work, with the blind (Gilbert) leading the blind (me!) or maybe it was the other way round. Starting with what we knew, we removed the LHS leading axle box cover to expose the brass plate that is white metaled on the face sitting on the axle journal. We inserted 2 bolts into the holes at the end of the plate to draw it out later when had removed the underkeep and lowered the axle Then we removed the nuts on the underkeep bolts. At which point the bolts should be turned lifted and the underkeep withdrawn. 3 behaved perfectly. The 4th just would not be lifted - typical. After quite a few failed attempts and a cuppa we resorted to plan B. Remove the horn guide tie bar below the underkeep and lower the underkeep from its retaining bolts. Easy job.

Next we replaced the tie bar and made a couple of spacers to hold the axle box in place relative to the tie bar. Then we jacked up the end of the tender to allow the axle to drop and free the brass to the point where it could be with drawn through the hole where the cover plate had been removed.

Success comes those who persevere!

The white metaling on the brass was found to be in excellent condition.

So we got out the new steam pressure washer and cleaned the brass and the axle box underkeep. The brass went in easily enough. Fitting the underkeep should have been straightforward enough except the bolts kept turning and dropping off the locating lugs in the axle boxes as we tried to turn the nuts at the end of the bolts. It was one of those jobs best done by an octopus; we needed more hands. Fortunately Fred turned up in the nick of time and although protesting that he had just cleaned his hands, he saved the day and the battle was won. Job was soon wrapped up after that. SO just another 5 to do...only another 30 hours of work then!

Made with the finest ingredients

It's considered to be very poor form indeed to drop dead whilst at the controls of a steam locomotive, in fact to do so would be a definite blot on your copy book.  Suffice it to say that you would probably never be allowed back on the footplate again, except perhaps if you were intending to leave it via the firebox.  It's fairly hard work shoveling coal into the firebox, never mind shoveling in deceased crew as well and to do so whilst still sticking to the timetable is nigh on impossible.  In recognition of these facts and in order to ensure that all trains keep to time, the GWSR expects all footplate crew (or those aspiring thereto) to pass a medical examination on a regular basis. It won't actually prevent you from dropping dead, but it will ensure that whoever else is left one the footplate would be fit enough to shovel you into the firebox. Never having had a medical before, I didn't really know what to expect and so it was with a measure of trepidation that I arrived at the bored board room at Toddington which for a few days each year doubles up as a doctor's surgery.  I had fetched with me a copy of the questionnaire regarding my health, neatly filled in and.... well, to put it kindly a sample.  Now I am something of a stranger to my GP,  (I had to ring the surgery to find out who he or she was) and have never been required to provide such a thing before.  No receptacle had been provided, it was a case of find one of your own.  When I discovered at the back of one of my cupboards an empty marmalade jar bearing the legend "Made with the finest ingredients", I knew that I had found exactly what I was looking for.

Various 'friends' had wound me up with lurid tales involving latex gloves and blood tests (I have a phobia about needles, I've not had an injection since I was 15..... all of 6 years ago now).  As it turned out my fears in both of those directions were unfounded however there was something that I hadn't expected.  It seems that an ECG was required, which means attaching electrodes to various parts of the body and capturing whatever your heart is doing on a computer.  A hairy chest means that the electrodes won't stick, so I had to undergo the ordeal of the doctor shaving off several patches of my chest hair in order to attach the electrodes.  Let's just say that emptying out the fullest of ashpans or the most befouled of smoke boxes is as a walk in the park compared to having your chest hairs shaved off with a blunt razor! 

After what had seemed like an eternity, but which was I am assured only 20 minutes of poking, prodding, shaving & coughing, I beat a hasty retreat over to the mess coach for a nice cup of tea and to help out with the refurbishment programme that has been taking place over the last few months.  In truth, the mess coach lived up to its name when we had started, but was now starting to look almost homely.  Here are a selection of recent pictures, mostly provided by Tina Sutton of things that have been done.

The corridor of the mess coach had been in a dreadful state, water ingress via the window surrounds had caused much of the inside paneling to rot away.  Sealant applied to the outside of the windows and replacing the panels followed by an application of chocolate & cream paint transformed it into as new condition.

Chocolate & cream corridor

Each of the changing rooms & the washroom have been treated to a fresh coat of paint throughout, seats fixed up and a new boiler for hot water installed.

Freshly painted changing room

Some of the kitchen units were new, others were treated to a fresh coat of paint.

Repainted sink unit, new lower cupboards

And today, we went over to the old mess coach at Winchcombe to liberate some cupboards for the one at Toddington:

George routing various electrical cables underneath where the new cupboards will go

Tina cleans the new cupboards whilst George replaces the clock

 Of course, it wasn't quite all serious hard work today, Ben was keen to demonstrate that he could fabricate an entertaining toy from just a handful of screw drivers.

The Facilities Manager wishes to thank the many people who have helped out with the mess coach refurbishment project over the last few months.  She would also like it to be known that there are still just a few more tasks left outstanding & will shortly be sending out an email requesting assistance with them.  The railway's doctor and her blunt razor blade await anybody who fails to turn up!

Through the arched window firebox

Sunday was your humble scribes first attempt at an assessed bringing of a locomotive into steam.   The chosen victim engine was Foremarke Hall which was going to be the service train for the day.  Aside from a few damp rather than oily rags that weren't too keen on being burnt, it all seemed to go ok.  Many thanks to Paul Richardson for watching and ticking the appropriate boxes on the assessment sheet.  Paul was keen to show the world in general that he had ensured that the yard at Winchcombe had been kept tidy and also that he was now passed out on 0-1-0T wheel barrows.

Paul Richardson with 0-1-0T wheel barrow

John Cruxon was also keen that I should point out on this blog, the nice shiny new brick arch in the firebox of Foremarke Hall.  Many thanks to the 'Wednesday gang' who had assisted in its construction.

Foremarke Hall's new brick arch

The weather on Sunday was still, cold and clear, absolutely perfect for lineside photographers, several of whom approached the drivers (John Cruxon & George Forrest) to provide a little more 'chuff' at various points long the line.

A grice of lineside photographers waiting at Gotherington

I'm not entirely sure what the collective noun is for lineside photographers, but a 'grice' will do as well as anything else. There again, perhaps a 'hi-viz' of lineside photographers might be more appropriate.

Other observations from the day included the fact that the hose attached to the water tower at Cheltenham Race Course station has sprung a bit of a leak.  It's best not to be standing underneath it when the water is switched on.

Leaking water tower hose

Ian Butler had been meant to be on a driver training turn, but decided to have turn on the shovel instead as his firing reassessment is due soon.  Here he is putting the fear of God into the coal, it'll think twice before clinkering up on the grate now.

 Yet another gratuitous sunset shot at Gotherington just to pad the page out:

Sunset at Gotherington

Finally, for reasons that eluded me, but probably made sense to someone, disposal took place at Toddington rather than Winchcombe.  A team of people including Andy Webber had installed a new pair of hosepipe reels along with hoses with on/off attachments alongside the pits during the day at Toddington.  Here is Foremarke Hall gently simmering away during disposal with one of the new hoses prominently in view.

Going AWOL

On Saturday, I spent a little time assisting in the refurbishment of the mess coach at Toddington in preparation for the steam loco departments much anticipated return, currently scheduled to be at the end of this month.  At lunch time however, the select team involved in that task went AWOL to attend to other matters in nearby Pershore.   The lure of Pershore was an auction of railwayana, with many items going under the hammer to tempt hard earned cash out of wallets.  Not least of these was a delightful GWR/Neath & Brecon Railway 12" drop dial fusee trunk clock circa 1850 - 1860.  Ian Windscheffel proudly shows off his latest acquisition:-

Yours truly was unable to resist the temptation of a GWR cabside numberplate, 'GWR 78' carried after the grouping of the railways in 1923 by a Hudswell Clark 0-6-2T of 1921. She was originally built for the Rhymney Railway and survived through to BR ownership at Cardiff East dock until 1955.  Tina Sutton kindly holds aloft my new cabside:-

Well, so far so good, nothing particularly newsworthy or relevant to this blog other than the fact that a few members of the steam loco dept have skived off and will doubtless get their wages docked for their troubles.  But gentle reader, all is not as it seems, there was a further item being auctioned that has great significance to the railway.  The GWSR is home to the Cotswold Steam Preservation Society who own Churchward 2800 class, 2-8-0 number 2807 of 1905.  Brian Gamlin, a member of the Cotswold Steam Preservation society was on hand to successfully place the winning bid for the cabside number plate of 2807 (the originals were sold before 2807 was sent to Barry scrapyard and she currently carries replicas).  Brian will be making it available to the society for display during fund raising events etc.

The out take shots from this session were quite amusing, the first shot of Brian holding his new 2807 plate looked rather like one of those convict mugshots.  He was presumably thinking of the hole in his bank account rather than the cabside in his hands when I took it. In this later shot he has at least managed to break into a smile.  The sequence of shots of Tina went in three frames from smile to scowl to poking her tongue out.  Only Ian managed to retain his composure throughout.  The out takes have been withheld as they are all (well nearly all) bigger than me and they'd beat me up if I uploaded them. 

Lest we forget

Today was remembrance Sunday and while we remember those who fell in two world wars and other more recent conflicts, we should also remember that many railway workers left their jobs for active service and never returned.  I regularly commute to London's Paddington station on the train and if I arrive or depart from platform 1, will pass the memorial to the fallen employees of the Great Western Railway.  Inside the memorial is a sealed casket containing a vellum scroll with the names of the 2,524 employees of the Great Western Railway who gave their lives in WWI.

Some of the locomotives in our working fleet played their part in the conflicts.  2807 served in WWI hauling the 'Jellicoe Specials',  taking Welsh steam coal from the South Wales collieries to Warrington for further transportation onwards to the fleet commanded by admiral Jellicoe.

2807 departing Bishops Lydeard during a recent gala on the West Somerset Railway

Stanier 8F, 8274 was built in 1940 and shipped to Turkey the following year.  Of the total of 27 8F class engines shipped to Turkey, only 20 made it to their destination, the remainder being sent on ships that were sunk by enemy action.

8F, 8274 crosses Stanway Viaduct during the GWR 175 gala

Foremarke Hall although a Great Western Railway design was built in 1949 and is too young to have been involved in  either world war, but one example of the Hall class (forerunner of the modified Hall class to which Foremarke Hall belongs), 4911, Bowden Hall, suffered a direct hit from a German Bomb during an air raid on Plymouth in April 1941 and was destroyed.

Foremarke Hall going off shed this morning to haul the remembrance day service train

Both trains running on our line (Foremarke Hall and 117 class DMU) paused for 2 minutes silence at 11:00 today in remembrance.

Lest we forget

A life in the day

The clocks have gone back, so now not only does a day on the railway start in the dark, it also ends in the dark.... today it also started and ended in rain.  The service train today was Foremarke Hall and quite frankly it's difficult to clean a locomotive when it's raining.  Thankfully Ed Brooks turned up to help out and we managed to get it sorted during the breaks in the rain.

The puddles in the yard provided the chance for the odd reflection photo

Foremarke Hall going off shed, Chris Brooks looks pensive on the footplate

As soon as Foremarke Hall was off shed, it was hot foot over to Toddington as there were a number of tasks that needed doing over there.  I'll confess to paying a flying visit to the 'Flag & Whistle' for a bacon roll on my way, I'm not sure if it was a late breakfast or an early lunch, whatever it was, it went down extremely well.  For reasons that eluded me, a fence that as far as I am aware had offended nobody had to be removed..... no easy task as it was firmly embedded into a not inconsiderable quantity of vegetation. After a small team had huffed and puffed for a while, we gave in and called in the big guns:-

Taking offence

As it turns out, people who own steam locomotives worth a decent sized lottery win aren't in the least bit keen to allow just any old Tom, Dick or Harriet loose with their pride & joy.  It seems that they prefer them to have some sort of idea on how to look after them properly without breaking them.  If only they owned the country and insisted that we had politicians who knew how to run the country without breaking it.  Anyway, to that end the Gloucestershire & Warwickshire Railway run classes to bring aspiring footplate crew up to speed with the things that they need to know to progress through the grades.  Thus it was that I found myself in the classroom with Roger Molesworth for a lesson in lighting fires.... nothing to do with making dodgy insurance claims, but getting a locomotive into steam.  The practical demonstration took place on 2807 which is up at Toddington for a bit of remedial work, which had involved splitting it from it's tender.

Love me tender

A wander around the yard afterwards turned up the planet's favourite prairie, 5542 which had been cunningly converted into a tender engine, that will surprise it's owning group when she returns to the South Devon Railway for her winter maintenance:-

Tender tank prairie

Just to prove that it had been raining in Toddington too:-

Reflections of a prairie

Last week, Sean Nielsen, the senior firing instructor had collared me and generously offered me a ride down the line on for the last two trips of the day.  Something of a scary prospect as pretty much all my firing experience thus far had been on 5542, which has a small grate and is pretty easy to keep steaming.  Hitting the front of the firebox with a shovel full of coal isn't that much of a challenge on 5542.  On the other hand, Foremarke Hall's grate is about twice as long, cavernous would be a fair description.  Add to that, it seems that we have had a batch of Welsh coal that is difficult to get to steam and rapidly covers the grate with clinker and you'll see why I was concerned.  A glance in the firebox when we took over from the previous crew at Winchcombe revealed a fire that was more blue than orange.  Mercifully Sean fired the first trip and made it look easy, deftly shooting coal into all corners of the firebox and dispatching the clinker with skilful use of the fire irons.  The needle was on the mark wall the way and the water sat at around three quarters of a glass.  How hard could this firing mularkey be?  I was to find out, for the last trip he handed me the shovel for the return up the hill from Cheltenham.  He had of course by this time eradicated the clinker from the grate and handed over a nice clean fire.  The only drawback, was that by this time it was dark, I could see the firehole door just fine, but everything else, including the shovel and the coal in the tender was pretty much lost in darkness.  My first few attempts ended in an embarrassing clang as shovel hit the firehole door and the coal fell uselessly into the middle of the grate.  Winston Churchill once said of the Americans that "they always do the right thing.....  after exhausting all other possibilities",   and so it was with my firing, I always hit the right part of the grate after hitting everywhere else first.  Somehow we managed to get back to Winchcombe, the water level remaining vaguely in the top half of the glass, the pressure gauge rarely dropping below 200.  

Dusk descends as the tender slowly fills with water at Cheltenham.

Sunset at Gotherington

All that was left to do when we got back was to dispose of the engine in the pouring rain.  Many thanks to Jon Windscheffel (driver) & Sean Nielsen for putting up with my poor attempts at firing as well as Roger Molesworth for the lighting up lesson.

Thanks a Million

One million pounds has been raised, Chicken curve embankment has been rebuilt and today was the grand reopening of the line.  For the first time since 1979 trains can run the whole distance from Cheltenham Racecourse to Laverton.  Local radio and television all reported on the event and rather more humbly, your roving correspondent pitched up with his camera to take a few pictures too.  Trains were hauled by Modified Hall, 7903 Foremarke Hall, class 37 diesel, 37215 and the 117 class DMU plus bubble car running as a 4 car set. Thank you to everybody who made it happen, those who so generously supported us financially and those who organised and assisted in this milestone event for the railway.

On the starting blocks, Foremarke Hall and the class 117 DMU

Salubritas et eruditio

Foremarke Hall's crew, L - R, Steve Oddy, John Cruxon & Roger Burrows

Foremarke Hall sweeps round Chicken Curve into Winchcombe on the first service

Pulling into Winchcombe

Foremarke Hall returning under three arches bridge into Dixton cutting

In glorious sunlight, the class 117 DMU plus bubble car on Chicken Curve

2A57

Arriving at Winchcombe

The second run for Foremarke Hall.  Mark Young gazes out of the leading window of the second carriage

John Cruxon looks out through the cab window of Foremarke Hall

The bubble car leads the class 117 DMU back across Chicken Curve to Laverton

Bubble car and class 117 DMU

Formarke Hall pulls away from Toddington towards Laverton

37215 pulls the train across Stanway Viaduct, Foremarke Hall pushes from the rear

37215

Foremarke Hall crossing Stanway Viaduct

37215 has disappeared off to Cheltenham with the train, Foremarke Hall follows on behind to return to the shed