It's not over until the fat lady sings

I rather like the purple timetable.  It only runs on certain Sundays throughout the year, but sees us with three locos in steam during the day. Consequently there are plenty of people around and plenty to do.  I was down to clean train one (which was 8274) driven by Sean (under the instruction of Andy) and fired by Paul.  Whilst cleaning 8274, I noticed that some of the wooden panels of the wood store had been removed and Paul was stood nearby looking guilty.  Paul has some previous when it comes to burning the wrong wood so I feared the worst.

Paul caught in the act

Disappointingly, it turned out that it was Dan who had removed the rotten wooden panels, with a view to replacing them with new ones.

The crew of train three (the dining train) had a very leisurely day ahead, late start, early finish and a long lunch break with free food somewhere in the middle.  They decided that getting rostered down for train three had been a wise choice:

Andy, Tina and Paul.  The three wise monkeys.

The GWSR publicity machine is gearing up for next year and a 2014 brochure has been commissioned.  Shots of suitably photogenic railway volunteers doing whatever it is they do are required.  To that end, Jack Boskett had been requested to do a photoshoot of some of the more visually appealing volunteers last Wednesday at Toddington.  Obviously Tina had been invited (I guess my invite must have been lost in the post) but was unable to manage to be there on the day due to work commitments.  She rather foolishly asked me if I would bring my camera along on Sunday to take some publicity type shots of her on the footplate for possible inclusion in the aforementioned brochure.  This was a first for me, people usually run for the hills as soon as I pull my camera out of its bag, even my own daughters run and hide.  People who are cornered and can't escape try all sorts of tricks to get out of it, such as Andy here:

Nice try Andy, you'll have to do better than that.

I had planned to try to get Tina to wear a grease top hat, or possibly even a flat cap and bought along an example of each to try out on her.  Before I even got myself fully up onto the footplate of Foremarke Hall, she had sussed out my cunning plan and informed me that she doesn't do hats!   I decided to quit whilst I was ahead not too far behind on that one. I distracted her with the last of my stash of Jelly Babies, which she still claims not to like, but eats anyway and proceeded to grab a few photos of her at work on and around Foremarke Hall.  I even roped Ben in to operate a reflector to try and reduce some of the harsher shadows caused by the strong sun.

Not quite like that Ben!

That's more the idea

I'll be working over the shots in Photoshop in a few days time.  I asked Tina if she'd like me to tweak them a bit for her.  She replied "Can you fix the wrinkles so that I look about 30?".  I now have the highly unusual task of having to add enough wrinkles to age her by 9 years.  With a bit of luck one or two of the resulting shots will find their way into the relevant publication next year.

Meanwhile, train one had departed without me, but I had arranged with the crew to join them when they got back from the first trip down to Cheltenham.  Hanging around on the platform for ten minutes or so before they arrived was rather pleasant.  As I was loitering on the platform in footplate gear, several conversations with passengers ensued who thought that I would be able to assist them.  Two separate groups had arrived at Toddington looking for the dining train, which was a pity as it starts from Winchcombe.  I was at least able to give them directions to Winchcombe and assure them that as the loco for their train was still stood on the ash pit, that they had plenty of time to get there.  For several others, it was a case of demystifying the timetable to enable them to see as much of the railway as possible in the limited time available to them.  I can see now why the platform staff enjoy their job so much.

Train two setting off from Toddington whilst I wait for train one to arrive

The other nice thing about the purple timetable is that steam gets a lamentably rare outing up to Laverton and back, so when 8274 appeared bang on time, we didn't simply run around the train and head for Cheltenham, but took the scenic tour over Stanway viaduct to Laverton.  

Either Andy was a little slow in switching off the water when we filled up at Toddington, or I called stop a bit too late, either way I found myself with my own private swimming pool.

In at the deep end

The timetable permits a half an hour break at Toddington for train one. Sean and Paul took advantage of the break to work out how to get out of being with me on the footplate for the rest of the day:

Plotting

Paul eventually decided that feigning death would get him out of it:

Paul plays dead (not sleeping at all).

I offered to save his relatives the cost of a funeral by shoveling him straight into the firebox there and then, at which point he made a miraculous recovery.

For the next round trip, Paul decided that his best hope was to throw the shovel at me and hide in the corner of the cab.  It seemed to go fairly ok, thanks Paul.

The third trip gave me an opportunity to grab a few photos along the length of the line.  It seems that real wild life along the route is no longer enough.  I noticed a green woodpecker, several buzzards and a kestrel at different points along the line which isn't too unusual.  What was unusual though was a pair of giraffes peering over the fence of the Harvest Home at Winchcombe:

Giraffes at Winchcombe

The consensus of opinion on the footplate was that logging into eBay on a Saturday night after a few too many beers was not a good idea.  

Not only did the line now have giraffes, but down at Laverton we seem to have acquired a python:

According to the sign, it's 'The Laverton Python'

 It looked a bit dodgy to us, so we made the guard get out and operate the ground frame for us rather than risk getting off the footplate ourselves:

Nigel operating the ground frame

Nobody was too sure if orange hi-viz would have the same effect on pythons as red rags do to bulls, but I can happily report that no guards were injured in the making of this blog.

 Later on back at Winchcombe, Ben was waiting with the dining train to taunt us with how good his free lunch had been.

Ben taunts us.

I've often fancied taking a few footplate shots by the light of the fire whilst in Greet tunnel, but not done so before.  I gave it a whirl on Sunday and quite like this study of Andy that I came up with:

Asleep on the footplate?

 I know his eyes are shut, he just blinked at the wrong moment, he wasn't stood up fast asleep.

The footplate of a steam locomotive lacks many creature comforts.  Yes you can cook on the shovel (if the regulator isn't open or blower on) and yes you can keep a can of tea hot on the warming plate, but aside from that it's fairly spartan.  The most obvious thing that it lacks is a convenience.  I'm sure that in days long past, when steam ruled supreme, crews caught short between stations would just judge carefully which way the wind was blowing then stand in the doorway of the other side of the cab to attend to the call of nature.  A bit unfortunate for any passengers who might be leaning out of a carriage window perhaps, but effective nonetheless.  In these rather more enlightened times, such a recourse isn't really on, so when Sean informed us that he needed to make a pit stop somewhere around Winchcombe yet still hadn't done so by the time we had turned round and were leaving Cheltenham again, we were all getting a bit concerned. Eventually Sean told us that it was not a problem, he found it easier to stop the train at the right point on the platforms when his legs were crossed.  He also mentioned that he really ought to be more guarded in what he says when I'm around.

Sean drives cross legged, Andy blocks the doorway just in case

So there you have it, if you are a trainee driver and find that you have difficulty judging where to stop the train, just drink plenty of fluids and omit to attend to the call of nature until you sign off at the end of the day.  Remember, you read it here first, you don't get advice like that anywhere else.

Speaking of Cheltenham, Andy very kindly purchased refreshments for the crew:-

Yes I know the point of focus is on the background rather than Andy. In my defence I was too busy eating the one he had bought for me at the time to concentrate on operating my camera properly.  Lets hope I did better with the photos of Tina.

Gratuitous shot of us crossing train two (5542) at Winchcombe

Finally, we have yet more good news.  Chris Blake passed out as a fireman during the week.  There are no photos from the day itself, but his agent has provided me with this publicity shot of him:

Fireman Blake (photo courtesy of Chris Blake)

A little bit of artistic licence has been employed here as Chris is apparently firing from the wrong side of the cab.  Chris spent over 30 years working for the Fire Service, so he has done extremely well in overcoming his natural instinct to put fires out rather than keep them burning.  Chris's first turn out after qualifying was on a particularly rainy day.  Footplate crews are hardy souls and just get on with the job, regardless of what the weather chooses to do.  Not so some of our signalmen.  Chris was offered the token at Toddington on the end of a broom to spare the poor signalman from having to lean out of his nice warm and dry signal box into the pouring rain.

Photo courtesy of Ben Evason

The Firebox Blues

Back in my student days, I used to cause the milkman some concern.  I would not infrequently find myself arriving home from where ever I had been at the same time that he was starting his rounds. As he had a daughter at university somewhere or other, it bothered him that she might be leading the same sort of decadent life style that I apparently was.  Just a few years have passed since then and it seems that the tables have now turned.  On Saturday morning I found myself setting off for Toddington at the same time that my neighbours were arriving home from which ever night club they had been to.  A sure fire sign that I'm getting old.

Last week, I left off with the fact that Steve Burnett had now passed out as as driver, but that there were no photos available.  Here we have the next best thing, a photo of Steve out on his first solo turn on Sunday as a fully fledged driver:

L-R Jonathan, Dan, Steve & Ben.  Photo courtesy of Neil Carr

My handy table of GWR reporting codes failed to list SO5 however reports coming my way suggest that it was from the little known destination of 'The Creek', in the up direction.

So what has happened around the railway that would qualify as news?  Well for one thing, the ash pit now has a fully connected up pump in it:

110V of water pumping goodness

I understand that Mark Young connected it all up the night before.  The good news is that it works perfectly and we now no longer need to trail a cable out to the pit in order to pump water out any more.  Magic!

Work continues in the David Page shed to prepare the ground for a concrete floor:

Largely cleared, but not quite yet ready for concreting

Sean, Steve & Ben, clearing out more of the shed floor

Sean has been rather tied up with other things lately, so it was nice to see him back with us again.

Progress is being made on 4270 as the boiler cladding had seen a coat of primer applied:

4270

Cladding primed

 So what was the important lesson learned today?  Well the key one is that clinker is not your friend.  We seem to have hit a new seam of coal with our suppliers and as I discovered to my cost on Saturday, not only is it a bit smokier than before, but it seems to be rather more prone to producing clinker.  From what had appeared to be a fairly good round trip on the shovel, approaching Gotherington on the climb from Cheltenham, Foremarke Hall suddenly didn't want to produce steam.  A glance inside the firebox revealed not as I had suspected, a hole in the fire, but a lot of blue flame up at the front of the firebox indicating that there was a lack of oxygen getting through.  I got a fire iron in at Winchcombe and again rather more thoroughly during the long lay over at Toddington which seemed to fix it, but she did the same again though not quite so badly on the next trip.  According to Ian who was driving, 'we were never anywhere near having to stop for a blow up', but I definitely didn't feel too comfortable.  Speaking of Ian, he feels that he hasn't been getting enough exposure in the blog lately.  I reminded him that he still hadn't responded to the interview questions that I sent him much earlier on this year, but he decided that probably wasn't what was needed.  The answer lay in sex appeal and a big cleavage is exactly what was required to achieve that.

Ian adjusts his cleavage

I'm afraid that the photo is a bit blurry as I was too busy laughing.  Strangely enough his tactic not only assured him an appearance on the blog, but as it happened there was a passing American film maker who had been shooting something else nearby and wanted to spend a while getting some footage of the major personalities on the railway.  It will find its way into some forthcoming promotional material eventually.  Ian's new found sex appeal seemed to do the trick and after we had disposed of Foremarke Hall, Ian was busy starring in this much anticipated blockbuster production. 

Lights... camera... action, Hollywood beckons Ian

I'm holding out for opening night tickets in Leicester Square. Ian said he'll remember to thank us all in his overly emotional Oscar acceptance speech.

I've often heard tell of passengers asking footplate crew 'how do you steer this thing then?' and for the first time it happened to me.  I pointed out Toddington signal box and said that there's a chap in there who decides where it's going to go, which seemed to satisfy the curiosity of the questioner.  Better still was this one, from a different passenger directed at the rostered fireman for the day.

Passenger:  'And what do you do on the railway?'
Fireman: 'I'm the fireman'
Passenger: 'In case there's a fire, that's a good idea'

Needless to say, after all that, there really was a fire. It was pretty much out by the time we got to it, but George sprang into action and made sure by dousing it with water:

George demotes himself from driver to fireman

Finally, I haven't chased Steve Sperring for the total sponsorship for the coast to coast walk in aid of the Broadway extension appeal, I'll leave that for a few weeks to allow any last remaining cheques to be sent and accounted for.  A number of people however have asked to see the photos that I took on my way.  I can't decide if they were just being polite or effectively demanding proof that I had actually done the walk.  What ever the reasons the poor misguided souls might have, I have created an account on photobucket which contains a selection of what really are a dreary collection of holiday snaps.  I've set up twelve 'libraries', one for each day of walking.  You can see each library as a slide show or if you click on each picture individually, you'll find a description.  You would be remarkably ill advised to actually go and take a look at any of them, but if you do and you die of boredom, don't complain to me. You have been warned. 

Giving My Regards to Broadway

It wasn't until today that I discovered that the update that I thought I'd posted from my phone last week hadn't gone anywhere.  No wonder I was getting so many texts from well wishers asking if I had made it yet. It seems that whilst Google are quite capable of informing GCHQ and the NSA of my every move, they can't be bothered to inform the readership of this blog. 

Anyway, to recap a bit, I walked Wainwright's Coast to Coast walk of approx 192 miles, plus an extra bit to Broadway.  The gory details and how to send sponsorship money is covered in the last few blog entries.  Here are a few photos from the final day of walking the Coast to Coast, which was the fifteen and a half miles from Grosmont to Robin Hood's Bay:-

Spontaneously combusting sheep ahead?

The road out of Grosmont climbs for some distance at a gradient of 1 in 3.  As I was returning to Grosmont that evening, I had left my ridiculously heavy backpack behind at the B&B.  Even up a 1 in 3 slope, relieved of that burden, it felt like I was walking on air.

Falling Foss waterfall near Littlebeck

The first road sign to my destination.

Only three and a half miles to Robin Hood's Bay. Wainwright of course decided that you shouldn't take the direct route, but go a few more miles out of your way along the coastal footpath.  To get to the coastal footpath, you have to pass through 'Bottoms Lane'.  You couldn't make this up!

I thought I was making a bit of an arse of myself in doing this.

A bit of the coastline

At last, Robin Hood's Bay is in sight

You're supposed to take your boots off and get your feet wet...  not a chance!

It was time to cast the pebble I'd carted along with me from St Bees into the sea and collect a fresh one to take to Broadway.

The pebble from St Bees (note the dog in the sea)

The dog in the sea spotted me throwing the pebble into the sea and chased after it, unsurprisingly he failed to find it.  When I collected a fresh one to take to Broadway, he stood there expectantly waiting for me to throw that one for him to chase.

For all I know he's still there waiting

Me, taken by a passing stranger, just before heading into the bar of the Bay Hotel for some refreshment

So how did I get back to Grosmont that night?  Well if you walk back up the hill (yet another 1 in 3), you can catch the X93 bus to Whitby.  From Whitby, you can catch one of the North York Moors Railway's steam hauled services back to Grosmont.  75029, Green Knight (once one of David Shepherd's locos) was the motive power on the day.

75029, Green Knight in the sun at Whitby

The only other steam in operation (they seem to have something of a shortage right now) was the B1, 61264, which for reasons that were unclear to me had been renumbered 61002 and named Impala.

61264 AKA 61002, Impala

So that was on Thursday, fast forward to Sunday and once more I was at Toddington for a cleaning turn.  I had sent a postcard to the steam loco dept addressed to the mess coach at Toddington.  I noticed that it had failed to arrive. 

Over the weeks leading up to the coast to coast, I had stocked up on bags of jelly babies every time I went to the shops. They're useful hits of sugar if you need a bit of energy whilst out walking. I had ten bags of them before I set off.  On leaving home, I had removed five bags in order to save space and weight in my backpack.  Upon arrival at the start point at St Bees I forgot that I had done this and removed five more bags.  Consequently I had set off with no Jelly Babies at all in my backpack... doh!  When I got back to Toddington I had ten bags of jelly babies to get rid of. I put a couple of bags out for general consumption when the first tea round happened:

George bites the head off first

Howard about to scoff one whole

Don't ask, I have no idea what Ian was up to!

In my absence doing the coast to coast, I received an email saying that it had been arranged for me to do a phone interview live on Radio Winchcombe.  Heaven knows why, and I was struggling to imagine who might be up at 09:00 on a Sunday and tuned in, but if you were I apologise for the incoherent rambling.  I was definitely well outside of my comfort zone.  Just because I have a face better suited to radio, doesn't mean to say that I'm actually suited to radio.  Where was Ian Crowder when I needed him?

Foremarke Hall, my steed for the day

Queuing for the ash pit, 2807 then Foremarke Hall

Eventually I set off on Foremarke Hall in the company of George and Ian for the day

Platform 2 at Cheltenham Race Course Station is starting to take shape

George usually complains that I only show photos of him eating biscuits, so here he is doing what he does best:

George in 'the office'

If George had fallen for Ian's booby trap, he'd have probably complained about that too:

Could be painful

Ian kindly threw the shovel in my direction for one round trip.  I seem to have now swung back to where I started and had the water and pressure gauges a bit too high.  I didn't blow off, but it was a close run thing on a few occasions.  

The final task for the day was to take the walk from Laverton to Broadway and deposit the pebble collected from Robin Hood's Bay as part of the ballast.  Several people had suggested that they'd quite like to accompany me on that little jaunt, but in the end it was only Tina that could make it.  George for instance was keen, but it would have left Foremarke Hall without a driver which wouldn't have gone down too well.  Tina joined us on the footplate at Toddington for the run up to Laverton where we got off to start walking (NB, there is no platform at Laverton and the general public can't alight here).  I will be murdered slowly, horribly, and painfully for this next photo, but it's far too good not to share;

Tina, the twins and Foremarke Hall at Laverton

No, it isn't twins!  Tina has a white raincoat which she was keen to make sure stayed white whilst on the footplate.  She just stuffed it under her top to keep it clean.  Note to self, wear a cricket box when next visiting the railway.

Ian operates the ground frame as George drives Foremarke Hall into the passing loop

Once Foremarke Hall was on her way back to Toddington, Tina and I set off to inspect the trackbed for the two and a half miles to Broadway.  The track itself stops after only a few more hundred yards from Laverton loop.

Lost in the undergrowth, but this is the end of the line.

We encountered five bridges along the route in varying states of distress. Renovating/replacing the bridges will form the bulk of the cost of reinstating this section of the line.

The first bridge, looks ok from this angle...

but it's coming apart at the seams... the bridge that is, not Tina

The second bridge didn't look too good either

The third bridge didn't look too bad

The fourth bridge left something to be desired.

There are few original GWR buildings along the line.  One of those is the former goods shed at Broadway.  It is now owned by a caravan park and has acquired a few modifications along the way.

Broadway goods shed

Tina spotted the legend 'GWR' written on one of the internal walls through those non-original square windows at the front.

The fifth bridge, the busy B4632 runs under this one

Finally after the fifth bridge, we had reached Broadway station itself.  The 'Broadway Area Group' have made excellent progress in reinstating the platforms.  There is still the station buildings and signal box to go of course.

The platforms at Broadway

All that remained for me to do was plant the pebble that I had fetched from Robin Hood's Bay as a piece of ballast:

Me with the pebble from Robin Hood's Bay

Fresh from the footplate, I wasn't exactly looking my best.  When I asked Tina 'does my hair look a mess', she instantly replied 'yes'. No attempt to sugar the pill at all. Sometimes people can be too honest.

With the walking part of the coast to coast walk finally finished (total raised and photos will appear later), it was back to Toddington for a well deserved much needed cup of tea and then to help out with disposal of the locos.  Normally this would be an uneventful process, but all the good wheel barrows obtained for the gala had disappeared.  Tina struggled on with a particularly ancient example and failed to get it up the ramp onto the ash pit:

Tina losing her grip on reality the wheel barrow

Chris who was in the pit shoveling out the ash from 2807 thought that I was leaping to Tina's aid and was disappointed in me when I whipped out my phone to grab a photo instead.  The age of chivalry is long past I'm afraid.  The only other wheel barrow around was the one I got stuck with. It had seen better days.  It only had the one wheel, but that didn't stop it steering like a supermarket trolley:

Note the wonky wheel

Whilst the wheel barrow could just about be propelled when empty, when fully loaded with ash it just locked up solid and refused to go anywhere.

Pushing hard, going nowhere.  Story of my life.

Those last two photos were taken by Tina who was getting her own back for me not having come to her aid when she was struggling with her wheel barrow.  Serves me right I suppose.

Thank you to all who have supported me in my fund raising efforts, either with kind words of support or by sponsoring me.  Special thanks are due to Steve Sperring who dealt with the financial aspect of the exercise and to Tina in helping me ferry my car to Broadway and joining me on the Laverton to Broadway section.  Not that I'm averse to my own company, but after 192 miles of walking solo, it was a very pleasant change to have somebody to converse with.  Many thanks too to George and Ian for a great day on the footplate and for dropping us off at Laverton.

Finally, it's nice to end on a particularly high note.  Whilst I was away, Steve Burnett passed out as a driver and on Sunday, Phil Grange passed out as a fireman.  Congratulations to both of you.  No photos of Steve have surfaced from the day itself, but here is one of Phil just before being examined:

Phil looking cool, calm & collected before his firing exam

Sponsored walk for Broadway update 3

Just in case you've missed out, I'm currently walking the thick end of 200 miles across England from St Bees in Cumbria to Robin Hood's Bay in Yorkshire hoping to raise money for the Gloucestershire and Warwickshire Railway's extension to Broadway.

Details of the walk can be found here and also at the end of this article.

What can you do?  Well, unlike me for a couple of weeks, you can just sit back, relax and take it easy.  Oh, and if you happen to have a few quid burning a hole in your pocket, you could choose to sponsor me too.

Please send cheques to:
Steve Sperring (Fund Raising Director)
Gloucestershire & Warwickshire Railway
Toddington Railway Station
Toddington
Gloucestershire
GL54 5DT

Please make cheques payable to GWRT with ‘Ray O’Hara’ written on the back.

So, here is the update:

I have made it to:Grosmont

I have covered approximately 180 miles so far.

The weather since the last update has varied  between hot sunshine, torrential downpours and all shades of options in between.

Number of blisters so far: 1 (left heel)

I have been via:  I took the low level option through Swaledale due to the threat of thunder storms. Camping out on the top of Nine Standards Rigg was something of a highlight as was the B&B near Colburn that had no electricity when I arrived.

I'm currently steaming on all four cylinders and have  managed to get myself one day ahead of my advertised schedule. I'll finish the walk to Robin Hood's Bay tomorrow and spend Friday in Grosmont.  I wonder what I can find to do with my time there. :-)

The final few miles from Laverton to Broadway will take place as advertised on Sunday.  I hope to blag a lift up to Laverton with George and Ian on train 2 on Sunday.  George is reportedly extremely pleased that a recent royal baby has been named after him. Apparently nobody has had the heart to break the news that the new arrival was named after a certain loco in the care of the NRM with the number 6000 in brass on the cabside and a rather nice bell up at the front end.

Still not too late to sponsor me if you like.

I'm afraid that the iPhone app is a poor substitute for a real web browser and Safari is worse again.  Normal formatting style will be resumed as soon as I get access to a proper computer. Next stop the Station Tavern to consume some blister numbing medicine and berate anybody who will listen about the shortcomings of iPhones.

Sponsored Walk for Broadway Update 2

Just in case you've missed out, I'm currently walking the thick end of 200 miles across England from St Bees in Cumbria to Robin Hood's Bay in Yorkshire hoping to raise money for the Gloucestershire and Warwickshire Railway's extension to Broadway.

Details of the walk can be found here and also at the end of this article.

What can you do?  Well, unlike me for a couple of weeks, you can just sit back, relax and take it easy.  Oh, and if you happen to have a few quid burning a hole in your pocket, you could choose to sponsor me too.

Please send cheques to:
Steve Sperring (Fund Raising Director)
Gloucestershire & Warwickshire Railway
Toddington Railway Station
Toddington
Gloucestershire
GL54 5DT

Please make cheques payable to GWRT with ‘Ray O’Hara’ written on the back.

So, here is the update:

I have made it to: Gunnerside (between Keld & Reeth)

I have covered approximately 96 miles so far.

The weather since the last update has been: warm but not excessively so. 

After an excellent day out last Saturday on the 8F with Andy & Paul.  1 piece of ballast collected to carry to St Bees.

Me at 'mile zero' St Bees

The cloudy summit of Helvellyn, just before the thunder & lightning started, forcing me to beat a hasty retreat from the summit.

So far so good, on track and over half way there. Unfortunately the weather is about to change to heavy rain for the next couple of days. Amber weather warning for tomorrow.