Hard of Hearing?

Research carried out by members of Dinmore Manor Locomotive Limited (DMLL) has established that the last Manor to work the Cambrian Coast Express was none other than their loco, 7820, Dinmore Manor.  To celebrate this fact, it is intended to run Dinmore Manor with an original Cambrian Coast Express headboard on at least one day over the gala period.

Dinmore Manor with a Cambrian Coast Express headboard, photo courtesy of Phil Grange

Speaking of the gala, the public timetable, including loco allocations is now available on the main GWSR website to download and print.  All three visiting locos, 34092, Wells, 34007, Wadebridge and 6960, Raveningham Hall. will be facing north (smoke box towards Laverton) and all four home fleet locos will be facing south (smoke box towards Cheltenham Race Course station).  Full details of the gala can be found by clicking on this link.  I've been stitched up with being gala coordinator on the Saturday (if anything isn't going according to the plan, I'll be the one who gets the hassle).  My plan is to get at least as far down the line as Gotherington where the pump trolley will be in use and refreshments available. All in all, a superb spot to relax and watch the trains go by. The fact that I will get no mobile phone coverage and that I'll also be out of range of the walkie talkie that I will be issued with has absolutely nothing to do with it.

When I turned up on Saturday, I was a little surprised to discover that Dinmore Manor and 2807 were the locos in steam.  I had received word that there was to be a working party on Dinmore Manor however 4270 had a broken spring which needed changing and so Dinmore Manor was pressed into service in 4270's place.

2807 shortly prior to working the day's trains

 Before we started on changing the spring on 4270, John did a spot of cleaning up parts of Foremarke Hall's bogie which is off to be grit blasted shortly.

John with parts of Foremarke Hall's bogie.

You may remember from some while back that I helped out with changing a spring on 4270 sometime last year.  It turns out that it was the same one that had gone again, (driver's side intermediate).  The same process had to be gone through once more.  The first thing that needed to be done was to gain access to the spring by removing a section of the vacuum brake pipe.

Cliff unbolting the vac pipe.

A number of the dreaded split pins needed to be removed:

Tim and Jonathan on split pin removal duty.

One of the brackets the spring connects to is riveted in place, the other bolted.  The bolted one needed removing and the centre pin needed knocking out.

John removing the centre pin

I understand that John has kindly volunteered to lead a team on Wednesday to swap the bogie spring of one of our visiting locos, Raveningham Hall which has apparently broken one at its West Somerset Railway home.  This is good news indeed, because as Foremarke Hall's manager, he knows more than most about what needs to be done and how to go about doing it.  Any members of the steam loco dept who can be around to assist will be more than welcome.

The adjusting nuts are substantial items.  A one and a half inch Whitworth spanner was required along with a length of scaffolding pipe to gain extra leverage. Dan & George provided the muscle power.

Dan (l) and George, putting their backs into it.

It's far cheaper than joining a gym.

The pin holding the end by the ash pan had seized solid and we couldn't coax the broken spring out.  The solution was to break it even more.  George gave it a bit of therapy with the gas axe:

George making sparks fly

Neatly severed spring leaf.

The replacement spring required a little work before the adjuster links would fit correctly in place.

George started with a grinding wheel....

... and then with a drill attachment

No more photos from here on, but you'll be pleased to know that 4270 was restored to working order by the close of play on Saturday.  It's fair to say that we had to fight it every step of the way, nothing was easy.  4270 is now stopped for a quick washout prior to the gala.

Meanwhile, over in the David Page shed, more work was taking place on the tender frames of Dinmore Manor, the area where the intermediate buffers will be housed was receiving some attention from Mike.

Mike at work

 The following photo courtesy of DMLL shows the tender body and wheels at DMLL's private site.  The wheels will be coming to Toddington in the fairly near future.

Tender body and wheels.

My appeal for more cleaning rags last week didn't fall on deaf ears, the cleaning rag bin was full to overflowing when I arrived.

Cleaning rag collection point

 As I appear to be the only person passed out on wheel barrows, I shifted them into the oil store.

I took care not to pass any weigh bridges with this lot

There was even a note from one of the donors.  

Thank you to everybody who has donated rags for us.

For future reference, notes are always welcome, especially £20 notes.  

The steam loco dept requires more than just rags to clean and light up locos with, we get through a huge number of old wooden pallets too.  One of our newest recruits, Donna, knows of a source of wooden pallets and arranged for a lorry load of them to be delivered on Saturday. 

Steve shifting pallets from the car park to the wood store area.

She managed to elude my camera, but thank you anyway Donna.  I'm sure that Roger and his merry team of pallet breakers will be glad of anybody from the steam loco dept who can be around on Wednesday to give them a hand.

Work is progressing on the water tower for the yard, Trevor was giving it a coat of paint.

Trevor painting the water tower.

The decision has been taken to move 35006 down to Winchcombe for the gala.  She will reside on the bay platform behind platform 2, next to the recently refurbished TPO carriage that houses the model railway.    The thunderbird loco that usually occupies that location during galas will now be in the yard of the Carriage and Wagon dept at Winchcombe which will be open to the public and the footplate will be accessible to our visitors.

As a bit of a bonus, the 35006 group spent a while on Saturday attaching the name plates.  Although the name plates were made some while ago (the originals of course were sold on before she was sent to Barry Island scrap yard), they have never been fitted before.

Fireman's side name plate getting a buff up before fitting.

How many engineers does it take to change a light bulb fit a name plate?

Also worthy of note is that the lining out has been finished too, she is looking gorgeous now.

Fireman's side nameplate finally fitted

 Next stop of course was the driver's side name plate

Yet more polishing.

 Slightly fewer people required to fit this one:

On it goes

 Something of a historical moment really.  I can't help but think that we should arrange for some celebrity to do the honours at some sort of official naming ceremony.

Driver's side name plate in place.

Unless they did it very late on and I missed it, they hadn't fitted the smoke box number plate however it is to hand and will be done so shortly if it hasn't been already.

35006 smoke box number plate awaiting fitting

Looking fabulous, 35006 in the sunshine.

More good news; we have another fireman.  Steve Foster passed his firing exam on Sunday.  Congratulations Steve.    I wasn't there to record the event for posterity (Time off for good behaviour... well ok then, time off anyway) and as far as I can ascertain, nobody else was either.  We'll have to make do with a shot of Steve on the shovel from last year:

Steve, our newest fireman.

 And finally, last week B.B. King passed away, so I thought that it would be fitting to sign off with something appropriate from him.

Going Over to the Dark Side

On Friday, the "Planet's Favourite Prairie", 5542, returned to us after a bit of a holiday at the seaside at Minehead on the West Somerset Railway.

5542 back from her holidays.

 She had been spending a lot of time on the beach with her bucket and spade if the rust in the smoke box was anything to go by.  The sea air at Minehead appears to have been just as damaging as the sea air across the Severn at Barry was.

People get sun tans, steam locos just rust!

 Still, there was plenty of evidence of her having been put to use whilst she was at Minehead, clearly it wasn't all just a case of sitting around on the beach.  Not least amongst the tell tale signs were that a number of her boiler's tubes were blocked with soot.   Dinmore Manor is temporarily out of action waiting for some copper pipe to replace one of the injector feeds, so we need 5542 back in action quickly.  

We have several tools for cleaning out boiler tubes, the most popular of which is the vacuum cleaner attachment that the 2807 group have concocted. It is not only effective, but also does a fairly good job of keeping the operator clean at the same time.

Eleanor about to put the 2807 group's vacuum powered tube cleaner to use

 Unfortunately, it turned out that the tubes in 5542's boiler are of a narrower diameter than those in 2807, consequently we got nowhere with that.

Plan B was to try the chimney sweep rods and brush that we used recently on Dinmore Manor, but of course the brush on that was too big too.  Clive is aware and will be ordering some of the right size.

Still too big.

 So much for plans A and B, we were now down to plan C.  Plan C, is not for the faint hearted, get a pipe attached to an air line and blow it through.  This is all well and good if the tube is clear, however if it is blocked, all the soot blows back in your face.  All in all about as much fun as being strapped in a chair and being forced to watch an endless cycle of party political broadcasts.

To add to the joy, the rain kicked in at this point.

 Eleanor had a cunning plan though, block the gap between the air line and the tube with a rag to keep the soot levels down.  It seemed to do the trick.

Cleanliness is next to impossible in a smoke box.

Paul gave it a go too.

 Some tubes are easier to get at from the smoke box, others from within the firebox.  I tried several times to get a photo of Paul at work from the other end in the firebox, but with little success. 

Paul's legs

5542's bunker was largely full of coal dust, with just a few lumps, Brian went in to clear it out:

Brian in the bunker.

Meanwhile, Andy was doing a spot of cleaning.  A loco can get particularly filthy underneath and it helps drivers with their end of day inspections if they can actually see the parts that they are supposed to check.

Andy cleans the underneath of 5542....

....at least until we needed to drain the boiler anyway

 Phil turned up sporting a new streamlined haircut, dyed yellow along the middle.  Ben decided that he would have to make sure that Phil was colour coordinated with a visiting loco for the gala.  Unfortunately we don't have any yellow liveried locos attending, so he'll have to be stuck on a diesel with yellow front ends instead, and even then only if he dyes the middle part of his hair BR blue.

Phil (l) and Ben

 35006 is starting to look very smart indeed, the lining out is coming on very well.

Looking good

 She has also had her smoke deflectors and stuffing boxes refitted:

Stuffing boxes being refitted

Smoke deflector being carried to the loco

Disappointingly, hopes that she will be in light steam for the gala have been dashed, however it is still planned to move her down to Winchcombe over the gala weekend.  She will still present something of a photo opportunity when being passed by the double headed Bulleids, Wells and Wadebridge.  Access to the footplate should be available too.  This will mark the first occasion that she has left Toddington since she first arrived in 1983.

Work continues on Dinmore Manor's own tender which is making excellent progress.

Ian drilling holes for riveting the steps to the tender frame

Steve (nearest camera) and Rob needle gunning the frames

Mark cutting out something, forgot to ask him what exactly.

I was informed today that Dinmore Manor was the last Manor to work the Cambrian Coast Express,.  The final steam locos being BR standards.  We'll have to see if we can pair her up with a Cambrian Coast Express head board during the coming "Speed to the West" steam gala on the 23rd - 25th May. 

Work is still carrying on with the concreting of the shed floor, Neil was working on his own on road 8 on Saturday. 

Neil at work.

During the week, I had been one of several recipients of an email from Jeff, who was seeking a second man for the DMU.  I wasn't entirely sure what the role required, even though as a fireman I am qualified to do it.  I was pretty certain that there was no need to shovel any coal.  As it turns out, the second man's duties are fairly relaxed; make sure that the driver doesn't do anything silly like pass a signal at danger, occasionally pick up or drop off a token, watch the train in and out of the platforms if the platform is on your side of the train.  Other than that, it was basically just a case of keeping a seat in the cab warm.  A rota was worked out whereby Chris did the fist few round trips, John covered a couple in the afternoon and I stood in for the last round trip.  As John set off for his couple of trips, he muttered "Don't worry, I'm not going over to the dark side".

The DMU at Toddington

Jeff in the driver's seat.

 A real plus point for the DMU is the excellent view you get ahead, far better than you'll manage from any of our steam locos.  A bonus for the passengers is that if they sit close to the leading end, they benefit from the views as well.  We encountered the lineside drainage team just past Didbrook, we had no difficulty spotting them as we approached.

Lineside drainage team at work.

 Returning form Winchcombe, we discovered 4270 heading off for disposal on the pit, along with 37215 getting ready to take over her stock for the last round trip of train 2.

4270 heading off for disposal

37215 backing onto its train.

 Then it was out to Laverton and back

Pleasant views across Stanway viaduct

 Of course, once at Laverton, there was no need to get out, uncouple, run round the train and hook on again at the other end, just walk through the carriages and get in the other cab.  All very civilised, if it had been raining, we'd have stayed dry.

No need to alight at Laverton

 No need to go onto the pit and go through the process of emptying out the ash pan or checking the smoke box, just go straight onto road 2 and park up.

Jeff watches the 37 leave from the cab of the DMU

 And finally, we got round to what I had been rostered to do, fire the evening fish and chip train.

2807 prepares to back onto the "Cheltenham Fryer"

 We took over the loco a couple of hours before we were due off.

Frying tonight!

Steve had volunteered to join us as the cleaner.  As he is just about to start official fireman training, I thought it would be a good idea to let him fire us down to Cheltenham Race Course.  He made a pretty good go of it.

Steve waiting for departure time on 2807

 The train itself was sold out, a couple of friends of mine had tried to book tickets a bit too late.  For anybody who does wish to travel on a fish and chip special, book early to avoid disappointment.

Amongst those who had booked early enough was a large family group, two of whom were celebrating their silver wedding anniversary.  A footplate pass had been arranged for the husband, so he joined us for the trip down to Cheltenham.  I'm not convinced that separating the husband and wife on their anniversary was a good idea, but he seemed happy about it.

Steve and one half of the happy couple

Our passenger seemed to be enjoying himself, even if his wife of 25 years was back on the cushions.

Andy looked quite happy over on his side of the cab too.

Approaching Winchcombe on the outward journey

Having been a keen follower of their blog, I was pleased to confirm with my own eyes that the walls of platform 2 at CRC were now complete.  There is still much to be done here before the platform can be used of course, but this is a significant milestone that has been passed.  Congratulations to all concerned.   Hopefully passengers will be able to use this platform during next year's gala.

CRC platform wall now complete

Steve coupling us back up to the stock

Sun going down at CRC

 Just time for a fish and chip supper at CRC before setting off back.  I should add that I had been informed that we would be going at 20:20, so was caught out a bit with nowhere near enough fire when we were flagged off 10 minutes earlier.  We made it back without running out of steam mercifully.

Steve and Andy, happily scoffing their fish and chips.