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.

Toads in the hole

You may remember that a month or so ago a pair of toads engaged in er... amorous activities were discovered in one of the pits during ashing out.

Ash coated toads

Just in case you'd been wondering what had become of them, I am pleased to be able to report that they enjoyed their time with is us so much that they have paid us a return visit.  On Sunday, Chris Chewter was on a trainee firing turn on 2807 and during the ashing out process, they were discovered once more back in the pit.  This time though they were being rather more gregarious and had brought along some friends. Fearing once more for their well being, Steve Oddy & Ed Brooks helped them out of the pit.  The following photos have been kindly provided by Chris:

Ed & Steve in 'animal rescue' mode.  Note one toad escaping in the bottom right corner

Ed & Steve employ the time honoured shovel & bucket technique

Ed with a bucket of toads

I shouldn't be in the least bit surprised to find that the BBC send their Springwatch team over to record their next series at Toddington, there seems to be plenty of wildlife around at the moment.  We've also got plenty of springs for them to watch on the locos, but I suspect that they wouldn't be quite so interested in those.

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

The last shall be first and the first shall be last

A fine red crescent moon rose above the Cotswold hills as I progressed along the M5 on Saturday morning.  After marveling at it for a while and wishing I could stop and grab a photo, it occurred to me that the reason I could see the moon was that the sky was clear.  Clear skies of course meant only one thing.... it was going to be colder than usual.  I wasn't wrong, according to others who turned up later, it was about minus 5.  Now that the clocks have gone forward, it was still dark when I arrived at Toddington, it was certainly still too dark to see what the brass monkeys might be up to.  If they had any sense at all they would be safely tucked up in bed and with their electric blankets turn up to 11. 

I had thought that cleaners weren't supposed to function as Running Shed Foreman (RSF) however I sensed an air of desperation in Ben (roster administrator) when I queried it.  Obviously he was having difficulty tracking down enough mugs to fill the rota.  I've not seen a job description anywhere, but the general idea is to make sure the locos get sorted out and leave shed on time, after which you make sure that any volunteers still daft enough to be showing their faces are found something useful to do. Turn up first, leave last and boss people about, how hard could it be!

There was only one loco turn on Saturday, 8F 8274 was assigned to cover the steam portion of the blue timetable.  Ian and Ade got on with the process of oiling up and lighting the fire, everybody else looked for something to clean... preferably something warm.  I picked on the smoke box to start off with, that's always a good bet for being warm.

A clean (and most importantly, warm) smoke box

Chris cleans the motion

Andrew after washing down the tender

 Soon enough, 8274 was sparkling and off to tackle the day's work.  Well that was the easy bit of being RSF sorted out, now to find everyone something else useful to do.  I started off with what turned out to be a popular choice of heading over to the Flag & Whistle for breakfast.... never forget an army marches on its stomach.  Breakfast eaten, there was then the pressing matter of replenishing the wood store as it was remarkably bare.  The bad news was that there was no neat pile of wooden pallets next to the wood store awaiting breaking up. I dispatched raiding parties to the far corners of the yard to hunt out any lost looking wooden pallets and fetch them back to the wood store.  A surprisingly large number were to be found scattered around making the place look untidy and soon the yard was both tidier and the wood store fuller.

Andrew & Cheyenne in the process of converting an untidy pallet into useful fire wood

Should you be the proud owner of a wooden pallet in Toddington yard and are now wondering where on earth it has gone, then don't fret, it is now fulfilling a far nobler purpose than merely weighing down a tarpaulin or such like.

Another task that needed doing was getting Foremarke Hall warmed up for a turn on the Elegant Excursions dining train on Sunday, to that end she was fetched out of the shed, a warming fire lit, ash pan emptied and a start made on cleaning her up for the next day.

Cheyenne giving the brass a bit of therapy with the Brasso

Nick & Cheyenne hard at work

Clive cleaning out the ash from the pit the hard way

Well so far so good, all was going according to plan.... well in as much as there was a plan.  8274 returned from her labours a little later and the disposal process kicked off.  That is of course when the plan fell apart.  You'll doubtless have noticed that the loco roster on the main GWSR website mentions that locos are rostered 'subject to availability', that they may be changed at short notice for 'operational reasons' and other such weasel words that effectively say that it's pot luck what turns out to be hauling the trains on any given day and that the railway can't be held responsible if what you're hoping for isn't running.  Well on Saturday, the 'operational reasons' kicked in.  When examined at the end of the day, it transpired that 8274 had broken a spring and was declared a failure.  Such eventualities aren't usually too much of a problem as the leading lights of the owning group can usually get one swapped out in just a few hours in the morning whilst the loco is being prepped for service.  On this occasion however, the relevant persons had taken the not entirely unreasonable step of disappearing off to warmer climes for their holidays and given the recent freezing weather in the UK, who can blame them.  In their absence, that left the choice of either putting out a diesel on the Sunday or getting 2807 ready.  Not wanting to let the traveling public down, a hasty shunt of locos was organised to get 8274 into the shed and 2807 out.  Being the fireman on the second shift, Tina should probably have lit the warming fire in 2807, but her dog was home alone.  In an uncharacteristic moment of chivalry I decided that it was better that my dinner ended up in the dog than her dog's dinner ended up.... well you can guess the rest!

Tina is actually 6' tall, but she looks dwarfed in George's jacket as he is 6'8"

All that remained now was to get a warming fire in 2807, a process that takes several hours. So it came to pass that everybody else disappeared off into the sunset leaving yours truly to get 2807 warmed up and ready for the following day.  

The light is fading a bit, but at least 2807 has some semblance of a warming fire in her

Getting the warming fire built up enough to be in a state where I could leave her for the night takes a number of hours and to while away the time where I wasn't shoveling coal, I soon found myself taking long tea breaks and contemplating how many other people over the intervening years since she had been built in 1905 had found themselves doing the same sort of thing.  Eventually she was in the sort of state where she could be left and I set off for the mess coach to change, only to find that Andrew Meredith was still around having been spent many hours working elsewhere on the water treatment plant.

The sun has set and the stars are out, 2807 continues to gently warm up

I had thought that to be the end of the story, but Ian Butler alerted me to an article that had just been uploaded to the news section of the main website.  Sydney Hogg, a long time supporter of the GWSR was celebrating his 100th birthday and to mark the event we even had a GWR reporting code of 100 displayed on 2807's smoke box.  Ian Crowder had been on hand to record the event for posterity and has kindly allowed me to use the following photos that he took.

2807 with a '100' reporting number

Sydney Hogg with family & well wishers

Sydney Hogg with driver Ben Evason

Still going strong at 100

It was a pleasure to have been able to have contributed something towards this event, even if it was only by making sure that Sydney ended up with steam at the front of his train as he had hoped for.  

Should anybody be able to let me know which train the reporting code of 100 would be for, then I'd be delighted to hear from you.  It's not easily tracked down on the web.

Edit:  Sean Nielsen has kindly provided a useful link which states that the reporting code of 100 denoted the Paddington to Penzance train after 1957.