What have you done today

Had a great day today reliving all my years on the footplate as a locomotive fireman and driver. A long time friend and railway buddy who is a fireman on the Great Central Heritage Railway invited me to join him and fire the loco with him on two round trips from Loughborough to Leicester . The last time I did this was 12 years ago almost to the month since hanging up my cap after 31 years as fireman and then driver . It was like riding a bike or falling off a log , you just don`t forget . A ll the old techniques came flooding back . Our locomotive was 6880 Bretton Grange , a newly built recreation of a class of Great Western Railway locos that never survived the scrap mans cutting torch . At barely 18 months old since completion it was a rare treat although not without a few teething problems and not helped by crap quality Polish coal that has a propensity of forming clinker under the bed of the fire that chokes the flow of combustion air through the fire bars of the grate .This required a few hard prods with a heavy `pricker ` bar to break it up and liven up the fire to keep steam pressure up . The ` disposal` at it is known at the end of the day took an hour and a half to break up the clinker and shovel it out through the fire hole door with a heavy 12 foot long long iron Clinker shovel and equally long and cumbersome iron rake . That was the part of the job I don`t miss anymore !!
Les the driver shoveled out all the ash from the smoke box while this was going on then it was time to climb into the ash pit underneath the loco and rake out vast amounts of hot ash from the ash pan . And we do this for fun ?? It was well dark and we very grubby by the time we finished . Still good fun though to have the opportunity to relive the good old days .

Tell us all Chuffer.......stokeing-up the 'fire' on the engine.......did you prefer it during freezing cold winter weather......pr was your preference summer temperatures?

Sounds to me like you had a very enjoyable day mr chuffer

Roscobbc said:

Tell us all Chuffer.......stokeing-up the 'fire' on the engine.......did you prefer it during freezing cold winter weather......pr was your preference summer temperatures?

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Contrary to popular belief Ross , it is not always toasty warm on the footplate in the winter as the wind and slip stream from the loco can make it very chilly , especially for the driver . At least as a fireman you are doing very physical work shoveling coal into the white heat of the firebox but as soon as shut the fire hole doors its like turning the central heating off . You run the loco most of the time with the fire hole doors shut to prevent cold air being drawn into the firebox which chills the fire and thus reduces the potential to keep steam pressure up in the boiler .
Also some locos have less enclosed cabs and tenders than others and the crew are less protected from the elements , especially when running tender first which is always the case on heritage railways that do not have a turntable at both ends of the line . The Great Western Railway were particularly fond of not providing creature comforts for the crew . This was the case with the design of Betton Grange I was on yesterday with only one cab side window and no doors so the wind and rain blow through the large open spaces . It`s also quite alarming being so high up above the track and seeing the world whizz by with nothing but a vertical grab handle to stop you falling out !!
The seats provided are by the dear old GWR are a joke too . Just a hard wood pull down flap bolted to each cab side and it`s impossible for a driver to operate all the controls and see the track and signals ahead whilst sitting down .
The Great Western did provide storm sheets that you can attach to the cab roof and anchor by powerful springs to stantions on the tender to cover a bit more of the footplate but they tend to flap like a sail in a gale when going tender first and be PIA !! We had the sheet up yesterday as it rained on and off in the afternoon and you will see by the photo how little protection it affords . Sorry the photo is a bit iffy but it`s hard to hold a camera steady as the loco vibrates ,bucks and sways about .

On hot summer days the heat can be relentless and you soon become drenched in sweat and need to have lots of tea and bottle of water with you to keep fluid levels up . I have been close to exhausted de hydration on more than one occasion . A nice sunny Spring day is just about perfect .

Nassau65 said:

Sounds to me like you had a very enjoyable day mr chuffer

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It was great to be back `in harness` again . All except the `Disposal` at the end of the shift like I said : bloody knackering and filthy work . You can just see the orange dust jacket of my may mate down the pit under the loco raking the hot ash out of the ash pan through the narrow damper doors with a long steel rake . I did that many times in the past years both late on a winters night in the dark or on a hot summers evening . It is the less glamorous side of playing with steam locos and no wonder British Railways struggled to recruit staff by the late 1950`s early 60`s to carry out such dirty and physical work in all weathers and antisocial shift hours when you could get a job in a factory etc on regular hours and go home clean every day .