Hi everybody. Well, it had to come didn't it; the final Thomas Event of 2011 at Shackerstone! At 6am this morning I drove under the bridge through the thick darkness and onto Battlefield Line property. Just as I was going to close the gates, the driver of 3803 (John) arrived. I was rostered on "Thomas" himself (Jinty 47298 from Llangollen) with my dream team partner, Eddie! The crack team of Idryss & Siadwell; our slightly humorous Welsh names; have proved themselves useful both at Bala and at Shack in the past so we were hopefully in line for another good day today. After signing on, myself and John walked down to the sheds where we found 3803 and "Sir Gomer" both slightly warm inside. However, the Jinty stood outside in the gloom, straddling the main line! What a stupid place to put it! "Oh well, best crack on really", I thought. So I grabbed a torch and clambered up into the cab. The engine had had a warming fire the night before, and held 3/4 of a glass of water in the gauges. She was pretty warm too; all good stuff. After checking the firebox and external mudlids, I cleaned the grate before laying a coal bed down. Myself and John then headed off to break some wood. Soon enough, "Thomas" and 3803 were both lit. With no fireman for "Sir Gomer" having turned up, I lit her too! Eddie arrived at 7:30am and set to oiling the blue Fowler Class 3F. Meanwhile, my fire was going well...
Ready on time, we steamed into Platform 1 at 9:40am for the opening. We then proceeded to take the 10am train, led to Shenton by "Boco" the Class 25, with us hauling back. I fired but, allas, this was not the same 47298 that we had in June because this one just would NOT steam! The flat firing (little and often) technique that had worked before did not so today. But, it just goes to show no engine can be exactly the same twice! Following our first trip we made breakfast on the shovel...that was fab! Below, I've included a film taken by one of the passengers from Youtube, of us cooking...The rest of the day panned out as normal. We hauled brake van rides, took part in stories, playlets and various games and even did some singing too. The Jinty wasn't a happy bunny though...she wouldn't steam very well at all. Later on, at 1pm, we took the "Lunch on Thomas" Diner to Shenton and back with the 25. Though the Jinty went better, it still wasn't great. Maybe thicker firing will help? Back at Shack, "Sir Gomer" was doing a short freight tied in with the brake van rides. I even ended up firing her later in the day, on both the brake van rides and during the races...too many jobs! I didn't manage to get a pic of Eddie today but Mr C Simmons did, with a little teddy bear on the 3F too (Photo = C.Simmons)...
At 5pm, with the fun and games coming to an end, we took the "Tea on Thomas" Diner with "Boco". Again, not great for the Jinty but we WILL get there! I've got the engine with Pockets tomorrow and we will get it right! Look out for the post asap. After the "Tea on Thomas", we were back on shed by 6pm and disposed by 6:20pm. A lovely day all told, with the 'dream team' crew enjoying another embarrassment-free day: apart from the singing ;) . Thank you Eddie and thank you everyone else. Lets now see what tomorrow brings, after a Beer tonight...
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