Evening all. This afternoon saw me complete my first rostered firing turn on the Great Central Railway, having now passed out following my final practical exam on May 27th. The roster today had me penned to LMS 8F No48305 on one of the locally known 'one trip wonder' turns. This is exactly what it says: you come in and work one trip. Myself and Alan took over the 8F after its third round trip of the day. It was around 14:50 by the time we climbed aboard the engine. She had just rolled in on the returning Sunday diner and we would have a layover of roughly an hour or so before we took out the 16:00 passenger train. All was well with 1943-built 48305...
The morning crew soon disappeared along the pathway towards the engine shed whilst myself and Alan watered the 8F. We then steamed around to the head of the train in platform 1 via the up loop. By the time we departed at 16:00 I'd brought my fire around nicely and we steamed away on our round trip to Leicester North and back. The engine steamed very well, despite quite a lot of slack being shovelled from the tender as the pile wore down. The tender held quite an assortment of fuel: ovoids, Russian, Welsh, you name it! The mixture certainly got the fire burning well but the abundance of slack ensured that the bed was fairly clinkered by the time we rolled back on shed, not that it had affected us. After a pleasant single trip we uncoupled and dropped back down via the shunt signal to begin the disposal procedure. I emptied the smokebox before Alan set the 8F back over the pit so that we could empty the ashpan...
Once Alan had completed his driver checks beneath the engine, I gave the pan a final spray down on the pan wash before heading underneath with the irons. Anyone who knows steam engines will understand just how horrid emptying smokeboxes and ashpans can be. In the case of today I had to get the pan screens out before I could ash out. These are fitted to (quite rightly) protect against lineside fires but they also ensure that you're covered in ash and water before you even start ashing out! Screens out, I did both sides of the pan before putting the screens back and shutting the dampers. With the boiler topped up and fire quiet, the job was done. Thank you to Alan for a great first 'proper' turn and I look forward to the next one! Cheers, Sam...
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