Hi all. Today involved a moist driving turn at the 15" gauge Evesham Vale Light Railway in Worcestershire. After a pleasant few weeks of glorious sunshine, my typical luck meant that the August Bank Holiday was pelted with rain and wind. I arrived at the Twyford base of the EVLR around 08:10 and duly met up with owners Adrian & Sandra. Having signed in and caught up on the goss, I walked through the engine shed to find the rostered locomotive: "Monty". Adrian commented; "We thought you'd like the one with the lid". He was quite right too! The Met Men had forecast horrible weather as the day wore on and even now the dark clouds were gathering in the skies above the railway. As is usual practise on mornings like this, the engine was lit up with only the chimney poking out of the door. Sure enough, as soon as the handbrake was applied in her fresh position, it started to spit. I was then left to my preparation tasks and it wasn't long before the embryo fire was lit...
By now the rain was growing more persistent and "Monty" was no doubt glad of the cosy shelter of her shed as the fire began to take hold. The covering of the shed makes preparation a whole lot more pleasant in conditions like this and also allows the brass work and the paint to be buffed up...
With the engine slowly raising steam on the open cast Welsh coal, I wandered into the Mess Room after the call of "Tea Up!" rang down through the shed. Tea supped, all I had to do was complete the greasing and oiling before charging the air reservoir. "Monty": with headlamp burning brightly: was then ready to leave shed. After hissing slowly out into the rain, the engine came to rest at the mouth of the yard in readiness for blowing down. The violent expulsion of water and steam soon followed...
With the injector running, "Monty" steamed slowly backwards onto the waiting 10:30 train. This set was made up of three of the closed coaches...
Here is "Monty" waiting at a very damp Evesham Vale with the 11:00 trip...
As you can guess due to the weather conditions, trade was a little slow today. A few hardy visitors did appear and inspect the engine from time to time but on the whole it was just me, "Monty" and Guard "Yam Yam" (Graham). In fact, the 11:30 train didn't leave at all as there were no passengers to carry and none had alighted (quite rightly) at Evesham Vale. With a calm fire, "Monty" simmered under the cosy covering of the station roof whilst awaiting the next planned departure at 12:00...
On the whole it was an easy day. "Monty" steamed and pulled beautifully as usual, although you'd expect nothing less with such a light train behind this strong engine. The 12:30 trip saw "Monty" feathering at a desolate Evesham Vale...
Looking through the wet spectacle glass towards Twyford...
After a lightly loaded 13:00 train, the engine was watered at the column...
As "right time" was still a good 10 minutes away I decided to back "Monty" under the station roof once again for a few minutes. In the end it turned out to be the right decision as nobody turned up for the 13:30 trip either. To be fair I couldn't blame them: it was a foul day. However, the covering of "Monty"s cab roof provided great cover for me and the warmth of the fire against my knees made the conditions on board quite bearable. It must have been an easy day for the ex-"Markeaton Lady"...
The 14:00 train did go and we hauled that with ease. Later on, for the 15:00 trip, the now traditional Evesham Tea & Cake was delivered to the cosy footplate...
After looping the fields, the engine is pictured at Evesham Vale again...
Slowly but surely I was running "Monty"s fire down. It's always a gamble at Evesham as you're off the regulator more than you're on it. The fire is quiet until the banks where it gets pulled apart on heavier trips before you ask it to quieten down again and the safety's start to sizzle. Therefore, with the water level rising you're always trying to resist the urge to add more coal and return to shed with greater pressure. Here, the red Exmoor waits with the 15:30 working: our penultimate trip...
A steady fire in the firebox ready for the 16:00 working...
The diesel "Cromwell" was awoken from its slumbers to haul the final train at 16:30 and so "Monty" was returned to the shed. The rain had relented briefly but the clouds were already starting to regroup as I ashed the engine out. Having dried her off with the towels I decided to retreat into the shed before the rain came again, which it duly did! By now "Monty" was simmering quietly inside with the chimney capped...
Despite the awful weather, today had been a very pleasant day aboard the Exmoor 0-4-2. My thanks as usual must go to Adrian & Sandra as well as, on this occasion, fellow ex-Shackerstone man "Yam Yam" for his comical company. Thank you all for reading folks, I'm off to dry myself off! Cheers, Sam...
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