Tyseley at 50: The Friday...

The Friday of any Tyseley open weekend is always busy but today in particular, preparing for the big 'Tyseley at 50' event, was something else. Having booked a day off work I arrived at the former 84E at just before 09:00. There were already a number of attractions being constructed in the car park, including the steam gallopers and the 15" gauge miniature railway. Wandering down towards the works I found Nicky & Batesy having their tea break. After a quick chat I was put to work with Stuart who was just starting up the trusty Ruston diesel shunter. Our first job was to grab recently returned Pannier Tank 7752 (L94) and take her across for coaling. It was a lovely sunny morning as we settled 7752 on the coal road...

Having caused a huge dust storm during the coaling process, we returned 52' to the King Shed road ready for lighting up later in the day. Whilst Stuart stopped for break at 10:00, I wandered across to complete the favour Batesy had requested: lighting up his steam roller. The Aveling & Porter "Louise" was stood behind the station platforms and would need some steam during the afternoon to move herself into the car park. Having lit the fire on wood before adding some coal, "Louise" began crackling away to herself happily as a steady plume of smoke drifted skyward from the tall chimney. I kept returning now and again to check on her but for the most part she was left to her own devices whilst we shunted the turntable. Tyseley is like a big board game on event weekends: there is a place for everything but you just need to get it there! Therefore we spend our afternoons shunting anything and everything from locomotives to wagons and wheelsets. There is a significant amount of shunting to do!

As the day wore on I was asked to light up 7752. The red Pannier arrived back from her summer holidays at the Dartmouth Steam Railway during the week and would see use during both days of the event on the popular shuttle trains...

Once we'd cleared the required turntable roads we could start receiving items from the lads shunting at the other end of the site. The top bank shunting had been completed so we could drop down with the Ruston and grab 5080 "Defiant". Once she was on the turntable she was shunted back to rest alongside fellow single chimney Castle 7027 "Thornbury Castle". "Thornbury" is now at Tyseley for restoration to main line running condition and, as many of you will know, "Defiant" is also subject to a restoration appeal. Hopefully we'll see them both in steam again one day...

Once 5080 was in position we could trundle back and fetch the chunky Jubilee "Kolhapur" and station her on her road alongside the 'Fruit D' van. Operations were then halted for a couple of hours whilst Jubilee "Bahamas": freshly returned to steam: took over the demo line to impress the assembled crowds invited for her 'Roll Out Day'. 45596 is freshly out-shopped after a painstaking restoration at Tyseley and looks fabulous: I'll try to photograph her during the weekend. I left Tyseley today at around 17:30 and the lads were still very much on with the shunting. I'll be back at 84E at around 06:30 tomorrow morning. Roll on tomorrow! Cheers all, Sam...