Afternoon all. Today saw another short but sweet footplate turn on the Great Central Railway, firing my seemingly regular engine these days: BR Standard Class 5 No73156 of 1956. Myself and driver Geoff were booked to work the 14:00 'one trip wonder' turn, signing in at 12:30 in readiness to take over the engine around an hour or so later. Having arrived at the railway, signed in and read the notices, I wandered into the shed to see the progress on No6990 "Witherslack Hall". The engine ran in public service for the first time since Easter 2022 last weekend, in a partially finished unlined green. Now she is back in the shed for the continuation of her full repaint. The red frames on the tender gave her a very 00 gauge look I thought...
Right on time, 73156 rolled in from Leicester North and we took over from the morning crew at the water column. Having filled the tender back to full, we ran the engine around onto the waiting stock in platform one. We still had just over 20 minutes until departure and so there was little point in putting too much coal on the fire at this time. Having coupled us up and changed my lamps, I quickly snapped 73156 from the shadow of the Great Central Road bridge. Not the best shot, but worth including...
As departure time neared I made up my fire and we set off for Leicester North bang on time at 14:00. As usual on this turn we were held briefly at Rothley on the up line to await the returning dining train. 73156 simmered quietly in the sunshine...
After a nice and easy, free steaming run to Leicester and back, we uncoupled and sidled back to the shed where we performed our disposal on No1 road...
As the engine was required for service tomorrow we were asked to run her back up to the north end of platform two prior to topping up the boiler. Therefore we checked the smokebox and did the ashpan before trundling the short distance up to the platforms where I could remove the deflector plate, check the firebox and fill the boiler before shutting everything down. 73156 was then left, ready to be picked up by the smaller 78018 when she returned on the final train of the day. Thanks to Geoff for a pleasant afternoon and thank you all for reading once again...
Please note any views or opinions expressed in this blog are merely personal and do not in any way represent the views or opinions of any other person, group or organisation.
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