Oops!

I was more than a little apprehensive on Saturday morning when my alarm went off, there was quite a loud rattle of rain on the bedroom windows which didn't bode well.  Fortunately our roster clerk, Ben, had experienced some difficulty in finding an available fireman, and a deal had been struck wherein I would light up 4270 ready for the first train, John would turn up much later and fire the first round trip, then Phil would cover the second and third trips.  The good fortune for me being that I would be able to spend a reasonable amount of the morning sheltering from the rain in the nice warm cab of 4270, rather than trying to clean her in the rain.  In the end, the rain eased off enough for me to both bring 4270 into steam and to give her a reasonable clean as well.

One of the diesel shunters (Des) had been left parked in front of 4270.  Thankfully John C turned up, who is passed to drive it, otherwise the best we could have done with it was to shunt it off into the south headshunt and leave it there.

Des, a parking ticket is in the post.

 The appeal for cleaning rags has turned up all sorts of interesting items, including a complete set of Thomas the Tank Engine bedding.  It's a shame I didn't spot these a few weeks ago when Thomas was here.

A really useful cleaning rag

 One of the lamps for 4270 was missing a red shade.  In time honoured manner, I nicked one from another loco's lamps.   5542 will be at the South Devon Railway for some time yet, so nobody will notice for ages that one of her sets of lamps is missing a red shade.

4270's lamps, now complete with 2 red shades

 Although the weather was back to rain again by the time that we set off down the line, that didn't seem to deter the volunteers from many of the railway's various departments who were out and about doing their jobs.  I suspect that in a number of homes near and far, conversations had taken place along the lines of "It's raining, I can't mow the lawn today dear, I'll just head off to the railway instead", or perhaps "It's raining, we can't possibly take the children/grandchildren to the beach today etc".

Digging a trench at Cheltenham Race Course (CRC) station

Bringing lamps onto CRC platform 2

At the time of writing, no report had appeared on the CRC2 blog as to exactly what was happening, but when it does, this is the place to look for it. 

It wasn't just CRC that was seeing the volunteers out and about, there were plenty by the line side too:

Andy Protherough at work on the lineside drainage just south of Bishops Cleeve

 Andy's flickr pages give more detail on what was wrong here.

The Permanent Way gang were out and about along the line between Greet tunnel and Gotherington.  I had assumed that they were doing a bit of 'spot sleepering', but a quick check of their flickr site revealed that they were removing ash trees which had self-seeded in various locations.

Permanent Way at work

 This was the first time I'd seen Cliff since he passed out as a driver a few weeks ago, it seemed like a good idea to get him to pose in front of his steed for the day.

Cliff and 4270

 The other train running was 2807.  We tried not to look too smug as 2807 crossed us at Winchcombe, it was raining, that open and exposed cab on 2807 wasn't going to be much fun in the rain when they came back tender first.

2807 rolls into Winchcombe

 Upon arrival at Toddington, the relief fireman, Phil was waiting for us to arrive:

Phil, leaning on a lamp post

 I really should have seen this coming having been caught out like this before, five minutes before we're due off, Phil said "You'd best start building your fire up Ray".  Having expected Phil to be firing, this came as a bit of a surprise. The pressure gauge was close to the red line and the water out of sight in the top of the glass. Not too bad a start, though I'd have liked a bit more water space, the problem was that the fire hadn't seen a fresh lump of coal since John and bunged a round in on Chicken Curve, about an hour ago.  Although there were no holes in the fire bed, it was now very thin, one sharp yank of the regulator and what was left would be off up the chimney.  What happened next was a bit predictable, I baled in plenty, built the fire up, without blacking it out and not too far down the line 4270 was blowing off, much to Phil's amusement.

Phil, reading and plotting my demise

 It seemed that I wasn't the only one with too much fire, the lineside clearance team were out and about getting rid of the worst of the vegetation.  No news of their progress on their website at the time of writing, but doubtless something will appear in the near future.

Lineside clearance team at work

 The sun having come out, meant that the crew of 2807 were looking a bit more cheerful and rather less bedraggled.

Chris exchanges tokens as we cross at Winchcombe

Last trip, Phil rakes through the fire bed as we pass Hailes

4270's water tanks need filling on each round trip, and because the balance pipe between the two sides is relatively small, it takes quite a while to get both tanks full.  If you cunningly stop 4270 such that her water tanks fillers line up with the water column on platform 2 at Toddington, then the pipe is long enough to let you fill both sides:

First the left hand side...

...and then the right.

Getting the tanks full like this takes a fraction of the time it takes to fill up using just one filler.

Before we had set off in the morning, we had pulled Dinmore Manor out of the shed and onto a pit.  After just having had a boiler washout, she is now refilled with water again and ready for steam testing.  New brake blocks have been fitted along with a new seal on the left hand side cylinder cover and a joint repair on an injector steam pipe.  The original ash pan door had buckled a bit, so that has been replaced too.

New ashpan door (photo courtesy of Mike Solloway)

7820 on a pit (photo courtesy of Mike Solloway)

New brake blocks (photo courtesy of Mike Solloway)

 I'm normally a fairly organised person, managing to juggle my diary to fit around all the various calls on my time from my job, the GWSR and my various domestic commitments.  Last Monday, when the new steam loco dept roster for August was published, I was horrified to find that I had managed to double book myself somehow.  I could have sworn that I hadn't marked myself as being available for the first weekend of August, but there it was, I was down for a fireman training turn.  Oops!  Actually, I didn't say "Oops", I said something else altogether, but "Oops" conveys the general meaning.  Saturday August 2nd was now in my diary as not only fireman training, but also it was the penultimate day of the sponsored walk along the Cotswold Way with Tina and others for the benefit of the Broadway Station Appeal.  When you fire as badly as I do, every training turn is a precious chance to learn how it properly, so I was keen not to have to defer or cancel it.  I rang Tina that evening and she suggested that what we do is just start a day earlier (Friday 25th July), finish on Sunday 3rd August as planned, with the 2nd down as a rest day.  Well the 2nd would be a rest day for her, I'd just switch to exercising my arms instead of exercising my legs.

Tina, demonstrating how it should be done

 So that's it, a minor change of plan, but the route etc remains the same. Our Itinerary now looks like this: 

Date	Start Point	Finish	Distance (Miles)
25th July	Bath Green Park	Pennsylvania	11
26th July	Pennsylvania	Hawkesbury Upton	14
27th July	Hawkesbury Upton	Dursley	14.5
28th July	Dursley	Randwick	10.5
29th July	Randwick	Birdlip	14
30th  July	Birdlip	Cleeve Hill	13.5
31st July	Cleeve Hill	Wood Stanway	13.5
1st  August	Wood Stanway	Chipping Camden	12.5
2nd August	Rest/fireman training day		0
3rd August	Chipping Camden	Toddington[1]	8

---

[1] Depends on catching the last train from Laverton, otherwise add a further 2.5 miles.

 

The Broadway Station Appeal fund is seeking to resurrect the station at Broadway, which was demolished by British Railways in 1963.  A selection of photos showing how it used to be can be found by following this link.  With your help, our intention is to return it to its former glory and once again run train services there.  The platforms and signal box are already well advanced in their replacement, but there is still much to be done.

For those of you who have got to grips with this interweb mularkey, donations can be made by clicking on the following link and providing credit/debit card details:

Please donate by clicking here.

Alternatively, donations can be made by a good old fashioned cheque:
 

Please send cheques to:
Steve Sperring (Fund Raising Director)
Gloucestershire & Warwickshire Railway
Toddington Railway Station
Toddington
Gloucestershire
GL54 5DT

Please make cheques payable to GWRT with ‘Tina Sutton and Ray O’Hara’ written on the back.