CaptainK
Administrator
A few of you may remember I did the Bronze Steam Engineman course on the West Somerset Railway a couple of years back. I drove Odney Manor that time. Last year I was supposed to do the Silver level course, but it was cancelled at the last minute.
Managed to do it the Monday just gone. This time poor Odney has a cracked cylinder block after the steam gala. So is tucked up inside. Silver course this time involved shunting practice, and a last minute addition of actual railway operations - we needed to move some wagons from Minehead that were left there after the gala back to their home at Dunster.
Great day, but unfortunately the first day of the REALLY hot weather, and as you can imagine being on the footplate of a steam loco in hot weather may be unpleasant - to the point that 2 of the 4 people doing the course at one point felt unwell and had to stop for a while. One of them couldn't resume for the rest of the day and sat it out in the guard's van. Poor chap. I should note that during our day the WSR made the decision to stop ALL trains on the WSR for the rest of the week due to the heat. I, thankfully, was unaffected as I probably drank more water than the steam loco.
Anyway, I and another chap started out first in the morning, the second two would do the afternoon. I was firing first, the other driving. Our tutors, Nick (driver) and Ben (fireman) were excellent. I knew Nick from the first course, but Ben was new to me. We were assigned to Hudswell & Clarke built loco number 1857 - details here : LINKY McLinky. This loco is privately owned, but kept on the WSR for their use. I saw it at the recent steam gala and it is an excellent little engine and was used mostly to "power" the fireless loco that the WSR have.
I started out firing with Ben as my tutor. He was brilliant. I must say after my time with him I really am quite in love with the art form of firing a steam loco. Its not just chucking coal on! Firing was definitely my favourite part of the day, and I had it in my head all the time and I kept going back to check on the fire even when I didn't need too and it wasn't my turn. Also when the 2 people felt unwell, it was when they started firing. So guess who volunteered for extra time whilst they were unable?
Later in the morning I switched to driving, which after firing didn't feel as involved really. It was fun, but I kept looking over at "my" fire and checking it was ok - hey, I was with it in the morning starting it up and getting it lit, and had then tended it all morning.
During my time there we learnt about shunting. So we were activating points ourselves, opening up depots to move wagons through, and a lot of coupling and uncoupling. We also did all the hand signals as groundspeople to direct the driver of the loco around the yard with their wagons etc. That way we could line them up with points and slowly bring them onto the stationary wagons for coupling etc. Lots of physical work in the sun. I volunteered for it all and really enjoyed it. My other colleagues mostly didn't, which I thought was a shame, but hey, it was a hot day so I don't blame them. Spent some time with our guard too, he was a good bloke.
In the afternoon, despite the super hot weather and sun during the morning, we had a thunderstorm roll in from the hills and head out to sea. Hard rain, thunder, and lightning. Hence the photos of my Corvette are wet as they are taken at the end of the day. Still really hot when it was raining though, but thankfully I was just admiring the view from the guard's van mostly then as the 2nd team had taken over driving / firing.
Anyway, enough words, you want photos. Sadly the ONE time the loco went down to where my Corvette was parked, I was operating the points for it, so couldn't get photos of them together.
Managed to do it the Monday just gone. This time poor Odney has a cracked cylinder block after the steam gala. So is tucked up inside. Silver course this time involved shunting practice, and a last minute addition of actual railway operations - we needed to move some wagons from Minehead that were left there after the gala back to their home at Dunster.
Great day, but unfortunately the first day of the REALLY hot weather, and as you can imagine being on the footplate of a steam loco in hot weather may be unpleasant - to the point that 2 of the 4 people doing the course at one point felt unwell and had to stop for a while. One of them couldn't resume for the rest of the day and sat it out in the guard's van. Poor chap. I should note that during our day the WSR made the decision to stop ALL trains on the WSR for the rest of the week due to the heat. I, thankfully, was unaffected as I probably drank more water than the steam loco.
Anyway, I and another chap started out first in the morning, the second two would do the afternoon. I was firing first, the other driving. Our tutors, Nick (driver) and Ben (fireman) were excellent. I knew Nick from the first course, but Ben was new to me. We were assigned to Hudswell & Clarke built loco number 1857 - details here : LINKY McLinky. This loco is privately owned, but kept on the WSR for their use. I saw it at the recent steam gala and it is an excellent little engine and was used mostly to "power" the fireless loco that the WSR have.
I started out firing with Ben as my tutor. He was brilliant. I must say after my time with him I really am quite in love with the art form of firing a steam loco. Its not just chucking coal on! Firing was definitely my favourite part of the day, and I had it in my head all the time and I kept going back to check on the fire even when I didn't need too and it wasn't my turn. Also when the 2 people felt unwell, it was when they started firing. So guess who volunteered for extra time whilst they were unable?
Later in the morning I switched to driving, which after firing didn't feel as involved really. It was fun, but I kept looking over at "my" fire and checking it was ok - hey, I was with it in the morning starting it up and getting it lit, and had then tended it all morning
.During my time there we learnt about shunting. So we were activating points ourselves, opening up depots to move wagons through, and a lot of coupling and uncoupling. We also did all the hand signals as groundspeople to direct the driver of the loco around the yard with their wagons etc. That way we could line them up with points and slowly bring them onto the stationary wagons for coupling etc. Lots of physical work in the sun. I volunteered for it all and really enjoyed it. My other colleagues mostly didn't, which I thought was a shame, but hey, it was a hot day so I don't blame them. Spent some time with our guard too, he was a good bloke.
In the afternoon, despite the super hot weather and sun during the morning, we had a thunderstorm roll in from the hills and head out to sea. Hard rain, thunder, and lightning. Hence the photos of my Corvette are wet as they are taken at the end of the day. Still really hot when it was raining though, but thankfully I was just admiring the view from the guard's van mostly then as the 2nd team had taken over driving / firing.
Anyway, enough words, you want photos. Sadly the ONE time the loco went down to where my Corvette was parked, I was operating the points for it, so couldn't get photos of them together.
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