Had an enjoyable day out at Richmond Light Railway on Saturday, drooling over their infrastructure, but feeling slightly nervous about touching anything in case I left fingermarks. It’s the first time I’ve seen a can of Pledge polish on a footplate! Everything’s perfectly clean and shiny, which feels a little unreal when there’s steam locos involved.

Sunday, on the other hand, was a very different affair as I was on the roster at the Great Bush Railway for their railway gala. I turned up bright and early to Tinkers Park near Uckfield in East Sussex and headed to the sheds where I met up with some familiar faces and was introduced to some new ones. Much like the Old Kiln, Great Bush has the feel of a working railway and I felt right at home from the start. There was a familiar loco there, being brought into steam: Emmet, which I’d be firing later on. After catching up with OKLR colleagues I went into the shed to see GBR resident O&K 0-6-0 No. 11784 “São Domingos” (informally known as Ming) which was being prepped by another OKLR colleague of mine.

I was fascinated to compare Ming to our own O&K, No. 9998 “Elouise”: both locos have had modifications since their original build, often to adapt them for changing uses or to replace worn out components that are no longer available. One thing I could definitely appreciate on Ming was that the centre panel of the cab floor could be lifted to give easy access to the ash pan: it’s no picnic trying to rake it out when reaching underneath the loco! Her manifold isolator valve was also a different type, having a gland to seal the spindle and prevent the kind of leaks that are all too frequent on Elouise.

There was an all hands briefing at 9am to go through the day’s operational details and roster updates. I had originally been down to guard as well as fire but due to lower than hoped for numbers on the gate they decided to drop from the three train operation of the previous day to a simpler two train one. I was told I could shadow the guards and ride in loco cabs before I was due to go on shift so I had a little wander around to see the layout of the place before boarding the guards’ coach on the passenger train and riding up and down along the line.

Following that I joined the crew on the footplate on Emmet to catch up with our ops manager who was driving and check on how Emmet was running: the brakes had needed attention after the first day, and the oil pot for the left crosshead had run dry at one point leading to a very hot slide bar: for today’s running we’d all switched to a heavier grade of oil as the hot weather affects the viscosity and our usual grade of motion oil was flowing too freely. Apart from that she was running well and proving very popular with GBR drivers because she has a steam brake, which makes the control for coupling up much easier.

After a couple of runs I switched over to Ming’s footplate where I soon got to assist in firing. Ming is just back in service after a 10 year overhaul and is still without her boiler cladding: the biggest effect of this was that the water in the well tank became warm quite quickly making the injector reluctant to pick up, so we made use of her water pump as well. One aspect of Ming that I wasn’t so fond of was that when feeding water into her boiler, the gauge glass shows full rather than indicating the actual water level: at first I was nervous of running the injector and overfilling the boiler, but I soon learned that it was quite slow and I could happily leave it running for an extended period.

My footplate time also gave me a good understanding of how the railway operates: signal and crossing locations, where the loco needs to steam hard going up the steepest gradients, and what they refer to as the “ski jump” on the way into their top station where you need to have the injector running to avoid suddenly uncovering the crown plate and risking dropping a plug.

I took a break for lunch, spending the time with friends who’d come along for the day, before heading off to find out where Emmet would be when I was due to relieve her fireman and take over for the rest of the day. She came into the station with the train, and after being uncoupled and put into the loop I went up to talk to the chap I’d be relieving so he could hand over and pass on any notes regarding firing her: he helpfully reminded me to make sure I always had the injector running when going over the “ski jump”, and that I could bank the fire on arriving at the top station, firing only after we got back down the line since the trip downhill didn’t need much steam.

I climbed up and quickly checked the water level in both glasses, the boiler pressure, and the condition of the fire; all was just as the departing fireman had said and in good shape. The coal bunker was very low, but the train on its way down to us was the freight consist and was carrying coal bags so we’d be able to restock after coupling on the front. With green flags from the guard and the crossing in front of us we set off up the line. I’m not sure where the time went: 4:30pm came around ever so quickly and we were hauling the last train of the day down the line to where Ming was waiting in the siding. I’d thought ahead and only fired lightly at the top to maintain pressure, leaving the fire alone after that and not firing at the bottom as we’d remain on the end of the train and Ming would haul everything back up the line: my first time as fireman on a top & tail.

We had steam to run back to the yard from the top station without me needing to fire again, and we drew to a halt over the pit where I raked the remaining fire to the edges of the firebox, put on the injector to fill the boiler, and emptied the ash pan, before I shut off the injector and we ran back into the shed to stable Emmet. We had a quick discussion with the OKLR’s ops manager about extending Emmet’s stay at GBR: they were very happy with how she’d performed over the weekend, and I got some praise for a decent job of firing on a line I’d not seen before that’s been known to catch out firemen in the past. It was lovely to be told I’d be welcome back.

All in all a brilliant experience, and I didn’t half sleep well afterwards! That 30º outside temperature and hot sunshine is not easy to work in, but I’d learned the hard way to make sure I kept hydrated and coped well this time; it didn’t hurt either that everybody working was looking out for everybody else and making sure we all had water and relief if needed.

I’ll be back to the Old Kiln next weekend so normal service will resume.

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