Cab ride inside live xteam locomotive driver#
Cab ride inside live xteam locomotive full#

Cab ride inside live xteam locomotive full#

Once the ashpan is empty, a quick wash round with the hose and then back to the fire.Īll being well, pressure is raised, tanks are full (and the hose removed before is overflows) and the loco is clean and ready to be off shed around 09:50. The ash is very dusty and requires a lot of water to ensure that when you start raking the ash it doesn’t fly everywhere.

Cab ride inside live xteam locomotive driver#

The Fireman takes the long handled rake and hose, tells the Driver that he’s going underneath and makes his way in to the pit. So to prevent the ashpan from over flowing it needs to be cleaned. This prevents hot ash being dropped straight on to the track whilst in motion.

The ashpan sits underneath the firebox and collects the ash and remnants of the fire as they drop through the fire bars. One of the most unglamorous jobs is raking out the ashpan. It has been known to cook bacon on the shovel and make “butties” for crew and cleaners. If the Duty Fitter ever asks you if you’ve finished cleaning NEVER say yes as if you do he’ll be climbing in to the cab and check and he will find something to do! The best response is “still working on it”. This goes on for some time in between checking on the fire and adding coal as and when needed to gradually raise steam.

Whilst waiting for the fire to really get going I then grab the Brasso and start polishing the brass work. It’s a reassuring sound when you can hear the wood crackling as you know the fire is alight. If the wood’s a bit damp some old oily rags can be added to give it a chance of catching. Firstly a ring of coal is shoveled in to the fire box (normally around 16 shovelfuls), next a layer of scrunched up newspaper, then a goodly amount of dry wood followed by another layer of newspaper. There are numerous ways of preparing and lighting a fire but I still do it the way I was trained 9 years ago. Now it’s clean I can start building the fire. It is vital to start with a clean firebox as failure to do so will come back and haunt you later in the day when the fire can’t breathe. Depending on what you find either means at best you use the “long spoon” to shovel the old fire out of the firebox in to a waiting wheelbarrow….at worst if there’s a lot of old fire which may have “clinker” stuck to the fire bars it’s a back breaking job of breaking it up with a fire iron and shoveling it out and can take 20 minutes or so. The next job is to remove the old fire from the previous service. The hose is then put in the tank and turned on of course! Finally a “DO NOT MOVE” sign is put on to a lamp bracket to protect the crew and cleaners. If something is not right then the Duty Fitter is called to assess and fix if necessary, until they confirm no more can be done to the loco. If all is well the Fireman signs to confirm that the loco is fit to light up. These include boiler water level, firebox leaks, smokebox leaks, along with other checks. Well it all starts at 0730 (although I normally arrive early) with signing on to confirm attendance and that you’re fit for duty, to read the notices and to review the locomotive log sheet to make sure there aren’t any outstanding defects……next a cup of tea.Īs soon as possible work starts on the loco with the safety checks. To give you an idea of the duties and jobs involved in just a single firing turn, volunteer Roger Millward takes us on a candid behind the scenes candid look of what goes on…. “It’s not all glamour”, is the cry of the Fireman when tourists see them merrily waving from the footplate. Hunslet ‘Austerity’ WD198 ‘Royal Engineer’.