I lived in my home Town of Edenbridge, Kent, which is situated equal distance between Redhill and Tonbridge. Coming up to being 16 years of age I needed to make a choice as to which of these I wanted to become a Fireman/Secondman. I now had colleagues from the Depot at Tonbridge who had helped in cleaning the engines at Redhill. This, together with the choice of BR Standard Tank and “N” Class, made it easy. It had to be Tonbridge. I applied for a post at Tonbridge and was successful. At 16 I attended a course at Hither Green, London which I passed and became a “Passed Cleaner” which allowed me to carry out Fireman/Secondman duties when vacancies arose. I was also eligible to apply for vacant posts at Tonbridge.
In my next few blogs I would like to pass on my experiences here at Tonbridge. What a crew. Drivers and Fireman alike, you were always uncertain about what was going to happen next. Let’s start with my very first Fireman’s duty.
It was a passenger train service from Tonbridge to Redhill and back. As was expected it was a BR Standard Tank engine pulling 3 coaches. Green flag and off we went. I kept to the standard procedures taught at my course at Hither Green.
There is an art to shovelling coal into the firebox. The shovel should “sing” when throwing in the coal to the front of the firebox. One shovel to the front left. Next to the front right and then one to front centre. One to the middle both sides, then one to rear left, rear right and centre. Shut the firebox door. Little and often was the way to do it. There was also a balancing act to be carried out by the Fireman. Too much boiler pressure and steam is let out by a release valve. This is known as “blowing off”. It makes a lot of noise as is not welcomed in Stations, especially if the Station Master was around. A red line on the pressure gauge indicated when it was about to happen. Too low boiler pressure on the other hand will cause the vacuum pressure to lower which applies the brakes, not only to the engine but to the whole train. You come to a halt. So this is the balancing act. Entwined with this is to maintain correct water level in the boiler. Water from the tank is injected into the boiler by balancing water and steam controls. When you inject cold water into the boiler the boiler pressure will drop. Useful if you’re nearing “blow off” point. On the other hand if the pressure is already low, the addition of cold water could lower the pressure too much and the vacuum brakes will apply. Also to take into account is the amount of water in the boiler. If you go too low there is a safety device. It’s an emergency plug between the fire and the boiler. If the water level is too low the lead in the plug will melt allowing the water left in the boiler to spread over the fire. Pressure drops, vacuum brakes applied and the cab becomes immersed in steam. Emergency replacement engine required and a Fireman’s reputation to be recovered. One other thing that a Fireman needs to take into account when balancing this out is the Driver. Some drivers operate the engine in low gear. This means lots of puffs to turn the wheels of the engine. It’s good in keeping the fire active but needs a lot more shovelling. At the other extreme Drivers who drive at high gear ratio can deaden the fire and problems may occur keeping the fire active enough to maintain boiler pressure. There you go. That’s the balancing act. No problems on my first adventure. We got to Redhill. No problem.
Returning to Tonbridge was a problem. I received my induction shock. We went into the tunnel between Nutfield and Godstone.
It’s about a mile long. The cab is in darkness, just a thin light between the fire doors. The light at the end of the tunnel gets bigger as we approach it. When we entered back into daylight, there I was. On my own in the cab. No Driver. Panic. We’re approaching Godstone with nobody in control. Suddenly he appears, huge grin on his face staring at me through the cab window from the outside of the engine. He must have climbed out of the cab in the darkness as we went through the tunnel. Anyway, he climbed back in, took back control and we stopped at Godstone.
That was my first, certainly not my last, experience with Drivers. I’ll cover a few in my next couple of Blogs. Don’t worry Signallers, S&T, P-Way. Plenty to come yet.
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