3803 in the shed at Shackerstone.
Dave and I worked together preparing the locomotive. He did the inside oiling for me and I fetched coal forward - only a few hundredweight remained in the tender, perched on top of the tender tank right at the back so coaling was going to be essential. Later, Jason arrived to carry on with re-painting a coach which was sitting in platform 1. Jason fired up a diesel shunter to propel the coach from platform 1 towards the DMU Siding, leaving the line clear for Dave and I to move 3803 through platform 1 to the coaling point in the North End sidings. Jason started the Bucket Loader and coaled our engine. I moved the engine across to platform 2 and Dave coupled us on to the head of our five coach 'Santa' train.
As stewards helped arriving passengers to their correct seats, we started to steam heat the train. Dave explained that they'd had a problem the previous day - the flexible hose under the footplate carrying steam for carriage warming from the locomotive to the tender was leaking and an additional jubilee clip had been fitted as a remedy. It was apparent that the problem was not completely cured, as clouds of steam swirled around the cab.
3803 at the head of the 10:00 'Santa' train.
Eventually, all our passengers were boarded and, rather late, we set off on the first of four trips. The steam heating leak wasn't too bad but forward visibility through the cab spectacles was impaired. I had to lean well out of the cab to keep a lookout ahead. The situation seemed to improve later in the day probably because, as the air temperature increased, the drifting steam didn't immediately condense to form a thick fog. We had an uneventful run to Market Bosworth station. We were booked to stand here until Santa had worked his way down the train, speaking to all the boys and girls and giving them presents. The train was well-loaded, so we stood for twenty minutes or so.
The unmistakeable Great Western lines of 3803, waiting at Market Bosworth.
Eventually Martin, the Guard, gave us the 'Right Away' and we continued our journey to Shenton. I 'eased up' to slacken the coupling between the tender and the first coach and Dave 'hooked off', allowing us to run round our train, ready for the tender-first run back to Shackerstone.
I'm afraid we continued to run late throughout the day. We were able to make up a little time on the journey but each departure was a little late and, of course, the important thing was to allow Santa time with all our young passengers. The final departure from Shackerstone was the 16:00. We were still a little late away but this train was not filled to capacity.
Dave, in a cheerful mood.
Dave was suffering from an infection and had coped manfully with the heavy day but Jason had agreed to join us and fire the last trip. It was becoming dark as we left Shackerstone with trees and bridges silhouetted against a deep blue sky. People are often surprised that, in the age of steam in Britain, a steam locomotive driver had no view ahead at night. The lamps carried on the engine were purely for identification and the driver largely had to rely on sounds to know his location. In other countries, attempts were made to give the driver some visibility ahead (I always think of the classic American 4-4-0 bearing a huge oil searchlight in front of the diamond stack). Of course, on Network Rail all trains, including those hauled by steam locomotives, now have a high-intensity headlamp but preserved railways continue the tradition of 'running in the dark'.
On arrival at Shenton, we ran-round for the last time and were soon on our return journey to Shackerstone. By this time, it was properly dark. The driver is always on the look-out for signals and, traditionally, semaphore signals were lit by paraffin lamps. There's a little about the lighting of signals here. On preserved lines, signals are often converted to being electrically lit, for convenience. Approaching Shackerstone, the first lit signal is the outer home, which was showing a cheerful 'Green' (there is a preceding fixed distant signal, but this is not lit). We dropped down the bank towards the signal box, complying with the 10 m.p.h. speed restriction and observing the two red lights of the inner home (a two disc ground signal - there's a daytime picture of this signal here). As we approached, the lower red light turned to green, beckoning us into platform 2. With a 5-coach train, we had to stop with the engine fouling the barrow crossing to platform 1. Since the footbridge is still closed, all our passengers had to wait for Dave and I to unhook the engine and draw forward over the hand points at the north end, where we waited until everybody had made their way across to platform 1. Once the foot crossing was clear, we headed for the shed and quickly completed our disposal after an enjoyable, if tiring, day.
Related posts in this Blog
Santa Specials.
Locomotive 3803.
Railway Signalling in Britain: Part 4 - Semaphore Signal Aspects by Night.
My Pictures
Santa at Shackerstone 2013
3803
