The alarm wakes us both at 5 am, before dawn one September morning. Coffee fortifies us before beginning a long trip to Bewdley, Worcestershire, to the Severn Valley Railway, for me to finally realise a life-long ambition to ride on the footplate of a "live" steam train.
The car is packed with enough food to sustain a football team, which we hardly touch during the day, and a flask of coffee, which we will have need of. Gradually, as we journey, dawn breaks and the day promises to be kind, if not sunny, which has been promised.
We arrive much too early, having allowed time for possible hold-ups on the motorway, but this gave us an opportunity to have a cup of coffee and to stroll around the station uninterrupted. We could see engines being prepared, as although the station wasn't open to the public, staff were there already at work, as would have been the practice during the days of steam. The station at Bewdley is quite attractive, very typical of the Great Western Railway, and holds many interesting coaches and engines. There is a wooden footbridge to cross from one platform to another, and they have three platforms.
We started to see other people arrive, the driver and other staff, along with fellow trainees, so we made our way to the meeting point, to be offered toast and coffee. During breakfast, the course co-ordinator welcomed us all, and we were instructed to find overalls and label them with our names for ease of identification. I had my own overalls (well, Baz's), and put them on, but, for those without, the offer was accepted gladly, even if they were a little tight for some. The training party consisted of 6 of us, the rest being men, all of us over 40, some well over that age. We were then separated from our guests, and led over the wooden bridge, down the platform and continued on to our engine for the day - Bradley Manor.
We were invited to ask any questions as we went.
"Have all these engines been classified for main line work?"
"No, not all. The basic standard here is to main line standard, on the basis of 'why not?' But we only have a few that are actually authorised to be on the main line. There is no point in getting some of them authorised, things like tank engines for example, at the end of the day, the main line are very limited; 50 miles an hour, but, they are all fit for the purpose."Some had remarked on the closeness of fit of their borrowed overalls.
"You will see that overalls and so on are important, especially when you are preparing the engine and crawling around inside, in all sorts of places. These engines were designed when man power was not a problem, with a lack of ergonomics, each person had a specific job to do on all engines, and if he was absent, there was always someone else who could do it. People would have a job on the railway because of the security offered, so manpower wasn't a problem.""People were much shorter then, too, weren't they?"
"Yes. They didn't have the height like today, so they would have had a harder problem seeing over things, but it was easier to get through and into parts of the engine."
After an informal grounding regarding the line and it's history, including information on signalling, whilst waiting for the signalman, who was walking down to operate the box, "a rather essential member of personnel as obviously we've got to transfer this engine from here to the other end of the platform to reach the coach, via the passing loop."
"Have you ever thought of having a turntable?"
"We've got a turntable at Kidderminster and we've got a turntable not yet installed waiting for Bridgnorth. It's a rather large diameter of land we have to find and the difficulty we have at Bridgnorth is trying to work out exactly where to put it and where to acquire the land from in order to do it."
"Do you light the fire every morning or leave it going all night?"
"Well, you see you have a fire at one end, and if it's cold, you have to warm all that metal up evenly. It's nice and hot at this end, and stone cold at the other, and it's at the point when your heat and cold met that you will get metal stresses. That's why it takes so long to get an engine up to working temperature. If you don't heat it up evenly, you will do damage."
"So some people have been here all night, then?"
"No, not necessarily. If you build the fire right and give it the right air, it will slowly burn. Having said that, if you get it slightly wrong, you could open the doors and ooops! You might get a nice warm engine, but ............. Then again, you might not have left the hand brake tight enough, and then you have to find your engine - 14 level crossings later!
This one's been left with a low fire, burning overnight."
"You might see someone raking the coals. This is because we can't get the right type of coal now. It depends on the quality of the coal, some coal burns very, very quickly and leave a fine ash, but some has a quantity of material corruption there, it might have a lot of iron in it, and you will find the fire gets a hard crust on top preventing the air getting through and burning it, and some people with a long rake will rake it over to break up the surface crust which has formed."
"How often do you clean the front out?" referring to the smokebox.
"At the end of the day."
We were then introduced to Steve Jones , our fireman for the day.
"Right - now when we're up there, treat everything at what we call the back end, as hard and hot. See this nail?" he said, showing us his blackened thumbnail, "I hit it some time ago, and I've been waiting for it to grow out, and now I've just hit it again. So they can hurt. So everything is hard or hot. Okay - on we go."
I led the party on board, as all being gentlemen, it was a case of "Ladies first." The steps are not too high, more awkward, with a fairly narrow gap onto the footplate, but, luckily we were all fit and there were no cases of anyone getting stuck! With eight of us on board, it was a rather tight squeeze, but there was no risk of falling off. We lined up along the tender whilst Steve explained the function of all the gauges and levers in detail. It was not too technical, the explanations given in simple terms, so we could all understand the principles easily.
"The fireman's job, like me, is basically to keep water in the boiler and a fire. You can hear anything else, but that's what it is. How we know there's water in the boiler, is we have a sight meter, and as you can see, there's water bobbing now." He points out the water level gauge. "We just have the two commodities and it's quite strange, I'm not being ageist or anything, but looking at your generation, at least you've got some idea that muggins here, or yourselves today, will have to put the fire. The only way to the younger generation we can explain it, is that it's like a kettle with the filament at the bottom, and that's it, basically. A big filament in a way. A lot of kids nowadays have never seen coal, they've never seen a fire, and really that's quite strange."
"That is the main thing that tells me, and yourselves, and the driver, what the level is. No matter what I do, the driver is responsible. It's a bit like a team spirit, really. The driver relies on the fireman. If I do something wrong, then I feel as though I've let him down."
What our instructors on the footplate aren't fully aware of is the fact that Baz has got a watchful eye out, being a driver himself, and I'm under the same pressure - not to let him down!
Breakfast arrived for the footplate crew as we learned, coffee and bacon butties, a rather nice touch, indicative of the "old days" of steam. This comprises of two enamel steaming flasks, and a large tin foil package, which find pride of place on the warming shelf. Not that this is it's proper usage; originally, it was used to pre- warm cylinder lubricant.
Then we were introduced to Nigel Hanson , our driver, a long standing member of the S.V.R. who is ultimately responsible for everyone and anything which happens on board the loco, and guided us through the driving side of the loco, explaining the signalling used, and everything that would happen during the shunt up to the coach.
A brief flurry of activity, and Steve shouts:
"Handbrake off. Road clear my side....... And a green." and the whistle sounds.
"Just watch what's going on for a few minutes, and you'll see." advised Nigel, concentrating on the task in hand.
Then we start to move! I've already achieved my dream, which was to stand on the footplate of a loco in steam, and everything which happens after is a bonus. Pity we didn't bring some sausages and eggs, as Nigel had offered a footplate breakfast if anyone had brought any along. So, I've got a new dream - to actually get a footplate breakfast.
Although we are moving slowly up to the coach, it all seems to happen in a split second, with a flurry of activity on the footplate. It only seemed seconds before we had stopped again to couple up the coach and to disembark. We will be running tender first on the first stretch, which will mean having to look over the coal to see the line. There we met up with our spouses and teamed up with a partner for the driving experience. My partner was Ken, who lives near London, whose wife had paid for the experience as a birthday present in February, who was more than a little apprehensive. We elected to have the second turn, so we could see how the first party managed. If they alighted unscathed, we would be assured. The rest of us would travel in the coach, now coupled up to the loco, to enjoy the view and the ride. There was lots of light hearted banter regarding women drivers. Here was my opportunity to prove (or disprove) the fact that a woman can drive a steam loco, long regarded as a male only province. During the Second World War, a lot of women were utilised for footplate working, although this has since been forgotten.
We changed teams at Highley station and Ken and I climbed onto the footplate. Those inside the coach had no idea who would be driving first, as this was decided on the footplate. On the pull away, Baz knew who was driving, as he had noticed my first attempts using the regulator. I had first set the valve gear, which was simple and smooth. The regulator was stiffer than I had expected, and I had to use both hands to push the lever up and away from me. The regulator is situated on the right hand side of this loco, being peculiar to GWR practice, and the left hand is not my strongest. As I had not opened the regulator enough, Nigel asked for a little more, which ended up being a little too much. As he mentioned this fact, as I had caused the wheels to slip a little as the rails were damp, I had already corrected the regulator opening to ascertain full grip. Nigel explained that it takes time for the steam to start the wheels in motion, longer than you would expect. It is not instant, so as to build up pressure. You can gauge the pull away by the amount of exhaust volume. A certain amount of wheel slip is not uncommon when the rails are damp, but it is not a good practice to pull away leaving clouds of smoke which will cause excess wear and tear on wheels and running gear, or give your passengers a rough ride! Baz had already spoken about a rookie driver he knew of, who had opened the regulator fully, which ended up with the crew sitting on top of the coal in the tender. I was not going to fall into that trap, and throw the passengers around too, so I had been too wary.
The drive was a good experience, as that part of the line has many level crossings and gradients, thus giving ample opportunities for sounding the whistle, resetting the valve gear and adjusting the regulator, watching the speedo all the way. Meanwhile, Ken was shovelling coal and injecting water into the boiler to keep the firebox crown covered, in pace with the demands I made on the loco. Each time the regulator is opened, it draws the fire, which will require either banking up beforehand, or frantic shovelling during the load being exerted on the loco. At the same time, steam is being used, so water will need to be replenished by means of the injector, to keep the boiler full. Soon, it will be my turn as fireman, and I will be doing the same. On board the footplate, it is team work which runs the loco, each member being aware of what is required at any time.
The brake on this loco is steam operated, and I had an opportunity to both slow due to line speed restrictions and to stop at Bridgnorth terminus. This is done by means of another two levers below gauges, which report the state of the brake. The vacuum is set first as this is the train brake, which takes up any slack in the couplings, then you apply the steam brake until the desired speed is reached. Again, this is not instant, it relies also on the weight of the train to slow it down. By the time we had descended the incline, the train had slowed to the line speed restriction of 5 mph. This is due to the embankment having been washed away, and rebuilt to the cost of £20,000. This part of the line is still unstable, hence the speed restriction. There is plenty to see here, best viewed slowly, as it is very scenic, so does not detract from the journey. Whilst we were running through the slow section, there was plenty of time to take in the scenery and enjoy the ride.
All too soon, we arrive at Bridgnorth. Here we take on coal and the loco is run around the coach, to return to Bewdley. Whilst this is happening, we take the opportunity to visit the signalbox there, although I could have stayed on board during the coaling and shunting. Here Ken and I had mixed feelings, and a little regret that we could not be in two places at the same time. The signalbox visit is outlined elsewhere in this article, and is a privilege rarely granted, as signalmen are highly protective of their working space, which is their second home. After visiting the box, we watched the re-coaling taking place, using a JCB, not so labour intensive as it would have been during GWR/BR times. The coaling station would either have been a tower, containing coal, winched up to it, hand shovelled into a truck and then tipped into the tender, or hand shovelled from a coal wagon into the tender. Because we were running light, the coal we had on board would have been more than sufficient to last all day, but as the loco was being used the next day, hauling 8 coaches, it was a good opportunity to re-fill in preparation and a useful demonstration at the same time. It was time for more questions.
"Do you re-use track from other sites?"
"Track and points especially are very expensive to buy new, so if we have points being unused, we try to retain them so we can use them for spares or replacements."
"Is this the end of the line?"
"There was an outline plan to take the line at Bridgnorth to Wolverhampton, but it never got built. That was about 1914 and cars were taking over. Basically it was left too late."
The tender full, the loco was then run around the train and re-coupled, this time running smokebox first, in the more customary manner. The footplate floor had been hosed down to remove dust and tiny pieces of coal to prevent slipping feet; this happened every time the loco stopped. Ken and I climbed back onto the footplate, whilst the rest of the party boarded the coach, after a photo opportunity with a shovel full of coal. Steve told me not to waste it and to start stoking up the fire. The techniques of shovelling and placing of the coal were explained, as it's not as simple as you think. It is good practice to stand still and swing from the waist; swing, shovel, swing, place, it becomes a rhythm, also the placing of the coal in the firebox becomes one, too. One to the left, one to the right, and one in the middle, with maybe one to the front of the box, depending on the size of the firebox and the demands of the loco. The firebox is similar in area to that of a small skip, which holds a fully burning fire, thicker towards the firebox door, which is a small orifice, large enough for the shovel and a bit to spare. This was very much narrower than I had expected, and easy to "clang" your shovel against when having to work fast with demand, which I managed to do. Luckily all the coal went in the right place, so it was ignored, although it was heard in the coach. At the same time, a watchful eye is kept on the level of the water in the gauge, recharging when necessary as steam is used. This is done by means of turning a valve at the rear by the coal, then opening another valve on the bulkhead, shutting it off when full again. The importance of keeping the boiler full was stressed, as running out of steam causes more than a drop in speed, it also damages the boiler itself. The loco was running at 200 psi which is the nominal steam pressure, viewed by gauge, above the water gauge, which drops as the regulator opens. I had an easier run when firing as the line slopes downhill for most of the way from Bridgnorth, so there was less call for coal than the other way, unlike the water, which had to be kept at a constant level, particularly when the loco dips downhill. Ken had a slightly easier time seeing where he was going too, as he didn't have to peer around or over the tender.
Once we were on level ground, firing was easier and there was time to chat and look around, and to tidy up the loose coal, which I had slowly moved toward the side edge of the footplate. Decent coal is at a premium these days, and costly; one of the reasons why a trip on a steam train is so expensive now. When you consider that the money you and others pay for the ticket, covers the operating costs for that day only, paying for coal, oils, permanent staff and upkeep of the buildings, you appreciate that it still is good value for money. Most of their income comes from running experience courses, similar to this one, but this does not mean that the course offers less value. You will get out of it what you put in, and you begin to build a camaraderie between your partner similar to the team work which runs throughout the entire network. Nothing on a railway runs without team work, from the most humble worker to skilled firemen, drivers and signalmen. All are dependant upon others, including a large percentage of volunteers.
On arrival at Highley, it's time for the other team to try their hand, and for Ken and I to return to the coach for criticism or applause. We are still elated by the whole experience, but thankfully, there was no criticism from anyone, very much the opposite, in fact. Some were surprised they had not been able to tell the difference between Ken and I when driving. Baz had known immediately, but as no-one knew until we had reached the footplate, they had not realised whether it was a male or female hand on the regulator, until told.
On arrival once more in Bewdley, we were treated to a visit to the Bewdley signalbox, and then the coach shed, where a coach was undergoing restoration, to be given an informative talk about procedures by a full time staff member there. It was interesting to note that our guide had not visited the coach shed for 5 years, and knew very little about what happens inside! For a full report, see "Restoration" article. Baz found this visit fascinating, I fancy he wouldn't mind helping out in somewhere similar.
Then it was lunch time, and lunch was provided in the Buffet. Here we met up with the afternoon's trainees and their families, as my course was effectively over, to dine together. Nigel and Steve joined us for lunch as did some of the station staff, so many stories were told, all of a railway nature. In fact, the talk all day was of nothing else but railways, both old and present day, with many people showing a great deal of knowledge on railway practices. All of us learned something new, even the hosts and the experienced. The meal was very welcome, as I had worked up quite an appetite with the morning's work. Many thanks to the Restaurant staff, who served up a fabulous meal.
After eating, we were informed that the day was not yet over for the morning only trainees, and the coach was at our disposal for the rest of the day. So it was all aboard again for a trip to Kidderminster, for a chance of driving and firing for two new trainees. Walking back to our train, we could hear the unmistakeable sound of an approaching engine as we are nearing the wooden bridge, at the same time we notice another train approaching the other platform. Time for me to be in seventh heaven. If there is one thing I cannot do, it is to give you a sample of the smell of steam. It is a combination of many factors, oil, steam, smoke, to name a few, heated and enveloping, pervading the olfactory senses. My favourite spot in a station is on a bridge spanning the line, to be able to savour that essence of steam. Where else would you expect me to stand on arrival of those two trains? The first to arrive is a Pannier and halts just past the bridge, and I "savour the moment"; a minute later a Stanier 8F arrives on the other line, a quick side step and it's time for a double dose. Although they produce the same smell, there are differences, one sweeter and nuttier due to superheated steam. If anyone manages to work out a way of bottling or reproducing it, I'll be one of your first customers.
It was hoped for a tour around Kidderminster Station and yard, including a visit to Kidderminster signalbox, but this was not be to. There was a technical problem at Kidderminster, and we were halted short of the station. After consultation between Kidderminster and crew, it was clear we would have to return to Bewdley without a visit. Although we were disappointed at missing Kidderminster, we passed the new coach shed there, partly paid for by the Lottery Fund, which houses most of the Severn Valley coaching stock. It has room for 56 coaches, and is massive. Here rolling stock can be protected from the weather after restoration until required, thus preserving coachwork and paintwork for future generations to appreciate.
After a change of crew, we travelled to Arley station, all decked out with Union Jack bunting for the previous week's Steam Gala and another special event happening shortly. Arley Station has been used extensively on TV as an example of GWR operation, notably the series "Oh! Dr. Beeching". It is a very picturesque example and beautifully kept, complete with hanging baskets and platform tubs. It is easy to think you have been transported back in time to the heady days of steam travel at their best. As an up train was approaching, we were unable to reach the platform to visit Arley station itself, and we had to wait on the passing loop whilst it passed. Lots of faces were peering through the windows into our carriage in curiosity, many showing surprise at seeing a woman in overalls. Hopefully, it might encourage other women to try their hand. I am certainly not the first woman to take the course; in fact, Severn Valley have had several women trainees in the past. After the train had passed, we were given the right away to proceed and returned to Bewdley, with us spending most of the time with our heads out of the carriage window, just listening to the sound of the loco, capturing the sound on tape to take home with us, and completing the video footage we have made. The video ends with the departure of loco and coach to it's resting place for the evening, where it was left with a low fire, ready for the next day.
A crowd of trainees, friends, family and staff returned to the buffet for tea and biscuits and an informal de-brief to end the day. Prising us off the station was difficult, as many wanted the day to continue. Most of the station buildings which had been open, were closed at this time and there was little left to see. Never has a day flown past so fast, and it has been an unforgettable day for all. If you're ever given the opportunity to try an experience course first hand, I'm sure you will never regret it. Many other preservation societies offer these courses, costs vary, as will the opportunities to visit signalboxes, etc., dependant upon what is available. For an all round experience, the Severn Valley Railway is difficult to beat.
Many thanks go to the Severn Valley Railway, it's staff and volunteers, special thanks go to Nigel and Steve for a truly great experience which will last all of us a lifetime, and will produce at least one volunteer for our closest lines.
