Hallo.
 

Hi. Have just joined. Have read some of the interesting comments ref Firing and the Engine Types. Names such N7, Clauds, Gobblers and Buckjumpers etc bring back memories as I was a Fireman at Stratford E. London late 40s early 50s. Still a great steam fan and have many videos, DVDs etc. Age now means memory is not what it was but much remains. Regards.

Hello Steamfan I was also an Eastern region fireman, I started on B R at Enfield Town and later transfered to Kings Cross.

Hello Steamfan and a warm welcome to the forum.

Regards, 62440.

Welcome to the Forum Steamfan. Look forward to your posts.

Best wishes,

John H-T.

Hi. Thanks for the welcome. Just briefly at this stage I joined BR at age just turned sixteen. Worked in three Signal Boxes as the boy and then transferred to Stratford Loco. As I was sixteen plus I was able to go straight into the school and be trained and passed out as a Passed Cleaner or B cheque. Did firing turns and learned much until more tests and the Firemans cheque. Went into Temple Mills (what a size that was) shunting gang and from thence into the Local Goods which I especially liked. Was there until National Service and on return from that I had progressed in my absence to Local Passengers. Enjoyed that working with N7's, Gobblers (did not always find these good steamers) and bigger engines, these mainly on the "Up and Down Cars" to Liverpool Street. Got a good experience of all the Stratford engines, J's, B's, D's, F's, K's, L's, WD's and even a Brittania or two.
Nuff said for the moment but may I say this Railway experience was thoroughly enjoyed, apart sometimes for the awful shift times, and I am so very glad I did it especially since in a few years steam was to go. How good that many scrapped engines were rescued into the current scene and what an effort that was, wonderful. Thanks again. Regards.

Hello Steamfan and welcome to the Railway Forum. I was a fireman right from when I first joined the railways. I had to learn to fore on the local shunt on Garratts. We had 3 shifts on the shunt 07:00 t0 15:00, 15:00 to 23:00 and 23:00 to 07:00. We did a week on each shift with 2 days off between. They were known as a Red and a Blue rest day. You could be called out to work on a Blue and were paid at double time. They could not call us out on a Red, it was against the law. We had 47 days annual leave + 6 days a year when we could report not fit for duty. We also had a leu day for each public holiday we worked.

Hallo.
 

Hi DSY011- all. Are you also a Syd?. Ref your comments on the Garrats. I never saw one apart from in photos and videos. A very powerful engine and were also used in other Countries as well as UK I believe. How did you fire one,what was the firebox layout?.
Our main standard shunting engines were the J68 and J69's as at Temple Mills though others were also used. For example we had an 0-4-0 (was it a Y20) which was always know as The Coffee Pot, small but powerful, which worked regularly.
Along the line a ways from Stratford was Goodmayes which also had a largish yard either side of the main tracks. There the shunting was done via a Hump and a J51 was used, I got this job several times when spare. The yard is now gone.
The J68/9's were also used for carriage shunting/sorting, goods trains and also some short branchline passenger trains, good little engines.
Regards.

Hi Steamfan, first yes I am a Syd although Sydney is my surname, I have been called Syd since I was knee high to a grasshopper.
I started to fire on a 14th class Garratt at a place called Thompson Junction. The 14th class was a 2-6-2 + 2-6-2 and they had a grate area of 38.6 sq ft. The loco had Rocking grates + 2 drop grates at the front. The drop grates were large enough to expel some quite large lumps of clinker. The grate had a gentle slope down to front of the box and the brick wall started about 12" above the grate. The loco was fired with heavy banking in the back corners and under the door plus along the sides, although the sides were tapered down as they got closer to the front. The middle and front were fired very lightly. Apart from the 20 & 20A class 4-8-2+2-8-4 Garratt’s, all others were hand fired, although the 20's were often hand fired if we had a light load. The 18th Class Had the largest grate area of the hand fired Garratt’s at 51.3 sq ft. The class15's 4-6-4 + 4-6-4 were the most popular locos and they were the greyhounds of our railway. There grate area was 49.6 sq ft. It was not unknown for a 20th class loco to be used on the shunt. Coming in at 225.5 tons, this was using a sledge hammer to crack a nut. Have a look at this site for some video of 15th class Garratt’s being used to shunt Bulawayo station. The end of the film shows all the scrapped loco’s, many of which are only missing a few parts. By the way the driver always sits on the right of the loco so you only see the fireman.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AxEAfw7Sgr4

Hello and welcome to the forum, enjoy and all the best.

Hallo.
 

Hi. Syd and Chris (if I may) - all.
Thanks for all the info ref the Garratts, those were some grate areas, hope they were not too heavy on coal. Superpowerful engines and I have seen pics of them at work here and also abroad. I am always hunting around for DVD's or Videos ref Steam and some Sets I found were on Rail (mostly steam) Jouneys all over the world. Saw some in action there and most impressed.
Nice to talk, Regards.

Hi Steamfan, welcome to the forum. Reading your work history is interesting stuff to someone like me born after the end of BR steam - steam in preservation is all I know!

Tony

Hallo
 

Hi Tony - all. I am always so glad that I had those few years on BR as a fireman. Really it was done as a fill in job knowing full well at 18yrs I was going to be hauled off into the Services. I must say of course that I always did have this love of steam engines and even as a schoolboy I did what so many others did and collected the numbers. Funds were tight then as a youngster (as now!) and so travel was limited. We did get to the main London Stations and also some further out whose names now more or less escape me, was it Harlesden, Neasden or what?. Also spent quite a lot of time on the Station at my home Town Romford which for those now knowing is on the main route out of Liverpool St. Plenty of activity there and it was possible then to get a 1d Platform Ticket and you could stay on the platform as long as you wished. Saw some good action there with the Southenders, Harwiches, Norwiches etc going through plus all the locals to the stations to Chelmsford. Plenty of freight going through as well so a good variety of engines were seen.
As to my own experiences such as they were I can remember much but sadly a lot is now in that awful grey area. As an example I read the comments ref the LNER streamliners with interest and it made me recall the two B17s, I had seen them or certainly one of them. Without cheating thought long and hard and the names came back to me (I think) East Anglian and City of London, is that correct?.
However may I say again its really nice being on this Site and I will always try to contribute myself and also take an interest in others comments. Regards.