[DSY011]

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