8:54am Thursday 26th January 2012
At some stage in their childhood, it’s every young boy – and some young girls’ – dream to be a steam engine driver when they grow up. NATALYA WILSON gets to experience what it is like
MATT Fisher has had a burning desire to be a steam engine driver ever since he was three or four weeks old.
Well, almost.
Though it would have been impossible to man the cumbersome dials and levers of these giant steam-driven beasts at that age, he has been a visitor to the North Yorkshire Moors Railway since being just weeks old as his parents and grandparents were enthusiasts and took him along to see these great dragons of the industrial age and beyond.
When he was old enough, he started volunteering in the engine shed shop at Grosmont and it was here that his interest in becoming an engine driver was well and truly ignited.
“One of the drivers asked whether I wanted to go out on an engine for the day, and from that moment on I was hooked,” said Matt.
Matt started, as all volunteer steam engine drivers do, as a cleaner, then fireman and has now been driving steam engines for 10 years.
Every driver needs a fireman at his right hand, and Allan Wilson has been volunteering as a fireman on the NYMR for 15 years.
“I left school and worked on the railways, then was in the police for 31 years after Beeching’s slashing,” he said.
“I then got involved with the North Eastern Locomotive Preservation Group and came down to repair one of their four engines,” he added.
“The shed master asked if I fancied going out for the day, and 15 years later, here I am,” he laughed, adding that he travels regularly from his home in Teesside to fire up the locos.
Allan and Matt say it’s a real double act between fireman and driver to make sure the engine powers along smoothly, and by riding the footplate, you really get an insight into how this is done.
As we chug on at around 20 miles an hour, Matt tells me every steam engine has different dials and controls and so driving each one is a new experience.
Our engine for the return journey from Pickering to Grosmont, the unnamed 76079, nicknamed ‘Pocket Rocket’, had had its ‘fitness check’ that morning, having been checked over by a fitter to make sure that it was OK to run on the line, and loaded with the 2,000 tonnes of coal and some of the tonne of water that it would use in this round trip.
“You never see a fat fireman,” laughed Allan, as he shovelled coal from the tender at the back of the engine into the searing hot furnace which, he says, has a temperature of 2,000 degrees.
Allan regularly checks the water levels in the boiler, which he compares to being like a giant kettle, always on the boil, keeping the steam going. As such, there always has to be enough fuel on the fire to keep the steam up, so it’s the fireman’s job to make sure that it is fed and stoked up and that the balance between enough water and coal is maintained.
Matt, meanwhile, keeps an eye on the speed dials and levers which control the gears while both men watch out of the windows for signal changes, track walkers and, on the approach to stations, to hand over the ticket token which means that it is safe for the train to continue on a single- track line without fear of meeting another one coming head-on in the opposite direction.
Riding the footplate really does offer an insight into just how much work goes into making sure that an engine, and therefore the passenger coaches hauled behind it, gets from one station to the next, especially on the sharp incline between Grosmont and Goathland – not noticeable when you travel as a passenger, but all too apparent in the engine’s cab. We had an exhilarating ride from Pickering to Grosmont, with the wind rushing through our hair and the temperature changing between hot furnace and cool breeze, all the while aware of the beautiful surrounding countryside and the wildlife it has to offer. I even managed to have a toot of the whistle.
During our 20-minute stop at Grosmont, as passengers relaxed and hopped off or on the carriages, it was anything but a time to relax for the busy crew on the footplate, who had to get under the engine to uncouple the carriages before hurtling the short distance up the track to the engine shed and water tower for a refill, check everything over, and then hook back up to the carriages for the return journey.
It was also time for Allan to get the furnace fired up.
“If you have the fire well prepared beforehand, you will feel the benefits of going up the incline,” said Allan, adding shovel-full after shovel-full of coal to the furnace as we set off up the incline, while Matt worked away at the levers and checked the dials. We could feel the resistance of the engine on the climb.
The return journey was just as exhilarating and exciting, and once back on the approach to Pickering, we were the focus of those passengers waiting on the platform, heads craned to see this powerful iron monster belching out its plume of steam as it entered the newly-roofed station.
Matt told me anyone can train to volunteer as cleaners, firemen and drivers, and, as well as the 35 volunteer drivers and around 80 firemen and women who regularly work on the engines on the NYMR, people come to ride the footplate from as far away as Holland, Scotland and Somerset.
And if anyone wants to ride the footplate as a one-off experience on the NYMR, they can sign up for anything from an afternoon to a five-day course.
For details, visit www.nymr.co.uk/information/ footplate-experience.
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