A Day in the Life of a Steam Locomotive Fireman. 

Very sad news. I'm just glad Cliff got to do what he obviously loved.

Rest in peace cliff the driver with a smile on his face nearly all the time

@@genesis070365 i wish i could've met the man

@@genesis070365 nearly nine years ago I went on a steam footplate Experience on the south Devon railway. the engine I spent the day driving and firing was the sole remaining 2251 goods engine. when I was in the cab having the safety talk I accidentally insulted the firing instructor by asking if he'd used fire lighters to get the fire lit that morning. he told me how you get a coal fire going in a steam loco's fire box. the driver's day job was a lorry driver and he was happy that I had a little previous experience of driving model steam engines in the past. I personally believe that the loco crew was surprised that they where teaching a teenager how safely drive a full sized steam engine that day

Rest in Peace Cliff Sir, You are Always Alive In Our Hearts, We Condolence To Your Loved Ones❤️💐

Yeah, done it ! But on the railway i worked on, we had steam raisers for lighting up - the crew only booked on an hour or so before duty. i was a steam raiser/cleaner, so i know all about early starts, filthy dirty locos and fireboxes/smokeboxes.

Andy Bennett Dear sir, Please accept my compliments for the great job you've been doing and for having made a fine video of it. I'd like to take the liberty of asking a few, perhaps stupid, questions. 1) How much coal does the tender hold? 2) How far could this train go on a full tender? 3) what kind of speeds does the train run at and how many carriages is it drawing? 4) how much coal does one shovel in every time one stokes the fire? I noticed that the fireman shovels in 7 shovelfuls at a time. I was wondering how many pounds of coal that'd make? 5) how does one know when to stoke? I noticed that this has something to do with the gauge on the top right, but couldn't figure out the details. 6) what do you do about replacements for parts which wear out? I imagine that the spare parts are not in commercial production anymore, since these locos have been decommissioned from large scale use almost half a century ago. With thanks in advance, sincerely.

There's no such thing as a stupid question so thanks for taking an interest. For full specifications of the locomotive shown in the video I recommend going to this link :-en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LMS_Ivatt_Class_2_2-6-0 British steam locomotives varied very considerably in power and size. The particular one shown in the video is a light weight moderately powered locomotive and the crew shown in the film will be used to driving locomotives of all types and power rating at the Great Central Railway. On private heritage railways in the UK we are limited to operating up to 25 mph and at this speed a tender of 4 tons of coal will only last 150 miles or so. Out a main line railway a locomotive of this type would typically operate short distance passenger or goods trains up to about 50 or 60 mph with better fuel economy. A train of 6 carriages weighing about 300 tons would be within the capacity of this locomotive type. Stoking ("firing" in UK parlance) is an art - maintaining boiler pressure at around 200 pounds per square inch is what the fireman is aiming to achieve (hence the pressure gauge). The fireman will know from the brightness/thickness of the fire and the colour of the smoke at the chimney when more coal needs to be put in the firebox. When spare parts are required we have the infrastructure in the UK to manufacture new from raw materials or refurbish worn components. In fact new steam locomotives are still being built from scratch. Have a look at www.a1steam.com/ I hope this answers your questions.

Andy Bennett Dear sir, Many thanks for having the taken the trouble of writing such an informative reply. The data provided by you will help a great deal in a technical study I am doing on the historical trends in fuel efficiency and engineering innovations therein, in British and Indian railways. It would be extremely generous of you if you could give me any references /Web links / videos of diesel loco crew having around your level of seniority. May you man the loco engineer's cab for many years to come. Sincerely

Good footage, I just volunteered to start on locos at NVR. You start as cleaner and work up. I think I'll be a baby at 37!! Hats off to you all!

no23mk2 tvf vf

absolutely, The work actions say it all for sure.

Not quite. The fireman is constantly letting off steam pressure. I'd say it would be fine to over steam in a mountain situation. But this looks to be a pretty flat run. No need to run her that high.

Your comment is much appreciated. As I've probably mentioned somewhere in previous notes this film was made primarily as a momento for my friend David Woodward who was doing his final turn as a locomotive fireman before retiring from the footplate. In the event both David and Cliff (the driver) entered into the spirit of the occasion by just carrying on as normal is if the camera wasn't there. It was only after I had finished editing the film that I found that, almost by accident, I had produced a 1950s style documentary of what it was like (and still is on any one of the UK's many heritage steam railways) to prepare, operate and dispose of a standard gauge steam locomotive. There are other similar films to be seen in my RU-vid collection but for something a bit different you might like to see the unique film of all four of the massive Gimson pumping engines in operation at Leicester's Abbey Pumping Station which is just a stone's throw away from the southern terminus of the Great Central steam railway featured on the film you have already watched.

Maglona how would I get into that?

Thanks for your comments Sean. Yes, our volunteers do enjoy themselves even though the work is hard. You need to emigrate to the UK - check out what you're missing here:- www.heritage-railways.com/

Thanks for your comment and I'm glad you enjoyed the film. It is a real privilege to still be able to experience what it was like to be a railwayman during the age of steam (which technically ended in August 1968) here in the 21st century.

Many thanks for your comment. My style of film-making is to let the natural sounds do the talking. If you have a look at my film of the four pumping engines at Abbey Pumping Station you can hear each of the engines "talking" in a distinct voice!

Yep, interesting to see how different is the preparation. In my case (french narrow gauge), we clean the firebox, smokebox and tubes prior to firing up. You can tell who's the fireman as he has a black face, er, as black as all the rest... Amazing to see that the fireman does the couplings, we are required to have a shunting agent for that, and we firemen do not have time for this (small locos are very reactive and we can not afford to leave the boiler without attention). Yes, such days are exhausting, but they are also fun and we are always ready to do it again ! And yes, it is really important to preserve the heritage of ancient know-how to show it to future generations.

David always has a smile on his face and is busy in the workshops restoring locomotives even though he is no longer a regular fireman. He enjoys being a film star!

J D Get in touch with your local heritage railway, you may find they have a young volunteers group that can set you up well for getting on the footplate as soon as you're old enough.

J D same its my dream job

J D don't worry I feel your pain

Jack D me too, one day I'm being a train driver , everyone wants to be, but school comes first

Neal hudson i wish you the best of luck mate :-)

jose santos arribas alonso asi es. . Una pena que aqui en españa no cuidan de los locomotoras de vapor. . 98% estan en museos y sin funcionar en muchas años.

LA VERDAD ES UN ASUNTO DE CULTURA .... es nada menos que la epoca del vapor... el poderoso VAPOR // LAS FUENTES DE CALOR SIEMPRE EXISTIRAN Y LAS TURBINAS O MOTORES DE ESPANSION SIEMPRE ESTARAN DISPONIBLES

Thanks for your generous comment - much appreciated.

Yes and this particular type of locomotive is one of the newer designs with some thought given to making life easier for crews. Others are much worse!

MrRatkilr Lou-Zsu said “Do what you love, and you’ll never work a day in your life”

On all heritage railways in the UK we are restricted to 25mph running (with a few exceptions like at the Great Central Railway where this film was made). This means that coal dust blowing around in the cab is less of a problem than in the days when trains travelled at much faster speeds. That said it is rare these days to have the facilities to be able to turn a locomotive round at the end of its outward journey meaning that the return journey will be made with the tender (containing the coal and associated dust) will be in front of the cab and said dust will be blown into the cab and onto the crew. For that reason it is standard practice to douse the coal with water before commencing the return journey to reduce the dust - this is done with a "slacking hose" run from the engine's injector or some locomotives have a perforated piped built into the tender through which water can be sprayed onto the coal.

Thanks for the compliment, much appreciated. Andy

My father George Pearson was a driver at Saltley till around 1970

Thanks for your contribution Alan. You are of course correct about the role of the steam-raiser in the pre-1968 days when steam traction was still in everyday use. In the present "preserved steam" era locomotive cleaners will often assist with lighting up locomotives as part of their training for footplate work. In the film I was the allocated cleaner for the day so did assist David (the fireman) in preparing the locomotive but as I was also filming he did much of the work!

The fireman likes to start off fresh because then he knows it's right . As the engine has been used previous day and still warm steam can be bought up quickly . If the engine is cold , it is thought to be good practise to light a fire the previous day and have the engine in " light steam " . This so there aren't the problems associated with different rates of expansion of all the different metals .

thanks for responding...

Across the pond we will make a bank and let the coal coke over. In the morning we will rake the coals shake the grates and build on top of what we have from the night before. The engine I used to fire would drop down to about 165 psi. Overnight with the stack capped.

@@andrewtreece3708 it depends on the working instructions at each depot, some put a bank in, some do not disposal and just rake it level, some rake it through and some drop it completely to start fresh the next day. We leave a fire at the front end to keep it warm overnight, this will rocked/raked the next morning.

As an ex Fireman/Driver at Birkenhead MPD we had men whose job was to Firedrop and set fires.

Some of the men you see on the film are retired career-railwaymen. Others are employees or volunteers at the Great Central Railway who love their work as it keeps traditional engineering and railway operational practices alive in an era when many jobs are less fulfilling than those of a previous era. I have myself learned to fire these old locomotives after a career driving a desk!

Hi Clive, thanks for your kind comments. The good news is that I work at the Great Central Railway (where I made this film) and my main responsibility there is to recruit new Volunteers to keep the railway running and there is no shortage of young and not so young men (and a few women too) applying to train as a locomotive cleaner which is the first rung on the ladder to becoming qualified as a fireman and then eventually driver. Have a look at the website www.gcrailway.co.uk and click on the volunteer icon on the home page if you'd like to read up about it.

Thanks for the compliment. I rather enjoyed making the film - that's me with rag in hand cleaning the boiler casing!

You are correct in your observation. All passenger trains on the GCR, and other heritage railways, are limited to 25 mph (there are a few exceptions but that's another story) but it tends to be the larger express locomotives that were (and are) fitted with speedometers. Experienced crews are very good at gauging the trains speed by experience / intuition. Since the film was made all trains now carry GPS so that the speed can also be monitored by the train guard.

No power cables on this 1950's train. Each coach has its own axle driven dynamo to power the DC lighting circuit and top-up the lead acid batteries. Other than the couplings which connect the locomotive and coaches the only other connections are the vacuum brake pipes and (in cold weather) the steam heat hoses - there are no power cables.

@@andybennett5570 11:27

@@raymondleggs5508 It's the RCH (Railway Clearing House) cable used to control the lighting throughout the train, so if there is, for example, a tunnel coming up all lights can be turned on using one button.

Build a giant accu in the coal tender and build electrical heating system in the train?

They pollute much less than a thousand cars

The film was made at Loughborough which is the main operating base for the Great Central Railway which runs south for eight and a half miles through the beautiful Leicestershire countryside to the outskirts of the city of Leicester near to the National Space Centre and the King Richard III visitor centre.

It is actually the Great Central Railway in Leicestershire. Check out their website for all the events they are running throughout the year.

@@iris55510 non taken

Happy people, they do what they love. Yes, for over a century working on steam locomotives was "just a job" but nowadays we do it because we enjoy the experience and can pass on the old skills to a new generation.

@@andybennett5570 👍