Loose_Grip/Pete's photos with the keyword: cab

Great Western standardisation. It could be one of several classes because the cab layouts are very similar. In fact it's GWR Manor 4-6-0 7828 Odney Manor. Visiting for the Autumn Gala the engine worked again over the weekend and will finally leave the GCR this week. I never got a firing turn on it but did manage a couple of short cab rides. This one was from the shed to the Up Through which I drove. The lack of crew is explained by the fact we were still on shed! The signal box can be seen through the driver's window.

GCR Winter Steam Gala 2019. During our lay over in the Down Carriage Sidings I was left alone for a while on the footplate of our visitor from the Severn Valley Railway, Great Western Railway Manor 4-6-0 7802 Bradley Manor. So what do you do after you've made sure the fire and water are in good shape and you've pulled some coal forward? Take a photo from the tender of course!

Engineering is art. The footplate of Bulleid Battle of Britain light pacific 34072 257 Squadron

Two shots were stitched to create this image of the footplate of Stanier 8F 2-8-0 48305 as we coasted down the hill from Quorn. Bridge 340 and the Quorn Up Auto-Distant are visible through the cab window. If you really squint you can see the double yellow on the Down Auto-Distant. The only pressure gauge in view shows 10psi is going through the steam heating system.

We did three return trips to Leicester North on Ivatt 2MT 2-6-0 46521. I fired the first trip, drove the second (& Cliff fired) then let trainee Paul fire the third. He did well and here he is checking the fire as we were heading out of Loughborough to Quorn while Cliff watches the road ahead.

The crew of JS 2-8-2 8366 look back to check if the crossing is clear at the eastern end of Nanzhan yard during a shunting move. Note the twin air horns on the cab roof.

Fire & mash cans on the footplate of LMS Black 5 4-6-0 45305 . I think this shot sums up the footplate experience. The contrast of darkness & light. Elemental: Earth, fire & water. And tea...

Cabside number Stanier Black 5 4-6-0 44845, built at Crewe in 1944. I am contemplating the last day of steam at Newton Heath & the fact that the filthy cab won't ever be cleaned again. I don't think that left hand window has ever been cleaned! This engine still had 50psi of steam in its boiler but by the end of the day would be cold & ready for its last journey to the scrapyard.

GCR Loughborough shed. LNER O4 2-8-0 63601 footplate from the tender while getting steam up. I am trimming the coal forward before going off shed to pull our service train. The cab layout is simplicity itself & the engine steams on a candle. An excellent engine in many ways but perhaps not first choice for cold, wet winter days. Then again in 1912 when the locomotive was built designers didn't really care too much about the welfare of crews. Note the sheet in the tender - hooked onto the cab roof it's our only protection against the weather when running tender-first. She will be running her last trains for a while this coming weekend, 23rd-24th June 2012, as her boiler certificate runs out then. She did make it to 100 years old in steam though so come to the GCR to ride her for one last time.