Railway Bob's Railway Ramblings: A Lazy Day At Weybourne Sheds

The last few days have been very cool and windy compared to last weekend when the temps were at 28C. Today was no exception but with the added element of rain. I was up and out the door by 9:45 on my way to the library to scan the Letheringsett Parish Records I had printed on Thursday when I was at the Norfolk Archives Office in Norwich. Luck would have it that the one computer in the library that was connected to a scanner decided at that moment to not reboot properly so that was the end of my scanning plans.

However, I needed hard-copies of my notes so I got those pages printed off. As I use Lotus WordPro, I have to remember to convert my docs to MS Word before I shut down my laptop as hardly anybody has heard of WordPro anymore. And one is never certain that the computer in the library will have MS Word. But all computers can read (and therefore print) pdf docs. Last night I had downloaded the neatest pdf converter - Primo PDF Converter. All I had to do to convert my Wordpro files was drag the file into the desktop icon and the document was converted to pdf in a flash.

From the library I walked up Station Road to the NNR station where 4-6-0 Black Five #44767 was on the head of the 10:30 train up to the end of the line at Holt. This is the same locomotive that was being unloaded last week and which I climbed aboard while it was in the yard at Weybourne.

How would you like to own a locomotive like this? Well, there is one person who does own this locomotive. He bought it 31 years ago for £1,000 and today it is worth £1 million It is what is called a "visiting locomotive". Many steam locos in England travel from preservation railway to preservation railway throughout the year. They can't travel on the mainline so they are trucked from site to site on huge 18-axle steerable tractor trailers. (And we can't even get a snowplow moved 40 miles!)

There was a young 4-year old in the cab (wearing the fireman's cap) and the fireman was showing him how to fire the locomotive. "Andy" and "Arabel" (lumps of coal) were going to the front of the firebox while "Leslie" and "Charlie" were going to the back. The steam pressure was getting a little high so the fire had to be dampened down with some water and a bit of steam released.

I sat behind the family on the way up to Weybourne. Both the 5-year old and his little 3-year old brother were talking excitedly about their experience.

It was a quiet day in the sheds. However, the diesel guys were in for the weekend overhauling their diesel locomotives. Allistair and Phil were rebuilding the turbo-charger on their Class 37 6-axle diesel #37032. Allistair gave me a guided tour inside the loco which they had been working on for the past 3 years with about another 18 months to go. It generates 1,750 hp and weighs 108 tons.

Earlier in the day I had talked to the lads who own Class 47 #47367 diesel locomotive. This loco is one of 3 Class 47s owned by the group with one at the Mid-Norfolk Railway and a third doing mainline service hauling visiting diesel locos from railway to railway on the mainline tracks.

Phil, the owner of Class 08 diesel switcher #08772, was busily working away on his locomotive. I had spoken to him earlier in the week.

Gives real meaning to the saying "The only difference between a man and a boy is the price of his toys". Oh yeah! Oh yeah! Fer shur! Fer shur!

By this time it was 4pm and time to head back to Sheringham. Black Five was pulling into Weybourne station as I walked up the path to the station. In spite of the rain, the North Norfolk was crowded with people enjoying the long weekend.