The sky is overcast. It's threatening rain but it's not raining. The wind is blowing hurricane gales. The whitecaps are on the North Sea and it's very choppy. The wind wants to blow you down the street but is stopping you from climbing up the street. What do you do on a day like today?
Actually, it was an ideal day for doing what I was planning to do, as long as it didn't rain. Ratta-tat-brrrap-brrap needle-gunning with compressed air and wire-wheeling with a 4 1/2" angle grinder is kind-a physical work not to be done on hot sunny days. And besides, the wind would blow the rust and paint chips away from me.
But first I wanted to scan the baptism and burial records that I had got last week at the Norfolk Archives. So I made sure I arrived at the Sheringham library for 9:30 so that I could get the computer with the attached scanner. Having scanned the records plus relevant pages in "A History of Letheringsett", I made my way to the NNR Sheringham station. 0-6-2T #69621 was on the front end of the 10:30 train.
The first carriage was loaded with a class of kids going up to Holt for their "practical experience" of what it was like to be a kid in England during World War II. The kids were all dressed up in period costume. I could see the matron and the air raid warden but not the general. The boys (boys being boys) started to make the usual funny faces as I took their photos from the station platform. The matron was obvious by her shrill commanding voice as she brought the attention of the boys back to the lecture at hand!
As the train went uphill to Weybourne, the sun started to part the clouds, although the wind kept blowing. I strung out the air hoses and the 120 volt extension cord, got the needle gun and angle grinder set up, and then started to work. When needle-gunning and wire-wheeling, one doesn't think in terms of getting square feet down to bare metal. It's more like square inches - one square inch at a time.
Of course, working outside required a closer look at what was in the yard, from bits and pieces of rail and track jewelery, cast-iron castings, bits and pieces of locomotives to the complete locomotive and a closer look at GWR 0-6-2T #5619
I was working outside piling some cast-iron castings onto pallets when I noticed the 0-6-2T #69621 come limping into the yard and then dropped its fire. This required a closer look.
As it turned out, while climbing uphill just short of Weybourne, the engine driver heard a loud bang and the main driving wheel started to lift up-and-down off the rail as the piston pushed out. The engine driver got down to take a closer look but couldn't see the problem. When the engine was uncoupled from the train and brought into the yard, a closer look revealed a broken axle box. Major problems for sure! This will put the locomotive out of commission for the rest of the season.
A fire was quickly started in GWR #5619 as the evening dinner train required a steam locomotive on the front end. The locomotive was parked in front of the door where Ivor the Engine was parked inside the shed. As Ivor was going to be featured tomorrow, she had to be steamed up. So the diesel coupled onto #5619, then onto Ivor who was then pulled out of the shed.
(That's Bob from Cromer on the right in the above photo.) It will be interesting to see what kind of carriages Ivor will be pulling between Sheringham and Weybourne tomorrow.
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