The life of a fireman is not all glory, as it may first appear. The day for a fireman on the Ffestiniog Railway can start as early as 6:00am, depending upon the time of the train you're on. The first job, after checking that the locomotive is in order, is to clean the insides of the tubes in the boiler with a tube brush. This can make you completely filthy, as the inside of the tubes are often covered with soot, which tends to get blown all over you!! Then you have another similarily grubby job; sweeping out the inside of the firebox.
After all has been prepared, you can light the fire, which takes careful adjustion of the fire controls. All locomotives on the FR are fired on oil, and in the firebox the oil is mixed with steam, but as there is no steam in the morning, an air compressor must be used.
Whilst waiting for steam to be raised, it is the fireman's job to clean the loco thoroughly, the Brass with braswork cleaner, and the paintwork with a mixture of bearing oil and parafin.
Once steam is raised, the fire must be put out, the air line disconnected, and the fire must then be re-lit. Then, the job is a case of adjusting the fire controls in line with the driver's adjustments, in order to produce enough heat to keep the steam pressure rising. At the same time the injectors must be used in order to put more water in the boiler. However, with practice this soon becomes a very routine occurance, and instinctively you know what to do, and can spare time for some posing for tourist's pictures!! Which incidentally is often the case when filling the locomotive's tanks with water, at stations.
However, once the train has finished its journey, (if it is the last journey the loco will be making that day) your day is still not over for about another hour. Once in Porthmadog, the loco has to be fuelled, the coaching stock often has to be shunted into its correct position, and the loco has then to be disposed of.
Locomotive disposal occurs at Boston Lodge, where once you have turned the fires out, ensuring that you have a full boiler of water, and almost full steam pressure, you have the wonderful task of degreasing the connecting rods, wheels, frames and other lower parts which are not cleaned in the morning.
Once all this has been done The driver will then perform a 'Blow Down', by opening a valve at the foot of the boiler, which allows steam and water to gush out of the boiler, removing any sludge which has formed in the bottom of the boiler during the day.
The loco is then driven into the shed, and the boiler water level topped up, ready for the next morning.
Go to Discover Volunteering Back to department information