The Railway Experience by Paul Atterbury

Author:Paul Atterbury
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781784421892
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
Published: 2017-05-23T16:00:00+00:00

Steam locomotives consume prodigious quantities of coal and water and so they had either to carry enough for the day’s work or replenish supplies along their route. Most locomotives hauled a tender carrying tons of coal and thousands of gallons of water, and it would start the day having been fully loaded at the shed. Coal was loaded mechanically at large sheds, and by hand at smaller ones, and the tender usually carried sufficient for the journey, or day’s work. Water supplies had to be regularly replenished and so many stations and freight yards were equipped with various forms of water tower. Water troughs, laid between the rails on major routes, enabled the tender to be refilled via a scoop while the train was travelling at speed. Tank locomotives had coal bunkers at the rear and water tanks, usually either side of, or across, the boiler. The many duties of the fireman while the locomotive was in use included filling the tender or the tanks with water, looking after the coal supply, shovelling tons of coal into the firebox while maintaining both the quality of the fire and the steam pressure, and running the injectors to pump water from the tender or tanks into the boiler.

Here at West Hartlepool shed, an elderly and rather decrepit Class Q6 locomotive, No. 63368, one of a class of 120 built for heavy freight use between 1913 and 1921, is being prepared for its day’s work. Coal is being loaded manually via a wheeled hopper, probably by the fireman. When this task is complete, he will use the water tower to fill the tender’s water tank. The driver is on the footplate, looking after the fire and the steam pressure, and perhaps brewing some tea. A successful and popular class, the Q6s lived on into the British Railways era, with some surviving in use until 1967.

Cleaning an LNER Locomotive, 1930s

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