Flying Scotsman from the Footplate

-TANNOY:

-'The train standing at platform one

'is the 12:34 to Kidderminster,

'which will be hauled by Flying Scotsman.

'Calling at Hampton Loade...'

I think we're going for an on-time departure here.

Yep.

WHISTLE BLOWS

Right away, Roger.

WHISTLE BLOWS

Hampton Loade, mate.

Hampton Loade... Yes, I've seen that.

Come on, baby.

'I'm Roger Norfolk.

'I'm one of the volunteer drivers of Severn Valley Railway,

'and it's my pleasure today to take this train from Bridgnorth

'to Kidderminster with Flying Scotsman.'

'We're going to have a little bit of difficulty getting out of Bridgnorth

'because the engine's a cold engine

'and we're on a gradient of about 1 in 100,

'so I'm having a little difficulty actually getting the locomotive

'on the move.'

HISSING

Get another half turn, or not?

'Clive is the locomotive engineer

'who's travelling with the locomotive today.

'And he knows much more about the engine than I do,

'so he's just giving me a little bit of assistance to try and get

'the locomotive under motion.'

HISSING CONTINUES

LOW CREAKING

No...

'We seem to have got ourselves stuck

'and the remedy in this situation is to ease the locomotive back...'

-Gone back.

-Gone back, has it? Oh, yeah.

'..to set the valves and pistons in a slightly different position

'in order to get the locomotive under way.'

Go on, try now.

HISSING INTENSIFIES

Come on, baby.

CLANKING

'A locomotive like this is more built for speed

'rather than slogging up and starting away

'on a 1-in-100 gradient.

'But we're away.'

'There's a lot of steam coming out the front of the locomotive.

'When an engine's been standing for some time, water tends to collect

'in the cylinders, and you need to blow that out.

'Pistons and water don't really mix,

'and you can do a lot of damage if you have water in the cylinders

'and the pistons then can't compress the water.'

HISSING

'I'm Ryan Green, I'm Roger's fireman for the trip.'

I can't see the traction signal, Roger.

I can't see the traction signal.

Well, we'll shut those in a minute.

'As well as managing the boiler and the steam pressure,

'I've also got to keep an eye out for the signals along the line.

'Sometimes they might be obstructed by steam or trees.'

-Green.

-Green, thank you.

'Noel Hartley is from the National Railway Museum in York.

'He's with us today to make sure we look after the engine.

'Noel's a driver himself, and he knows the machine backwards.'

That looks exciting.

So now we're on our way.

Down the valley of the River Severn,

through some pretty stations,

all the way as far as Bewdley,

and then the railway turns towards Kidderminster,

a town not too far from Birmingham.

And a total run, from Bridgnorth to Kidderminster,

of about 16 miles.

WHISTLE BLOWS

WHISTLE BLOWS

WHISTLE BLOWS

RYAN WHISTLES

-Take the other one off, as well.

-Yeah.

'The brass handles I'm adjusting are the injectors for the steam engine.'

WHISTLE BLOWS

'They take water out of the tender and put it into the boiler.

'There are two injectors on a steam engine.

'This is so you can get more water into the boiler quicker.'

Nice and clear, Roger.

'It's a little like having two taps to feed a bath.'

WHISTLE BLOWS

'This is quite an exciting day for myself and Roger.

'Obviously the first time we've been at the controls of Flying Scotsman.'

'I'm hosing down the footplate because the footplate's

'quite a dirty working environment

'and you get quite a lot of the coal dust on the floor.'

Ready?

'Noel's just taken over on the hose to wet down the coal in the tender.

'This reduces the amount of dust

'coming down into the footplate later on.'

WHISTLE BLOWS

'I've just sounded the whistle because we've passed an SW board.

'SW stands for "sound warning" or "sound whistle".

'They are usually placed in front of crossings

'or, in this case, it's placed in front of the platform at Erdington,

'which is a little bit unsighted around the curve.'

All clear, Roger.

All clear, thank you.

'We also blow whistles entering tunnels and leaving tunnels

'and generally whenever we see people on or about the track.'

WHISTLE BLOWS

'Either of us can blow the whistle.

'The fireman in this case has blown because he's seen people

'on the platform as we pass through Erdington.'

'Along the 16-mile journey, we'll be using around a tonne of coal

'and the engine will be drinking about 1,000 gallons of water.

'I'm shovelling the coal to keep the pressure up in the boiler

'and maintain the water level.

'This is so that the power's available

'when Roger wants to use it.'

WHISTLE BLOWS

'The firebox is quite wide on Flying Scotsman.

'We have to keep the fire thicker at the back and towards the sides,

'and thinner in the middle and towards the front.

'That's the most efficient way of getting the most out of the fire.'

RHYTHMIC CLANKING

'It's a large locomotive.

'It's a three-cylinder engine,

'96 tonnes or so.

'Boiler pressure working up to 220 pound per square inch.

'So, it's quite a big beast.'

'It's a locomotive that's built for speed.

'We know in its day she did 100mph

'and these days she's limited to 75 on the mainlines.

'But here, we have to keep it to 25mph.

'So, sometimes, it's a little difficult to keep under control.

'She just wants to go.'

'She's a good old girl.

'She was built in 1923, she's done a few miles,

'she's held a few records.

'Yes, of all the A3s that were produced,

'she's probably the one that needed to be preserved.'

WHISTLE BLOWS

-Crossing's clear, Roger.

-Thank you.

ENGINE CHUGS SMOOTHLY

RHYTHMIC CLANKING OF WHEELS ON TRACK

'I've got two controls here to make the train go.

'The regulator is the one I'm holding now,

'which is the valve that admits

'steam from the boiler to the cylinders

'and now I'm on the reverser,

'which cuts off the steam at a certain point in the valve's travel.

'And there's a balancing act between the two,

'to try to maintain the momentum of the train.

'And how much of each you need is very much driver's intuition,

'or his instinct.

'And he goes by the sound of the locomotive as well.'

RHYTHMIC CHUGGING AND HISSING

Crossing clear, yellow distant.

Yeah, I think that's...respond, I think.

WHISTLE BLOWS

'Signals are like traffic lights.

'Some are advanced warnings and some of them are definite stops.

'The knack is knowing where they are

'and where to be looking out for them.'

'There's something about a steam engine

'as you're going past crowds of people

'because they always wave at you, no matter what you're on.

'But the amount of crowds with Flying Scotsman,

'the amount of people that wave at you is crazy.

'Every time I looked out of the window, there was someone waving.

'It's just a fantastic feeling to know that everyone's come out

'to see us going through,

'and by getting the fireman or the driver to wave back

'has just made their day that little bit better.'

'I'm checking my timetable here

'because I don't want to be arriving TOO early.'

Come on, baby.

'We're on a single line

'and the next station, Hampton Loade, has a passing loop

'where I'm very much hoping that the northbound train has already arrived

'because we're due to pass through Hampton Loade nonstop.'

-Crossing's clear, Roger.

-All clear.

-We want just...the signal.

-Yes, yes.

-Green on the loop.

-Green on the loop, lovely.

-That's what we want, innit?

-Yeah.

That'll do.

'Green on the loop means that we have the signal into the loop

'at Hampton Loade.'

-Token this end.

-Yes, yes.

I'll do it if you want.

Eh? Yeah, wonderful. Cheers.

'We're just preparing now to give up the token

'that's brought us from Bridgnorth,

'and needs to be surrendered to the signalman.

'No other train can be on the line as long as you've got that token.

'That is our security that we are the only train on that single line

'at that time.

'As we approach the station, I've brought the speed down to 10mph

'because that's our standard station limits speed.'

-Noel doing it?

-Noel's doing it, yeah.

All fine.

'And you can see the signalman in his high-visibility jacket

'standing ready to receive our token,

'but also then to give us the next token

'for the advance section down to Highley.'

WHISTLE BLOWS

-Free at the end, Roger.

-Free at the end.

OK, mate.

Anything?

-Highley.

-Highley, thank you.

'And now I'm looking for the signal at the end of the platform

'to make sure that the signalman has cleared the signal

'for us to proceed down the single line to Highley.'

WHISTLE BLOWS

'The last coach has left the loop at Hampton Loade

'and now we can accelerate up to line speed.'

All clear at the back, Roger.

All clear at the back, thank you. We're out the loop, then.

WHISTLE BLOWS

-Someone your side.

-Yeah, clear.

WHISTLE BLOWS

-Clear.

-Yes, I think so!

HE CHUCKLES

-Watch out for the home... home signal.

-Yes, will do.

And the token this end.

And the token will be at this end.

-Green.

-Green, thank you.

Yeah, just there on the ground...

-On the ground, down there.

-Yeah, Noel's doing it.

Highley - Arley.

WHISTLE BLOWS

-Got a green light.

-Got a green, yeah.

'Having just gone over the top of Highley Bank,

'the fire needs some attention now, just to build the fire back up.

'If we're accelerating going up a hill, I'll need to put more coal on

'to create more pressure. If we're going downhill and braking,

'I'll want to be putting more water into the boiler,

'but making sure that the fire's not too hot to make too much steam.

'The communication's key between the fireman and the driver.

'Roger's always keeping an eye on what I'm doing

'and he has to have confidence that I'm able to create

'the right amount of steam for what he wants,

'see if I've got enough fire there.

'The more efficient Roger drives,

'the more efficient my firing will be.

'It's all a balancing act between driving and firing.'

WHISTLE BLOWS

Crossing's clear, high-viz your side, mate.

High-vis my side. Whistle.

WHISTLE BLOWS

Yeah, I got him.

WHISTLE BLOWS

WHISTLE BLOWS

Crossing's clear.

WHISTLE BLOWS

-Clear.

-Rightio.

WHISTLE BLOWS

Might get noisy.

It's going to get noisy.

-Going to make a bit of noise, I'm afraid, Roger.

-Oh, dear!

'I was looking at the water level in the boiler,

'which is a little bit higher than I anticipated it would be

'at this point, so just going to turn off the injector,

'which feeds the water into the boiler.

'Unfortunately, going to have to vent some steam

'out of the safety valves.'

LOUD HISSING

'Ryan's overcooked the fire a little bit here.'

LOUD HISSING CONTINUES

'He's got a little bit too much coal on,

'perhaps I haven't used as much steam

'as he thought I was going to use, and the safety valve flows

'at 220 pounds per square inch on this locomotive.

'And we've just got a little bit more than that,

'so it's blowing the steam off

'to atmosphere.'

Green.

'Being a fireman, you take pride in doing the job well,

'but sometimes it doesn't always go to plan.

'Having something like the safety valves lift

'is a little bit embarrassing

'but it's one of those things that happens from time to time,

'especially on an engine that you're not massively familiar with.'

HISSING CONTINUES

Arley...

Got a green. Sorry, Noel...

INDISTINCT CONVERSATION AND LAUGHTER

HISSING STOPS

'Noel and myself noticed that the shape of the fire isn't quite right.

'I've put too much in the middle of the firebox...'

..towards the sides a bit more, got a lot in the middle.

'..which is probably one of the reasons why it vented steam

'out of the safety valves on the approach to Arley.'

-Your side, Roger.

-My side.

WHISTLE BLOWS

Yeah, they're clear.

WHISTLE BLOWS

There was a load of people around here yesterday.

WHISTLE BLOWS

Too soon.

'We are approaching a level crossing here,

'and I'm slightly misjudging the approach.'

Too soon.

I'll do this bit right tomorrow!

'There's a slight uphill gradient toward it,

'so I had to open the regulator a little bit,

'just to keep the train moving up to the level crossing.'

-Watch out for the lights.

-Rightio, mate.

-Yep, white light.

-Got it.

WHISTLE BLOWS

'This is Northwood Halt, one of the request stops on the line,

'which we won't be stopping at today on our nonstop run.

'The white light there tells me that the lights on the road crossing

'are working and stopping the traffic.

'We've just slowed down for the road crossing,

'and then we'll accelerate back up to line speed once we're across.'

-Yellow.

-Yellow?! Oh, righto.

'The yellow signal is an advance warning

'that the signals outside Bewdley may be at danger.'

-Crossing's clear.

-Crossing's clear.

WHISTLE BLOWS

'So, in this situation, we'll have to slow down

'and proceed with caution to the next signal.

'If the next signal is at danger, we are going to have to stop at it.'

-Red banner.

-Red? Oh, dear.

'Now, the banner signal is an advance warning

'of what the stop signal is going to tell us.

'The trouble here is that the stop signal

'is round that left-hand curve ahead

'and is not very good sighting distance.

'So, at the end of this straight, we have that post

'with a round disc on the top.

'It's not actually red, but the position of the black bar

'in the centre is horizontal,

'which is telling me that the actual stop signal

'that's round the left-hand curve

'is going to be in the red or stop position.

'And I'm going to have to stop at it.'

Too soon.

Yeah, yeah.

Got it.

A red?

Yeah, red.

'So now the actual signal has come into view,

'and it is still red.

'So we're going to have to stop.

'And I'll be asking Ryan to step down off the footplate,

'go to use the telephone,

'to phone up the signalman and find out what is the problem.'

-Still red.

-Yeah.

I think you'll have to go for the ring in, Ryan. Alpha 16.

-Alpha 16.

-Alpha 16, yes.

Green.

THEY LAUGH

-They heard you!

-Okey doke.

WHISTLE BLOWS

HISSING

RATTLING AND CLANKING

RYAN WHISTLES

-Can you see the tracker yet?

-Not yet, Roger.

-Green upline.

-Green?

Yep, green.

WHISTLE BLOWS

Crossing is clear.

28 up at Tenbury, as well.

-We're away.

-Yeah, mate.

'We're now approaching Bewdley

'and the signalman here is about to receive our token from Arley.

'But he hasn't got one to give us in return

'because we're now on double track.'

WHISTLE BLOWS

Hiya.

'We're now on the up main,

'the track to our right is the down main.

'Because between Bewdley North signal box

'and Bewdley South signal box

'it is authentic double track.'

Crossing's clear, Roger.

HISSING

'This is Bewdley South signal box

'and the signalman is in the window.

'He's not giving us a token

'and yet we're going to go on the single line to Kidderminster.

'Because this is another different signalling system,

'a system known as tokenless block by acceptance lever.

'It's all done electrically.'

-Green section.

-Green.

'As soon as we clear these viaducts,

'then we can open up the engine, set the reverser,

'for a good run up the 1-in-100 bank.

'We'll let the engine stretch her legs a little bit.'

'Just building up the fire to go up the gradient towards Bewdley Tunnel,

'which is one of the longer climbs on the line.

'The gradient is 1 in 100 in places, which may not seem a lot,

'but I do end up having to work the engine a little bit harder

'than we have done the rest of the journey.'

Cheers, Roger.

WHISTLE BLOWS

'And this is Bewdley Tunnel.

'480 yards long.

'The only proper tunnel on the line.

'Still on an upward gradient of 1 in 100,

'slightly curved, and now into the straight, with the exit

'coming into view.'

WHISTLE BLOWS

-Red.

-Red, yes.

'In my braking coming along,

'I've noticed that it hasn't been particularly smooth.

'At least one of the carriages in the train behind is braking

'a bit harder than the others

'and causing us a bit of a jolt.'

There's a coach back there somewhere grabbing the brake, isn't there?

'So perhaps that's something that needs to be looked at later.'

-Green on the main.

-Green on the main, thank you.

A bit more.

BRAKES SQUEAL

-Green.

-Thank you.

-Stop on the mark, and then...

Stop on the mark, yeah. INDISTINCT

Yeah.

Easing up first.

Show reds.

All at red, mate.

-Still all red, Roger.

-Yes.

Get on the phone, see what's happening.

Shall I give them a minute, or just go straight down?

-Straight down.

-Go straight down, righty-ho.

Cheers, Noel.

Platform one is kept free for us.

So what's the problem? HE CHUCKLES

Maybe they've been waiting for the other train's departed

before letting this one in, normally,

so there's no crowd issue on the platform.

Oh, it's crowd issue, is it? I see.

Yeah, he's on his way out now.

INDISTINCT REPLY

12:32...

Well, he's a few minutes late.

He should be 13:30, it's now 13:35.

Hello, this is Fireman 60103 here.

Just stuck outside at the gantry.

Wonderful, thank you very much. Bye-bye.

-Hi, Ryan.

-Hiya!

Got a green. Green on one, mate.

WHISTLE BLOWS

Not too horrific!

Nope, nothing out of that.

Let go.

'Now that we're arriving in Kidderminster,

'I just feel extremely proud to have fired this fantastic engine

'along 16 miles of beautiful countryside.

'Didn't go perfectly, but it went well.

'To actually be firing Flying Scotsman

'is just something you're never really going to forget.

'To actually be shovelling the coal into the heart of it

'and making the steam to make it move.

'Firing the Flying Scotsman, it's a dream come true, really.'

-TANNOY:

-'Can I ask all passengers on platform number one,

'just stand back away from the edge, please.

'Just to stand well back from the edge of the platform, please.

'Thank you.'

'I enjoy being in charge of a train.

'It's the teamwork involved, it's the responsibility involved,

'and it's doing a job to the best of your ability.

'And the job is done.'

'This is a passenger announcement.

'Can I ask all passengers

'on the platform to not stand

'on the benches, please?

'Do not stand on the benches,

'please, on the platform. Thank you.'