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27 minutes ago, The Johnster said:

Actually hardly any soot; that burns off before anything else does.  It’s HOT in there!

 

Hardly any rust on all those that I have used either, that gets burnt away as well.


Roy

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If a set of irons are in use, then it'll go a bit 'brick coloured' because it's a surface appearance from being in a fire. The handle will normally be a black, or gunmetal appearance. Footplate staff normally go bare-handed when using the ring handle, but with a rag on the shaft. 

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On 13/07/2020 at 08:01, tomparryharry said:

If a set of irons are in use, then it'll go a bit 'brick coloured' because it's a surface appearance from being in a fire. The handle will normally be a black, or gunmetal appearance. Footplate staff normally go bare-handed when using the ring handle, but with a rag on the shaft. 


And always holding the inside of the ring, nearest the shaft!

 

Roy

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9 hours ago, Roy Langridge said:


And always holding the inside of the ring, nearest the shaft!

 

Roy

 

A 'ring' is normally 1" steel, and usually made on an anvil. Most people using a iron will use their predominate hand without a glove or rag, as it imparts a better feeling of control. Using the shaft would-should be used with a dry cloth, as a wet one transfers heat very quickly. I forgot to say that the colour arrives by the use of thousands of oily hands over the years, giving it an almost gunmetal appearance. The brick colour happens because steel, by & large, takes on the impurities of the parent material. In this case, a raging fire.  I guess several members on here have also been down the path themselves, and I doff my chapeau to you. 

Cheers,

Ian.

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1 hour ago, tomparryharry said:

 

A 'ring' is normally 1" steel, and usually made on an anvil. Most people using a iron will use their predominate hand without a glove or rag, as it imparts a better feeling of control. Using the shaft would-should be used with a dry cloth, as a wet one transfers heat very quickly. I forgot to say that the colour arrives by the use of thousands of oily hands over the years, giving it an almost gunmetal appearance. The brick colour happens because steel, by & large, takes on the impurities of the parent material. In this case, a raging fire.  I guess several members on here have also been down the path themselves, and I doff my chapeau to you. 

Cheers,

Ian.

 

Yes you will your predominate hand - but only when you can. I am right handed, but if I am cleaning the back right of the firebox, I will use my left hand in the ring with my right on the shaft, otherwise I will be getting in the way of myself.  To be quite honest, as a fireman you have to learn to be fairly ambidextrous. Some locos you fire from the right, some the left, changing from firing lefthanded for the former to righthanded for the latter.

 

As for oily hands, they shouldn't be. Oil is flammable and we will keep our hands as clean as possible. Oiling up is mainly the driver's job, so there is little need for a fireman to use oil after prepping the loco (and we clean after that). We will use oil for things like the runners on a firehole door, but not often during the day.

 

Working on a hot fire is just part of the job. Firing something like a Bulleid Pacific is really hot as the rear of the firebox slopes back quite significantly and you still need to get coal into the back corners, covering the grate. When we prepare to leave a station with a run up a hill, on a Light Pacific, we are building up the back of the box with around 70-80 shovel loads, roughly 2/3 of that in the corners (a Merchant Navy even more) .

 

Roy

 

 

Edited by Roy Langridge
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Hello Roy. Yes, I am predominately right handed, but like yourself, I can also fire both ways. Using steel tools will give them that unique patina that comes with regular, or continuous use. As far as oil is concerned, I agree that oily hands are a bit of a no-no, but even the cleanest hands impart human residue, hence the unique patina which we both know & understand. I use the very merest drop of lanolin (and I do mean merest) to start the day, Too much, and we run a risk of loss of control over the tools.... 

Our furnaces at work had a bed which extended some 20 feet from the door, and we had to cast material to that distance. I'm assuming you're working on the Mid Hants?

 

Cheers,

Ian.  

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4 minutes ago, tomparryharry said:

Hello Roy. Yes, I am predominately right handed, but like yourself, I can also fire both ways. Using steel tools will give them that unique patina that comes with regular, or continuous use. As far as oil is concerned, I agree that oily hands are a bit of a no-no, but even the cleanest hands impart human residue, hence the unique patina which we both know & understand. I use the very merest drop of lanolin (and I do mean merest) to start the day, Too much, and we run a risk of loss of control over the tools.... 

Our furnaces at work had a bed which extended some 20 feet from the door, and we had to cast material to that distance. I'm assuming you're working on the Mid Hants?

 

Cheers,

Ian.  

 

Yes, at the Mid-Hants, so no Bulleids at the moment :(  but we will get a couple back in the not too distant future.

 

Lord Nelson was a challenge learning to fire as she has a long box, not quite your 20 feet though. Mostly we are on the right side at the Mid-Hants with the odd exception, but I also fire at the Lynton and Barnstaple, where we are on the left.

 

Roy

 

 

 

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To add more complexity I remember reading footplateman's books years ago and there was often reference to having fire irons made or modified to suit a firemans need. Hard to remember now but think this was pre war and most probably pre-grouping era.

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12 minutes ago, SR71 said:

To add more complexity I remember reading footplateman's books years ago and there was often reference to having fire irons made or modified to suit a firemans need. Hard to remember now but think this was pre war and most probably pre-grouping era.

Pretty sure that this will have gone on at all sheds large enough to have a blacksmith, to the end of steam. Dick Hardy had no trouble finding specimens of 'jimmies'* lovingly crafted by such, for loco crews desperate to get some old cart to steam reliably; and that was both completely illegitimate and routinely ignored by 'authority'. Making to some extent 'bespoke' tools, all in a day's work - and the price of a pint or two.

 

* A splitter bar across the top of the blast pipe to both reduce the blastpipe aperture area and increase the surface area of the exhaust jet. Many other nicknames for these naughty devices.

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