Previous instalments were in Steam World January 2022 and March 2022.
My next mentor was Maurice Newman. He had started at Ryecroft (Walsall) and was a great steam enthusiast. Through the brotherhood of the footplate, he had fired engines all over the UK. In later years Maurice fired many miles in what was West Germany and spoke very good German. He insisted on a clean footplate. A lump of coal on the footplate was an affront to his professionalism.
We signed on at 7.45am. Our locomotive was a Stanier ‘Black Five’ 4-6-0, standing prepared for us on No. 1 departure road. The train we were to work was a Lawley StreetNottingham which we would take as far as Leicester. This, as I found out, was unusual except for passenger trains. We Saltley men did not see much of Leicester in daylight although at the time we had lots of work there. I made a can of tea and we rung off the shed and went over to Lawley Street. There, we backed onto our train. The guard hooked on and went to have a look around his train.
On his return he informed the driver that we had a full load. We whistled up, off came the signal and off we went onto the up Lawley (goods line to you). At Saltley station we went onto the main line. The driver started to pick up speed and I started to build up the fire. Like all Stanier engines, ‘Black Fives’ liked plenty up the back comers and under the door and a nice even fire over the rest of the box.
At Water Orton we slowed to 30mph over the junction ontoup to Arley tunnel. We had a clear run through Whitacre right on to the Leicester line and past the remains of the Hampton-in Arden line on our right. It had 16-ton coal wagons stabled on it. As soon as we got round the bend we could feel the impact of the gradient. The exhaust got louder and deeper. The driver lengthened the cut off to cope with it. A slight dip after Shustake station gave us a little lift up through Arley and Fillongley. I was firing almost continuously. It was a good engine and steam pressure stayed at 220psi all the way. As we approached Arley colliery Maurice said, “Don't put any more fire on. Let the water come down a bit as we'll shut off soon and run to Nuneaton.” Just before the tunnel mouth the driver shut off steam. We gathered speed, as we ran through Arley tunnel past the remains of ‘Stockingford Loco’. The distant for Nuneaton Abbey street was on and we came to a stand in the platform.
