King of the Castle was a dirty rascal!
I Very much enjoyed seeing your report (Mail) regarding an old friend, namely the old steam locomotive Clun Castle, No 7029. I fired her way back in 1964, as an 18-year-old fireman with British Railways. In those days, we didn’t have the freshly turned out, nice and clean locos you see today on special runs by these old engines. the reality of those days, at the tail end of the steam railways in the Sixties, was very different and less glamorous. the once-proud old Great Western Railway had been neglected by BR with the forthcoming closure of the steam era in 1965 on the Western Region. everything was tatty and run down. I could fill a book on what we had to put up with, just to keep the engines going! Suffice to say, one day in 1964 we had a trip to hereford from Canton Sidings here in Cardiff with an express Freight train. On climbing aboard 7029, my heart sank when I looked into the firebox to see how the fire looked. It was purple in colour, which meant it was a ‘dead fire’ [instead of the required, fiercely bright yellow/orange]. It was difficult to fire, especially on the main line up to hereford. So it was out with the long bar, and to poke and lift the fire to get air into it, hoping to raise some steam. Lots of sweat later, we got going with some fresh coal, which turned out to be ‘donkey’s b*****ks’ — which is what we called small eggs of anthracite instead of big lumps of proper steaming coal. As useful as a chocolate teapot! Like I said, today’s railway enthusiasts have it made: everything fresh, everything works, and good coal.
Robert Graham Williams, cardiff.