Short of steam

This is really for a guy who is interested in Railways.
As anyone who has read my blog knows that I used to work on the British Railways, and to be honest a very very happy time of my life.
These two stories are completely true. I am not hiding anything at all but being short of steam was a stigma on one's ability.
I was with a regular driver who was a great guy, we had been rostered together for several months on what was called the iron stone run. We used to go about 5 miles up the main line and pick up our goods train. This consisted of 27 27ton wagons. This was the maximum load as it was a loose coupling(no brakes on the wagons) and stopping was the reason for the restriction of the load. Well we used to go along the main line till we got to a branch line to Boston, Louth and then Immingham. We never went there though. We used to go about half way and then change over, we would have about 50 empty wagons and the Immingham crew would then take the iron ore to Appleby Froddingham. Well this night we had gone to Louth and then waited for ages for the men with the empties to arrive. When they did, we saw what engine number it was so we knew we were in for a tricky journey home. The men got off as soon as they could and off they went. I looked in the firebox, said to my mate Billy." F**k me Billy we are in trouble, just look at the state of this fire." He took one look and then said to me. "Can you get us to the next signalbox." I assured him that if he took it steady I would make sure we would get there. He stopped at the signalbox and went to see the signalman and asked him to get in touch with control. They were the men who were supposed to make sure all went smoothly. Eventually he came back, while he was gone I did a little cleaning of the clinkers in the firebox. He got on the footplate and said to me."Well that's told them. I told them the state of the firebox and that it was impossible to continue without doing some cleaning of the firebox. Control asked me what number the Loco was and if it was 63923. I told him guess again and you are wrong." I laughed and he could see I had been busy. He asked me if I could get to Boston. I said I could but then must clean the fire a lot more. He told me that he had informed Control that this was going to be my objective. Well we eventually arrived at Boston. While my Driver was getting water into the tank, I was cleaning out the fire. Eventually we started out and limped home to Grantham. Nothing was ever mentioned about the incident ever.
The second time was different. We had a job where we signed on at 5.00m and prepared the steam engine, then went with 5 coaches to Newark as empty coaching stock. only to start back to Grantham as the Parly leaving Newark at 7.30am. Well when I looked at the fire, it was almost out, we had next to no steam, my driver, who was not my regular driver went mad. I told him not to worry, I would manage as I had been a fireman then for about 7 years. We eventually got to Newark and I will admit we were struggling for steam but I knew that I had just about got it all under control. Roger, the Driver looked at me looked in the firebox and told me to put a lot more coal on. I told him no, leave it to me and all will be O K. He then went stupid and ordered me to put more coal on. I looked at him and just said. " On your head be it, you have now completely f****d the fire up. We will now not get to Grantham without being short of steam and I hope you are satisfied. I hold you completely responsible for this," Needless to say we stopped about 5 miles short of Grantham. When we arrived at Grantham. another engine backed on , this was the normal way. The train then proceeded to London. We went into the loco. My driver immediately went to the loco foreman's office. The foreman came out to see me. I then told him everything that had happened. He just said to me."O.K I will say it is a lot of bad coal." Again nothing was ever said about it.
Footnote though, I was informed a few weeks later, the tannoy system went into overdrive that morning we were late. The annoucer informed all the passengers who were waiting that there would be a delay as the engine was short of steam. Such is life.
Finally the days of steam, when we went to King's Cross or York to that matter. the train always had 13 coaches on. Now with the advent of electric. 10 coaches are the norm . Is this progress?
Yes times are quicker now but there have been several improvements in tracks too. We had the fastest train from London. It was the White Rose. King's Cross to Grantham 105 miles in 100 minutes. Most were 105 minutes maximum and going through Peterborough was a speed limit if 20mph. Oh well more another day.