Continuing

As I mentioned my Driver Billy T. had been rostered with Jack G. so it must have been some sort of relief that he had someone who he could rely on.
 On the footplate it was just 2 men and if both worked together then it was a pleasure. Yes, sometimes the work was hard and long days were often but to be honest, I have always been a little sad to leave the Driver with who I was partnered with. It normally occurred twice a year and generally it was a sad occasion for both of us.
Now Billy T had no sense of humour, didn't swear but was a good driver and a good mate.
 Now to 63923. The tango O2. It was a heavy duty goods steam engine, would never go over fast but a strong steam engine.
 We had several jobs hauling iron stone from High Dyke which was a little over 4 miles south of Grantham. We used to sign on and get the steam engine which had been prepared for us, we would then pick up the Goods Guard and go tender first up to High Dyke. Tender first means we went in reverse.
 We picked up the Iron Ore train. 27 27ton wagons. No more than this because they were loose coupled, only the  break on the steam engine so it would be very hard to stop had any more wagons been pulled.
 We then proceeded to go through Grantham and turn off to go to the Boston, Grimsby road. It was a nice run and at Boston we generally filled up with water. We then continued and kept going. Most Drivers knew the road to Louth but Burgh Le Marsh was about the half way mark.
 We got to Louth and waited for the empties to arrive. What usually happened, or really what should happen is that the trains meet and we just swap steam engines. We would pick up the train carrying about 54 empty wagons and the Immingham crew would then take the Iron Ore to eventually Scunthorpe, or Immingham.
 Well the empties finally arrived. We changed over and the Driver just said that he had trouble with shortage of steam. They hurriedly got aboard  our loaded train and were away.
 I looked immediately at the steam pressure gauge and noticed that it was less than 100lbs. per square inch. It should have been over 150 lbs. psi. The water in the boiler was also dangerously low. I looked into the firebox and let out an expletive. Billy looked in and just said to me that we would get to the Signalbox and he would go and contact Control. These were the men who organised all.
 I told Billy that I would attempt to clean the firebox a little while he was gone.
 He called to me about 10 minutes later just to let me know he was coming aboard. I, in the meantime had emptied some of the clinkers from the firebox. Unfortunately with these steam engines the only way to remove clinkers was to empty them by the fire hole door. I had removed about 1cwt of clinkers and it did allow some air to circulate the firebox and gradually the steam pressure gauge began to move.
I asked my mate when he got aboard what had happened. He never had a sense of humour but his retort made me laugh.
 He told me that when he went to the Signalbox he asked the Signalman to get in touch with Control. This he did and the voice at the other end listened to what Billy had to say. He informed Control that we would limp along to Boston where we would go into Boston Loco and give the firebox a good clean as it had not been done so for a while. Each time a journey is done, cleaning of a firebox is part of the work entailed to prepare the steam engine for the next outing.
 Eventually Control had chance to say something and he asked Billy if the steam engine was 63923 where upon Billy replied"Guess again and you're wrong". I just burst out laughing as it tickled me.
 Well we limped to Boston and true to their word, all was organised for us to go to the loco and while Billy filled the water tank up while I continued to clean the firebox. After about 30 minutes or so I told Billy that I thought all would be well now, so out we went again and picked up the empties, incidentally someone had informed the Guard what was happening. We the set off for Grantham and managed to get there without too much bother.
I said to Billy that I bet he was pleased that he had not got Jack G. as his fireman, he just looked and said that he would not have tried to get to Boston as Jack would not have been capable of doing anything.
 To be honest it was an experience that I would not have missed at all, it was just experience for me.
 We were relieved at Grantham, being on duty over 12 hours.
 Finally nothing at all was said to us about the long delay we had. There were a few steam engines that had a bad name for being difficult engines to steam. 63923 was one of them and if too much coal was administered then trouble would occur. More soon.