Festiniog Fireman 1960’s

Description

Festiniog Fireman 1960’s
The Author has been a professional railwayman,but eight years learning the ropes on hundreds of British Railways locomotives gave him the experience to be accepted as a fireman on the Festiniog Railway in 1966.Over the next six years he worked on all the FR’s then operational steam locomotives,still coal fired,and laid the foundations for his lifetime of footplate work on many heritage railways,firing a wide variety of locos and becoming a qualified engine driver.In this book he describes what it was like to work on the FR with some remarkable characters,from the world-famous Bill Hoole to the full time professional BR fireman who used their precious holidays to fire narrow gauge locos on one of the very few heritage lines then operating in the U.K.With the Deviation being built,there were many years to wait before its triumphant return to Blaenau Festiniog:the railway still had the informal character of its early pioneering days.Fortunately the author used top of the range cameras;the book is richly illustrated with high quality colour photos,many taken from very privileged viewpoints.It also has many useful tips for would -be heritage line fireman