This made me smile up at Kirkby Stephen East today. The Peckett 0-4-0 Saddle Tank 'F.C. Tingey' is now almost completely reassembled and due to be steamed soon and the time had come to fill her up with water for the first time this year.
Unfortunately we are lacking a water column at the Heritage Centre. There hasn't been one for fifty years and I'm not sure where we would find one these days, let alone any ample water supply to run through it.
The only answer is a garden hose. Mike attaches it to the sink in the 'Gents' and runs it across the platform. As the locomotive is being filled from scratch it has to be filled through the boiler inspection hatch rather than the tank. When the engine is in steam and running of course the injector will be used to carry water from the tank into the boiler.
I never thought that I would see some B&Q plastic hose being used for this job. It takes all day to fill to half way up the glass, but it works.
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