Firing Left Handed

I have recently joined a preservation railway as a cleaner. I have been out on the engine a couple of times and tried my hand at firing. The engines I have been on are ex industrial engines and therefore right hand drive so need to be fired from the left side of the footplate. As a lefthander I find this an awkward position to be in. I have also been told that I should hold the shovel as if I am right handed. I find this is completely at odds with the way I would like to fire and my accuracy with the shovel suffers according. As most larger modern locomotives are left hand drive and most firemen are no doubt right handed this must be a problem alot of firemen have had to face. My question is: As a lefthander is it best when firing from the left of the footplate to hold the shovel in the right handed way or hold it in the left handed way as feels more natural? Do the right handed firemen who fire from the right of the footplate hold the shovel as a lefthander or hold it as a right hander as would have been more natural for them?

 

It's something you have to get used to. You need to swap hands depending on which side the engine is driven and become proficient with both hands. In my firing days on the SVR, most engines drove on the left, and I'm right handed. Same problem, but reversed. I had to get the hang of it. Difficult to start with, but like most things, you get used to it.

 

I'm left handed and cut my teeth on RH drive industrial locos. It's not really a difficult thing to overcome to fire right handed. There's not usually sufficient room on the footplate of an industrial to fire the other way round, unlike a LH drive main line loco where you can usually get away with firing on the drivers side (if he'll let you!) Whatever you do, hold the shovel properly and not with some of the peculiar holds that I've seen others do.
You could always fire it one handed! There's a person I know on the Bodmin Railway who does this. Shovel in right hand, opens door with left and throws the coal in. I'm talking about a full size GW shovel, as well.

 

I started firing on left-hand-side driven engines and found it very easy and natural to fire from the right, however I found firing right-hand-side engines quite difficult despite holding the shovel properly but eventually I found it got much easier with practise and time. There's no real way to combat it, it's just a feeling that you have to get used to. Holding the shovel the proper way is the only way to fire accurately. When I see trainee fireman holding the shovel the wrong-way round and having to adjust their feet before they fire I simply stop them from doing it. Learn to fire the proper way with your hands in the right place on the shovel and it will become easier over time.

 

You just have to get used to it. We have a mixture of engines - 5RHD and 2LHD I think at the moment - so after a while swapping becomes second nature. I'm right-handed but I can't even think, away from a footplate, which is the "right handed" way to pick up a shovel.

When you swing from bunker to firehole, your back should be to the cab door - if your back is towards the driver, you are holding the shovel the wrong way, and you'll find you are constantly getting in each other's way.

What you will probably also find is that you favour one side of the firebox or the other, so one side of the fire tends to get thin. (For example, naturally I tend to favour the fireman's side of the fire, because that is the natural arc of the shovel - so I have to concentrate more to counteract that tendency).

Tom

 

I always expect the fireman to fire from 'his' side and thought that would be the norm in steam days. However, I note that the fireman in the LMS instructional film 'Little & Often' fires the Black 5 from the drivers side. (i.e. right handed.)

 

Being on the GWSR - I rarely now get the opportunity to fire left handed (I am right handed) - however when training the 9F was on the line. I found that shovelling the ash pit out "wrong handed" is a good way to start getting the right technique.

Regards,

Stephen

 

I wonder if that was a special case related to the presence of the cameraman on the footplate, giving the cameraman an unimpeded view of proceedings?

Tom

 

Suck it up - think about the exercise you're giving not only your muscles but your brain as well. You'll get the muscle memory soon enough. Firing a small industrial to 20mph top speed shouldn't be too demanding anyway.

 

I'm left handed and managed ok, i found i could fire either handed after a bit of practice, my advise is next time you have some spare time get up on the footplate of a dead engine and practice how you hold the shovel get used to changing your grip from left to right, i used to find firing on a left hand driving engine easier to do than a right hand drive even though i should have found it easy as would have been firing the right way round for me.

 

I got taught that too, but haven't done any firing in a long while now.

 

I would say I could have an unfair advantage being an ex rugby scrum half. Passing off both hands regularly has helped me work on firing either handed.

 

My lad fires either way / hand and equally at home depending on the locomotive in question which bascially means its generally the opposite way on GW locomotives to the other three companies.

 

Sadly it's just something you have to come to terms with, and you will develop your swing as you progress. I've been firing now for 7years and can fire either way but did struggle at first on non-GWR locos. Sometimes I will change to RH, particularly on some of the longer boxes in order to get the front as my LH throw isn't as strong as my RH. Generally though I'm ok, having fired locos from as big as Bulleid Pacifics & Black 5s to much smaller industrials.

Former Gorton Works shunter is a pain, as she is LH fire but the coal bunker is on the RH side so you either fire of the steps or work a way of extracting the coal RH before switching LH to put it in the box!

 

Like others above, I am naturally right - handed, so firing Great Western engines was easy for me. I also fired the LMS ones the same way, as my two main drivers both said, on the Midland engines, they always fired "with their a*se in the driver's lap." I started to fire the other way after Ray Tranter, the then Loco Superintendent looked me in the eye one day and said, "It's a matter of pride, John," knowing that I would take it for the challenge it was. It was not too long before I was proficient with left - handed firing, although I sometimes had to revert with an engine with a long firebox, like a Jubilee, to reach the front.

I started by firing wrong - handed to fill up the back and middle, which I could reasonably easily reach, then switching to do the front, until, after a couple of years, I could do it either way. Like Jamessquared above, I also know that I favour one side of the box and have to compensate accordingly.

Interestingly, when I had a Bulleid Pacific for a week last Easter, I switched hands to fill the back corners on either side, as it felt more "natural" than trying to twist doing it wrong - handed. The arc of the swing just felt more natural.

I had one of the Kings on a SVR Gala a couple of years ago and I managed to reach the front of that OK, but I couldn't have done it left - handed!

Regards,

jtx

 

I also noted the pristine, apparently brand new, overalls and the thin shoes, not boots, which you can also see one of the firemen wearing in the "Elizabethan" film. When the fireman opened the tender doors, he did not put the safety clip on. I know, from painful experience, what happens when you hit one of those doors when firing right - handed, and that can happen when they are clipped!