It’s a cold blustery morning at Fountain Colliery with showers of snow, hail and sleet making the morning shift a little unpleasant for those outside. But Hector Hi-Vis is a hardy soul, remembering the winter of 1962-63 at the beginning of his railway career trying to keep the trains running. He mutters to himself thinking how the lunchtime news will report the winter weather even the snow isn’t settling “20 foot high snowy arctic storm of doom my arse”.
‘Celebrity’ Class 20 No 20064 ‘River Sheaf’ arrives with a rake of ballast hoppers from the quarry at Tintern, for the track serving the colliery isn’t the best and not helped by recent storms and floods washing the ballast away in places.
Meanwhile Harry the Hammer – you can just make him out next the red and yellow oil barrel, lurks with his hammer secretly hoping the point lever will be stuck or that one of the wagons has a sticking brake shoe. As usual it’s almost the end of Harry’s shift, as it always is, and as soon as he’s wielded his hammer he’ll be off to the Miners Arms in the distance for a brew or five with a packet of salty pork scratchings in front of the warming fire in the lounge bar. Bliss.
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You can buy Harry a pint here, because where would we be without Harry and his trusty hammer? www.buymeacoffee.com/Nevardmedi3
