4) Great Central Railway Loughborough Leicestershire 22nd December 2020 by loose_grip_99 Via Flickr: I had just set the empty stock lamps for Black 5 4-6-0 45305 standing at the head of our train in platform 1. We spent 45 minutes here steam heating the stock before departing to work the first Santa train from Quorn at 10.00. The new Russian coal was interesting stuff. It came in huge chunks which were very difficult to break up so the back and corners of the firebox were built up with the largest of them. In many ways it was like Welsh coal being low in volatiles and slow to burn so no smoke and the need to fire early in anticipation of a 10 minute wait before it provided its energy. With 8 steam-heated coaches and Peak D123 (total approx 400 tons) to pull up to Leicester you had to get it right.
