Re: C&TSRR - Loco 484 Fireman Side

I was taught to arrange the coal gates in the tank at the shovel sheet
so that you could fill the scoop full.
You used your right hand to push the scoop full, and then stepped on the firedoor peddle as you pulled the scoop and then turned to put it into the firedoor and then twisted the scoop sideways either right or left in the firedoor and kind of used your left hand as a sort of fulcrum to let the draft pull the coal off the scoop into the front corners or to the sidesheets as required. For the front corners, you put the scoop a bit further in, and for the sides, you put it in a little less far, but the thing was, you let the draft pull the coal off the scoop and you didn't have to "throw"it in. If your were going fast, or over a rough track, you could brace your butt against the cab rear wall so as to not miss the firedoor....Sometimes that happened anyway and the hogger got a coal shower. Big lumps(after you used the pick to bust them to where you could get them on the scoop)
went around into the left or right back corners.... I think it was Bill Holt that told me "you just git 'em in there, and I'll bust 'em up for you".