I never had time to go and play choo-choos at NVR, but we moved there from Leicester and while there I used to go play choo-choos at the MLST (main line steam trust) at Loughborough Station. They needed people trained for the footplate so I quickly became a cleaner passed to fire, did a couple of driving turns (under supervision) as well. Mostly on the GNR N2 tank which at that time had extremely temperamental injectors (firemans responsibility), much swearing and hitting with a wrench eventually got them to pick up. Ah! dirty days, coal dust, oil
Interesting (boring) fact #231 (not many people know that) The NVR when rebuilt and reopened was to Continental loading gauge so can take taller and wider locos and carriages than the rest of the country apart from HS1 (high speed one).
Here she is this summer on the Epping - Ongar railway on loan. Much smarter and cleaner than I remember her, in my day she was pretty dirty and painted in BR Black. I wonder if they ever sorted the injectors out, bash - bash ****in ******* stupid ****** thing