Chris was early. It was nerves. It was his first day as a newly-promoted Trainee Fireman. He'd been promoted at the end of the previous season, and this was his first turn in his new role. He'd read the roster and seen that his Fireman, and therefore mentor, was someone called J. High whom he had not come across before.
Chris unlocked the workshop and went through to the mess room to put the kettle on, change into his overalls and read the notices. Once done, he filled his water bottle and took his bag, donkey jacket and mug of tea out to the rostered loco. Dumping his things on the footplate, he climbed up into the cab and hung up his bag and jacket.
The normal safety checks done (regulator closed, mid-gear, cocks open and handbrake on) he checked the gauge glass. The boiler was two-thirds full, so that was OK. The water tank, on the other hand was not, so he put the hose in and turned it on. As a trainee, he couldn't do any more, so he started polishing the cab brass.
Twenty minutes later he saw a skinny individual approaching the loco. "Hello," a slightly high pitched voice, Chris noted, "You must be Chris. I'm Joe, your fireman."
"Hi." Chris said, looking into a lean, clean face with no trace of a beard. Late twenties was his estimate of Joe's age, but that didn't phase him as all railway promotions are based on merit, and he'd been supervised as a Cleaner by people less than 20 years old. He thought to himself "Gosh, I bet he finds firing hard. He's not exactly large."
They both settled down to the lighting up routine, with Joe turning out as a really good teacher, greatly increasing Chris' confidence. They also got on well together, sharing many of the same interests. Chris discovered that Joe was a GP with an incisive mind and love for words. They bantered together with alternative meanings and esoteric phrases.
Joe left Chris in charge when he went off with the driver to change into their 'cleans'. As soon as Joe returned, Chris went off and changed while the driver went to collect the token. As Chris came out of the workshop, the driver handed him the token, and Chris went to the ground frame to let them out of the yard, shunt the carriages and hook on ready to depart.
After the first stop, Joe told Chris to take over, offering the occasional word of advice. Chris had trouble making the boiler-mounted injector pick up, so Joe told Chris to feel what he did. "Put your hand over mine and I'll tell you what to feel for." As Chris covered Joe's hand on the steam feed wheel, he felt a strange sensation which made him uncomfortable, and caused Joe to say "Come on, concentrate on my hand and the feel of the feed. Can you feel the injector singing now?"
The only thing Chris could feel was the singing of his blood in his veins. He thought, "What the hell is going on here?" trying desperately to understand his reactions.
Later in the day he brushed against Joe as Joe moved to one side to let him out of the cab to exchange the token. This time his body felt as if he had received an electric shock and his face felt hot. It came to him in a flash. He knew that feeling and now recognised the feeling from covering Joe's hand on the steam feed. It was sexual arousal. "Oh my God," he thought, "I'm reacting to a MAN."
Chris was hugely troubled by this, as it had never happened to him before. He was very attracted to women, but had never felt anything like this towards a man before. It made him wary, and he kept more distance between himself and Joe. It troubled him that he had got on so well with him and liked him so much beforehand. A startling thought occurred to him. Perhaps it wouldn't be such a bad thing to change his sexual orientation, since he had made such a mess of his last relationship with a girl.
The rest of the day was a bit strained, although Joe still gave out encouragement and help. Finally Chris was at the ground frame again letting the loco back into the yard. They all three worked hard to dispose of the fire and set the loco up for the next day. The only thing that slightly puzzled Chris was Joe's insistence to the driver that they didn't take any more coal.
Finally they dragged their tired bodies into the mess to take off their overalls. As they reached the mess, Joe took off his greasetop hat, and out tumbled shoulder length auburn hair. He shook his head to loosen the hair and it glinted flecks of gold in the sun slanting through the window.
"Wow, I didn't know that was under there." Chris commented. Joe smiled.
They started taking off their overalls, and as Joe peeled his down, Chris suddenly noticed he had unusually large pecs. Then he did a double take and realised that Joe, whom he had thought was a skinny short bloke, was actually Jo, a very beautiful lithe girl with small breasts.
Chris suddenly relaxed and laughed out loud with relief. He wasn't misunderstanding his sexual orientation. His body had recognised what his mind had obscured. To the questioning looks of his colleagues, Chris announced rather red-faced, "I thought you were a bloke, Jo." Her saucy smile made him weak with desire, but he had no idea whether she was spoken for.
They all laughed heartily at his mistake, and washed up to go to their respective lodgings for the night. He was too embarrassed by his mistake to ask her anything further that night. He also realised that his late 20s estimate of Joe's age should probably have been early 40s for the stunning Jo, nearer his age.
Chris' excitement at being on again with Jo the next day made him even earlier than yesterday. As Chris approached the engine again the next morning it was making a noise he didn't recognise. Fearing that something was wrong, he climbed up into the cab to investigate. Nothing. After checking round, he hung up his bag and jacket before climbing down to check if he could hear it again outside. Again nothing. Shrugging his shoulders, he went off to the mess to put on his overalls.
When he got back to the engine, Jo was already there, still in her 'civvies'. He couldn't help admiring her curves and her wonderful mane of hair, not yet up under a cap. He told her he had heard a strange noise when he had arrived but couldn't trace it. She seemed slightly jumpy about it, but merely announced as she climbed down to go and change, "I've checked around, and there's nothing amiss." As she reached the ground, she told Chris to start lighting up.
As she had done yesterday (he smiled as he thought of yesterday and 'she') he checked the grate for clinker, then opened the coal doors to fill the grate. He was intrigued by the fall of the coal. It was sort of heaped up at the sides with a dip in the centre that was almost flat. That was why he needed to open the doors to get to the coal. Finishing with the wood and coal, he put the paraffin rag on the shovel, lit it and threw it into the firebox just as Jo climbed up onto the engine in her overalls. The wonderful hair had disappeared under her greasetop.
