big jim

Back to the workbench for the first time in about 3 months, had a tidy round the room first getting rid of a load of rubbish and boxes etc, then did a few little jobs Finished the glazing in mentor, hopefully get it finished soon! I then had a look at the Hornby class 50 that was missing its gearing, I’d bought the gearing a while back but needed to make new pins for them to fit over stripped down bogies 1.5mm brass rod which pushed nicely through the holes in the bogies cut down to ‘about’ 7.5mm and pushed into the holes with the cogs added And back together with the wheels in place bogie sides added I then noticed the wires to the motor had also been cut but there were bare wires near the motor which I’m worried about touching the cast chassis so I took the motor out and will put a new wire on it to the circuit board If I can get back in the garage tomorrow then I’ll get it all soldered back up and hopefully up and running again

I was training someone else, doing handling hours with them Kings norton, certainly had some wind last night! out into the neck where a pair of 323 passed by, today is the final day of them in the West Midlands with just the single diagram running one of their replacements passing by With a voyager on the fasts We set off for Lichfield where we had to wait for the 323s to depart before getting the road through the high level station (train secured, position of safety etc!!) changed ends at central rivers after a run across the alrewas branch back across the cross city to Aston and onward to Birmingham international back to kings norton, voyager heading south stabled units passing through the station on my way home Train back to new st and that was about it, I may be in Sunday afternoon instead of early Monday doing cement to Hereford, waiting to find out

It appears to come with its own little man in a tiny cab below the main one to assist with coupling!

I think the change of date/month has thrown me this year, only just spotted it’s on this weekend by chance on the main page might try and make it over but I’m absolutely brassic until payday!

MPV training today, couple of trips out from kings norton Unit for the day sat in the sunshine Into nuneaton and a damp Stafford class 70 running round its train We then went back to kings norton where we were due to go back on to the depot but we managed to get a 2nd path to Lichfield, sat on the receptions for a bit so got pics of a few things passing by Lichfield And back to a wet kings norton then the heavens opened, not seen rain like it since, oooh, yesterday! voyager passing through, note the old island platform and stairs at kings Norton station, strangely the open platforms are still numbered 1 and 4 Lashing it down another day of it tomorrow but a slightly different route then next week it’s a light loco crewe to bescot, a longport move and a scrap train from saltley to crewe

Cool, looking forward to having a go on the real thing (hopefully) will definitely be ordering one when they come out

Wondered who would spot that!

The remains of 66048 which crashed in the highlands a few years ago

I used to regularly delay a passenger service waiting to get into Trafford park every night, i did a bit of digging and worked out where things could be changed, I highlighted possible changes to our planning department which they forwarded to NR who changed the timings which resulted in our train not delaying the passenger service my more, i got told it had saved almost £10k in delay costs in the first month alone! what gets me about the castlefield corridor is how they constantly say they can’t widen it due to space however at the moment between Piccadilly and Oxford road there are a number of new high rise student accommodation buildings being built within a few ft of the viaduct so even if they did decide to give it a go they probably couldn’t now, the old uni buildings on the opposite side (the Barnes Wallace building) are all now empty, no doubt awaiting demolition for more high rises

Only a couple from today 69010 longport to Nuneaton another mod for Bachmann to add to the delner fitted locos, they have added a chain to secure the hook while the delner is fitted into nuneaton should be doing MPVs tomorrow but it appears to be cancelled so I’m in the hands of the “can you just” monster!

Finally had a reply from Cheshire west council about pot hole damage I had back in March, they have agreed that the council are to blame so I’ll be getting the cost of the new tyre back which is nice! conversely, after my lad had his BMW written off last week the insurance company need the V5 to close the claim, I’ve had the house upside down trying to find it with no avail. Phoned the DVLA this morning only to discover that the V5 isn’t in his name, the previous keeper said they had done it on line but obviously didn’t bother, he’s now got to retrospectively apply for a V5 then when it arrives fill it out to say it’s scrapped and forward it to the insurance, unfortunately that could take 4-6 weeks so he’ll have to pay next months tax on it too as we can’t declare a sorn without the V5!

I’ve not heard of that place, can’t quite make out what it’s supposed to be though from the linked page, it seems to have decent reviews on Google though, from the pics on there it looks to be a museum space with a storage and workshop area that can be viewed from above as well as a prestige showroom, all in an ex railway building too!! I keep meaning to visit the museum down the road in ambergate so I might go and have a look at both next time I’m in the area https://greatbritishcarjourney.com

Nice little Carlisle to crewe job last night, should have driven a car up but the other driver didn’t need it so I did the usual ride up on the sleeper trick crewe, 197001 pride pendolino which ended up in the way so there was a platform alteration on the sleeper to platform 12 a pleasant ride to Carlisle and a short wait for my train as it was running about 30 early. Always strange to have the station to yourself! 37418 nmt 156 66709 on my train Into crewe 45 early Thats me until tomorrow afternoon when I’ve got a longport to Nuneaton loco move

It’s amazing how far they get quickly, after I got off they went to Doncaster an obviously north from there, I also read that sadly after I’d got off the locos were involved in a fatality in Sheffield, not heard anything official though anyhoo, weekend off, only 2 railway related pics of the Gt Orme tramway

His was my wedding car back in 2004! Thats my fiesta lurking in the background too, £300 special, 4 speed box and manual choke!