big jim

Weigh in day and pleased to say I’m now at 17 Stone exactly, ok it’s the top end of the lb mark but it’s still 17 Stone! had a decent week of exercise last week covered 60+ mile on the bike and a few miles walking, so far this week I’ve covered 14 mile on the bike but have upped the walking mileage, last night for example I walked from new st to saltley rather than use a taxi which was a pleasant 2.5 mile walk im road learning peak forest to hindlow the end of the week and if my hire car doesn’t turn up today I’m tempted to put my bike on the roof rack of my own car and use it to ride between the hotel in Buxton and peak forest depot and hindlow, I’ve also got a hotel in walsall on Friday night with a 25m pool and gym so I’m going to make sure I make use of those facilities too! Now I’ve reached that subliminal goal of 17 Stone after weeks of being stuck at 17.2-17.3 it’s going to give me the motivation to shift a few more lb a bit quicker and try and get back out of poor eating habits that have crept back in such as I’ve started eating bigger standard sized bars of chocolate again rather than sugar free chocolate or low calorie snacks instead which I need to stop doing! other than that been feeling pretty good this week, I did come off the bike one day last week, nothing major just slipped onto my knee when the front wheel of the bike went from under me on a slow turn and I couldn’t get my balance quick enough, also went over on my ankle slightly on some ballast the same night which has left me aching a bit on that side!

Unfortunately my driver couldn’t make it tonight so I had to work the whole trafford park job myself got to Birmingham early and as it was a nice mild nights decided to walk new st to saltley, considering I used to hate having to walk saltley to duddeston station I quite enjoyed the walk, 2.5 mile in total from the top end of new st station to the signal at landor st! moor st station Curzon street under wraps ready for HS2 you walk past ‘think tank’ which is the Birmingham museum, was hoping I could see the steam loco in there but I could only see these beam engines through the window Bit of low adhesion on the way down to the depot! And away i went to Manchester, these are the first pictures I’ve taken at trafford park with the new camera and they are a vast improvement over the old one pair of class 90s on the adjacent line as I ran round My loco and away back to nuneaton, had to wait in crewe for 20 mins to time to allow the sleeper to pass so jumped off and went to the messroom for a cup of tea And into Nuneaton day off today and road learning ‘a missing link’ on Thursday and Friday

Shocks rebuilt and refitted and engine cover on ready for the retest

Some from last night, conducting the trafford park job new st I only conducted it to crewe and got off and went home for a few hours and met it on the way back and into nuneaton same again tonight

Quite pleased with myself today, had a go at the front hub on the mini, a few hours work and swapped over, just got the rear top mounts to do, engine bottom cover on and retest on Wednesday hopefully Snapped a drop link doing it though, didn’t realise not jacking both sides of the car would leave tension on the bar so when I twisted the shock the end popped out of the joint, must have been on the way out to break so easily! so the front is done, just waiting on the top mounts, thankfully my spring compressors arrived yesterday so it’s all ready to go when they do arrive

Regards the mileage 25 is about the norm for a commute type ride as I’m in my work gear, heavy clothing, backpack with railway stuff in, steel toe cap boots etc If I’m having a leisure ride and I’m dressed lighter with no heavy backpack it will touch 30 miles if I’m lucky depending on the Terrain, which when I got the bike I thought would be more than enough as I’d only use it to go from home to the station but 5 months in I’m now thinking that if the cycle to work scheme is running again next year to upgrade to the new carerra which has a supposed 70 mile range which will open my cycling adventures out further, so glad I didn’t go for the cheaper 20 mile range bike though!

This is no doubt a thread I can contribute to over time, as some may know I chart my bike rides in my weight loss and work threads (it looks like most posters on here post in those threads anyway) but I’m sure I can add here too for those who don’t know I’ve got an electric assist bike that I’ve had since June and have covered about 1450 mile so far using it to commute as well as a few leisure rides, done lots of ex railway lines in the area, leek and manifold, Stoke to biddulph, ironbridge to Bridgnorth as well as a few trips further afield such as Carlisle to silloth, cockermouth to Keswick, longbridge to reddich and bromsgrove, I’m a bit limited by the battery range but normally get 25ish miles from it, I carry the charger with me in the frame bag so if I can top it up en route in a coffee shop or on the train I will! had an issue the other week where the motor and Ecu burned out after I’d had the rear cassette swapped over for a taller geared one, been replaced now and has been fine since also have my mums old RooDog electric bike that Dominic uses, we’ve done a few trips out together, I had to use it the other week while mine was off the road, at first I didn’t like it but after a week I really enjoyed using it, it was actually better geared than my bike and I was quicker on my commute route The main reason for buying it was to get fitter and help with my weight loss, it’s certainly some that, if you have seen my weightless thread I’ve lost almost 6 Stone, no doubt the bike being a big contributing factor to that, and I’m getting to see parts of the country at a more leisurely pace! ive only come off it twice (so far) and been knocked off it twice by cars, fell sideways while turning slowly on a slippy path last night and landed on my knee (then a bit later went over on my ankle on some ballast on the same leg so that’s aching this morning!) carerra roodog just fits nicely in the loco

Must admit when I took that I was impressed with it too!

And some from today, back to kings Norton to work the RHTT back out again Had a break in Bescot for a while 66795 “Bescot LDC” at Bescot LDC! And down to rugby Back to Stafford And back to rugby and done trafford park tomorrow

Some from yesterday, first job was crewe to small Heath this was the train in front of mine heading to Northampton my train got to Tyseley but due to an issue I ran it round and had to take it to bescot! tyseley Bescot I then rode into Birmingham and got a train to rugby to work the RHTT to kings norton have bike, will travel Birmingham international And into Kings norton And a ride back to the hotel, back in later to work it back out again!

funnily enough I’ve just shown the pic to my wife and I she said just that, she also added that some people who follow ‘influencers’ can be a bit dim and will copy their heroes Fair point I suppose and my wife is always right

Personally I do think that sometimes people can be over sensitive when they see photos like that, it’s not like its a mainline and a Pendolino is going to come hurting along at 125mph, yes it’s probably not the best idea for a photo but am I wrong not seeing a huge issue with this particular photo oh and cringy matching jumpers too!

Just a few from tonight Joy of Joy’s it’s that time of year again, Birmingham Christmas market, don’t look forward to travelling in by train while that’s on one from landor st, my train was following the northern belle from here, another great low light iPhone picture! And a still from a video I took, not very good so I deleted it and my train to trafford park, stopped in styal for a bit so stretched my legs and that was it, straight into a taxi home as I’m back in tomorrow daytime so couldn’t hang about doing a crewe to small Heath and the RHTT to kings Norton and into a hotel

A quick T3 before work, found my tracksetta 4th radius curve tool and peco track spacers so revisited the inside line to smooth it out a bit and also realigned the adjacent track also laid the inner track of the outer curve, again 4th radius, just need to secure the outer line on its cant base and that bit should be done After that it’s the track over the rear bridges and into the lifting section, busy in work all weekend though so will have to wait until next week now

I thought the same thing, what with the intercity 86 in the background it could almost be the early 90s!

It was a bit fresh at 05:00 this morning heading home, I’ll just have to make sure I keep to the main roads rather than back streets and cycle paths when it starts to get really colder, certainly be taking my time along the tow paths around Birmingham if i do have to go that way at all

Last nights pics before I go to sleep, another change of job, was supposed to go to stockport to work a train to Stafford then pick up a northbound service and take it to Newton le willows and finish however the first train was some 3 1/2 hours late so I ended up going to Stafford first and working the northbound train so it stayed on time! crewe station and into Stafford where I got on the northbound service When I got to crewe I was passed on the independent line by a triple headed DRS class 37 combo hauling a freightliner 66 on an intermodal service, apparently it had failed around Milton Keynes and the 37s were summoned to assist it as far as Crewe, I purposely held my train back a bit from the signal to get some piccies! and a quick one of my train didn’t even spot 86101 until after the 37s had left I then continued to Newton-le-willows where @Michael Delamar took over to take the train to hindlow, I got a taxi to stockport to pick up the late running southbound service and into Stafford and that was that, doing the first half of the trafford park job tonight

It’s gone noticeably colder the last couple of days, I’ve just ridden to the station at 21:30 and the grass was very dewey on the park, the paths are also getting a bit sloppy with fallen leaves too, should be even colder on the way home at 04:30 I recon

Had a go at the rear suspension On the mini earlier, nice and easy to get the rear shock out once i soaked the bolts in WD-40, hopefully the other side will be as easy this is the play in the top mount, not sure how much it’s supposed to have though but it does seem quite loose? A 2nd hand complete front hub is on the way but speaking to my mini mechanic mate he says it’s probably just as much work to swap the whole hub as it is to just do the bearing, I may well undo the brake calliper and remove the disc and have a look at that tomorrow too if I get a chance incase it’s something I could possibly do, the bearing isn’t pressed in apparently and may come out with a couple of hammer blows, the issue could be if the drive shaft doesn’t want to come out of the bearing if it’s ran hot while it’s been going, if I can get that bit done myself it will save me a few quid

it is a BR one, I did look of it had a ‘not to be removed….” on it but nothing unfortunately

And some from yesterday and this morning, booked to do coleshill to shrewsbury with a Stone train for loading had a work from the hotel to Attenborough station to be get the train to Leicester, good timing when I got there as the Kingsbury tanks went through and a few other units too my train to Leicester and into Leicester And over to nuneaton, I got off there as it seemed pointless to travel through to coleshill when the train I was booked to work was following the train I caught from Leicester, meant the other driver could get off and head back to Wellingborough a bit earlier the train I caught from Leicester had a defective rear coach, no lighting etc, note the 2 torches in the window acting as tail lights, one of the few disadvantages of not having bardic lamps any more is you can’t hang a torch off the lamp iron in as an emergency tail light! And in came my train And into coton hill, shrewsbury And run round Beginning loading with the water mist sprays running to minimise dust 158 passing by And after loading, back to coleshill That should have been my day up but earlier in the day I was asked if I could work the same train as the night before from landor st to Nottingham again, I said yes but would have had 3 hours to wait at saltley for it to arrive so I arranged to get to banbury and meet it there, again getting the other driver off early and saving me hanging around saltley units in banbury And in came my “light engine” which turned out to be 4 66s! and away to Nottingham A few units in the station again And that was that, travelling home later today but fully expecting to be asked to do a job later in the day!

Spotted this in the scrap pile in shrewsbury earlier, I might find out who the scrap belongs to and see if I can claim it, pop back in the Touareg to pick it up like BRUTE trolleys, something that was part of the furniture but now a memory (apart from upgraded ones at a few stations)

I’ve just ordered one from trident trains, may possibly be in stock the end of next week!

Some from last night, complete change of job again, SVR move was cancelled so got asked to to a Mountsorrel job which in turn was also cancelled so I ended up doing a landor st to Nottingham job instead and into a hotel caught the train from crewe then worked the RDT as far as Nottingham, it continued to Scunthorpe from there, 66779 up front another GBRf service passing through Various units around the station The bridge above the 158 is where the old GC used to cross over, now the tramway, the bridge in the foreground is the footbridge and that was that, just set off from the hotel and walked down to Attenborough station, got a few pics and vids of things passing through that I’ll post later, doing a Stone train to shrewsbury today

Do you have these 3D prints to sell?