big jim

How strange is that I’d just been watching that same clip on YouTube about an hour ago! “disguise it? it’s a 20ft cock and balls man, tell yer what we’ll stick a bobble hat on it and tell everyone it’s you” “we can’t have kids playing on a……..love length” brilliant scene and I suspect the cast laughing at Brian potter is genuine in places

yeah, waiting for my relief to get to Carlisle, he had to come by taxi as the line to Scotland was closed/reduced service due to the weather so, some of my pics from today, not supposed to be in work but got a call, can I work a train rugby to Carlisle, got the call just as I’d arrived back into Carlisle on the train from yesterday’s job, no possible way of getting to rugby so agreed to work it from Warrington which is as far south as I could get in the time! as I’ve said above the line from Scotland was closed due to the possibility of severe weather, luckily I found out last night so I got to Carlisle earlier than planned and got a TPE which started in Carlisle rather than coming in from Glasgow, to be fair it’s really rough with wind and driving rain up here in cumbria as I type this (I certainly won’t be riding my bike back to wigton or Carlisle tomorrow afternoon that’s for sure!) 397 unit LSL HST in the sidings caught the 397 to Preston where there was an Avanti Pendolino waiting to take the path of the cancelled Glasgow service south class 331 And onward to Warrington to wait for my train TFW 158 Another 195 Pendolino Yet Another 195, I’ve not really seen many of these despite me living and working in ‘northern’ territory Clitheroe cement train heading south Northern rail 150 heading north to Newton Heath, kudging by the wheel flats I suspect it’s off to the wheel lathe! Class 60 sneaking up on me! Double headed 66s heading south And then my train came in, about 30 late but plenty of make up time to get to Carlisle (5 hours to do the trip!) It was booked via the S+C and the first stop was hellifield where I grabbed a photo or two, loads of people about which is when I found out I was following tornado passed @newbryford at settle so no doubt he will post a video and picture later too Had to sit outside at petrill bridge as I couldn’t get into the station due to the staycation express, flying Scotsman and tornado being in the way, plus I didn’t fancy sitting next to to two steam locos with 1000 tons of aviation fuel! while I was there the HST passed by heading to Skipton And into Carlisle, as you can imagine spotters all over the place so a very popular loco to turn up with! I then walked down to the car which is where I saw @adb968008on the platform end with his daughter, thankfully I tucked my car in quite close to the fence as there was a wagon delivering water to tornado and Scotsman otherwise I’d have been really popular I’d be couldn’t have got to the gate! Scotsman drew out of the sidings before I got down then and was hauled back into the station by the 57 on the rear of the train. Think what you like about Scotsman but boy it’s an impressive looking machine in the dark green livery, shame j couldn’t get a pic of it passing tornado! And the final shot of the day a freightliner 66 heading through the station from Tyne yard to kingmoor mans that’s yet lot, travelling back home tomorrow to work the Iport on Friday

Up at the caravan at the minute but got asked to work a train from Warrington to Carlisle later, luckily I checked rail enquiries before bed and due to the weather there is nothing running from Scotland to the south so I got to Carlisle station a bit earlier and caught the TPE service to Preston (just leaving the station as I type) It’s absolutely lashing it down here, a very wet drive from silloth so I’m going my trip back over the S+C isn’t too damp!

It was a nightmare, of course being on the coast it was quite open, I got shelter from the hedges at points when I went inland a bit but it was certainly a struggle, I also had my work backpack on and my heavy coat which didn’t help the mileage! according to strava the wind was 20mph went for a walk into silloth in the evening too and that was not too bad, walking in has the wind in my face but heading back from the pub, a couple of pints later the wind pushed me back to the caravan

Just 3 from today, travelled back to Carlisle to head back to the caravan (on the bike, 23 miles!) colas 70 heading through with the logs The staycation express arrived in as I got there too been asked to work tomorrow now, annoyingly crewe to Carlisle which is what I’ve just done as a passenger!

Time to get back into the swing of things! rode from Carlisle to silloth earlier, 23 miles with a strong headwind all the way, the battery ran out after 20 miles because of the extra effort I had to put in so the last 3 was under my own steam!

Came home to find this on my lads bike this morning….. says he hit a bollard riding home from work on the cyclepath, must have hit it with some force, says he didn’t come off the bike which if so he was lucky given the damage to the bike, I genuinely thought a delivery truck or something must have backed into it outside his work to cause that damage without buckling the wheel We’ve tried to straighten them up so he can still get to work but it’s going nowhere, I’ve had to turn the fork round and spin the handlebars to at least the bend is facing forward as I had to get off and catch the train back to the caravan, not an ideal situation but nothing else I could do in the time, it’s going to be new forks whatever happens!

Some from tonight’s job, had to travel down from the caravan in silloth first playing about with the new camera on the phone, it has a wide angle mode which produces some pretty good shots wigton Carlisle And into crewe, after the trip from Carlisle I was looking forward to a coffee but it looked like the queue hadn’t moved for a while! Once again having a play with the camera, much better low light shots than before And a wide angle one And over to derby where I prepped my IM train, nice to be able to get through the fan end of the 37 very easily now I’m almost 6 Stone lighter, beforehand I couldn’t make it through this door especially with my big coat on but now I can breeze through 37175 was my loco for the night but pushing from derby 9802 DBSO leading for the trip to Bicester once we changed ends in derby station and into the station And into Bicester, should have been banbury but my relief was running late so I took it further south then headed back home from there Waiting for the taxi and that’s me until Friday now when I’m on the Iport job to Doncaster

Very nice, I drove that loco from didcot to Doncaster the day it came out of the paint shop, by the time I got to Birmingham I had a hell of a headache and was probably high as a kite off the paint fumes, well I didn’t think I was high off the fumes but the leprechaun sat in the 2nd mans seat kept telling me I was boy was she shiny though

Edit: loco now sold on Amazon

Bought Faye up to the caravan this week, left the other 2 at home with Dominic, she’s just happy chilling out without Hank chasing after her I think

Drove up to silloth last night to the caravan with Sarah and gethin, got here and the gas bottle has been nicked, went to reception and apparently were the 3rd one to report it We have a partially filled one left but it’s no point replacing the stolen one this late in season incase that goes walkies too, I’ve only come up here to fix the shower as the tap seized up, (done that with a new inner part from Screwfix) then I’m heading back Tomorrow afternoon to work one train the coming back again Tuesday morning for a few more days other than that it’s been raining in the night here but not now and it’s just cold and beeezy, off into maryport in a bit to get some supplies for the week as the family are staying here all week now Dominic started his new job last night in Dominos pizza in Nantwich and says he really enjoyed it, he’s had to drop out if his craft butchery course as he lost his workplace placement and has spent the last 3 months trying to find a butchers to take him on with no luck so he ended up looking elsewhere for something to do to have some money and dominos came back to him, he’s also been looking at IT apprenticeships and dominos said they can work his hours around any apprenticeship he does which is a bonus for him if he does get a place somewhere

@Rugd1022 When you arrive from the mainline do you discharge the train, run past the points, uncouple and run light back round the loop onto the rear of the train to depart back north?

Are 68s not AAR fitted, when chiltern swapped from 67s to 68s I don’t think they had to modify the stock to work with them? also Ive been traction conducted on IM stuff with MK2s running 68s top and tail

RHTT last night, rugby to kings norton then kings Norton to bescot Got a new iPhone yesterday which has a lot better camera than the previous one rugby walsall waiting for other service’s to pass as we were early and kings Norton Replenished and ready to roll again And into bescot A variety of liveries to be seen there and that was that, next job Monday IM from derby to banbury with a class 37 and a UTU

2nd lobster wagon made up, again using a broken box, not as good finish on this one as I rushed it but still happy with it I recon a rake of 6 would look just about right so I’ll have to keep my eye out for another 4 cheap BDAs I had 6 of them on a possession train last week along with some falcons so I can mix and match them with my Dapol falcons

Oh Eric, you and your upsetting the internet japes! pictures posted in this thread way before Eric’s tweet highlighted the capacitor issue and light bleed and others took to RMWeb to tell everyone, why is that no different to Twitter? agreed though it does seem like some people find joy in finding the slightest issue with the latest models, ok some models do have problems that need addressing but it’s when it gets down to the ‘it never carried that particular livery with those axle boxes’ argument for not buying a loco it gets silly!

When I was with colas we were told we had to go on a driving course for the vans, something to do with the FORS certification or something part of the course was to go out on a bike around town to see things from a cyclists point of view, at the time I was a ‘bigger boy’ as was another driver and I just had the image of those 2 big American fat blokes on the monkey bikes from the 70s! never did it in the end for some reason

a picture paints a 1000 words as the my say, had to collect my other bike from Halfords earlier and walked past the said roundabout I was coming from the same direction as the picture, left lane marked to go left, right marked to go straight on or right, nothing entering from my right at the time, positioned to the right of the centre line (about level with the door of the fiesta) I pulled into the roundabout and kept to the left of the straight ahead route so anything behind me could go right as there was slow traffic on the bridge ahead that I was going to merge into (as per the photos) I was just about level with the island with the sign on, positioned to the left (almost as if in the above picture I’d be exiting the roundabout behind the white car) when he pulled out from the exit going straight on (basically across my path) and hitting me with his front wing hope that gives you a better idea

I did think about that, plus other cars about with dash cams, too late now though

Well that was going to be my last night of the trafford park job but I got a ‘can you just’ call to see if I could work it again last night, had a bit of a result as my relief lives in winsford so I got off in crewe instead of nuneaton and was finished and in bed some 3 hours early! anyway to the pics, nice moon last night so a couple from trafford park and away it went from crewe next job is the RHTT on Saturday then an IM job Monday night derby to banbury with a class 37 and Iport on Friday as I’m going to the caravan for a few days rest

That’s me in from work, was day off but they were desperate for someone to work a train to Manchester and back to nuneaton, had a result as my relief lives in winsford so I got off at crewe some 3 hours early one of those days yesterday, got knocked off the bike on the way to work, all ok though, no damage to me on my way to work the day previous I got a call from my dad telling me he was in hospital after being rushed in in an ambulance that morning, anyway yesterday I found out he is going to have to have surgery as he has caustic cirrhosis of the gall bladder as well as having an infection and being dehydrated, he doesn’t do things by halves! definitely not going to be working tonight as I’ve lots to do when I get up, collect my car from the MOT station, bike from its repair in Halfords, new phone from EE in town as well as packing for a few days away in the caravan from Sunday

…..or bad spellers @Erixtar1992 has put some pics and a video up on Twitter of the APT coaches stripped down and the capacitor, I’ve not got one on order but I’ve got to say I’m disappointed by the look of the white pantograph on it from the pic I’ve seen, was the real thing white?

I dunno, exactly 100 mile from home, 25 mile a charge on the bike, so 3 full charges at 6 hours each on top of the 9 hours it says it will take, I’ll set off about November, should be there in time for the start of next years season!

@jollysmart thanks for that, I didn’t realise you could double click on the visit us page to open up another page rather than the drop down tabs, it was me being dense then but still not easy to find if you don’t realise! shame this weekend is the last one this year but it’s certainly now on my list of places to visit next year with the bike