big jim

Some from today, had to get to shotton and had to go via liverpool and bidston Lime st underground station, a soon to be replaced 508 unit I changed trains at hamilton square and very nearly missed my connection as I didn’t realise there were 2 platforms heading out toward the Wirral and I was on the wrong one! anyway got the train to bidston with seconds to spare, and into another soon to be replaced unit Off at shotton And I rolled my train, 66707 up front which is quite appropriate as it’s named ‘Sir Sam Fay, Great Central Railway’ and the high level line through shotton was a great central line, (the box at Dee marsh is actually an LNER design I think) It then went all wrong, track circuit failure at chirk Kronospan ground frame so I couldn’t go anywhere until the P way came out and clipped the points so I sat in cross newydd loop for almost 2 hours And off at hereford, just as the train home left from the other platform and that was that, derby to hither green tomorrow night via the ecml

EDIT: posting went funny while uploading!

thats only found one ETRMS/ECTS fitted lines, the Buxton line isn’t fitted

Some from the other night, bescot to landor st with an engineers train bound for Gloucester, royal Scotsman 66 up front should have been in yesterday doing small Heath to bescot but @Marcus 37ended up being stuck in that as I wa s needed today to conduct a cement train from shrewsbury to hereford, I’m actually headed to shotton to relieve it there as the other driver lives in Prestatyn so he can get off early, only thing is the Chester to crewe line is shut so I’ve go to go via liverpool and bidston! Next week is a week working away in london on IM trains out of hither green, the usual turn, visiting Hastings, eastbourne, Brighton, Bognor, seaford etc, the one night it’s not running I’ve been put on the possession in kings cross as site driver, should be a good week if somewhat long, not home until next Saturday!

I know a chiltern driver took a london midland gangwayed 172/3 unit to Marylebone when they were first introduced and being tested The 196 units I’m involved with testing take MU (multiple unit) speeds as opposed to SP speeds

There are a couple of SP speed restriction board on a couple of curves on the chilterns at high Wycombe and aynho jn that don’t apply to certain sprinters! if your in a 165/168 etc the speeds don’t apply but if you have a ‘sprinter’ with a centre gangway such as 156 or 158 then you must go at the slower SP speed as there are signals on the curves that are obscured by the centre gangway as for HST speeds, after Solihull heading toward Marylebone then the loco hauled chiltern services (class 68 and previously 67) adhere to the HST speeds

Not sure, I certainly don’t want to be finding out the hard way, it is still connected to the main line wires here we go again, another ballast drop bescot I was booked to go to princes risborough to change ends again but the possession was being taken north of Bicester so I stopped there and changed ends as there was nothing behind heading south, I waited for the last northbound service to pass then entered the possession and once done it was onward to banbury for relief Short job tonight, bescot to Tyseley

But how do I wire it for DCC?

aaah, i see what you mean, i didnt see/comprehend the word "overhead" in the original post! i wont lie, ive never noticed the OHLE there before, if you look at the pic below it it only runs just past the points into No1 road so you wouldnt get far down there either

Not quite sure what you mean? You can go both ways from it from both ends

Same but different last night 66750 this time Into risborough then once done it was into Bicester to exit the possession and relief at leamington MOD train tonight

Some from Monday night/wednesday morning, ballast drop between princes risborough and Bicester brand new double slip fitted in Bescot Leading loco tail end charlie Into risborough to change ends And once the job was done away to banbury for relief same job tonight but dropping ballast a bit further north nearer to Bicester north

My mate has a full access mini code reader that can reset all the counters and sensors so I’ll get him to go that, I may see if he can swap the cat too but he specialises in petrol minis so it would be a first for him I think, I can’t see it’s a difficult job to physically get the cat off as it’s just 2 bolts and flared flanges both ends but it looks a pain to actually get to! This is what I like to see too, £45 worth of diesel and over 500 mile range!

do you think it will have been mapped out by the previous owner going by the state of that exhaust!! i may be wrong the innards mught be in it but its certainly been cut open at some point which is also an MOT failure as its showing signs of being tampered with the replacement cat/dpf combo ive got has the pipes and rubber connectors coming off it that goes to that sensor, its just a case of getting it booked in to have the cat refitted, dont know how much of a job it is but looking in from the top of the engine its beyond my capabilities on my ramps thats for sure!

The exhaust was basically the front flanged bracket, mild steel pipe where the resonator pipe was then bits of the original bent exhaust rewelded into a straight through pipe! it actually sounded no different to the normal exhaust, certainly no louder anyway, the cat appears to have been fiddled with too, certainly had the bottom cut off at some point and re-welded (badly) so I suspect that’s just a hollow piece now and the innards weighed in at a scrappy! I’ve got the replacement on the shelf to fit between now and MOT time in December

We had a nice thing happen this weekend, the rescue had a cat in who stayed at our house who despite searching no one came forward to say the was theirs, well cared for but not chipped, absolutely lovely temperament, loved a fuss, chilled with the other cats, no hissing or fighting with them (Lola on the other hand was having none of it!) i tweeted a ‘do you know this cat’ post which in turn was tetweeted by various high profile local people then Saturday night someone came forward to say he belonged to them and had been missing since January when he escaped the house, a few checks and yes he was the missing cat called Charlie basically he belonged to an old guy who had to go into a home and the grandson had taken him on, booked him in to be chipped but in the meantime he escaped and never came back, looking at where he was found he was most likely trying to get home to the old guys house! he was reunited with the grandson on Sunday, he’s now chipped too, a happy ending all round

Done a bit on the new mini today, I happened to mention to a fellow driver I’d bought a R56 mini and he said he had loads of bit for them in his garage as He had one 5 years ago and took the bits off when he sold it so I ended up buying it all of him I also got hold of a standard exhaust and bumper so swapped them over too from the peashooter before..... the exhaust was shocking! and after..... new bumper, exhaust, rear tail lights, headlights, indicators, driving lights sprint boost button, JCW strut brace Waiting on the fog light surrounds drying as I’ve painted them black, also getting a black grille with spotlight brackets ordered and am waiting on a black boot handle as well arriving from eBay, got to send the chip off to be reprogrammed to my car so hopefully get that back by the end of the week too

@Jack374 it was a heavy train, 2200 ton and 2200 ft long too! the train I had northbound also had the ecofrets in it (see the first pic) they are a strange wagon, initial break seems to do nothing then once you go past that they bite quite quickly

Just 3 from today, hams hall to toton toton then it was onto a southbound service from toton back to hams hall where I sat for 4 hours before heading off to rugby with it and finally into rugby

apparently they are within tolerance but they are shockingly bad to see out of, the biggest issue I found was in New St where if the platform is on the right hand side so are the signals, including ones 1/2 way down the platform and I was struggling to see them, in fact the final 196 pic in the thread is taken from roughly below one of the platform signals, to get an idea, can you see my drivers window in the pic? Imagine that the other way round, could I see the signal? another example is coming round the curve from small Heath to bordesley jn, you pass over the magnet (which is less than the standard 200ft from the signal) and it’s a good coach length before you actually see the signal! still, someone from the unions has signed them off so what do I know! anyway one from today, one for the weatherers out there! back in tomorrow, hams hall to toton, toton to hams hall, hams hall to rugby!

Spotted this butchers earlier near Walsall/Sutton coldfield It’s the simple things that make me smile

197s cancelled Wednesday night so a nice night in my own bed then last night it was a simple small Heath to crewe job small Heath Run round and ready to head to Tyseley running round again in Tyseley And into crewe nice little bescot to crewe later today then an intermodal or two on Saturday

Me too, I thought I was special anyway I replied and now I’ve got to send my bank details to a Nigerian Prince to be guaranteed to be first on the list for new releases

Only one from last night, same unit in new st on the first round trip