big jim

You run round in Tyseley, go along the good and into the old caledonian yard then back the train into the unloading facility 2 from today, thought I was day off but checked last night and I was booked to drive a road learning loco over Cannock chase, the driver said he was only booked to do one trip so I thought I’d have a nice short day, got back to bescot then another driver came over and said he was on the 2nd trip so I had to fire up the loco for another trip, then I discovered there was a 3rd driver due as well and that was my day done, then a 4th driver got in touch for the 4th trip that had no conductor driver assigned to it so I ended up taking that train out too! if I don’t know Walsall to rugeley like the back of my hand after that I never will, got 2 more trips on it Monday too with 2 more drivers who need to review it! bescot Rugeley East Midlands gateway tomorow

He couldn’t do it so here are his pics Walking up to get my greggs (low fat) order in!

Yeah he was there, he came down to see the 196 units not me! If he can figure it out he’s going to post his pics up in the thread later Shrewsbury panorama shot

Yeah that was me

Of a fashion!

You could Just get a dremel on the non working motion and completely remove it, add some tramway side skirts to it maybe to hide the chassis im watching that now!

I actually quite like that!

I also had visions of herds of wildebeest sweeping majestically across the plains between the arches!

When I first saw that image of the hanging gardens of Babylon, sorry water orton arches a few months back it made me think of this.... expectation VS reality

Please tell me this isn’t an April fool joke!

Only one from today too, small Heath ballast again to crewe

Just one from this morning, a quick road learning trip to small Heath for the Stone train, running 2 1/2 hours late though! 66775 doing the honours On it tomorrow on my own small Heath to crewe

Revisiting this thread, we’ve decided to sell the bike as he didn’t get his CBT done before lockdown 2 and turns 17 in 2 months so will be learning to drive so it’s up in ebay anywya went to start it today, nothing again, wouldn’t fire up, so it was spark plug out and discovered no spark, got a multi meter on the battery then did a bit of fault finding only to find only 1V going to the coil pack, had to remove the tank to get to it though, cleaned it up and tidied up the earths all over the bike incase it was that Then i thought about the voltage regulator and maybe that was dodgy, ended up calling my dad who called a friend who is into motorbikes to seek his advice, I also messaged my mini mechanic who’s into motorbikes too for his advice, had been a good 2 hours working on it, was quite pleased with myself that is managed to strip it down to be honest as I’d never done it before, then I noticed a big red switch on the top of the handlebar........ needless to say I felt a bit stupid when I realised I’d left the engine kill switch active! put it all back together and it fired up first time (with a bit of easy start)

Just 2 from this morning, 66778 in rugby, first time I’ve driven this one I think mans in Bescot GB have spent a bit of money renewing the yard lights for white LED type as well as doing some demolition, the Shunter’s cabins are all being quickly demolished as was the signal box which stood at the top of the hump on the down side, it was there last week and now, there it was gone! the Shunter’s cabin was behind the skip and the signal box in front of the LOC cabinets in the middle distance

Not much progress recently as I’ve been too busy in work and playing with car stereos etc but today had a tidy up in the garage, put freshly acquired locos and boxes away in the storage cupboards (no room to display the locos unfortunately!) That gave me a bit of space on the layout to do the drop down bit for the 009 tracks Hopefully be able to do a bit in there over the next few weeks if I get a chance

Change of loco on the rail miller yesterday stafford 66720 66785 at the other end then down to nuneaton to change ends again and off to Sutton park to work short job tonight, rugby to bescot then a little bit of variety next week, small Heath HS2 job, MOD and more possessions

Wheel swap today, took the black standard alloys off and gone for a set of Bola B1s in gunmetal

My wife has this donated today for her ‘hidden bookclub’ very much of it’s time I think looking at the recipes!

Walked past the old works today and noted that the front garden walls of the new houses they have built appear to be made from bricks recovered from the old factory end also noticed the new retail park they have built in the site of the old north shed appears to have a perimeter wall made from recovered bricks from the final standing wall of the shed

Some from Thursday night/Friday morning rail milling south of rugby overtaken by a truck at Watford gap! and back to Stafford where I got relief back on it tonight on Sutton park

One of the very few (of not the only) time it worked in blue before getting the colas treatment and named ‘merl Evans’ I worked it on the old Dalby test track not long after I took that pic and drive over to meet it there

banger blue 37 on a test train anyone?

Some from yesterday, Chester to Liverpool tuebrook sidings Chester went via helsby and the Halton curve to Runcorn then into the wapping sidings and back into tuebrook, too dark for pics though, then got a train from lime st Milling machine tonight south of rugby

I’ll try!