big jim

No headlight lit I had that loco a few months back and the headlight was dodgy then too, the in cab indicator said it was on but it wasn’t, a quick thump of the light cluster with my fist and it soon came back on

Last night had a track laying job in smethwick waiting to leave bescot this morning at sunrise waiting to go home a view from the station of the work back there tonight to take the train back off site!

Another hour gets me to this stage got to drill the holes for lights, horn grille to add and handrails etc and of course masking off for the yellow end

Popped up to dagfields earlier and got an extra DRS livery BSO purely with the intention of taking it apart! About 5 years ago I bought a PH Designs DBSO conversion kit to do a NR DBSO, part of the kit is a jig to cut the windows it simply slots over the end of the coach and you drill/score the windows out, as well as scoring a new door on one side first up was removing the body and gangway Then the raised end detail so the jig can sit flush on the end and carefully cut out the windows, the Most complicated bit Is the new door where there is a windows on the drivers side And with the jig removed, prior to fling the holes a bit Blanked up the end with some plasticard, again to be filed back slightly at the edges, you can also see where the new score lines in the drivers side create a new door, the thin slivers of plasticard are to narrow down the existing window hole to suit the door Got to put a thin sliver of putty in the Small side window hole on top of the existing glazing then carefully rub back flush with the body before painting it as per a plated up window on the real thing That’s as far as I got before I had to go to work the original kit came with brass etched window frames and light clusters and a wonderfully executed fold up obstacle deflector all of which I’ve used on the original conversion and I’m in 2 minds whether to order another kit to get those bits or have a go at scratch building them out of plasticard in all not a bad start for an hours work in my opinion, other than the yellow end and patch painting the window blank and frames the original decals and paint can be left alone, might even do another NR one too!

The 4 kittens, In a play pan while their accommodation is cleaned Cecil, richard, Clive and Len, named after my wife’s grandad and his brothers all available for rehoming soon, the mother is still looking for a home too

It’s reference to my post on the previous page about the equipment on the front of 37219 that records the track i had a job one evening recording A couple of areas on the wcml with it but the engineer in charge of the machine didn’t have a cable to connect it to his laptop, fair dos though he knew his stuff and tried to lash one up from a couple of USB cables and he got it working when static but it didn’t work once on the move!

final night of railvac last night, different loco again but almost the same pic! trafford park later before a weekend of more railvac in smethwick this time then a week of Trafford park, hopefully with my trainee getting passed out for driving sometime at the end of the week

@adb968008 for pick ups I use DCC concepts wound axle type, exactly the same principal as yours but without the hassle of having to wind wire round the axle as I’m lazy! as for the lighting unit I got something similar from layouts 4u for my IM stock, built in capacitor for flicker free running and LED dimmer, About £3.50 each at the time

I’m sure we can start a rumour that they are used at night for gauging and track testing in the secret strategic reserve compound in Box tunnel

actually, thinking about it it was actually ‘The wirral’ that people used to say rather than Cheshire! and yes the colosseum, whatever it was called it was still a nightmare to get to from deeside when collecting her from work before the big changes at shotwick and the end of the M56

Ellesmere Port of course has ‘Cheshire oaks’ outlet village my wife used to work in borders bookshop on there and customers would give their address when for example ordering a book and say ‘Ellesmere Port, Cheshire’ and my wife would put ‘Ellesmere Port, Merseyside’ down for devilment!

......that doesn’t work if the accompanying engineer forgets to pack a usb cable for his laptop! Spent an afternoon recording various parts of the wcml only to lose the data!

any need to be so cryptic? edit: i assume you mean the 66s in the 2nd hand section at hattons...... https://www.hattons.co.uk/stocklist/preowned.aspx

Some from last night, change of loco at one end changing ends in Wolverhampton same again tonight

Got to say, just been watching the first episode on iplayer, thoroughly enjoyed it, the 24 hour trip round Bolton was great, crying laughing at Chris pulling Freddie’s undies down!

I was just about to put a ‘gif’ of that up too!

we only noticed the 50cc rule when looking for a bike, we had been looking at 125cc but then had to narrow the search down I won’t lie in saying I’m worried sick about him having a motorbike, especially one limited to 30mph, he’s just started an apprenticeship at a butchers that’s 10 mile from home in Audlem, the road there is a bit twisty but quite fast in places and I’m worried about him pootling along at 30mph with cars travelling somewhat faster behind him and catching up On the bends at least with a 125 you can do that little bit quicker (Up to 60mph) to keep up with traffic flow which is probably around the 45mph mark

mid you want an older female black cat there is always the mother, the vet seems to think she’s only around 2 years old herself she will be spayed etc before being re-homed, really affectionate, loves a good fuss, we seem to think she may have been hit by a car or something as her back end looks a bit twisted when she walks but it doesn’t seem to cause her any issues, shes going to be x-rayed when she’s back at the vets being spayed to be sure

You obviously prep them more thoroughly than I do then, never been down that side of the engine room on any 66! another thing with the euro spec 66s is as the cooler group is slightly bigger the gangway into the small cab is narrower by about 4 inches and the cab door opens outward, now I’m a big guy but I know of a driver who when being passed out on 66s had to be failed as he couldn’t get into the cab itself From the gangway!

I would hazard a guess at its limited to 12mph max therefore as pointed out it’s a power assisted pushbike, when you reach 12 mph power is cut to the motor, they are designed to assist the rider on hills and standing starts my lad has just turned 16 and has got his first motorbike (being delivered tomorrow) and can only have a 50cc, I looked at Proper electric Motorbikes for him and again you can get them that will do 30mph max but they like a normal motorbike require, mot, helmet, CBT training unlike the glorified bike above

They are all 5 door versions, smaller fuel tanks on them, low emission type Iirc they were delivered when GBRF was part of first group so we’re either metronet or Barbie livery when they first arrived (at the time I was working for fastline) and I drove most of them back then on hire, it’s not until the 6674X numbering series that things started to get mixed up as to which have 5 doors, smaller tanks, low emission as it was around then that GBRF started to get used European spec locos in and continued the numbering sequence, of course since then there are the ex schenker locos too, and only last month 66793 upwards have been delivered for rebuilding from abroad, to add confusion to those, 2 of them are lower geared 60mph machines!

A week of railvac this week in Tipton 66781 on one end and 66704 the other this is the railvac Changing ends at oxley And into Tipton waiting for the possession to be placed around us same again tonight

Our latest fosters, arrived last week, a mother with 4 identical 5 week old boy kittens so that’s 8 black cats with us ready for Halloween

Just realised I haven’t done anything with the layout since june! been playing about with the 009 bit, tried the L+B loco on peco set track curves which it didn’t want to go round so I’ve had to make the curves bigger to n gauge set track standard which it can handle, which means I’ve had to re think couple of areas, the corner bit of the layout has been bugging me trying to do something interesting with it, the latest plan is a spiral, I’ve taken the board out and replaced it with foam risers which raise the track from board level to about 13cm high, when I put the track down I’ll be adding DCC concepts power plates to aid the loco with the climb that’s about all I’ve done, a week away in work now so that’s it for a few more weeks with the layout I recon