big jim

Possession train from Leominster to crewe with 66751 Waiting to leave the possession at wooferton learned today to check whether the hot plate is turned on in the loco before I put my hard hat on it!

Just has my insurance renewal for my minis and Touareg, it’s stayed pretty much the same as last year, obviously all the mods are declared on all the cars, less than £950 for the 3 cars which is pretty good In my opinion as for the cooper S I’ve taken the induction kit off and refitted a modified standard air box, I found that the induction kit pipe and filter was getting warm from the heat under the bonnet so I’ve done a modification which replicates a JCW airbox, the cone filter is basically now housed within the airbox using a Wickes drainpipe adapter! The other end of the adapter is in the opposite end of the airbox poking through a 3’ hole into the bulkhead below the scuttle vents to get a better cold air flow into the engine also changed the intake pipe for a silicone version

Only one pic from yesterday made it in before darkness, we went for a drive out of the site last night and you get a cracking view of the place from the main road above the place

I’ll be using the direct link setting from now on

That’s a faff having to remove the back end of the link each time direct link actually embeds the picture as I go along (as the old software did with the likes of YouTube videos) so I’ll most likely use that as it’s always shown a link while I’m writing and a few times I’ve posted the same pics twice, at least I can see what pic I’ve put down now with direct link

The bottom pic that is showing is a direct link to the image on photobucket, the others are IMG links, however all my other pics on RMWeb are IMG links to photobucket and they are showing fine throughout the site, just the latest batch in that post that are not showing

Anyone else just seeing links not pics above (tick agree if so, save cluttering up the thread)

Did the security man ask what you were up to, saw him heading your way in his vehicle! some shots from me [URL=https://app.photobucket.com/u/s-type-driver/a/b6809292-7e7b-4af5-82a0-5f18099c639b/p/8de63bef-8757-414f-9b22-6af8a71c42fa][IMG]https://hosting.photobucket.com/images/y163/s-type-driver/4A1878BA_C03C_49F8_9AF2_6A974240687A_IMG_4931.JPG[/IMG][/URL] [URL=https://app.photobucket.com/u/s-type-driver/a/b6809292-7e7b-4af5-82a0-5f18099c639b/p/7fa2805b-5485-4d92-aff0-019515d35eed][IMG]https://hosting.photobucket.com/images/y163/s-type-driver/86482D72_703A_4A73_8ED9_9352EED26946_IMG_4932.JPG[/IMG][/URL] [URL=https://app.photobucket.com/u/s-type-driver/a/b6809292-7e7b-4af5-82a0-5f18099c639b/p/08c2d07c-d0e2-45ab-9c5c-02cc7175592c][IMG]https://hosting.photobucket.com/images/y163/s-type-driver/D0C4A577_B790_46D6_BE7C_2B412D5DAA58_IMG_4934.JPG[/IMG][/URL] [URL=https://app.photobucket.com/u/s-type-driver/a/b6809292-7e7b-4af5-82a0-5f18099c639b/p/e7bf31c0-26a9-407a-8f00-96bff3253cb5][IMG]https://hosting.photobucket.com/images/y163/s-type-driver/CC2A5D3A_88F1_4489_BB35_A098B7D19BD6_IMG_4936.JPG[/IMG][/URL] And finally a panorama looking back toward the M1 and Ratcliffe power station [URL=https://app.photobucket.com/u/s-type-driver/a/b6809292-7e7b-4af5-82a0-5f18099c639b/p/31857b9a-f641-4947-acc3-62bf70b458ae][IMG]https://hosting.photobucket.com/images/y163/s-type-driver/CCEF3D92_9F79_46CB_9CD3_ADB783E03E3C_FullSizeRender.jpg[/IMG][/URL]

It’s certainly an impressive terminal, it’s almost as if it’s been cut into the mountain side, if you put a roof over it you could almost have a James Bond villain hideout! rhe sidings are long enough to take a whole intermodal train without splitting it, ours last night was 2200ft long to give you an idea of the size the branch line up to it is also impressive, on an embankment all the way, About 2 mile long at one point probably about 10m high, an arrival and departure loop again able to hold a full length intermodal train, bear in mind 12 months ago the whole lot was fields, the line and terminal are both completely new bits of railway 66737 waiting to depart and a few hours later, into didcot

If you go somewhere near the branch itself then you will get a freightliner departing, a schenker going for fuel and our train arriving too, all probably within an hour or so, there looks to be a good low down spot Looking back at the curve off the mainline off main st lockington, possibly a footpath off church lane that goes up the hillside juts before the terminal, I saw someone on a pushbike on it earlier

My delivery from gaugemaster master turned up this morning, so that’s a full rake of 4 to put behind One of my Drs 37s I was having a look at pictures of the real BSO coaches livery wise and it looks pretty much identical to the one on the DBSO, I’ve got a PH designs brass overlay jig for cutting the end and side windows for a DBSO so I may have a go at converting the BSO as it should be doable without a repaint

Only one from today ,rugby to bescot with 66755 and 66702 too and tail busy week coming up, off somewhere new that I had a Sneaky look at Earlier in the week, red pen out time for a week of trains into the new East Midlands gateway terminal working a train I pick up from landor st and Take back as far as didcot

I started using ebay postage (Packlink/Hermes) since the start of the pandemic and will still carry on doing so mainly because of the lack of queues and extended time’s I could drop stuff off, the nearest collection point is the local petrol station, touch wood everything has arrived intact, probably about 40-50 parcels in total and cheaper than the Royal Mail fully insured service not very often praise is given to Hermes but can’t fault them the last 6 months!

Yeah he’s alright, I sometimes forget he’s 70 years old! He runs rings round me most of the time when it comes to manual work!

Not bad but joking apart we must have both got a bit cold yesterday, stupidly working on bare brick, my dad got a chill and had to go and sit in the warm for a bit and I ended up with what I can only describe as locking fingers, it was like a really bad cramp that just locked my index finger and thumb solid, I could only move it by using my other hand to free it, absolute agony until I warmed up! After the job was done we then remembered we had a big piece of cardboard in the garage waiting to go to the tip!

the manifold took a couple of hours and that was only because id watched my mate fit the manifold that broke a couple of weeks back, otherwise we would have struggled trying to get the new one in, we had to remove the heatshield to do it but on the whole it was simple enough, didnt have to start unbolting things like the anti roll bars etc, without the heatshield you could twist it round the ARB spolier was a 20 min job, the hardest part being working out how to use a rivnut tool with poor instuctions!

New spoiler on the cooper S today, another eBay bargain my dad came over and we swapped the blowing manifold over this might explain why the manifold was blowing, as I held the top part while my dad Undid the bottom it just snapped straight off from the manifold and on with the high flow janspeed manifold i also took the k&n typhoon induction kit off and replaced it with the standard airbox and air intake which I’ve modified with a k&n filter mounted inside, it should give me a cooler air intake Took it out for a spin and it sounds really nice, not excessive when driving normally but a nice rasp when you put your foot down

i thought rails had stopped dealing with Hornby and cancelled everything New including pre orders? https://railsofsheffield.com/news/articles/3528-important-statement

One for the modern image modellers, Hereford models, a selection of used Bachmann 66s £75-£85 all weathered, the Ews is renumbered too, the best bargain in my eyes is the colas 67 for £95! still some Dapol class 22s for the £85 mark as per my last visit a couple of months back

Just the one from today and a video, 66752 departing Hereford with the train to Eastleigh Trafford park tomorrow night then a solid week of it next week too!

My local shop could only supply me one DRS open coach of my ordered 3 (along with the brake end) Hereford models were also sold out of opens as of 15:00 today but I managed to order a pair of R4966 off gaugemaster At 15:30 today after speaking to a nice man called Kevin to check they had them to hand, he informed me they have 15 left in stock after my order BE QUICK!!

Keep your WhatsApp on about 14:30 and I’ll message you any bargains!

live only done the hindlow line a couple of times during the beast from the east with a pair of beilhack Ploughs, back then the old XYZ sidings we’re still in place and the track work was shocking, I’ve yet to see the new set up, I keep telling my boss I’d like to learn to Buxton as I already go as far as peak forest tunnel at chiller and I regularly work the new HS2 flow to washwood heath i seem to remember that when I did the snowploughs the subsidiary signal to take you round the front of the box onto the passenger line was still in place, the small issue of no track Beyond the points being the sticky point, agreed it’s a missed opportunity when putting the new sidings in not to reconnect the 2 lines direct, for us to plough the both Freight and passenger lines it meant when coming from peak forest direction And doing a turn back move in the sidings to head back into the station then Change ends again to head towards dove holes Regards the hazel grove to Buxton line there is a bridge just north of Whaley bridge that you are not allowed to have loco hauled trains pass other trains on, when I’ve worked IM trains to Buxton we have been held at Furness vale While the passenger service unit cleared the section in the opposite direction Before he would let us proceed, I wouldn’t fancy getting a train from a stand there with any weight behind it, granted they would normally be empty going toward Buxton but once they start to get the spoil from HS2 heading the other way to fill one of the quarries up there it would be a struggle!

Again, just a couple, still covering sickness, MOD crewe to Leamington which was light loco and actually continued to Eastleigh without stopping at kineton as there was no traffic to be added I should end up with it again in the morning to Donnington near telford 66752 I then got asked to do an extra move at the end of the job hams hall to landor st with 66789 which wa s then carrying on to Gloucester to pick up some vehicles to take to sims metals in newport landor to telford then Hereford tomorrow (best part of that job being I get to go to hereford models before my train home!)

oh yes, brilliant piece of music