big jim

Mine was paid last Wednesday and arrived today with lots of updates from DPD in between

Went to seascale today for an afternoon by the beach, Couple of trains went by comprising of 156 units a couple of units head north towards st bees and ultimately Carlisle

Don’t want to go off topic but I lost both plates of my ‘spirits of the lakes’ despite a dab of PVA as recommended, it’s probably due to handling as they are low down on the loco right where your fingers go when putting it on the track!

Some from yesterday, had to go back and collect my car from basford hall, 90014 was sat in the sun this time and over to bescot for my train to Bicester which we had to run round in West Ruislip! colas 66 and 70 freshly painted ex ews 66 now in drs colours 66717 on our train and running round in West Ruislip too dark for any more pics of the rail drop, It then went back to bescot to stable that’s it for the weekend, trafford park all next week

Didn’t bother with Trafford park pics but got a few this morning when I got back to basford hall to pick my car up 90014 Ex anglia 90s (and 90050 lurking) older livery freightliner 90s rail drop tonight in princes Risborough

Couple from last night at trafford park

Some from last night, rail drop at Trentham, outside stoke on trent, first we had to go to hams hall to drop off a poorly loco and return with a good one for our train bescot hams hall back to bescot with 66717 after the rail drop And back into bescot at 05:30 Trafford park tonight but picking it up in crewe instead of landor st due to the finish time this morning

I really need to get Northampton on my route card as the job with the 47s regularly comes up uncovered (Northampton to Leicester) and I can’t do it, I sign as far as daventry (drift) so it’s really not much to get the short distance to Northampton and kings heath depot in, unfortunately I’m so busy at the moment it’s a struggle to try and get a couple of days spare to do it

someone posted in line It would be flying over Silloth-on-Solway this afternoon, when I checked on Flightradar24 it had already gone over and was over barrow

I messaged Mick earlier saying in my opinion it needed a yellow end, something didn’t look right to me but that wrap round window is spot on, that’s what was missing! maybe a splash of red on the lower nose cone instead of a red bufferbeam

Some from this evening, shotton to shrewsbury shotton, thought I’d better get some pics of the 150/2 as they will so be replaced by 230 units And climbing away toward hawarden And another dropping in to the high level station And in came my train, 66715 In Wrexham I parked up in the local meadow And admired the flowers And into shrewsbury lots of different types of signals to be seen in one shot (even a lower quadrant in the distance!) and that’s it until Monday night

You say lack of fidelity but from normal viewing distances I can’t see any huge issue with the Bachmann loco quick quiz, this is a mixture of hattons and Bachmann 66s, identify the hattons examples (of which I’ve been very lucky getting good running examples)

Funnily enough I was listening to the Ned’s the other week too, one of my fave bands of the early 90s along with the wonderstuff they are still going and was also tempted to go and see them in Stourbridge before COVID put the kybosh on that idea

Nice sunset pic some from last night/this morning, crewe to Leamington spa light engine where it went on to kineton 66769 a nice little surprise not ling after I got on the loco, a brand new WMT 196 unit and into Leamington 172 units that’s it until Thursday evening now

I’ve got one edge of my hinged section secured at the moment, might try and get the other secure this week if I get a chance, I’ve done something a bit different and used clear resin to secure the tracks at the join, obviously it’s tracked down but I made a little moat and filled the gap between the boards with cling film covered card then filled the resin up to the rail top In the outside and sleeper top in the 4ft, let it harden for a few days (could have checked it after an hour to be honest) then got a dremel across the rails on the join seems to have stayed secure so far And with the rail cut and open go to do similar in the opposite side too

Some from yesterday 66735 passing through leicester with an Eastleigh to Mountsorrel train iport with 66777 and 66421 66777

How weird is that!

Doing it with the family the end of august, the little un is really excited already

Some from last night, conducted the sleeper between rugby and stafford via the west mids and bescot caught a Pendolino to euston 92 on the blocks having bought the sleeper train in and the loco for the night, 92043 never been on a 92 before, they look complicated in the cab, lots of lights and buttons! and into crewe and off it went Iport today

It also looks like a massive chimney on the 66!

2 trips rugby to hams hall yesterday as the trains were going via the west mids and Sutton park 66754 on the first one And a filthy 66779 on the 2nd one something different later, conducting the Caledonian sleeper via the west mids just booked a trip for the family in it too, crewe to Inverness then we are going to hire a car for the return journey over 4 days via fort William, oban, Glasgow and Dumfries and Galloway back to our caravan in Cumbria, looking forward to the break

I phoned network rail control and explained that the train wouldn’t be running that day and we would be losing a days recording as we were being denied access to it by platform staff didn’t take longer for the phones to glow red hot and we were soon allowed on the platform

seems like they may have got the work experience guy to glue the axle covers on

more like, how long is the link!! my own bit of eBay madness last night, well more of an annoyance, saw a Bachmann army VGA wagon I fancied on the south Devon railway ebay shop that with the picksmallbiz code would have took £5.50 off it to £22, clicked on buy it now and for whatever reason the transaction went through without giving me the chance to put the code in so I ended up paying full whack for it, also forgot to go through TopCashback which would have been another 27p off, at least all the money goes to the railway!

They run from Doncaster to humberstone road in Leicester where it runs round and heads back north when departing south the down fast is bi-directional for a short distance Towards sileby where they cross over to the fast or slow