big jim

Photobucket playing up again so I’ll upload these pics to the RMWeb server instead! 2 jobs in one today, first up the nuneaton to banbury job that I got on in Stoke to save a drive to nuneaton 66735 in Banbury on arrival then it was a taxi over to rugby to work a train back to trafford park! lots of stuff flying through the station, again decent shots considering how dull it was and some were doing 100mph+ and my train, 66717 ‘good old boy’ bit of time in crewe basford hall, freightliner 08 and ex anglia 90s nice to see trafford park in the daylight! back to Piccadilly for a train to Stoke for my car new social distancing seating arrangement! not quite got the hang of sausage baps and mandatory face coverings yet though! and once back at the car a face mask and avanti livery Pendolino Passed by another trip to longport tomorrow with some wagons!

Swapped the seats on the convertible for a nice set of leathers I got off eBay for £70! also highlighted the black stripes with a chrome strip along the edges as for the blue Mini the clutch slave cylinder went pop the end of last week, luckily it happened right as I pulled into my mates garage to see him about something else! spent some good money last week in a set of decent continental contact tyres for it, it certainly goes round corners now compared to the cheap winter tyres it had on the front

A real shame about warley but not unexpected regarding the layouts (and traders) that were booked for this year show attending next year, could the NEC maybe open up the extra space behind the usual hoardings in the hall and have both this years and next years layouts attend together or is that a logistical and planning nightmare from the warley guys point of view (thinking of extra accommodation and parking etc)

And here we go.... and with the fine detail picked out and modelu 3d printed me in the cab and on the dual gauge track decals of some sort to add, probably get some N gauge ones and adapt them

that’s what I’ve used, I’ve unmasked it now and rather than the black bleeding through it’s actually the black has lifted in places when I’ve taken the tape off, it’s nothing horrendous and it’s actually easier to ‘fill the gaps’ in the black with a brush than try and paint The light yellow over the black! only thing is I can’t find any black paint in my collection of tins, will have to pop to hobby craft later and get some

And so a 2nd coat of the orange and yellow then masked off for the black and on with that from a spray can this time, , leaving it overnight before removing the masking, saying that I did take a little piece of it off earlier and it has bled a little bit but nothing a touch up with a brush won’t sort out, hopefully the rest is ok might get back to doing a bit on the layout tomorrow too

Slightly off topic but reading the description of the Chevy impala above this made me smile ”the 5L engine produces 135bhp” as a comparison to newer cars my 2005 1.6 mini One (superchipped) produces 135bhp and my old 5L phaeton of the same vintage produced 305bhp! Another 15 years down the line and some of the latest ‘run of the mill’ smaller engined cars will leave those pair for dust And give better fuel economy

Some from today, first up rugby to bescot Avanti Pendolino passing through And into bescot then it was taxi to landor st to pick up the train I worked there last night on its return journey (minus the back loco) few days off now before the Trafford park job again

Stumbled across the latest lady Gaga album earlier, Chromatica, and it’s very very good, well worth a stream

Some from yesterday, first bit cancelled so went to bescot to help shunting and assess someone on class 66s Sweltering hot but a sign of what was about to happen appeared in the distance And darker it got 180 degree panorama looking from the bridge, blazing sunshine to the north and a tropical storm coming in quickly from the south And when it came down it was 10 minutes of unbelievable rain which ended as quick as it started, the strangest bit was the wind, it just suddenly started to blow like a cyclone and again ended just like that! Over to my train after the storm, dB and freightliner ready to leave too and over to landor st where it set off for Cheltenham with the sky lit up by lightning above the train off to rugby today to pick up a train to go back to bescot then go back to landor st afterward to pick the above train back up to return to bescot too!

Well I can’t find the missing 009 points, thing is i know when I bought them (beginning of feb) and none of my pics since that date have them on show, ie the triangle mock up shows the 2 existing points I had so I don’t think they even made it to the garage, annoyingly I do remember putting a parcel/letter ‘somewhere safe that I won’t forget’ at the start of the year but I can’t remember where that somewhere safe I won’t forget is! anyway a little side distraction project courtesy of shapeways 009 class 70 kato N gauge chassis And with its big brother ive already given it a prime and hand painted the colas yellow and orange on it by hand, got to rub it down slightly in places and reapply the colours with finer less course brushes, the synthetic ones I’m using are a bit coarse really, then it’s the fun of masking off for the black to go on

I did see you and your girlfriend, good video, horn sounded good eh?

Some from today, longport to derby with 66750, 66790 and 66791 First up train to stoke then back to longport passed LSL’s 87 in crewe, very nice indeed stoke DB 66 heading to Marcroft Ex anglia 156 To get back to longport 66791 Then a couple of vids courtesy of my dad @Big jim s dad (who has yet to post anything on here!) a very claggy departure! and I got off in derby And that was that!

Pics of the some of the work I’ve done the last couple of days layed the dual gauge track between the lifting section and gorge, it’s very tight but class 37 and 47 will go round ok, class 66 come off though it enters the gorge further back than planned so the bridge will have to be at a slight angle to the ironbridge but I think it will look ok the question is do I keep the bridge straight or have the curved bit at the end? im liking the curved section so the dual track can go through a tunnel as opposed to splitting before the tunnel mouth The next thing I’ve done is extend the board at the rear of the layout, because of the kitchen unit doors I’ve had to put the boards on top of the existing boards, screwed through to the existing batons The 2 boards are not screwed down properly yet and I need to add a frame, just a single screw in the corner to hold it in place Got to fill the corner below the new board, The curve I’ve cut is a 3rd radius where the preserved line will go round into a short tunnel Back to the narrow gauge track, this is the triangle above the mainline The right hand side of the triangle will be slightly lower than in the picture Annoyingly I’ve lost 3 narrow gauge points in the layout room somewhere for the triangle, I’ve got 3 more coming though, if I find the others I do have a use for them but I’ve had every cupboard and drawer open to try and find them but I’m totally at a loss as to where they are! the points arrived for the mainline crossovers today so I’ll get them in place over the weekend hopefully

Display cabinets back in Lidl £50

No pics today but a heads up for a working tomorrow, longport to Doncaster, 66750 hauling 66790 and 66791 (I’ve got it longport to derby)

The trains have been 8 coaches and are thankfully still really quiet, saying that I’ve been sitting in 1st class to ‘self isolate’ but standard is practically empty too be interesting to see what happens next Monday when shops are allowed to reopen etc

Some from this morning, trafford park job again but this time to didcot 66753 on the didcot avoider line Passenger train back to oxford, chiltern and GWR 165s And my train home, nice and simple trip, oxford to stafford then another to crewe same again tomorrow

This ‘Dapol Dave’ Who started the thread seems like a nice genuine guy, wonder if we will hear more from him as his posts seem to have gone quiet?

I did wonder if you were in this morning! always tomorrow but I may be heading straight through depending on where my relief wants to get on

Only one from this morning, 66753 in banbury on the trafford park to Southampton train, got it again tomorrow but taking it as far as didcot instead

funny how times change, 4 years since the original post and now available RTR!

just beware of wagons running away unattended from the fiddle yard onto the layout

Just watching it on open train maps and the local service is just setting off from Cov to nuneaton! The line being open will please the guy I relieve as he lives in Coventry so he can get off there in the morning, a few times it’s been diverted last minute and he’s had to get a taxi home from landor st!

Some from last night, first up rugby to bescot, was supposed to sit in rugby from 02:00 to 06:00 to wait for a possession to be lifted but managed to go a different way so got to bescot by 03:00 supposed to take the loco back to hams hall but discovered it was actually 3 others that needed taking so I fired them up and shunted them into position for an early dart to hams hall 66732 on the bulk ballast So much for an early path, decided at 03:30 to have a bit of a kip while the bulk ballast got ready to depart before me and woke up at 07:00 about 50 mins before I was booked to leave anyway! over to hams hall where it was a game of musical locos, moving them into positions for the various trains they were booked on Trafford park job tonight but for a change, crewe to banbury, should be nuneaton to banbury but pointless driving my car all the way there when the train stops 2 miles from my house!