big jim

photobucket has been down for a few months so I’ve lost my forum photos That I linked to on there so those phots are no longer showing thankfully! (or not, as I’ve also lost all the Photobucket pics from my down by the tracks thread)

I’m pretty sure I’ve not missed one yet!

I remember someone asking on the ‘modern car’ thread why I blank my number plate out when I post pictures on the forum, this is the reason why!

When I was with fastline there was a plan to move some coal out of the power station as it was either unsuitable for the plant or there was too much in store. iirc it was due to leave to be used at ratcliffe, we were going to bring loaded trains in then refill them using a digger/grab and then top and tail them out, at the time fastline had just laid their 56s up so I suggested we use those to bank the trains up it’s a heck of a climb from the bottom of the valley to the top of the line at Madeley Jn, the first bit is the killer as you have the 5mph across the bridge to get over before you can hit the heady heights of 20mph for the rest of the branch it’s the one line I really miss going along, hopefully if stuff is bought out by train GBRf may be involved and I may get down there again!

I mentioned it in the prototype for everything thread yesterday! I never understood the double heading restriction as a 66 is approx 120 Ton spread over 6 axles and the wagons directly behind which were subject to heavy axle weight restrictions were loaded to 100 ton with a shorter wheelbase and 4 axles. to top it off the stop board to enter the power station was just over the bridge so most of the time you came to a stop with 3-400 ton of train sat on the bridge too

Had a few days off and then last night got told my train was cancelled so ‘stay at home and keep your phone on’, great another tonight off to go and carry on with the layout 30 mins later, a phone call, ‘we’ve got a job for you if you don’t mind’, dammit thought I was going to have an easy night! The move was a light loco from Liverpool to Carlisle which was actually quite handy as I’m about due a refresh on the route from preston got a train to lime st before heading back out to edge hill and walking to the sidings, nice bit of variety there then it was up to Carlisle light engine with 66779 evening star, too dark for pics at tuebrook and not brilliant at Carlisle but once it arrived it joined another celeb 66 in London Underground livery for the trip to mossend after that it was a drive home

I thought it was a film about a ballet dancer

The first unit is currently sat in crewe down relief sidings ready for onward movement to Kirkdale depot my job tonight has just been cancelled So I was going to try and get on the train to route refresh to bootle jn and maybe have a look at the route from there to Kirkdale (I did it a few weeks back with a 37 on a test train anyway) but it’s obviously a very sought after train to get on and there are 3 drivers on it already so I’ll give it a miss! might pop down to the station later and have a look at it anyway

my wife flatly refuses to read magazines (and books) on her iPad/phone etc despite me having had a subscription to Readly for the past 3 years that she could use, ive even set her up a profile in my account but, no, “books are to be held and enjoyed, even the smell of an old book makes it special” according to her! I was a bit unsure when I first took the subscription out however I find that I read a lot of magazines on there that i wouldn’t normally give a 2nd glance at if I saw it on the shelf in smiths, mainly car mags but a few tech mags too, I originally took the subscription out with Readly as I subscribed digitally to Viz comic and the renewal price via their digital supplier (zinio) made Readly a more attractive proposition with the extra titles available for the monthly price i had a digital/paper subscription to BRM which I changed to an RMWeb gold membership and I still have a digital/paper subscription to Model Rail which i keep saying I’m going to cancel as I can access it via Readly too The amount of what I’d call obscure magazine subjects I’ve found through readly that I’ve gone “is that a thing” is mind boggling, I should imagine people say the same about our hobby! me and a friend who had just had a kid were laughing at one On there called “the green parent”, basically a monthly mag on bringing up kids the Camden hipster vegan non gender specific plastic free home schooling way, the front covers are enough to make any real world parent choke on their greggs!

I suppose the driver is effectively getting an RT3973HAW form, (heavy axle weight) and I would have thought the train should run as an x-ray (I.E 0X01) so it will alert the signaller that it’s restricted so have to be pathed accordingly Creeped rs c There are of course trains that run with restrictions that run as normal classifications, a couple I can think of off hand Are the bridge into the now demolished ironbridge power station was 5mph and trains Could to me not be double headed over it Whalley bridge has is a bridge that cannot have a loco hauled train pass another train of any sort on it due to weight restrictions, you normally have to sit at Furness vale when on an IM service for the Buxton train to arrive into the platform before the signaller will pull off for you

My sister, as well as the Astra SRI had a cavalier SRI too, about a H reg iirc, that was stolen twice as well! saw a stunning nova GTE the other week, looked completely standard, concourse style

Had the mini back on the dyno today with a custom bluefin ECU map loaded up and it’s now producing 218.6 bhp a rise of 8bhp over the stage 2 chip, comparing graphs it would appear that the car is fuelling a lot better at the top end compared to the stage 2 chip anywya I’m happy with 218 (for now) the final mod I’m at do is swap the supercharger pulley for a 17% one which may give me another 10-15 bhp (safely) 218 bhp is 50bhp above standard as it is!

This is why I keep a copy of the relevant rule page to hand! i’d say they should have been limited to 75mph as per the first block of speeds (ie 3 locos and any number of coaches) as the 2nd table doesn’t mention 3 locos as being allowed at the higher speeds with longer takes the PLP IM trains I sometimes drive are normally top and tail 37 with 4 coaches so they come under the bottom table

A bit more playing tonight I’ve used the bit I removed from the other side of the layout to fill the gap to the goods line and cut the top town board to fit around it imagination time again, cut back the high level bits to where the bridge will start Then had a look at the river bed/valley area which heads off to the corner of the layout, the orange line is where I’m thinking of cutting the top board, the river bed will be about 6 inches lower, the rear lines will run out in the open across there in the board but scenically I will make it look like it’s on a bridge across the valley again, just a mock up, the bridge will be a good 3 times as long as the one in the picture, I’ve not decided which way the narrow gauge line should go, should it horseshoe (along the same route as the orange line) or final mock up, castle Bachmann! The rear tracks will disappear again round the back of the layout, the middle height lines will run past a castle and through the town walls as per Conway, similarly the narrow gauge line can run through the walls, it may well start to climb from here toward the removable section ready to finish up higher than the main lines in the mill area!

Ive got that page of the rule book saved as a photo on my phone for quick reference, especially the bit about 4, 5 or 6 coaches over 100mph

By that do you mean the empty containers were loaded with coal while on the wagons or the loaded containers were Placed on the wagons at the collieries?

Both of them would be 60mph If the line speed is 85 or above OR 75mph if the line speed is 90 or above

I decided today was going to be the day to lay the first bit of track, I knew which bit it was going to be, the bit along the back of the layout that will be below the High level boards, I’ve put it at the back of the board so I can cut access holes In the boards against the back wall in case of derailments etc once that was in place I put some boards on top to try and arrange some tracks again, mainline at the back, small yard and depot in the middle and wagon repair shop at the front here is the clever bit, the steel sleepered line in the middle Of the yard is a reception/arrival line The reason it’s not a siding is so I don’t store any stock there because when the projector screen drops down it will drop down right onto that line! now it’s imagination time again, the reception line will join in from the mainline on the left of the picture, the line at the rear is the path of the mainline, inbetween those 2 lines will be a void where the low level line will pop out of a tunnel mouth for a short distance before going back into another and running below the town over rhe other side of the layout I’ve moved things back a bit so the top is narrower but it means the heritage line can fit on the existing board without needing to add a filler as per the last post back to the other side, the low level tracks will run near the wall and the high level tracks will win run on a plinth about 1.5 inch high (you can see the point leading to the goods line) This is the town area, imagine the bottom board being cut similar but slightly wider, and the top cut back slightly for the goods line board placed across the rear for buildings to be placed on the bottom area will be where the heritage line comes in but also where a 009 line will terminate heritage line narrow gauge line and another motivation picture to spur me on, Cemex 66 and 37025 on the mid level mainline, NSE thumper in the heritage platform and L&B narrow gauge loco arriving into the station, there will be a run round loop for the narrow gauge as well as a small engine shed Where the brick retaining wall ends a tall river bridge will start so may make a small wharf line under it with inlayed tracks, all part of the heritage site

I drove it from oxford to Doncaster the day it was released into traffic after painting, by the time I got to Doncaster I had a blinding headache as the paint smell was so strong!

no issues with it on my iPad, certainly worth the monthly subs as I am reading a lot more mags I wouldn’t bother with normally such as car mags easier to use than the the one that BRM comes on (exactly)

If you want to go really far with your weathering they why not add a Strap around the Cawoods container about 1/4 way up when loaded wagons arrived into Liverpool and it was discovered that a door had burst open en route (which was surprisingly a regular occurrence) we used to put a ratchet strap right round the container to hold the door shut while lifting off the wagon into the dock side, the door would only normally be open a couple of inches as the design of the wagon prevented it opening too far if course once the container was lifted off we had to clean the wagon down, removing the dropped coal, straight into bags, straight into the Montego van and straight across the Mersey to deeside to the fitters coal bunker, I don’t think he paid for coal for a good 10 years!

I suppose ‘dowlow’ would be the easiest to rename with its short nameplate? annoyingly of the 4 Hornby have produced I’ve driven 3 of them but don’t have any of them for my layout! I do think yet have missed a trick with not doing a GBRf one and redoing a colas one

The one in the pic was defiantly an 1800cc as for the cooper S I called Superchips for advice and they have sent me a set of tuning parameters for a car with an updated cam to try, it’s not one they normally sell but they said to program it onto the car (which I’ve done) and see if the power improves when it’s rolling roaded again on Tuesday

What we need is Kenneth Kendall and Wincy Willis to help us find some