big jim

Had a quick play about with the layout earlier, I’m going to widen the board below the wall cabinet so I can run 4 tracks along it as well as an embankment for a 009 track! This board was up against the wall originally but I’ll cut a completely new piece Out and Hopefully that piece will move across to another corner of the layout to allow me to add a heritage line mocking it up I recon I could have a 2 coach run round, when I build the layout properly the platform will curve round toward the tunnel entrance, the line will then go under the shed and pop back out toward the centre of the rear wall before terminating on the opposite side of the layout in a ‘wharf’ type area The station can then have a double slip at one end to release the loco and also allow access to and from the main line Then as a bit of a motivation pic to spur me on, this is what I’d like to achieve, Harry needle 07 on the heritage line, my big pink one heading light engine through the station while GBRf 60095 returns RHTT wagons, Arriva wales 121 waits in the bay to depart for the high level mill terminus, colas 56 on the BP tanks in the terminal while the northern belle waits in the loop on the high level side

A pic taken by my dad of the penyffordd train heading through Gobowen

Last night was Wolverhampton to bescot via oxley to run round wolverhampton run the loco round Over to oxley to run round again and into bescot for stabling and home, that’s it for a few days, road learning loco on the Sutton park line then first job of 2020 will be a class 37!

Try telling that to the youth of today, they won’t believe you

Your upsetting and offending me by bloody going on about it! edit: sorry no wink emoji!

I believe there was a test run just before Christmas, shouldn’t be long now

On the real thing the ‘lug’ with the chain on is the top of the bogie, in an ideal world it would be the same on the model but it probably wouldn’t go round anything but prototypical curves

Couple from last night and this morning, possession in Wolverhampton didn’t move at all for the whole night as there were 2 railvac’s working behind the train back to it again tonight to take the train off site back to bescot

had a good day today, we were out until gone midnight Christmas Eve visiting my stepdad who is staying with my sister and brother in law this Christmas, only 25 mins away near Chester, my sister lives in LA so it’s nice for her to be in the uk and it’s my stepdads first Christmas without my mum so especially nice to see him because we were back late the kids didn’t get up til gone 10am and we ended up having dinner around 4pm which again was loads better than getting up early and scoffing grub at 12 then sat eating nibbles all afternoon had a bit of a kip and am getting ready to go into work in an hour for a possession turn near Wolverhampton until 09:00 in the morning

if you can last until the 27th trident trains will be open, just had a look and dagfields (where it is located) is closed Boxing Day other than that you can try ringing hobby goblin in burslem as google says they may be open, topp trains in Stafford is closed according to google

I’d just like to add that the Deceased driver was a very well respected work colleague of a couple of forum members so please bear this in mind while posting that they have lost a good friend in a tragic accident

Oh you beauty! Defiantly going to get one ordered early in the new year, another one of my regular engines, even failed with it over the ladder outside Longsight depot blocking all the lines! llandudno sheffield

Apologies for the lack of updates, photobucket has gone down and I can’t get photos to upload however I’ll have a go with the forum upload feature instead a few from last week shrewsbury to crewe with a stone train I then went over to basford hall to work an MOD southbound as far as Leamington spa next day it was a cement to Clitheroe where after loading I left in the siding for the next driver back in on Christmas Day night and Boxing Day night on a possession in Wolverhampton

Yes the staff are the same, all tupe’d over so they know what they are doing, some good, some bad! No different than when I was with FNW, when we swapped to wales and borders, and then Arriva wales 7 weeks later it was nothing but a new uniform for us on the front line!

Just has my first trip in avanti and I won’t lie I was dreading it with it being a couple of days before Christmas but all was good! I booked the tickets via virgin back in October, 1st class treat for my wife’s birthday, the table seats I booked after moving my original allocation were still allocated to us which is what I was bothered about as the original 4 were separate single seats, the ticket was an advance 1st class family ticket which cost £100 on the return trip we got to Euston just as the station was evacuated for a suspicious package but it was reopened after a 10 mins wait outside, no huge issue as we left on time the return journey was going to be a 2nd class trip That when pre-booked cost me £26 but avanti are on the Seatfrog app so I bid on a first class upgrade and won 4 upgrades for £80 total, the auction finishes 30 mins before the train departure so once I won it it was straight into the 1st class lounge to abuse, sorry, use the facilities before boarding the Train into reserved seats, a nice bit of food (sandwiches), hot and cold drinks and snacks etc first time I’ve used Seatfrog and quite impressed by it, had I bought the 4 single tickets there and then they would have cost me £390 the biggest noticeable difference since avanti have taken over is the drab uniform, not that I was looking out for anyone but during the wait to be allowed into the station there was a distinct lack of the familiar red coats milling around to help, the staff were there and helping people but were a lot harder to spot in a crowd in their new dark blue jackets

As I’ve put quite a few pages back you can get a class 66 driver from modelu in various poses

Now that I do like! The yellow ends look better than the pre production sample, I may have to get one of those

I now have a vision of you sat there like the girl off the exorcist!

David: your comment “if your resignalling you really want ATP” If that’s the case then why was it only limited to use on the GW and Chiltern main lines before being dropped in favour of TPWS and now to an extent ETCS when I learned ATP (Chiltern) we were told it was dropped on the grounds of cost compared to TPWS and the system still in use is a cut back version of what was originally envisioned for the whole country, I.E the arming wire is only on fitted on approach to signals whereas it was originally planned to run continually in fitted areas which I should imagine would have been a huge expense in both fitting and maintainance I found ATP to be restrictive at times due to the short arming loops but it’s nothing compared to how limited ERTMS is when doing an unusual move or a possession train i suppose I’m in quite an unusual position to have been trained in ERTMS, RETB and ATP train working and can see the good, bad and similarities between each system as to be honest they are all very similar systems with both good and bad points

I’m going to put my foot through the screen and send hattons the bill! Joking apart I wonder if the hattons 66 were looking in previous posts, including hattons Dave’s colour comparison at is a pre-production one and the font etc on the finished one is correct, all will become clear as people start to receive them and put pics up

The only train sim thing on sale in the Microsoft store is the west Somerset railway DLC for £9.99 at that price worth having a go at I recon (with an extra 7% cash back via TopCashback too)

As for the other side, the top of the A in colas should be in line with the body side joint where as the joint is between the L and A Still not going to stop me buying one though

There is ERTMS but also a couple of real ground signals to allow you in and out of the depot/yard that are controlled by the same signalling centre, doing that allows movements around the shed without having to be in the system at level 1 the old box was demolished when ertms came in under RETB it was pretty similar in so much as you got to Machynlleth, gave up the token then reverted to semaphore in station limits and then went back to RETB when you departed

I didn’t want to get into the whole ripping the loco apart before it’s even arrived but having driven the colas 66 for quite a number of years I have lots of pics of them and I think I can see the issue unfortunately photobucket is down so I’ll have to link to someone else’s flickr What was bugging me is the spacing for the ‘colas Railfreight’ lettering appears correct on both sides as the GHT is on the separate body panel but as we can see the orange/yellow colour intersection on the single grille side is out, as pointed out it should go through the L, going back to hattons dave’s pic a couple of pages back you can just about make out the orange at the bottom of the body shell finishes near as dammit half way between the 2 sandboxes, compare it to this picture...... copyright Robert on Flickr you can see the orange finishes nearer to the front sandbox, therefore I personally recon there is too much orange on that side

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-berkshire-50866707