big jim

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had a great night seeing Tom binns at the civic hall in whitchurch, 3 different sets, psychic comedium, ventriloquist and Ivan, all brilliant, front centre seats so some good pics thoroughly recommend going to see him if you get the chance

Just a couple from last night, rugby to Preston with 47749 and an electric unit Didn’t manage a proper pic at Preston as as soon as I’d stepped off the loco the other driver was away! Got a couple of stills from a Video I took which was also poor as he’s already started moving by the time i started!

It would appear so

Some from last night, bit of a cock up as they held me at crewe thinking I was waiting for the possession to be lifted and would be going the booked route from Stafford, left there 40 mins late and went the normal way but my relief was as planned at Coventry so I had to work it through to there, ended up getting home at 9am instead of 6:30! trafford park Coventry and back in crewe this morning a 331 unit going into Manchester tonight on the train to the theatre then I’ve got a class 47 and translator move in the early hours of the morning from rugby to Preston

Got home this morning to find this card the youngest lad made, he’s gone to school as usual today but The eldest lad is sat in our bed crying, I’ve let him have the day off school

I bought both sets last week and despite not getting them out of the box properly yet I wouldn’t have noticed the difference had it not been pointed out here, looking forward to getting the full rake together soon, when I do I’ll photograph it, I also have a Bachmann 57 and BG to go with it regards price it was adjusted down to a more realistic price by Hornby, I paid £134 for my train pack and £95 for the coach pack, I immediately sold the loco on eBay, getting £42 for it which I was more than happy with

Unfortunately we got the news we didn’t want earlier, the different meds hadn’t worked and Mike deteriorated over the afternoon and had a couple of further heart attacks so the kindest thing to do was have him put to sleep so as not to prolong his pain, my wife and kids managed to make it over to the vets to say goodbye, my eldest lad who like belonged to is absolutely devastated as can be imagined the vet said Mike was also very weak but my wife said he managed to shuffle himself over to his carry crate and try and get in it to come home with them but unfortunately it wasn’t an option with him being so ill rip big fella, hope the extra time you had with us was a happy one

Just one from last night, Nuneaton to Trafford park and back with 66740, first time I’ve driven that one as it’s my wife’s namesake ‘Sarah’ same again tonight but back to Coventry with it via the west mids due to an emergency possession around colwich

He ain’t messing about!

Anyway, any level crossing news?

Sorry I wasn't having a go at you personally but the last comment was something I heard a lot while he was my trainee! I don’t work with him any more so I don’t know if he is no longer registered, I suspect not as, as you say it’s been fixed unless of course there are other issues which mean he is still registered, either way disabled or not he was passed to be a driver and is a bloody good one at that

as far as I know he had to have an enhanced medical Before getting a drivers job including extra walking and flexibility tasks, whatever it was he passed ok before the operation to replace his hip (he’s only in his 20s!) at the time in Blackpool he hadn’t had it replaced so hobbled along (as he has done since he could walk) just a bit slower than most but more than able to perform all the tasks required of a driver (probably better than most if I’m being honest) after he had it done and had completed his physio etc he then saw the railway doctor again for another enhanced medical which he flew through, as for blue badge eligibility now, I really don’t know, not my area of knowledge but I certainly have a lot of respect for him for following his dream of being a driver m, getting his hip sorted and having to put up with comments like ‘he can’t be THAT disabled’

I think the clutch may be beyond repair! oily bell housing and most annoying of all, after an unplanned spend on a new radiator, heater matrix and system flush and refill, this is the heat exchanger, all gunged up!

If I t’s any help it’s a getrag 6 speed box, the other type they used was ‘midland’ which were prone to failure

I’m glad it’s not just me who read jcredfer’s tale and thought it to be in poor taste! Regard disabilities, one of my trainees a few years back is registered disabled as he had a bad hip from birth, it doesn’t effect work at all, in fact he has had it replaced now and he’s quicker than me! Anyway we were on a lodge turn in Blackpool and as he was from down south and had never experienced The joys of the ‘Vegas of the north’ before so we decided to go to the tower on our rest day, we stood by the disabled access door (fewer steps to the ring) waiting to go into the circus and the old boy in front who didn’t See my mate hobble in turned to us and proper started having a go at us both at the top of his voice so everyone could hear that the entrance was for disabled persons only and that we should leave and join the able body queue, I didn’t know what to say but my mate who obviously had to deal with this on a daily basis (as he didn’t physically look disabled when stood still) soon put the bloke back in his place and he couldn’t apologise enough to him afterwards!

mine are..... PS1-colin mcrae Rally PS2-grand tourismo PS3- Not played on one! PS4-Geand tourismo sport PSP-GTA vice city Xbox 360-Just Dance! Xbox one-Forza 4 Snes-Mario Kart Wii-Mario kart Wii Wii U-Mario kart 7 Switch-Mario kart 8 DS-Lego Indiana Jones 3DS-Mario kart 3DS

I had a SNES back in 1993 I recon which was my first console I got a ps1 late on, probably 98 with colin McRae rally (still remember Some of the cheat codes you could find in the likes of games master magazine) peasouper to drive in the fog, tinfoiled to have a foil car and the best of all was the option to change day to night which If you then chose one of the Australian levels then took the 2nd left off the track stalled the car then got you abducted by aliens only to return with 20 mins added to your clock and a car made of jelly! then there was grand tourismo 1 with its Mazda demio starter car, soon bought me a fiat cinquecento to match the real one I had sat on the drive though! ps2 I got in October 2001 to celebrate passing out as a guard, spent many an hour road learning The Wrexham bidston line (via Laguna seca and pikes peak) with a work colleague, it was of course the first console (that I’d had) where you could go on line (of sorts) to chat etc then along came GTA which changed everything! Lost interest then due to kids and work but Dom got a ps3 about 4 years ago When he was 11 then a PS4 a couple of years back As for another consoles, got an xbox 360 6 years or so back, and Xbox one back in March this year and another last week for the man cave, had the obligatory Wii for the kids which we got rid of when we got the Xbox but have since bought a couple more from charity shops, one for home, one for the caravan, Gethin has a Wii U which is not too bad, shame it never really sold in great numbers so were limited to what games we can find cheap! Also got a retro mini SNES, might get the megadrive one one day too handhelds, had a game gear back in the early 90s, the usual Nintendo stuff in the 2000s, gameboy, DS, and we still have between us 3DS’s, DS, PSP and a couple of Nintendo switches surprising what I’ve gone through over the years and wished I still had, saying that Dom has all generations of playstations as well as an original Atari 2600, I could have picked up an Amiga 1200 last week from the local flea market for £25 with all the leads, external drive, joystick, extra memory, power pack etc, looking back I was daft to have left it there really

one of our rescue cats suffered a heart attack the night before last, although he is still with us it’s not looking good for him but we are hoping he will pull through ‘Mike’ is our 12 year old Maine c00n who came to us as a short term foster but we decided to keep hold of him as we had him so long he became part of the family! rhe reason we had him for so king was he was unable to be fostered as he was constantly sneezing as the previous owner who bought him as a status symbol never bothered to get him inoculated and he contracted cat flu which he thankfully survived but then got cancer, again he survived that too but was Then kept in a box room with very little freedom the night before last I noticed his breathing was a bit shallow and he was sat with his mouth slightly open, he tried to jump off the windowsill and came a cropper as if his legs had just given away under him, we tried to put him in a warm room with us but he kept going back to the cold windowsill or tiled kitchen floor and laying down which is not like him at all my wife took him to the vet who as well as the heart attack (which is when we saw him breathing through his mouth) he has got fluid on his lungs and is anemic, the vet is doing his best to keep him comfortable and there is one more means of treatment open to us but if that doesn’t work it’s going to be kindest to have him put to sleep, by rights he really shouldn’t be alive anyway due to the neglect by his previous owner and we have (like Odin) given him so far an extra 9 months of his life nobody thought he would have He’s not the most affectionate of cats but certainly likes to show his dominance over the foster cats that come and go from the house, he’s still not managed to win round Lola but she tolerates him now, when young males come to stay he certainly lets them know he is the alpha male of the house, often I’ve heard him chirping at them as if keeping order! he’s certainly on the ball when it comes to security, every night we watch him walk round the house checking doors and windows are closed, anything untoward and he will come up to you and mioww and chirp until you follow him to where the problem is, prime example was my wife left a candle lit one night downstairs and he came into the bedroom and sat next to me, chirping, then bit my wrist (which is a Maine c00n show of affection) then kept nudging me until I got up and followed him downstairs to the candle, he did the same with a faulty charger which was smoking in a socket, like cat version of lassie! as I say he’s still with us but we will have to see what the next few hours bring as to what is best for mike

I’ve had an update about the cooper, long and short if it, no oil in the gearbox! the guy has drained it and should have got 1.6L of oil out and he barely got 0.2 out of it, the failure was basically the box overheating very quickly under load engine is coming out tomorrow and new gearbox being picked up on Friday, he said other than the obvious gearbox problem there is very little else wrong with the car for its age and mileage

the operator we use are a company called ‘weedfree’ i know colas use their own operators down the cambrian as the trains have to be double manned so rather than have 3 in the cab the shunter does the spraying

has a bit of a look of ‘Adele’ in the glamour photo on that website

the loco in that picture is still going strong with colas but the building behind is in the process of being pulled down for housing

Hopefully not! It’s got a 6 month guarantee on it if it does fail!

Nice VW sirrocco in crewe earlier....