big jim

From WNXX, sad news about the death of a former driver, I’m sure there are a few drivers on here who will have had the pleasure of knowing him over the years I have today received the very sad news of One of ex Saltley Depots drivers Alan (bunny) Bunclark. When Alan retired from Saltley he couldn't give the job up so joined Colas Rail as a Zero hours driver when it was in it's infancy building the freight side of the company There will be a great many on here who knew Alan either through work or making his acquaintance when he was out and about with camera in hand mostly at Nuneaton or Water Orton or indeed at the Real Ale festivals at Barrow Hill Roundhouse which he always made sure he was able to attend. Alan was One of a kind and would do anything for anyone. RIP Alan (Bunny) you will be sorely missed

or work on the railway and park for free in the station staff carpark! one thing though my back is absolutely killing me today! i think being stood/walking round non stop between 09:00 and 17:00 in my work boots on the concrete floor with only 30 mins or so sat with a work colleague at the the coal hopper wagon has really done my back in, doubled over with pain this morning when i got up and my heels are killing me, new boot time i recon

thats good to hear, at my age it could have been a hot flush!

I’ve just had an email asking me to give feedback on “my recent home cover call out“, looking forward to filling that later

the one next to the hall wasn’t open yesterday but the one the opposite side of the entrance lobby was open, I deposited by dirty RHTT jacket in there, glad I did as it seemed to get very hot in the hall around midday for a short while then cooled down again (must have opened a few small doors!)

The portals are I assume mdf kits, just got to build them now, they obviously need the registration arms adding, will probably make them from Brass wire They were £15 for 10 from torri-laser (they have an Ebay shop)

Spoke to the guys from dovetail today at warley about a few issues I’ve had with TSW on the Xbox and PS4, also mentioned what we were discussing the other day about using different traction on different routes and he said it’s something in development however there are a few Technical issues such as if you try to put an air brake class 31 on the transpennine route it has a wobbler as the 31 is air braked and the stock is vaccum but once they iron out the coding (or whatever they call it) it should be possible to chop and change (within reason) he did say there would be a New U.K. release and further base program update in the next few weeks/months

couple of days worth of pics stockport Conducted the Stone train to Stafford again Then last night light engine from crewe to hams hall then it was down to rugby to work the RHTT back to bescot Then I went to warley for the day

Had a good full day there, just got home, feet seriously aching after walking round in my steel toe cap boots, luckily a colleague was in the stand with the coal hopper so I managed a sit down a couple of times! as adb968008 said we ended up walking round the show together for a couple of hours after we inadvertently met up on the accurascale stand while I was paying a deposit for the twin pack nuclear wagons (we’ve never met before) nice to meet accurascale fran too (I really should get round to ordering those TPE and sleeper coaches as well as the 37/6 and PFA!! got me a few bits and bobs, model rail J70 coz it looks stunning! Hornby network rail coaches, Bachmann northern belle BG as for non rolling stock got me some low relief laser cut buildings and double track OHLE portals and rejoined the Bachmann club To anyone else I met today but didn’t mention, nice to meet you all

That’s a 37/6 cab with not only The partition but all the controls and gauges in the revised positions

don’t think they will fit on apedale’s tracks!

TSW tees valley route is £17.49 in Microsoft store today, bought through top cash back site took another 1.15 off it, be rude not to really, currently downloading with some sort of update Dom got COD WW2 from cash converters earlier for £5 which is a pretty good price, that’s just installed too So will have a look tomorrow

I always use the cloakroom when I go, just need to remember to collect my stuff on the way back out! As I’m coming straight from work I’ll probably be head to toe in orange hi-viz so I’d better leave the jacket in the cloakroom or anyone who brushes past me may get buffer grease on themselves! (Although that’s one way of having my own personal space in front of a layout!)

I’m going tomorrow after work, got to work the RHTT into bescot first, I’ll have a kip On the loco while it’s serviced then head over to the NEC, I was planning on catching the train from bescot but I’ll have to see if anything is running, if not I’ll hitch a ride on the RHTT which conveniently has an op stop in international at 11:30!

From what I can make out from an email I had from Virgin it said the new franchisee will have it’s own loyalty scheme i think seatfrog wont work either at the franchise change

Must admit I can’t fault the British Gas home Care we had for the boiler and kitchen appliances, no issues at all, always quite to come out and repair things but the lock/glazing and pest cover (which is subbed out to contractors) has gone terrible a lot of home insurances now include or have discounts on boiler repairs etc included in the policy as it’s in their interest to have pipes and heating working, next time it’s up for renewal I’ll have a look

A few weeks back one of our internal door locks broke and jammed the door closed, a simple issue, basically the barrel wasn’t going far enough back to clear the metal plate on the frame when you pressed the handle, only a couple of MM in it so putting a slim screwdriver down the gap managed to open it anyhoo I’ve got British Gas lock, pest and glazing cover so I I thought well I’m paying for it I may as well use it as there were a couple of other dodgy locks that seemed to be going the same way, the doors are normal B&Q/Wickes 6 panel doors with normal handles as seen below they came out 2 weeks ago to do the job and the bloke was here a good 3 hours! taking the handle off the door and the locking mechanism out, he checked the other doors and advised there were 2 others needing changing (as I suspected), he didn’t have the bits on the van So would get them ordered and advise us when they would be ready to fit so basically 3 standard Off the shelf handle and lock sets as can be bought in Wickes for £30 https://www.wickes.co.uk/Wickes-Toronto-Victorian-Straight-Latch-Door-Handle-Set---Satin-Nickel-3-Pairs/p/188341 this morning I got a call to say the work had been authorised by the insurance company, however our Policy only covers up to £500 and the job is more than that! when I asked how much they said I needed to pay an extra £270, the whole job of replacing 3 locks and handles was £770! i asked them to break down the cost of the repair and all she said was “I think you must have special locks, and we only use one supplier” to which I replied “can I get a job supplying your cups of tea, I only charge £200 a cup?” Not even a chuckle from her! i was genuinely speechless, it was more laughable than being angry with them, in the end I said to forget the job I’ll do it myself and not to try and bill me for work already done other wise I’ll send a bill from my suppliers for the toilet roll used by their engineer on the 4 occasions he visited my toilet in the 3 hours he was here, I only charge £50 a sheet, again no so much as a chuckle out of her! anyway I’ve told em in the pleasantest of terms where they can stick their cover and am currently in line on the phone trying to cancel the policy, I’m going to just cancel the direct debit anyway and pop to Wickes and buy some handles myself! ive has the glazing drains and pest cover for years with British Gas without issue and have used them to remove wasps nests, squirrels in the attic, blocked drains etc even had them out for a couple of dodgy external locks where sent out a local tradesman to do the job but it appears they have switched to using one of these do it all “property maintenance companies” who quite frankly are taking the mick Another concern is If this had happened to a vulnerable person and they got a call asking to pay £270 to complete the work and they paid it without question they would have been very much out of pocket! anyway I’m off to Wickes to buy some door locks!

I should imagine they will go to the Severn valley for testing as they have a good relationship with GBRf, they will just need someone who signs Longport to kidderminster to drag them there (that’s basically me or marcus37)

Unfortunately all my chiltern stuff is long gone now! looking back to when I did the 172 unit, technology has come a long way since 2012, no doubt the resin cabs, etched window ribbons and Hornby networker cab cut and shut could be replaced by high quality finer detailed 3D prints that could simply replace the Bachmann parts with very little work

2 wine gums and i'm anybody's

cool, will the new T gauge stuff have working illuminated instument lights in the cab?

no the wires are ok in the normal position, one weird thing is the steering wheel controls have transposed for some reason, what was the volume is now the tune buttons and vice versa, not an issue as they are on the rear of the wheel anyway out of view and unlabelled, just need to get used to pushing the right one

i was going to put the animated GIF version in but i got mesmorised by it for 30 mins

scotland yes, colas, not at the minute but who knows what the future holds

took me a few hours, the main thing was checking and double checking before cutting, its quite simple as you just cut the bottom of the front of the dash off in one piece, fit the retaining brackets and screw the heater controls to it, the hole was about 3mm to tall for the double din cage so i elongated the top holes to push the bracket up and secured it in place with the top bolts and 2 extra a bit futher down to prevent it rattling loose futher down the line, the car wiring loom cables were a case of moving them to suit and as its such a small unit on the rear all the extra bits needed such as BMW to ISO connector, dab aerial, rca leads etc all fitted in lovely behind and below ive got to slide it out tomorrow to swap round an rca lead to the sub other than that its done, i may get a black marker on the bracket to disguise where you can see it a bit behind the silver tubes