big jim

It only hisses when the loco is in direction and there is no fixed time between them

Spent a good couple of hours at the show earlier, lots of nice layouts and trade grabbed me a couple of bargains off the Dapol stand, couple of 121 dmu’s one in Arriva Wales livery and the other in loadhaul livery, £80 the pair, the Arriva one seems to run ok but the loadhaul one needs looking at but at £30 I’m not complaining! also got me a Bachman Scotrail 47 for £80 and some 2nd hand Hornby MK1 coaches for £5 a piece

My job today has been cancelled so I’m heading home from bescot, go get changed and wander over to legends to have a look at the show, didn’t think I’d make it this year always a good show by the alsager lot so looking forward to it, with the Added bonus of it being 1/4 mile from home Scottish exile: what/where is the Wrexham show?

Big train staring competition?

Should have been RHTTing again today at 06:00 but I noticed on the roster it was uncovered from london so I called control who said “has no one asked you to come in and take it for rugby at 02:00?” simple answer, no!, so a taxi down to rugby to work it back to bescot and into the shed, thankfully the shed was manned last night so I managed to get it on the fuel at 04:00 but as I was in early I didn’t have enough time to do my booked job to rugby and Macclesfield so the first leg was cancelled and it will pick up it’s path with another driver later this afternoon On shed at 04:00 Such a shame that on this eve of Remembrance Sunday one of our commemorative loco is bolted filthy to the RHTT set, unfortunately they didn’t have the jet wash out this morning on the shed or I would have given it a damn good clean interesting week coming up, working out of Ferme park traction conducting class 37 and DBSO on an IM train to such exotic places as Cambridge and fenchurch street

Just one from this morning in rugby, back to the RHTT again tomorrow

yeah sorry about that! She told me you were working away that week

Had an enjoyable couple of hours in Wrexham earlier watching The Horne section with my eldest lad, met Alex Horne afterwards and got my taskmaster book signed and Dom inhabited The actual ‘Henry the hoover’

That may be by a brummie artist called ‘foka wolf’ he has been putting spoof ads up round Birmingham for a few years now https://www.google.co.uk/amp/s/www.birminghammail.co.uk/news/midlands-news/foka-wolfs-greatest-hits-best-16409976.amp

oh bum, i was only going to order 66789 but it looks like 66780 might need to be had now too

but there’s something about them!

It was slow going from stetchford to Coventry today, the pendo in front never seemed to get moving until after there.

Some from yesterday, trying the new iPhone camera TFW 158 Loco swap on the rhtt Rugby Getting dirtier Macclesfield Back to rugby GBRF and a 110 mph pendo 350 unit Same job today but didn’t bother with pics

mmmmm Renault avantime, wish I’d have got one for pennies a few years back when I had the chance, similarly missed out on a Renault spider back in about 1999 that was used for a promotion and the garage owner wanted it gone and was asking about £10k for it!

This has had me chuckling all day After I heard it on the Horne section podcast The person you can hear giggling in the background is al Murray ive got tickets to see the Horne section on Thursday night in Wrexham, really looking forward to seeing them, Alex Horne is meeting people afterwards and he said He’ll sign my taskmaster book for me which I’m excited about

Had a play about with the layout set up again this evening started along the non window wall, I’ve decided to go with a dual level set up after all, looking along the layout the left hand tracks will disappear under the high level boards but will run in a cutting along the rear wall so I can get to them to clean or if there is a derailment etc (or possibly put removable scenic panels above them whee the industrial units are) The tracks raising up the on poly risers will go to the high level bit which will have a small yard on the back wall (see further on) and also an oil terminal, access to the terminal will be via a chord that will also serve as a short branch line......... the branch will go to an old mill area served by a small single platform station (the board will be cut back to suit as as and when i fix things down properly) I plan to have the mill as a ‘heritage centre/museum’ type of thing, maybe with a nice little 009 line back to the rear wall and the yard, only a small one, 3 or 4 long roads all dead ends, one reception line with a shunt neck to back the trains in A few shorter roads to the right for individual wagons, locos etc, I also plan for the metal sleepered line you can see in the picture below to curve round to the left and into a small shed and fuelling point Still planning on having the town on a hill but not having the railway cut immediately below it, you can see roughly where the shed may end up too, the high level track will have to drop down along that wall but I’m not going to drop it all the way down to baseboard level I’m going to drop it by about 1.5 inch and raise the low level track up to the same level so it can still cross the ‘ravine’ on a nice high bridge (or two) the town will no longer have a slope down to track level so the low relief buildings can just run along the wall on the level not looked at it yet but I’m still thinking some sort of castle on the Small corner baseboard with the railway running through the walls like Conway

Picked the car up today, 210 bhp up from 168 bhp and boy does it feel so much better with all the other little issues addressed as well as the planned work it pulls in all gears now, there used to be a flat spot when you began accelerating caused by, I think the silicone boots on the inter cooler not being air tight, that has gone and it feels smooth, also a vacuum pipe has been replaced between the rocker and manifold which has most likely helped too the heating is brilliant so the new heater matrix (and radiator) has done the job stopped off and got a couple of replacement tyres too, part worn run flats so I now have run flats all round (the old front tyres had began to crack between the treads) Couple of other small bits and bobs to do at the (cheaper) local mechanic, engine mount and cv boot and it’s all sorted duno run result

Yeah got pics of it, it was more of a gouge where trucks have come round a bend and dug into the road, council have the details of the incident, they filled it the next day! Right at the bottom of this hill/bend Also, Had a call back from the garage and the car is done and putting out 210bhp at The wheels, almost 50bhp over standard (about the same as a cooper works model)

Yeah I suppose so, thing Is I could have paid £2500 for one and had the same issues! £120 of the bill was for a new tyre for the courtesy car after I hit a pothole and punctured it, I’m going to claim that back from the council

Had the final bill for the work I had done on the cooper S, glad I was sat down when he read it out, £1300, the car only cost me £1100 but I’m hoping it’s now in tip top condition! Should get the dyno run result later and go and collect it tomorrow

you learn something everyday! I now have an answer for my trainees when they ask why the new footbridge east of Tamworth high level has a red plate (the only one I’ve ever seen!)

Glad I got the HO one earlier in the week then! time to do some modelling

I’ve emergency appointment in the morning with the ENT consultant, the blood test come back as an infection so will have to see what happens tomorrow, been given antibiotics to take I’ve had to go sick at work unfortunately as it was an appointment tomorrow or nothing for the rest of the week

Been sat in A+E since 11:30, got a lump in my face that I should have had removed/drained last week but the surgeon had a couple of doubts over it so delayed the procedure until I had a fresh MRI scan, they took a sample of the ‘goo’ inside at the time anyhoo I think it may have become infected as the lump, which was soft and almost moveable has gone very hard, impossible to sleep on and I can feel it has spread toward my ear and jawline causing me to have mild headaches and one ear feels quieter than the other the nurse who took my blood has had a look and has put a Canular in my arm to save further needles as they may need to do something straight away, I may be lucky and get away with antibiotics though until it can be scanned and removed as planned