big jim

I was thinking about that last week as I’ve got £10 on my loyalty card, thought about getting an oxford warwell with it so hopefully they will have some left when I can get down there. I’ve been asked to work tonight and have to pass back from Didcot via new st pass back so may, if I’m not knackered, jump off there and add 30 mins to my journey to make sure I use the card

Thanks for those, I think the red rim and silver centre looks good so I’ll give that a try with some wrap when I get a chance

You can always tell when ive been on a class 37 or 56 as the exhaust fumes linger on my clothing and in my hair, a sort of sweet aroma on the same vain different locos cabs within a class also smell different too, 37025 has a 1970s vinyl smell because of the seats and flooring in it whereas 37057 has more of a ‘sweaty’ vibe going on as it has cloth seats and different flooring! the time to worry is when either of them get that ‘electrical’ smell

Thanks for those, it’s the last one I’m having trouble colouring in myself on the mobile too! i may get a small piece of vinyl wrap and do one of the outer rims to see how it looks when I get back from me hols!

That the one thing that the PS4 version needs, I’d love to have a go at it through dom’s VR headset

I’ve got a fresh set of alloys to go on the mini convertible but the outer lacquered aluminium rim is tarnished so I’m thinking of getting them refurbished but doing something different with them, the wheels are Mini Cooper split rims, I may look at getting the centres out and having them 2 different colours OR vinyl wrap the outer rim and spray the centres so I’m after a few ideas of how they will look in different colours if anyone can help with photoshopping the below picture with various colour combos im after: white all over (silver bolts) white outer rim (silver centre as is) red outer rim (silver centre as is) red outer rim and white centre silver outer rim and white centre white outer rim and red centre hope someone can give it a try so I can see how it looks before shelling out and realising it’s not what I expected (my fave combo in my head is red rim/white centre)

A quick video of some of the cars on one of the open track sessions at Mallory park yesterday, both modern minis and old, have a look at the orange classic in the 2nd bunch of cars, don’t know what engine was in it but it embarrassed a lot of newer cars on its laps, leaving them for dust on the straights!

Thats an Xbox screen capture rhe grime on the coaches got me too, very well rendered

Dom has got TSW 2019 on the PS4 and I think the newer version is better, things like you can’t jump on the tracks off a platform, when you open train door you can choose left or right rather than just opening both sides it’s very good, once you get used to the controls on the pad (rather than operating the throttle and brake etc by looking at/selecting it on the screen) it’s pretty realistic ive not played any of the European routes yet, the north Pennines route is what sold it to me, I gave £40 for the game with the added routes and locos (class 45 and 47 on the Pennine pack) there is an offer on until the end of today on the Microsoft store where I can get the west Somerset add on for £10 and a class 33 for £8 which I may well do later but the tees route is still £25 which is a quite lot at the mo, I’ll see if it goes down in price soon and partake if it does the other add on is the heavy freight pack for the TP route which includes class 40 and 08 oil trains and shunting scenarios

Some from Saturday night, possession between Chester and wrexham started in Basford hall, a few freightliner locos 66747 up front And in the morning near Chester just as the sun rose 2 weeks off now!

Another vid from train sim world, exiting standage tunnel with a few different camera views

A few from Mini in the park at Mallory park Nice Mazda pick up on a detailing stand 3.5 V6 engine in it

Went to mini in the park today, lots of classic minis as well as modern ones (pics of those in the other thread)

It’s “mini in the park” tomorrow at Mallory park in Leicestershire, weather dependant I may go along for a look in my ‘new’ mini, not been to a car show for years

One word.... readly

Bought train sim world 2020 for the Xbox one earlier with the add on north Pennines route pack, spent last night driving real trains then have just had a go if it and spent an hour driving a class 45 out of Manchester Victoria to Huddersfield! Off to work in a bit too its a pretty good game/simulation, been a bit glitchy though, had to reset it a couple of times as I couldn’t get power leaving stalybridge, thought it was me driving it bad but nothing would get it to move! the different camera angles are brilliant when you are out on a bit where you don’t have to worry about speeds and you can have a play

Just has to google that one! very clever

Only 2 from last nights job, drive down to West Hampstead and bought a train back from there (conducted to Leicester) DBSO leading and 37521 on the rear (thankfully as the compressor end was the outer end and it’s got a very noisy one!) possession tonight between wrexham and Chester

I Think so

Some from today, covered a couple of jobs again First up the cement north from Landor st to crewe, just one poor pic at crewe then it was a walk across the yard to pick up the southbound service which was something different, an MOD service from Elgin to Warminster, top and tail to bescot where we ran round the lead loco to depart back north toward Walsall, no pics until a stop at small heath though and into leamington A video of the train departing, certainly an interesting load! And a chiltern service heading north

I’ve claimed delay repay a couple of times with different experiences virgin paid back the full £95 family ticket fare for a 65 minute delay without issue on within a couple of days, we were actually still on the mini break when the money went back in the account! (I was surprised they paid out to be honest as t was the day storm Doris happened so all trains were running at 50mph) however we were delayed a couple of weeks back returning from a day trip in london when our booked london north western train was cancelled north of rugby, knowing this before we boarded at Euston we caught another train that called at every shack but went directly to crewe, I put in a claim but it was rejected as ‘there was no evidence to a delay to the service’ despite us arriving into crewe 61 minutes later than planned I put in an objection quoting the cancellation, the exact train times at certain locations, reporting numbers, possible earliest arrival time into crewe based on the time the cancelled train arrived into rugby (which happened to be the train we caught from london) all thanks to info on real time trains, within a couple of days they agreed to pay back the £28 fare virgin were excellent to deal with however the site LNWR was really difficult to try and claim back from, had to do a separate claim for each ticket but it kept giving me the same reference number for each claim which made things very difficult when I wanted to open a dispute

https://youtu.be/RZkBbIGwOjw

the thing that really got my back up (and still winds me up even now) was the day after it was announced WSMR would be finishing (and a number of my friends were made redundant) posters went up in wrexham station from virgin stating.... "were going nowhere! Except london that is" a proper kick in the teeth for those facing a trip to the dole office

bit like arriva then?

never let facts get in the way of a good rant aginst virgin! (joking apart im quite sad virgin are finishing, they have transformed the west coast since they have been running it, the smell of voyager and pendolino toilets aside!)