big jim

Thats all my landline is for now an internet connection, very rarely use the phone itself any more

Broadway is one of the locations on forza horizon 4!

What is this “land line” you speak of?

Totally agree, have a look at the pics on my ‘down by the tracks’ thread everyone of those is off my iPhone 6s plus, bought a 2nd hand DSLR about 10 months back, tried it a couple of times couldn’t get the hang of it and it’s never seen the light of day since! The best thing on my smartphone which I couldn’t do without is the Deejay app, I’ve got 10k+ tunes on my phone and I have used the phone as a proper DJ mixer in a club when some of the other equipment went down, I’ve also got it on the iPad which is what I normally use for DJing, again intergrated with my Spotify account (free with Vodafone) gives me a library of millions of tunes to play (but I’ll still be asked for something that’s not on there!)

It wasn’t so much the 5 minute timescale as I suspect the messages ‘should’ have been sent days apart as she reached various ‘over data’ limits but the fact they all came the same day within 5 minutes in a particular order was what I used as the basis of the argument, I say argument the whole thing was resolved very amicably in my favour in less than 15 minutes

The reason she went over was for some reason the cap on the account had switched off (been on there for years without a problem) but we have been having terrible trouble with the WiFi dropping out at home so she was inadvertently using mobile data at home instead of WiFi, we are having sky Q fitted next week and they have sent a new hub which appears to be better than the old one and the new Q boxes also act as WiFi boosters too apparently so hopefully that will cure any issues there to top it off she has an Apple carplay head unit in her car which uses Apple or google maps via the mobile and she has just discovered Spotify on there too, again all using data! we all get 20gb of data a month each on our contracts, I generally use between 15 and 18gb a month, I too have an Apple CarPlay headunit using maps via the phone, normally my wife uses around 10-15gb but the eldest lad can easily and regularly does use his full allowance in 10 days!

My wife went sim only with Vodafone and I bought her a used iPhone 6+ a while back and it saves us a load every month, similarly when my ‘handset’ contract ran out I switched to sim only, if I need a new phone ever it’s off to CEX or a reputable seller on eBay we had an issue last month where my wife went over her data allowance and got charged £55 extra on top of the usual bill, managed to get £45 of it back though because of the order ‘warning text’ were sent (that she never told me about at the time) they basically sent her 2 text at 09:58 and 09:59 telling her she was about to go over her limit one quoting an extra £19 and another quoting £26, the next text at 10:01 said she had run out of data followed by another one at 10:03 saying there would be an extra £10, I refused to pay the 2 amounts quoted before the ‘you have run out’ text as, as far as I was concerned we hadn’t at that point run out of data, after a bit of wrangling they agreed to wipe out those figures and I only needed to pay the extra £10! I’ve been with Vodafone for 20 years and am more than happy with them, I just make sure I switch deals when possible to get the best savings (also Vodafone have a good loyalty scheme where you can get cheap cinema tickets, free coffee, free breakfasts on railway stations etc depending on what’s on offer that week)

Certainly has! Didn't recognise him in the slightest

The likes of the hither green job I was conducted for the whole 3 days over those routes by a driver who signs it (but doesn’t sign the traction, hence why I was there) ive just learned kidsgrove to cheadle hulme for the RHTT which involved a number of trips over the route (the actual number depends on the complexity of the route as decided by the standards team depending on various factors such as complicated routing, multi spad signalling, signalling types etc) there is a question paper and route brief for each route that you have to fill out and be marked on, if required, again due to the complexity of a route you will get a ride out with a manager or if a simple route (or a difficult one to get over) you will sit down and discuss the route with the manager/assessor/instructor who signs the route and answer further questions to keep route on your card you need to travel over them which could be working a train, travelling in the cab, road refreshing on a passenger service with a cab pass etc although I think we can request to view a DVD of the route now too, I’m just coming up to a year with GB now so a few of my Colas routes are about to lapse such as Holyhead and the cambrian but all I need to do is get a cab pass and have a trip back over them to keep them current

yeah the fittings are still in the cab too (auto uncoupler button and work light on/off button) dont know if they are still in operation though

Sutton tunnel again, biffa again and away to Hooton to run round and into Basford hall to stable

I think it is due to the length, Having had a look at the ballast notices I think I would just about fit in the main at Chester the train is 1281ft and I think the space between the signals is just shy of 1300ft so a touch precise but it would mean I’d have to run the loco past the signal to ensure I’d fit back on the rear end and that would knacker up the down side of the station for 5-10 mins while I uncoupled etc hence the run up to Hooton funny how I sign all these obscure bits and bobs all over the country but have never done Chester to Hooton from the cab despite me starting my career at Chester and always worked around the area, if I do drive it it will mean I’ve then driven practically all of what’s left of the old GWR route from Paddington to Birkenhead apart from the bit from Hooton to rock ferry and the bit thats now the tram between the hawthorns and Wolverhampton

some from last night, IM train from oxford to derby, should have got on at banbury but I relieved the other driver early so I could finally get a drive over the new chord at bicester, as I’ve not actually done it since signing it! oxford parkway, short formation UTU train comprising DBSO, UTU and Generator van with 37057 powering oxford bicester south Jn and into derby sutton tunnel again tomorrow, with a run round in Hooton!

check out jonny cole, black county comedian, saw him earlier this year in whitchurch, his humour was lost on a lot of the shropshire/cheshire audience but me working in and out of bescot and with black country work collegues i thought he was brilliant and ‘got it’

Just a few from this week cement from bescot to Landor st bescot Landor st Then a Landor st to Leicester bulk ballast Then his morning a sutton tunnel to crewe job, “Biffa” leading off site, first time I’ve driven that one Changed ends in Chester and had 66706 leading back to crewe WAG Express in the parcels bay And into crewe, train away and locos stabled

Mmmm, i think that’s my train Saturday morning, will have to see if it runs or not!

See how long this lasts (politics and that) still made me chuckle this morning after seeing lots of #notmyprimeminister on twitter

We got rid of a chunk of lawn to allow us to get a wider drive in that when the kids were little was ideal for opening the doors fully wife to get prams etc in and out of, it’s now perfect for the 2 minis and just about right for a mini and the 4x4, a 3rd car is normally left on the road in front of the wall to the lawn (we are the last house in a cul-de-sac) the lawn used to come right up to the corner corner of the house unfortunately for me they have just started to build a new school right opposite our house on the site of a school they knocked down 12 years ago and having seen the plans the new ‘exit’ gate to their internal one way system is directly opposite our house so I can envision that they will be putting yellow lines or zig zags outside my house (and drive) as the project continues, I’ve been right through the plans on line which go into depth about drainage, vehicular access for different types of vehicles, street furniture locations, emergency access etc but there are no plans available to show what and where the street markings will be, I’ve requested the info off the council but they have not been forthcoming ive no objections to the new build and am glad that the land is being used for a school again (it’s a special school with only 30 pupils so won’t be busy traffic wise) and it’s not become another housing estate! its going to be fun when they drop cars off for work for me, last week I had (through no fault of my own) 5 cars outside the house The new exit gate is going roughly where the front of the red mini is, the blue mini is in front of my garden wall so I’ve got no chance of parking anything there once the new access is built if you look at that pic you can see the old entrance to the school above the roof of the blue mini with its double gate which is offset slightly to the right from the road coming down to it, the new gate is going to be directly in line with the housing estate road and will be made into a single gate (wide enough for delivery vans, buses etc) roughly where the lamppost is to the left, quite why they can’t keep the existing access arrangement I don’t know as there appears to be plenty of room on the other plans to put a turning space in

Ian Allen, Birmingham today, hopefully you can see the prices

Had a hire car last night, a brand new Mini Cooper, looking at the specs it too puts out about 180 bhp like my Cooper S but it’s only a 3 cylinder engine, turbo charged though, it certainly goes well and handled well on B roads on the way home it’s surprising how much bigger externally it is to my minis but inside it’s not too much bigger, more leg room in the rear though Italian job then just to show how big new minis are compared to original one’s here it is parked next to a 1275 clubman

Just one from last nights job, sutton tunnel blockade, got to site for 19:00 and moved once backward and forward then sat there til midnight before heading off to bescot via chester and wrexham

the rake i converted from Heljan cargoflats one of the wagons actually had ‘logs’ from chirk yard added, loads made from twigs picked up from the yard! ive cheated with the rest and bought some Hornby log loads for them

That’s a cracking shot! Tripper again, turned out one of the wagons was at the wrong end of the train so we needed to do a shunt, luckily there was a class 60 sat nearby that i ‘borrowed’ to assist the shunt (nothing to do with me not having driven 60074 before!) And the wagon moved to the other end of the train Then a class 60 arrived by road while I was waiting to move my loco to the old bank And my train ready to go, 66718 DIT Evening star And into bescot iport tomorrow for a change

Done that move a few times both with units and light locos coming from Aylesbury you can drop behind that signal to run round a short freight that has been left in the up platform, if it’s too long to fit between the signals and you have to pass the signal at the south end of the station (164) the run round involves a trip to high Wycombe and back! You have to drop behind that signal to change ends if your coming from the north to access the Thame branch (via the down platform) all the crossovers at the north end of risborough can only take you from the up to the down now

Just 2 from today back into bescot big job starting this weekend at sutton tunnel (Runcorn east) the train I bought back was a train of new sleepers for that job, lots of GBRf running through wrexham and Chester for 10 days!