big jim

I passed you Thursday morning on my MOD job while you were running round in Tyseley goods loop

Some from yesterday, Toton tripper Just 2 to bring back and today’s trip to iport with 66789 Masborough The obligatory arch shot and that was that, rugby to bescot tomorrow

The first day my mum got her Disney world dragster, sorry “mobility scooter” she crashed it through the cheese counter in Tesco’s in Aberystwyth!

And grandma is now left sliding round the front room on her hearth rug, anything to get that inheritance early! (Apologies if your grandma is no longer with us)

Anyone after a project car or two, called in a scrappy in Wolverhampton this morning to pick up a stainless exhaust for the convertible and they had a load of cars in the yard for sub £1000, in fact most were less than £400 1990 Renault 21 for £350 or a 2 door 1995 Audi 80? For £650

Whoops!

Only took one pic today, 66739 at fenny Compton waiting to head along the single line to kineton, first time I’ve done the line this morning, red pen out

I’ve signed up for EA access, a year for £20 as opposed to £60 for 6 months Xbox gamepass some decent games on there for the £20, wouldn’t pay more though got the Lego DLC for forza 4 last week, that’s good fun as an aside from the main game also picked up Arms for the switch wuite cheap which is supposed to be a good robot fighting game, will fire that up at the weekend

Some from today, a quick trip crewe to toton with a couple of 60s Wichnor jn into toton And a passing gypsum train while I waited for the taxi MOD tomorrow and a bit of road learning

Network rail have a good ‘near miss’ reporting line but it’s not just for near misses in the traditional sense of the word, ie a person nearly hit by a train, any close call incident can be called in to it, I’m lead to believe some of the incidences are actually quite comical in the grand scheme of things though I used it last week during a possession as I was told to proceed to the worksite marker boards only to reach the possession exit signal without reaching not only any worksite boards but not seeing any possession marker boards either! Apparently the worksite had been extended by about a mile putting the boards beyond the exit signal, boards put out by a contractor and revised info not given to the engineering supervisor, it’s lack of communication like that which can lead to serious incidents happening

Speaking of loco works I noticed the other day part of the works building in crewe has been taken down stopping about 50ft short of the massive wall on west street that during the war had buildings painted on it to camouflage, more worryingly is this morning I noticed a sign saying “major works here for 9 weeks” so I’m hoping that they are not going to be knocking it down, I’d better get out with a camera this week and grab some pics just in case they do demolish it https://goo.gl/maps/CqoPTHESuqfTSjfn7

Nice im liking the white STI parked next to you, that’s the ‘classic’ Impreza shape to me, the 2 door version is one of my faves (a la colin McRae) my stepdad dad has a Subaru forrester, fairly new, 68 plate, I went out for a ride in on a few weeks back and was surprised just how noisy the boxer Diesel engine is in it

No NSE 08s left, the last one looked so lonely I felt sorry for it and gave it a home! 3 wickhams left, loads of wagons as already listed before, a few scenecraft and oxford buildings, a tabernacle (£35) and pub (£25) on the reduced table now too

I’ve been thinking about the charger and where I got it from, I’ve got a horrible feeling it’s one that came with my work iPad, I’m going to phone IT later and see if it is the one they supplied, if so they may need to put a warning out to others not to use it, if it’s not the one that came with it then I’m 100% sure it’s from a particular shop the reason this charger sticks in my mind is it’s lighter than an official apple iPad charger by a fair weight and I know I got it within the last 12 months just need to pinpoint exactly when

just got into bed after my shift in work, A fan cooling the room nicely when suddenly a loud POP from down stairs and the fan goes off as does the other sockets in the room, first thing I suspect is one of the cats has done something, quite what I don’t know! go in the kitchen, can’t see anything untoward, so go outside to reset the MCB on the consumer unit and click, trips again with a pop from the kitchen, one more try and pop yet again, go back in the house only to find this..... where this “Apple” iPad type plug had been left plugged in and switched on but not attached to any devices, totally burned out, it’s not an official apple plug but one that I bought from a UK high street chain ive managed to get British Gas booked for 8 o clock in the morning to come and check the socket and electrics for damage and hopefully replace it under my homecare agreement, I may well take the plug back to the shop to show them in case there is an issue with them weirdly the sockets in the front and dining room didn’t trip so I assume they must be on a different ring main to the kitchen and upstairs which seems odd! thought I’d post it as a word of warning to those of us who leave things plugged in and switched on all the time, certainly made me think about what I leave on anyway! Glad i was in and awake when it went as it could have been a lot more serious, if nothing else the stuff in the fridge and freezer would have been lost by the time we woke up in the morning and found the power off

I had littlehampton to myself at 03:00! just 2 from today, iport job with 66741 And into coleshill

They were a nice car ‘in the day’, still looks the part today too

Go back a couple of years worth of pages and you’ll find my pics from a job up at mallaig, fort William and Oban! Never made inverness though

i told them about the thread, showed the big boss and they were happy for me to continue it on from colas, the main thing is use a bit of common sense, don’t post anything derogatory, anything restricted or sensitive the end of the day its all good publicity

All mods declared on both minis and the standard 3.5 v6 Murano all insured with multi cover through Avviva for just short of £700 for the 3 im going to have to have a look at moving the cooper off the policy when I put the extra bits on after the next service, I’ve got a bigger intercooler and smaller supercharger pulley to go on as well as a plan for a stage 2 Superchips bluefin which will put the car to about 220-230 bhp and I can’t see aviva accepting those mods so I’ll have a look at flux, who I used 20 years ago with no issues on my punto GT

Found a couple of old pics of the car I treated myself to when I passed out as a driver, I bought it with 96k on the clock for an absolute steal, it had everything in it, MOMO leather, 17” alloys, big spoiler, lovely car after 5 years of fiat punto ownership! Traded it for a civic type r and apparently about 50 mile afterward the cam belt snapped on it and destroyed the engine! alfa 156 2.0 t spark

Not really sure about the MOD turns to be honest, I won’t be doing ashchurch as I don’t sign down there some from this morning, hither green to derby, dark until the op stop at Huntington then eventually into derby and that was that until Monday

Not as much as Colas but it’s nice to get jobs like this now and again to see other bits of the country (and a couple of west end shows as well!)

And some from last night hither green again Changed ends at orpington round the houses and into Victoria All the way to littlehampton via Epsom, sutton, dorking, amberley, arundel into Bognor Regis, a really nice looking station there Blue/grey 313 unit back to littlehampton for a final change end and back to hither green via lewisham to stable up last one tonight, hither green to derby via Clapham jn, kew, Willesden jn, Camden road, Copenhagen tunnel, ecml to Grantham, Nottingham and derby then home