big jim

TBH I couldn’t put a winking emoji on my post, no offence taken and I’ve put some pics up on there now as I’ve also put on there I was meaning to start a new thread but with my mum dying and other things I didn’t get round to it, she had a modern classic too that i should add To the other thread

From the old car thread, for those who haven’t seen them, these are my minis that have caused a thread split from ‘old cars’ to ‘modern classics’ The blue Cooper s was a barn find having been sat on a farm for 2 years only covering 20 miles since its last MOT, I bought it off the guy in January and just got it back on the road in the last few weeks all tarted up! The red one was a replacement for my pheaton, cost me £1000 and is a right laugh, it’s currently off the road having new brakes, tyres and springs fitted Just for good measure here are my pheatons, during the swap, one is a 3l V6 the other 5L V10 LWB admittedly i was going to start a modern classics thread as Hobby suggested but with one thing or another happening I didn’t get round to it

I know when I’m not wanted!

Interesting about the LED bulbs, never, it’s only the sidelights below the main light that I’ve swapped over, the headlights, (full beam and dipped) are xenon type as standard and I’ve not touched them at all, I think the latest mini have LED sidelights (or driving/daytime lights) as standard, the bulbs I got are ‘no error’ canbus type and ive not had a bulb failure light come up obviously the spotlight only come on with full beam so those should be ok, I tried them after dark last night and they are really good, nice wide coverage Most cars nowadays have auto headlights which is pretty standard and has been for years but just recently I’ve been getting hire cars with auto ‘full beam’ which as it says puts the lights on maximum when it senses it can, it’s a damn good system and must work on ‘seeing’ other vehicles headlights or tail lights but it does have its flaws, on the motorway wagons coming the other way can be blinded as the the sensor doesn’t pick up the headlight behind the central reservation but the driver is obviously higher up and being blinded, also if something is coming out of a side street at an angle away from you the lights stay full beam on as the headlight of the other vehicle is not in view

Yeah that’s me, the reason it was late was 47749 had an air leak and the other driver was fault finding it and I was helping out, turned out a flexi hose had burst under the driver seat, luckily UKRL turned up and sorted it so it managed to depart

Got the spotlights wired up on the cooper, also changed the sidelights for LED type which gives it a lovely clean white look when the lights are on finished the stereo upgrade too, swapped the standard CD player for a DAB head unit and switched the speakers for upgraded ones all round and added an amp and bass speaker in the boot just needs a wash now!

Cant believe you’ve missed the obvious one, 60048 “saddleback”

Some from yesterday, Leicester to mountsorrel You go pass to Leicester and wait for the train to come into humberstone road, to save our legs the inbound driver from the north drops the wagons in the loop at humberstone Rd and brings the loco to the head shunt at the end of the station and we take it back to our wagons and reattach to the north end to head to mountsorrel A few things passing through while we were waiting Our loco in the neck 66 passing mountsorrel Same job again today but didn’t bother with pics

Is he ex big brother or a boy band member?

I’d be so chuffed if I opened up a loaf and it was all crusts, thats the best part!

That’s a shame as the Ian Allen table this morning has a load of Bachmann ICI 7 plank wagons on there for £10 each still got the teak Thompson’s and a few scenecraft buildings but that’s it

I work the MOD trains into/out of Bicester, there is an exchange siding which is as far as I go but the traffic is taken from there by the internal Shunter’s but how far they go around the system I don’t know the engine shed is a cracker, typical MOD, everything in its place and not a spec of dirt! There used to to be a google street view of the line near ambrosden where you could see one of the Shunter’s waiting at a road crossing

Some from toton loco for today was 66758 Freightliner 70 passing by One for the old vehicle fans While I was there a convoy departed for ruddington to collect a class 46 before tomorrow heading off to the Severn valley for the diesel gala Voyager passing by Convoy on its way DRS 68 heading into the yard And while waiting in Elford loop the Kingsbury tanks passed by Mountsorrel tomorrow

TBH I got it for the eldest lad as it was the cheapest I’ve seen it at, £18 is a price worth shelling out for as opposed to wasting £50-£60 dom has so far played 0.1% of the game and lost his hat twice! His horse is called ‘america’ coz he couldn’t think of a name Must admit i did enjoy having a play on GTA V the other week though, it’s certainly progressed since I last played it (vice city iirc)

Despite my mini not being considered a ‘classic’ I’m certainly having to delve into my pocket like a classic car owner the red convertible is getting the planned work of brakes and shocks (and possibly wheel bearing) done this month but on top of that yesterday I discovered cooper has a blowing exhaust, the weld has gone on one of the seams on the rear pipe so I’m going to need a new exhaust, I’ve done a temporary fix with some gun gum paste and bandage which should see me through the next few weeks until payday then I’m going to get a stainless system for it ive also priced up having the wheels refurbished on Both cars and that will cost me £65 a wheel, acid stripped, rough bits welded and ground/blended in, powder coated and lacquered, just going to get one set done for now for the cooper (sprayed black) and run the convertible on its original 15’ rims until I can get the 2nd set sprayed white

I think I did a Donald trump and nodded off as I was typing and pushed post covfefe

Grabbed a few pics of the other bits I did yesterday Corner piece This is the riverbed I mentioned in the previous post, a board will go in the gap on the underside of the cross member battens Back wall shelf with the thumper on the ‘heritage line’ The doorway bit is going to be removable, no fancy hinged sections etc, the wooden blocks are where the higher line will enter the removable bit and cross from left to right, the heritage line will sweep under the high level bit to end up behind the embankment (it will cross the river behind the high level viaduct and cross back to the outside once back on the baseboard) that’s it for now, need to finish the removable section so it’s nice and secure then think about the back wall section,’I was going to have minimal trackwork but I’m now thinking I need something visual and operational on that side such as a ballast yard, quarry, etc? X

Another possession train yesterday, banbury to bescot, nice little job, it had originated from high Wycombe 66744 ‘crossrail’ leading And into bescot, 66722 was in the rear so I can guess what my loco on the Toton tripper will be later today!

Forgot to take pics yesterday (well more to the point small child took my phone to play games!) but I’ve extended the baseboards round the rest of the room Only pic I managed the left hand side is a gap for a riverbed, I’m going to add another board lower down between that board and the one I’ve fitted in the corner, I will then put a viaduct across the river to the high level line embankment my inspiration being ‘the worlds end’ ill get some some more pics later when I get home from work but basically I have a complete circuit of boards around the room now

Some from last night, bescot to Coventry and back with a ballast drop train bescot after the first drop between tile hill and Coventry, changing ends for the 2nd drop Then back to Coventry and back to bescot

Got hold of red dead redemption 2 today for the PS4, it’s the special edition with extras and I only gave £18 for it, even if the DLC has gone (which it currently appears to have downloaded, not opened the game yet) that price is damn good for the basic game alone! also got a couple of games from a car boot last week from what looked like a retro game dealer, super Luigi U for the Wii U and Mario tennis aces for the switch for £35 the pair, the stall also had original sega game gear, mega drive, SNES consoles and games

I keep my Oyster card handy as when we visit london with the kids I can turn it into a young visitor oyster for 1/2 price travel for the eldest (the youngest travels free), I just top it up at the start of the visit at a ticket machine I however use contactless debit card when travelling in london, as mentioned above it caps at a certain amount equivalent to a zone ranger day ticket dependent on which zones you have visited and how many trains/tube you have travelled on I have had it miscalculate once and I got an email to say I was due a refund of about £2.30 but to get it I had to tap my card on a reader on ticket machine, all well and good if I lived in london but being in Cheshire it’s not so easy!

have you tried trident trains, he had some 2nd hand ones, the original post i put about them was 6 weeks ago though so i would be surprised if they are still there

And if you spin that street view to the right there is a ‘retro’ Volvo estate parked up

And I bet you keep your savings under the mattress too (or down into the curtain linings!) i must admit a few a few years back I thought it odd to use a card to pay for ‘trivial’ items for a few quid but now days I do it regularly (partly because the new style notes tend to slip out of pockets easily or stick to other items such as your phone when you take it out of your pocket and are easy to drop or lose) would it also blow your mind if I said I can pay for stuff with my wrist watch with a single tap, an old woman in a charity shop in mid wales nearly wouldn’t let me pay that way once as she was convinced I was trying to scam her!