big jim

Got a call from my big sister earlier to tell me that the doctor had been to see my mum at home and has given her “a couple of days at the most” having got over cancer a couple of years back it returned the middle of last year far more aggressively and had spread to more places, she has been fighting it since but a few weeks back she decided to end the treatment as it was making her feel worse, not helped by having to travel from mid wales to Bangor more than once a week for treatment depending on how she was feeling I’m currently sat in bed wide awake at her house in llwyngwril while my sister looks after her overnight to give my stepdad a break, she has been here a month or so looking after her, no mean feat as she lives out in Los Angeles! My my eldest brother is on his way from stoke as I type to be here when she wakes up and my other brother is also here too (he lives here anyway) so when she does finally go all her children will be here as well as my stepdad who has been married to her for just over 30 years I’m so glad I made the effort to come last week to see her, she managed to get down stairs and wave me off when it was time for me to go home, according to my sister she is now so weak and dosed up she can’t even sit up in bed yet alone get out, part of me is dreading what I’m going to see in the morning when I get up to see her, I couldn’t bring myself to see her tonight as she is in a very deep sleep, I’m hoping she will know I’m there in the morning to so I can goodbye and I love you before the inevitable happens. we have known its been coming for a long time and have tried to keep things humorous and light hearted but nothing quite prepares you for that sucker punch when reality hits home, as I said to my sister earlier when “mum” came up on my phone it was going to be one of 2 things, either get here ASAP or your too late, thankfully it was the first one and I’ve made it to her bedside, hopefully she will make it through to the morning, my sis says any major change and she’ll come and wake us up

I was in the lead cab of the rear loco on the way toton as there were 2 other drivers on board same job today but just moving 2 DB locos to toton, 66722 again with 66055 and 66111, we had to take the GB loco to work the return service to bescot As I sign the depot I took them straight for fuel we then discovered the return working was cancelled so we’re light loco back to bescot, got an early path and set off for a nice early finish only to get a phone call to say an intermodal train had failed between nuneaton and coleshill and could we assist so we ended up going to the triangle at Water Orton and heading back to Whitacre jn Where we then went wrong direction for 7 1/2 miles to meet the failed train and couple up took it back to hams hall where we shunted it away, fuelled the errant loco then took our loco back to bescot unfortunatly I got a phone call on the way home to say my mum wasn’t well so have had to take a few days off so there probably won’t be any updates the rest of the week now

Just 2 for today, 66722 again bescot to toton 37099 passing by as we waited to leave the yard same again tomorrow

ive been having a think about the layout and the hidden storage area originally i planned to have loads of sidings hidden on the ply below the layout on top of all the cabinets but now im thinking of just having them along one side/wall under a high level bit and have the other sidings "out in the open" but still on the lower level, effectively making the layout multi level again on a scenic scale but on the same hand i want to avoid merely making a larger version of the old shed layout!

I’ve had my switch a few weeks now, quite enjoying it, the little un won’t give up his mario games for me to borrow though but we have played Mario kart 8 via the projector which is brilliant smash bros ultimate is enjoyable, between us we have 8 “joycons” so I should imagine an 8 player brawl would be a right laugh (just need 8 friends now!)

Busy day Friday, plinths in place and fixed the ply down to Battons on top of the cabinets for the storage/fiddle yards to sit on and the final couple of cupboards up above the freezer, might look at some shelves in between them other than that it’s practically ready to start thinking about the remaining boards and incline up to the main layout

Odins legacy continues, we had 2 foster cats over the Easter weekend the first being a geriatric old cat who thankfully after a day has been reunited with his owner after going missing a week or so ago, he’s very old (the cat, not the owner) and we discovered he has cancer, thyroid problems, Tumours in his ears, generally not in a good way but very very affectionate, Lola wasn’t impressed though! Then today the next cat turned up when the cats home took the first one back to its owner, this time we have a Maine cōōn who is bloody massive, again Lola not impressed but putting up with him, this one again, really affectionate and found his spot in the conservatory within minutes of arriving, at the moment Lola is keeping out of his way upstairs sleeping upstairs, we don’t know how long we will have this one for but he’s an absolute bruiser, like having a mountain lion!

Had a bit of a gaming weekend..... I’ve downloaded a flight game called Ace Combat 7 to the Xbox, done a couple of missions so far, not too bad a game, good with the surround sound on to hear other planes circling round yoU, it says it’s available as a VR game on PS4 but I could imagine it would get a bit disorienting very quickly! been cracking on with forza 4 on XBox doing various tasks and missions played super smash bros ultimate on the switch via the big screen but struggled as the A and B buttons on Nintendo are transposed compared to the Xbox so I kept pushing B instead of A and vice versa! Picked up a PSP from a car boot today for £2 with tiger woods, fifa 09 and r-type, fully expected it not to work but got it home and plugged it in and worked perfectly, it can be used as an extra PS4 controller too

We should rename this thread “for those interested in parking violations”

I thinking of using a spare baseboard I have and do a 1980s west highland type set up, a nice little single line, junction maybe, viaduct, edge of a loch, I can see it in my head, whether it happens is another thing

Hello your job is cancelled tonight, network rail have asked can you work a pair of 37s through 2 very long tunnels over the Pennines with the job starting 5 mins from your house? erm, let me think! Crewe with 37025 on the rear 37116 leading then I went out to Stockport, changed ends, to chinley, changed ends again and back to hazel grove then changed ends again and over (and under) the Pennines to Sheffield and away to derby RTC to stable, weekend off now, back to the bescot tripper on Monday

Further to mel’s post there are in fact 2 highlander and 2 capital connection sets on the table, the capital one is actually £130 not £150 ive just bought a highlander set (still 2 left) which with the 2 loyalty card I had on me worked out at £105 (then as I’ve spent over £100 I will get £5 off my next purchase) thanks melmerby for the tip off

cant get that code to work however i was going to use it to treat myself to an s stock set but they have gone up to £450 from around £380 earlier in the year!

Last (groundhog) day of the job Stalking me again And back to bescot

Just spotted this on eBay, I know we don’t normally put single private eBay items on bargain hunters but you look to be getting a lot for your money for the £850 start bid, if I had the space i’d be tempted myself https://rover.ebay.com/rover/0/0/0?mpre=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.ebay.co.uk%2Fulk%2Fitm%2F283424636226 Going to watch this one that’s for sure, if you had the space I recon it could be adapted to fit in a large garage/shed and made into a continuous run set up

Yeah I did see you waving at me! some from today, same loco again, different consist today though, point carrying wagons one way and a DB66 with auto hoppers the other 158 passing through toton another stalker loco Freightliner cement train and heading back to bescot, waiting at rycroft jn, 66056 dead in train same again tomorrow, last one this week before an IM job Saturday

Imperial, metric....

Same again today same loco as last night, waiting to set off while the 08 gets a bit of attention on the road across Another ‘stalker’ loco 66789 Colas 56 that had dropped on to the rear of the train we bought in from beacot And as we were waiting to leave a drs train came in with another rail delivery train

Always worth a look at the charity section of wickes, in crewe on Sunday I picked up 5 packs of ceramic wall tiles for our downstairs loo, £1 a box, each one covering 1.2M sq, more than enough for the job, probably enough to do the back of the worktop in the utility room area of my garage conversion too they also had end of line internal oak doors for £5 a piece and other various Nick nacks for a donation

Some from today, bescot to toton 66754 one way dropped off in Toton and coupled to 66756 And 66722 back, spent the day with Marcus37 who was road learning from Trent jn into the yard at Toton so I can confirm he is still alive but not doing much railway modelling same again tomorrow

I know it’s the daily mail and I don’t like linking to it but i’ll Just leave this here https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-6922433/Mother-straight-student-hit-killed-silent-train-sues-Network-Rail-22-000.html Words fail me!

Did a bit more yesterday afternoon worktop in the utility room Properly wired up the surround sound speakers and got the ply for the storage yard area, just placed on the top of the cabinets for now as I have some battening to go under it to raise it slightly over the doors 2 more cabinets to fit to the walls and one more floor unit to secure Hopefully we may be able to get a bit more done Friday if my booked job is changed and what man cave wouldnt be complete without a pinball machine!

Close, but no cigar!

Some from yesterday, had a week off and back a nice crewe to Doncaster job the obligatory Masborough shot and into hexthorpe rhen got asked to fuel and shunt a class 56 around ready to be hauled to peak forest, new one for me, first time I’ve driven 56081 North Norfolk railway 37032 awaiting the wheel lathe thats it til Monday and the bescot to Toton tripper

Here is the cat we got to foster after Odin’s death within half an hour of being let out of the carrier she had found a place to sit and relax, didn’t hide away, came for a fuss, so much so that she too felt like she had always been here, as I say never going to be a replacement for Odin, 2 completely different characters but the house (and caravan) feels so complete with her strutting around, she is about 8 years old and a wise old woman that’s for sure we were thinking the other day of how Odin suited his name, named after the god of war, it was reputed he did things with little thought about the consequences! in the short time we had him he got stuck up a tree, lost in a duvet cover, tried to catch the fish in the tank, got tangled in a cat toy, and funniest of all, you had to be there to see it to believe it, pushed a small cardboard box along the landing to the edge of the top step then jumped in it and went flying down the stairs in it like something off cool runnings!