big jim

Not quite as old as that classic mini but I got my £1200 ‘barnfind’ cooper s back from the midlands last week, had it booked straight in for an MOT to see what I’m gonna have to spend to get it back on the toad failed on brakes (which is understandable for a car that has done 40 miles in 2 years) and ive had to replace a bulb and indicator stalk as it kept putting full beam in if I touched it (only £12 for a replacement) Only concern was it leaked coolant during the MOT when the tester revved it up for the emission test, looks to have come back through the header tank (which are prone to splitting) which meant it failed on emissions too as he couldn’t get a reading (kept spiking) but I’ve been advised to redex it and rev the balls off out of it to get the emissions down, the first shot of redex certainly threw some nice white clouds out of the exhaust! In all I think once the brakes are done and I thrash it a bit more I should have it back in the road for less than £100 outlay

Apparent it’s only in one end and it actually rings a 2nd hidden bell

It does actually ring apparently, hidden switch in one of the cabs!

I dunno, rmweb goes off for 3 days and BAM!!! We have painted walls and ceiling and a floor! 25mm polystyrene sheets first Then 18mm moisture resistant tongue and groove flooring panels I dropped a ball ordering the insulation and thought I’d ordered 5 1200x2400 sheets which would have easily done Both rooms but I accidentally ordered 1200 x 600, combined with some I bought from B+Q earlier in the week I managed to get the main room finished so I need more for the utility room area so I can get that down and finished off electrican on Monday, get some skirting then get the council back for a final sign off ive decided to carpet the main area and wood laminate the utility bit, also starting to think of things like storage area, workbench (which may move into the main room)

Odin update: he’s turning into a right little hunter, here’s a pic of him mid air trying to catch a toy on a piece of elastic we have also discovered a bit more about his previous ‘life’ he wasn’t accidentally locked in the control room, he was put there ‘to be found’ by someone who quite simply didn’t want him any more, so thought it a good idea to dump him rather than going to a re homing place or vets, the result being he was a few hours from death before we got him and made him better, I sure hope that person (who is known) gets karma back on them ten fold as he is he most adorable, loving kitten you could imagine, even though he bites your toes in bed at night!

It’s typical I have a week off work and what do they put on the iport job.....66779 ‘Evening Star’! back in on Monday with a mountsorrel job, MOD later in the week too

without being totally anal about minor things but GBRf 66789 doesnt have enough lifting lugs, the chassis looks to be the same on all autocoupler fitted models with a single lifting lug opposite the autocoupler the real thing retains 4 lifting lugs both ends

as for the GBRf orange/yellow there are 2 different variations as seen here with the doyen of Gb's fleet in original livery (where you can barely see the yellow) next to europorte livery 66752 with easily discernible yellow end https://flic.kr/p/29YEPic and here is model subject 66704 in original livery and the yellow goes right up to the windscreen as per the model and easily discernible compared to my pic of 701 not my pic https://flic.kr/p/TPGTJb

i hope the later variation side windows (as on 301 and 727) are made a bit finer, they look just 'wrong' from the angle of the photos cant put my finger on the front section looking too big or the rear section looking too small but the internal bit between them seems to exaggerate the thickness of the complete glazing unit

Just one from last night, conducted a train chesterfield to swinton Week off

Anyone doing as I am and decorating a model room, wickes have their trade emulsion paint (various types and colours) reduced in price from £36 to £10

Popped into wickes this morning to get some bits and bobs and had a look at the ‘trade paints’ and happened to notice that lot of wickes own brand emulsions were reduced in price, including their version of trade paints, managed to get a couple of 25L magnolia ‘for fresh plaster’ reduced from £36 to £10 Spent the rest of the day giving the walls a first coat which has gone on really well, have put a 2nd coat in places too and so far only used about 2/3 of a tub I have some decent white crown stuff for the ceiling however I’ve spotted a long crack already after yesterday’s very strong winds, I’m wondering if the roof was flexing with the wind, it was pretty bad as we lost a few fence panels, I’ve got some flexible polyfilla type stuff to see if I can fill the gap (less than 1mm I recon) before I give it a coat of white Bit hard to see due to the light but certainly looking like a room now Another couple of coats later in the week, electrician on Monday and almost done Going to go for this stuff as floor insulation, purely for the basis of ease of transport in the car over buying it as a 3 x 2.4 x 1.2 sheet, 3 packs will cover the whole floor raising it up to the level of the cross member in the internal doorway onto which I’ll put the floating floor board https://www.diy.com/departments/jablite-premium-insulation-board-1200mm-450mm-25mm/26830_BQ.prd

Totally agree russ but it’s not ‘boil in the bag’ that winds me up it’s lazy drivers, I had it at chiltern, we were trained to couple and uncouple 67s from MK3s (by Marcus37 as it happens) and I had to do it once to get a loco for fuel in Tyseley, leaving the stock in moor st next day the aslef rep phoned me to say I shouldn’t have done it ‘as i’d Set a president, so everyone would be expected to do it’ after a number of drivers heard what I’d done and complained! when I pointed out we were fully trained to do it and certified on paper he didn’t know what to say other than ‘well I’m not going to do it if they ask me’

Odin update: Been the vet, had his first lot of jabs, all good He has a new cat house and bed but has decided that the best place to sleep is in a kenwood 12” bass speaker that I bought off eBay a few weeks back! Just wait until I plug it in and turn it on!

Ooh new page, Anyone know how to change a bulb on a 2003 mini?

i've done it on the bidston line with a passenger service, picked up the pilotman at shotton, worked through to upton in the correct direction then returned "bang road" to dee marsh where we crossed back over to the correct line via a position light (where the handsignaller was waiting to signal us back to the right line)

there are some seriously disturbed people in russia! tell you one thing though i would like to take my chances crossing those 4/5/6 lane roads on what is no more than a zebra crossing

Week off coming up, one short conducting job tomorrow then a week of finishing the garage conversion off and seeing what the cooper s needs to get through the MOT

We did as you suggested and my dad put a dilute coat of emulsion on the plaster all over, we are revisiting it Monday with ‘pure’ emulsion and see how it goes on I’ll grab a pic tomorrow if I get a chance We are going to do the ceiling and rear wall white and the rest magnolia (the projector will play onto the rear wall)

The extra pieces of tape are in the cab being used as a draught excluder aroud the drivers desk (from someone who used to drive pacers and knows about it first hand)

Not quite, she goes into barmouth by train and spends enough to get it delivered for free! I’d really hate the job of Iceland delivery driver there having to go the best part of 20 mile to do a delivery that in a straight line is 2-3 miles or by rail is half the distance Saying that in the early 80s when my dad was the local Bobby in llwyngwril we did our monthly ‘big shop’ in kwik save in Ffestiniog, that was a fair old trek

That’s why my mum gets her Iceland shopping delivered to llwyngwril rather than drive or lug it back on the train!

Certainly did!

Regards barmouth in the towyn direction you don’t activate the crossing until you have the movement authority on the ERTMS screen (ie section ahead is open) otherwise it will time out and the barriers will raise should you be sat there a while Not relevant to the video above but thought I’d mention it anyway!

I’ve Never tried Guiness either Never smoked Never seen pulp fiction or reservoir dogs Never seen game of thrones, breaking bad or walking dead Never eaten salad Never eaten fish (but do eat fish cake)