big jim

ive been calling it 'white lightning' all week or 'blue nun' couple from last night on the mountsorrel ancaster tonight on a possession

Leave the work updates to me! First time I’ve looked at this thread, lots of pages to catch up with but some seriously nice modelling, loving the corner shop and mish mash row of houses

Quite apt as I can see crewe works from our house!

Odin is approx 10 weeks old so too young to have been away from his mum, he is 1/2 the size and weight he should be though Compared to the day we got him this morning he was full of it, eating and drinking and walking round, he seems to ‘pad’ the ground a fair bit like a kitten would on it’s mother when feeding and he hasn’t quite got the hang of walking on wood laminate floor as his front legs are all over the place He certainly seems very greatful he has a home as when we walk in the room he comes towards us excitedly, he’s not at all nervous

Got home yesterday to find my wife had acquired a cat! We haven’t had one in the house for about 4 years since or last one died at 23 years old! This little fella was found shut in a factory control room and had been 5 days without food or water so was not in a good way but my wife went the vets who gave him the once over and said there is no reason he shouldn’t be ok Meet “Odin” or 47606 as I call him

Nice pic, hopefully you will have a different loco next week! Some from yesterday Mountsorrel today

More iport Fuelling again with royal Scotsman 66 lurking And back to coleshill One more day of it this week then a mountsorrel on Friday

Sorry yes it’s a user worked crossing with phones and gates (which have self shutting mechanisms on them)

Last week I had an incident at an occupational crossing where a tractor began crossing the line without permission from the signaller, he entered the crossing as I could see the front jib over the tree tops approaching the line but not slowing down, I blew the horn and he stopped blocking the other line before reversing back off the crossing rather sharpishly, since then I have given a blast if the horn approaching the crossing for my own safety’s sake Anyway today I found out that there has since been a complaint about excessive use of the horn at the crossing by my train in the days following the incident! Needless to say that after finding that out I still blew the horn approaching the crossing today, and will do tomorrow and Thursday too and in every other train I work over the crossing while it is continued to be misused As an aside a work colleague at Colas also nearly hit a tractor on the same crossing with the Boston steel train a few years back, his was a lot closer miss than mine, so much so he put the loco into emergency and went in the engine room!

another one here https://www.cumbriacrack.com/2019/01/07/disruption-to-rail-services-between-newcastle-and-carlisle-after-train-hits-car/

Today was a loco move hams hall to bescot Convoy from Peterborough with 66719, 66775, 66727, 66705 and 66723 with a flat wagon for added measure We took 2 of them to bescot Then back to hams hall to take an intermodal all the way to Didcot On to the station for the train home, still seems odd seeing electrics in Didcot! Then just for fun coz I could I went via london to get home, first experience of an 800 unit, very sterile inside, seats are hard as everyone knows but still comfy enough The old guard And over to Euston and back to crewe Iport again tomorrow

Anyhow, here is a train! Got some more from today to add when I get home

Unlike the 153 unit

The signaller will have probably preset the route so when I clear the track circuit it will pull if for the 153 To be honest it’s a terrible bit of regulation at stenson the 153 is booked to wait for us everyday rather than holding us back at Willington for him to cross in front of us!

First time this year to roll this out https://youtu.be/MMiKyfd6hA0

Some from the last couple of days Masborough as usual on Thursday, we had a bit of excitement a bit earlier in the trip thanks to a tractor that was using a crossing without permission from the signaller, 30 seconds later and we would have hit him, thankfully we had front facing cctv recording the whole incident so hopefully it will end in a prosecution or loss of use of the crossing as it’s the same one within a farm where a work colleague nearly hit a tractor whilst on the Boston steel train a few years back! Iport And Friday 56089 and 47749 at trowell jn Iport again Back on It again later today, one way trip though

If you look carefully in this picture I can just about see you in the horizon stood at your landing window with some binoculars

One of my favourite ‘vistas’ is on the way to Alton towers if you go over the Staffordshire moorlands, when you get to the top at cauldron low you can on a clear day see breedon hill near Welshpool at the same time as ratcliffe powerstation, Willington, the Cheshire plains etc Went to mow cop in the summer on a beautifully clear day and was blown away by the view from there, it was hazy so I suspect had it not been I would have seen right out to Blackpool, heysham etc https://flic.kr/p/26zi1WZ

My stepdad has just bought one of those, he loves it, not a new one but still something like a 16 plate one iirc Before that he had an Isuzu crew cab pick up which was rough and ready to say the least but he did 150k miles in it both on and off road going to various shoots and it never really let him down

I had a quashquai (the biggest version they do) as a hire car a few months back, being as I was doing work a favour I requested an estate type car to get 5 passengers and luggage in to get to our caravan then I would use the car to get to and from the train I was working, when it arrived I was very impressed with it until we came to load the thing up with all of our stuff and we found a distinct lack of space both in the boot area for 3 suitcases and other sundries but also in the cabin, the 3 kids in the rear didn’t have much room at all for the size of the car, the front was ok but nothing spectacular Sat on the drive looking at it it was externally not far off the size of my wife’s 2005 Nissan Murano but internally it was more the size of a similar vintage x trail or Honda CR-V, it was a car I’d have considered when the murano decides to give up the ghost but that one weekend put me off it completely, the murano will happily take 5 passengers and their luggage with ease and cruise up and down the motorway all day at 70mph getting 30-35mpg out of it

TBH I was thinking of painting up 3 of the figures as bronski beat (seen here at Paddington after checking out a class 210 DEMU on the great western mainline!) ) Check out the video for small town boy for futher demu action and even a fleeting glimpse of some grain flow wagons, HSTs and 117 dmu’s

Yes that was me and my trainee, I was in the 2nd mans side

If you can Book ahead, you can avoid the queues If you do an early doors trip you also get a free hot drink too

I went up the shard a couple of days before Christmas and I remember thinking “I’m sure that’s 34theletterbetweenB+D’s house” I can see in the distance!