big jim

Just 2 from today Kilnhurst loop And back to Landor st and away to a hotel before my final trip to iport this week in the morning

Here’s hoping! I’m going to order the large logo one and see what happens with the Bachmann market, to be honest I think since the announcement the Bachmann class 66 market has gone a bit stagnant, I refuse to buy 66726 ‘marine one’ as it’s stupidly expensive for what it is, waiting on the next 10% off with eBay promo before picking one up as that would bring it down by a fair whack (but still top dollar) just last week I got 66711 sence for £110 and ltd ed 66745 ‘modern railways’ for £99 off eBay, that price I can more than live with

Similar thing by us recently, new mini(ish) roundabout built on the nantwich to Chester road to access an industrial estate, approaching from Chester you have 2 lanes one for the ‘straight on’ main road that continues from a single exit from the roundabout and one for the industrial estate exit to the right (no exits left, just a canal) The markings were put down which had the left hand lane with a ‘left turn’ arrow and right hand lane ‘straight ahead’ arrow and no arrow to head toward the industrial estate the first time I went over it, noted the left arrow which seemed odd but got in that lane anyway knowing there was no left turn, other cars however got in the straight ahead lane to find that there was no ‘straight ahead’ only an angled kerb, I should imagine there were lots of near misses over the 5 days the arrows lasted before being repainted correctly to show left for straight ahead and right for right! Must admit the first time I went over it I thought, that’s odd and doubted myself as to whether I’d imagined the arrows the way they were so made a point the next day to have a proper look to confirm it, as I say they lasted less than a week!

It’s certainly not as varied as Colas at the moment but I can’t expect to be doing everything under the sun as I’ve only been here 2 months, the iport job is a difficult one to cover as there are only 2 of us west mids drivers who sign it at the moment, so it’s stuck between us and the other guy is annual leave this week so I’ve copped for it, not sure what’s happening next week as he’s rest day and I’ve got leave for a couple of days coz of the funeral The main thing is now once I get off the loco that’s it, work doesn’t come home with me anymore no assessments to fill out, drivers problems to deal with, timesheets to fill out and print off and that’s what makes the difference, not that I’m home much this week! So, couple of pics Morning coleshill shot for a change And back again in the evening Bit of a change later........no not really, 66749 to the iport and back again, although next week I do have 2 days of mountsorrel instead of iport jobs, just copped for it on the Saturday No that’s an iPhone 6 picture

Typical, 1/4 mile from the house and I can’t make it either day!

Same old same old, 66749 again to the iport Just waiting at coleshill to take 66749 to the iport for a change

sorry to go back a few months but just spotted the posts about the 'electric locos' sign at reading, the test trains ive worked if you have "mentor" in your formation and its testing then the train is classed as electric hauled despite it being diesels both ends, so from that point of view if i knew i was heading towards the westbury lines (even to do a shunt or change ends) id be wanting confirmation from the guy on mentor that the pan had been dropped and yes i have ran it off the wires too! not my fault but booked into the bay platform at darlington with a conductor driver, stopped the loco at the block, looked up and thought "oh !@£# there's no wires" looked back to see mentor thankfully with the pan dropped, unfortunately it had actually raised to its maximum height before dropping, as i walked back there were alarms and buzzers going off all over the place and the pantograph was unable to be reset, turned out the tech should have dropped it about 1/2 south of the station but was on his phone and forgot so i never got a rollocking for it

i dont know much about old coaches but the one that caught my eye was the merchant navy footage at waterloo in the video, one appears to have a gresley teak? coach in the formation, is that unusual for the southern?

i think there was special dispensation given, thats why it was locked out at the station prior to the stop to keep the time they were locked oou to a minimum, some guards would walk down and re-energise them as soon as the train left bearley on the subject of locking doors and moving passengers i remember having a 'discussion' with arriva wales control one night, working the last birmingham-chester service the 158 had a lighting failure in one coach, the batteries had died and the unit wasnt cross feeding, the guard agreed to move passengers to the unaffected coach and roll the shutter down between the coaches and travel up front with me but control were adamant that the train should be cancelled as if there was an emergency you wouldnt be able to evacuate the coach, it took a lot of explaining that the unaffected coach still had doors in use both sides at both ends, it was only when i said "all we have done is make a 153 out of a 158" that the penny dropped with them that it was safe to run

168s dont have local door facilities (not sure about the ex 170s though but they are inly 2-3 car anyway)

Bearly, between Stratford and Hatton is only 2 coaches long and has booked 3 car units without selective door opening stopping there en route to london, the conductor locks out the lead coach doors individually either at Hatton or Stratford and makes announcements to say anyone wishing to alight should use the rear 2 coaches ‘Bearly’ in the platform The platform has X car stop boards for 3 car units to stop at off the platform (as per the picture) as you can see it’s actually just the lead door that is off the platform If you are booked to stop there and your unit has been substituted for a 4 car unit then you are not allowed to pick up passengers there however you have to stop to tell them to push the ‘passenger assistance button’ on the station help point and a taxi will be dispatched to collect them straight away, I only ever had that happen once though! (I was tempted to just let them on via the cab door tbh!)

Some from yesterday, a different take in my ‘Masborough shots, I noticed an access gate was open to the old platform so I checked with the signaller it was safe to cross over and went to shut it, as it happened it went into a locked compound anyway so no one could get through but I managed to get a couple of shots from the opposite side of the track The station sure looks better form the main road side than it does from the tracks, it’s an Indian restaurant And back into coleshill, except my relief had gone to Landor st so I had to carry on to there with it!

That’s the bit I couldn’t get my head round when I saw the pic earlier on

Go on waste an hour on this, I just did! Some superb archive and amateur footage of steam, diesel and electric to the sound track of radio Caroline and radio 1 Enjoy

Just one pic today, new livery on a 175

had a good evening on ebay tonight, not bought much for a while but as i sold a few locos last week i had some money in paypal so thought id have a nose what there was of interest. managed to pick up a LTD ED Bachmann GBRf 66 745 "modern railways" for £99 which im really pleased about, not one ive been after but at that price a bargain then while idly clicking about i found a badly listed (poor photo and title) LTD ED rail express DRS livery 37688 "Kingmoor TMD", 1/2 of the limited edition pair with 37510 which i put a cheeky bid in on and got for £81, best part was i sold mine yesterday for £115, i may well just check this one over when it arrives and put it straight back up but properly listed

not any more, don't do the yellow stuff now i'm with GBRf, i did think as i got the wood from the skip at the depot in roberts road should i do an EMD depot for all my 66s! one good thing about having done the yellow trains in the past is i have an idea of what sort of consists i can run prototypically as before i did them it was all just "yellow trains", didn't know a UTU from a PLP-R or SGT or what locos could run with what the reason i want all these on display on the layout rather than hidden away in the planned storage sidings (accessed by a helix) is that in case you've not seen my workbench thread the coaches all feature fully prototypical, illuminated interiors and where appropriate external lighting etc (well most do, still got a few more to finish off) that i want to show off EDIT: while sat here looking at the pics i've a thought, once i integrate this bit into the bigger layout the headshunt at the far end of the board (where 37254 is sat) could actually continue round and rejoin the mainline giving me two directions to arrive and depart from

Nothing happening building wise, been mad busy in work and not home to be in for plasterers to give quotes etc, electrician will be doing first fit very soon but we have a funeral and half term to get out of the way first Anyway, while fuelling a loco in Roberts toad last week I spotted a rather nice plank of wood in a skip, went and asked if I could have it which was ok so carried it back on 66717 from Doncaster to Birmingham Already battened up Being as I’ve got lots of yellow stock I thought it would be good to use it to display it, when I build the new layout I can intergrate this into one wall of the bigger layout with the mainline running behind Loco maintenance one end Carriage shed will be the other end with a 2 coach run round in front So a train arrives 37 draws off into the headshunt 08 comes off the headshunt onto the rear and deals with the train Removed a short siding to in crease the ‘apron’ betweentjhe sidings The other end I can’t decide whether to have a single siding leading to a storage siding Or just go for 2 sidings

Gonna pop along this afternoon about 14:00 hopefully

Same again yesterday except the loco stays in Doncaster on a Saturday Landor st Masborough Northern 158 taking the old road en route to Loughborough from Neville hill Doncaster Same job every day next week!

Look closely there is a 158 in the picture Another cambrian one And an ‘urban landscape’ taken from Severn Jn signal box

Try mike at c+m in Carlisle, he may have some left to order

There were many imposed but not on open crossings, they were put on foot crossings deemed not to have enough sighting for pedestrians

Just a few from today, same job, same loco! Panorama Blurry shot of a coal train heading to cottam Into coleshill And home I went Back on it again tomorrow but just one way to Doncaster

Spot on that, been eyeing up a Bachmann 66711 ‘sence’ And with the discount I got £11.50 off but as I went through the TopCashback website too I got another 1% off the entire order which included a few other items so another £1.45 off and an extra bonus of £2.50 off them too so down from £115 to £99.55 Happy with that Combining Offers like that (where possible) make certain items more palatable, I am watching a Ltd Ed loco I’ve been after that would have taken £20+ off the buy it now price but I decided to get the 66 instead, it’s worth remembering that the likes of rails have a shop on there so their latest ltd ed 66727 ‘maritime’ will have had £17 off today up until 8pm