big jim

might i suggest a loyalty card, spend £100 and get a stamp, 10 stamps gets you a copy of one of the 'revealing' pictures having been a customer of yours for a good 13 years now im sure i must be eligible for one or two by now surely (knowing my luck it will be one of mike in his y-fronts and sock suspenders) i know i wrote that last bit as a joke but i cant get the image out of my head now

forgot to put last week that ive got the insulation for the walls, picked up 12 sheets of 1200x2500 75mm stuff off ebay for £24 a sheet which is an absolute bargain, its all sat in th egarage awaiting my return from work and ill start to cut it up and fit between the battens i should also have enough to do the roof space with it and some 25mm sheets i've aquired to make up to the required 100mm thickness between the rafters Then it’s a first fit for electrics and get the plasterboard in ready

The real thing doesn’t have a nose Ariel (no NRN fitted any more) and the ‘stub’ is barely noticeable and painted yellow anyway

And a few from kings cross A cropped one through the window as I arrived into the cross 180 unit Dvt’s Panorama And my train back to peterborough, not sure which 91 is up front

Rude not to really!

so there we have it, first day out of the way, nowt to see though, the place we were in was next to the mainline so lots passing by in the middle distance, hst, iep, 91s etc PTS done, rules tomorrow, got IT equipment all set up, someone from rosters/t+c dept came to see us and explained how proper rostering worked etc, all looking pretty positive so far all was going well until i left and caught the edge of the wheel of my car in a pothole and ripped a hole in the sidewall of the passenger tyre of my car, bit gutted as the car didn't miss a beat on the 250 mile drive down from carlisle last night, now its sat on an odd wheel until i can get a tyre for it, fortunatly its a full size spare not a space saver so i can wait to get a part worn from walsall for £50 as opposed to £179 from kwikfit! off into london this evening to catch a show.......... wonder if you can guess which one?

Well spotted, this is about the best pic I can find of 70805 roof and they are indeed inverted! https://flic.kr/p/pWfRTb

That’s what I meant about the ‘short stab’ horn sound it’s quite a ‘punchy’ note that doesn’t fade

I don’t know why you felt the need to remove the picture just because no one has acknowledged it I was actually going to reply to your post with a pic earlier in the week anyway as I now have a new obsession of trying to find a 6) with a cabinet that’s not one of the ones on your list you deleted I got on a 66 last week for the first time in a few months the other day I realised I was wrong about the door, I thought they had been removed however I see from the (now removed) picture that the locos you mention have a ‘cabinet’ around the battery switch where as the one I got on (Colas ex freightliner loco) doesn’t have the cabinet at all It would be useful for you to repost the pic to compare as I’m interested even if no one else is

Thinking about it the thing I was told i got wrong when I originally posted the pic on here a good 10 years back was the livery, I stated it was Strathclyde orange whereas it’s actually GMPTE

This made me smile earlier, put 30p in a ‘turn the key’ machine in the amusement arcade at our holiday camp and won me a £50 amazon dot! I was only looking at them last night on amazon to expand the ones I have at home, glad I never bought one

Yeah I’ve got that as a pdf on the ipad To be honest if you have anything for burton to Leicester that would be useful!

My dad captured it while driving along the coast road in i recon about 1987-1988, I believe some were stored in the shed at the Jn for a short time

One of local interest for you, How about a 303 unit at bagillt (I’ve been reliably informed in the past it’s not actually a 303 but something very similar!)

I will have to get a refresh of oxford ASAP when I start the new job as it looks like I may be working some of the stud farm to westbury jobs as far as Hinksey or Didcot

I’ve dj’d with russ from k-Klass back in the 90s in wrexham

Anyway new page, let’s be positive from now on! The best thing about today was just before I got to Rugby k-Klass ‘rhythm is a mystery’ came on the radio followed by ‘you got the love’ by the source feat candy staton! Having spoke to my new manager at GBRf it looks like I may well be out driving trains by the end of next week once I’ve done my rules, pts and had a practical assessment as I don’t need to refresh any locos and there are plenty of routes I can go straight out on

I have an on line form to fill out but I’m not going to, putting nothing in writing as knowing HR they will use it against me somehow TBH one of the managers the other week, having only met him once before said that when I left I was going to be very detrimental to the comapny by going on line and slagging off the company as all the other drivers have done so, as you can imagine I went absolutely mad with him and pointed out I had almost 200 pages of nothing but positive posts about Colas on here and I suggested he have a look and reconsider what he said to me before ‘assuming’ I would do the same, todays experience however has seriously soured my opinion of Colas middle management, I’m now waiting to see how much of a hash they make if my final paybill! Love Disgruntled of crewe Agreed but a thank you would have been nice at least! I even delayed my departure for a day to help them out yesterday with the NMT as they had no driver for it

I’m sure biff will get some loaded recordings, just a shame I can’t help anymore unless GBRf we up for it

How fortuitous ‘someone’ left a class 66 there earlier in the week! Don’t forget 847 doesn’t have the start up claxon sound, also low emission 66s don’t do the 3 cycle ‘non fire’ before starting, lots of variations to be had! Horn wise I hope you recorded a ‘short stab’ too I had a DB 66 last week with auto stop start enabled, are you plannng on doing that with the DB version, I’d never had one before and wondered what the heck was going on when it started beeping at me and shut down! Deffo gonna go for a sound version now I know it’s a biffo project

Cheers everyone Well that’s really it, van gone, equipment handed back and not so much as a thank you or hand shake for the last 5 years of my working life, just a cardboard box with the stuff they needed back dumped unceremoniously in the control room, no manager to give me a leaving interview, nothing! A proper kick in the teeth for me for all I’ve done for them the last 5 years, never felt so dejected in my life when I walked out the door for the last time Thanks for all Colas!

So here we have it, final driving shift for Colas NMT crewe to Holyhead and back Crewe Quick stop in chester And again at Conwy And onto love island And back to crewe climbing off the NMT for the last time THE END.......... Van and equipment back tomorrow and that’s me done!

Another one I’ll end up buying no doubt! I actually think that looks quite smart

So my final “freight” job for Colas, derby blockade and I get a DB loco! EMT HST departing etches Park Kirow crane dropping off a set of points First time I’ve ever seen the tilting panel wagons in lowered position And off the loco I got and headed back to the van and Home Final ‘working’ shift today NMT to Holyhead and back

Yeah I know what you mean, I wasn’t going to order any new hattons 66s as I have a couple of Bachman Colas 66 I’m more than happy with but now I’m going to have to order the large loco and biffa GBRf releases as I’m bound to get in them at some point Luckily I’ve already got an original one, first group, rainbow, metronet, underground specials, evening star and Europorte Bachman versions so I won’t need to try and get them. as it happens the last GBRf 66 I drove was way back in 2010 with fastline and was 66705 with the union jack on the side, all the time with Colas and I’ve never ended up with one on hire or as site driver (he says typing this sat on a DB 66)