big jim

Some from last night, site driver in the north east, rail drop on the ‘Blythe and Tyne’ line north of Newcastle Met the train in Newcastle central station And to site at bebside, this is after the dripnand waiting for my relief so I could go back to the hotel It never actually got dark last night! Then I drove back today, did a circuitous route though Stopped in shilton Now this I like! Then off I went via Barnard castle towards brough, Kirby Stephen, ais Gill, hawes and ended up here Then I headed off from there to settle for a cup of tea with newbryford and onward Home via citheroe Possibly going to be the last opportunity for me to have a gentle trundle back from a lodge turn just enjoying the scenery! UTU tomorrow night

They are wedged in and a tighter fit at the top as the cuts weren’t exactly in a straight line though the insulation I’ve still got to add the plasterboard with an extra 25mm of insulation below rafter level yet so hopefully that will help to seal things further Regard the air gap, yes it does go ‘to outdoors’ to get an airflow, I’ll get a pic later but basically the lip of the Grp garage roof isn’t flush to the walls either side, it is about 30mm away from the wall and the rafters are also slightly higher than the top of the brickwork, again 30mm or so

Picked up some insulation off eBay which I went and picked up yesterday, unfortunatly the car with fold down seats failed its MOT on Monday so I had to take the phaeton which doesn’t have so I had to chop the big 8x4 sheet down to get it home, there is still some at the guys house that I couldn’t get in that illnahve to collect on Friday, luckily he’s not too far away! Got 75mm and 100mm thick pieces off him Decided to fit up the 100mm stuff into the roof space 25mm airgap between the insulation and roof Gonna need at least another 6 sheets to complete the roof

Wasn’t 60098 also the 1000th loco built by brush or something?

the question is do i go with them to their new home?

quite simply you don't move until you have spoke to the signaller who will give you permission to drop down the platform to the signal

its the future

had it happen many times while forming up trains on the RTC shunt ive even had one where we did a loco removal to swap from from top and tail to 37/DBSO combo for some reason, (the DBSO had been buried behind the loco), and when driving from the 37 it was no problem but when you got in the DBSO, putting it in forward sent you backwards and vice versa!

hinksey is the same, many a time ive given "SG" and wondered why ive not had the road after a while, pushed speak to signaller and get through to moreton in marsh box! warrington bank quay is the same, right under the box, looking at the white of the signallers eyes and "contact signaller" puts you through to warrington central (which is on a completely different unconnected line!) i take it you do know how to find a particualr box on the system "menu" then "1" for calls, then "4" for phone book 2, find a specific type in box as if you were doing a text message 1 for A,B,C, 2 for D,E,F etc and spell out the first 3 letters of the name and it brings up all the boxes starting with whatever you type in, im quite lucky as i speak to ABBey forgate quite a bit and thats the first number on the list anyway! i know it may sound like im teaching you to suck eggs if you do know but a driver i was with last week while road learning didnt have a clue how to do the above at all, never been shown

Had an evening road refreshing and learning yesterday Was going to do Manchester to Liverpool south parkway but struggled to get onto any trains so I went to the airport instead with TPE 185 unit 175 and 185 319 A gentle reminder 156 Tram 142 and 185 I then went back to Piccadilly Did another trip to the airport then hung around til midnight, and caught one of our test trains out to chinley and back to hazel grove to northernden so I could learn that bit and back to Stockport for my van and Home Arriving back in Stockport And that was that!

Yes you can connect blue star to AAR jumpers with a special cable, (as leopard says a longer one) we do it regularly with DRS 37s on the rest trains You do occasionally get issues where a top and tail 37 will pull in opposite directions if the wrong jumper is put in (37/6 are a for it!) Edit: sorry was thinking of DRS multi cables regard the 37/6 But yes the 67s have an AAR to blue star jumper, iirc it was the same at chiltern too

Crikey, give a chance to build the space first!! TBH, the only thing I have defiantly decided on layout wise is it will have helix to lots of lower level storage sidings so I can get all my locos and stock out of their storage boxes and run them rather than having to choose stuff to put on the layout and swap them in and out as I do now due to lack of layout space, I may even put display cabinets on the walls for locos so I can swap them in and out and keep them away from dust when not being used

And here we go First up one of the stud walls with the tyvek membrane fitted, were hoping to do a couple more but had one of those days, MOT on the car (which it failed) and other running around getting bits and bobs And here is the bi-fold door which was a swine to get to fit perfectly but we got there in the end Utility room access Fully open into workbench area Need to add one piece of facia board to the wood above the door, then guttering back up and on to the inside

some of my modern day pics of the NMT, so lucky to actually sign it! sir kenneth grange

keeping away from that political hot potato!

Our test trains are top and tail using blue star jumpers, with those in both the locos power up when the lead one takes power, if I don’t want one of the locos to power up I can turn the control switch to off in that loco, also shutting the white ‘control air’ cock on the bufferbeam that will prevent the loco taking power 67s use AAR cables, thebonly odd thing about those is when you shut them down at the end of the day the stop button will only shut down the lead loco, you have to go to the rear to shut down the rear one If like last night I had Top and tail locos without jumper cables or main reservoir pipe then the rear loco has to be left running and manned as it won’t maintain its main res and I wouldn’t know if it had caught fire! Regards Lag when shutting/powering if you shut off too quick the rear loco can give you a little shove, particularly with a 37 DBSO combo (obviously driving from the dbso), Top and tail 37s aren’t too bad, HSTs can give you a bit of a shove if you shut off too quickly too

In that case I would have been coasting from hanselmanns crossing heading to the 30kph bridge just before the old cruckmeole jn where the line to minsterley used to go off Unfortunatly for you the only ‘quiet’ bit of the journey between Welshpool and Salop!

Ballast drop on the Cambrian last night and back to crewe Machynlleth, it was fun getting up tallerddig, slipping a bit in the drizzle! Into crewe and parked up Road learning tomorrow evening, hunts cross to Trafford Park and hazel grove to northernden hopefully

I’d hazard a guess as somewhere around the breedon bank Westbury area Bet you heard me before you saw me, 97303 and 97304 btw

All the times I’ve driven down there but I’ve never done the sidings at calvert!

Couple of days worth of updates before I go to sleep Road learning again Thursday, Sheffield to doncaster, hope valley and another look over Trafford Park to Liverpool south parkway Sheffield Sneaky little signal on the through loop One from doncaster And south parkway And to last night, TIC2 doing all sorts Preston And out to Blackburn to meet the train, 37421 and 37521 Blackburn to Bolton and out to Salford to change ends now the loop at Moses gate has gone Bolton, waiting for the single line back towards Blackburn And into Blackburn Away to preston then south to Lichfield and over to derby, had some weird and wonderful touring ,golbourne, Newton le willows, earlestown then through Basford hall independent lines and platform 1 at Stafford And into derby Over to the RTC, shut down and Home

Thanks, all sorted in 60 seconds

Chris, do you have the subscription team contact details please, my copy hasn’t arrived yet

Not done anything for the last month while finances are built back up for the next stage Monday morning Im having the garage door removed (me and my dad doing that) and I’ve got someone in to do the bi-fold doors fitting While he is doing the doors we are going to get the wooden frames I’ve already cut back out and nail them up, refit them with the breathable membrane as well as making up the final 2 panels, possibly get the framing in for the internal wall too, depends what I can get done before work! Watch this space

As I put 97301 has different ERTMS so can’t be used on the Cambrian coast (unless it's tucked inside another 97 in multi and only providing power) It doesn’t get out much but has been along the coast on yellow trains that don’t need to use the ERTMS signalling Holyhead, nov 2016 https://flic.kr/p/PBShCi