big jim

The 97s are numbered 301-304, you won’t see 301 on it as it has a different kind of ERTMS that isn’t passed out for use on the Cambrian which is where the train visits before the coast you must have missed last years circuit as it was 56s, the 97s did the Cambrian and they do a loco swap in coleham (shrewsbury) for the 56 for the rest of the job to bidston and Holyhead There is talk of 70s doing it this year but we’re trying to keep 56s on it as we don’t think a combo of lots of open grilles, computers, high pressure water and sludge is a good combination

You see the small child in my pics? it was me and him and a stiff brush, no one else, there was no one else, the centre had 1/2 dozen volunteers and that was it!

If I remember right that coach was pretty much inaccessible due to the sheer number of seats stacked up in it so a decision was made to get rid, the carpet was already ripped up too, we just finished the job It was surprising how little interest we got in the seats too, I think we sold half a dozen or so complete with cushions and that was it, look at the pic of them stacked up outside there must have been 20+ there which we ended up throwing away as quite simply no one wanted them, we looked at options such as using them as picnic table seats but nothing came of it You will notice the seat cushions in my pics are not APT and thinking back as I type this I’m sure there were hundreds upon hundreds of MK2 seat cushions in the coach too The other thing to remember is back in 2006 the heritage centre building itself was actually pete watermans workshops so the fairly big hall you see now was less than 1/2 the size it is now with a heavy engineering business operating behind big wooden screens so a lot of the things in the ‘exhibition’ were permanently covered in a film of dust or grinding wheel sparks Shame about the horn buttons being nicked though

I’m struggling with the last post, what doesn’t exist and what was stolen?

Here is my contribution to work done on the APT at crewe, back in 2006 I used to volunteer at the heritage centre and I washed the APT from one end to the other over a course of the weekend, at the time the centre had lost its direction, only a handful of volunteers, no money coming in on the gate really run down, my wife also joined with a view of doing kids parties (we did quite a few), she organised a fun day which attracted hundreds of people and bought in £1000s for the attraction but the narrow mindedness and pig headedness of the then management there meant we handed the keys back and walked away from the site, my wife has never been back since, I call in now and again Anyhoo, back to the APT Before, the unitnwas just covered in moss on the mainline side which only took a brush and hose to remove After Before After Now this next batch may make you a bit upset! One of the coaches was full of seats, some in ok condition, some knackered so we decided to get rid of them, we actually put them up for sale for a donation so we got money to put back into the APT, those that weren’t saved went in the skip! Seat cushions, as you can see they were pretty worse for wear and stunk! So many seats! That carpet absolutely reeked Looking back it’s a shame we didn’t have room to store all those seats as they are irreplaceable but I’m sure some were loose anyway having been acquired from other scrap vehicles

Some from today, road learning the hope valley and chesterfield again Sheffield having arrived in from Chesterfield Freightliner cement passing through Then went over to doncaster Grand central 180, lovely livery on these units Evolution pacer EMT hst having arrived in from lincoln TPE heading to Manchester I then had an appointed in london so headed off to there via the ecml Panorama view Another 180 Tube to Liverpool st, the signal box caught my eye here 90004 Joined by 90003 And after the appointment it was a rush hour tube ride to Euston at 17:30, that was fun! Pendolino Home and now sitting down with a nice beer contemplating my future!

This has gone viral on twitter, hope you can see it if your not a member https://twitter.com/no1border/status/1006256763014995973?s=21

Only took 2 pics today as I was in passenger trains and the phone needs to be turned off in the cab Been road learning the hope valley between Stockport and Sheffield and Sheffield to chesterfield, managed a couple of trips, not too bad a route, not much to it really track wise, lots of boxes and stations to remember though and Sheffield needs a good look around Chesterfield Then on the last trip I stayed on to refresh Stockport to Trafford Park and a quick look over between Trafford Park and Liverpool south parkway before heading home Liverpool south parkway Same again tomorrow but instead of finishing in Liverpool I’ve got to head to london at the end!

That’s a line from one of the songs in ‘book of mormon’ (Which of course I’ve never seen!) “What, the bible is actually a trilogy and the Book of Mormon is return of the Jedi, I’m interested!”

Some from today, another mammoth run carlisle to Toton, 210 miles Carlisle Toton Road learning the rest of the week

I asked Dennis at Bachmann about the WCR 47 at DEMU last weekend and he said they had to go back to China

I think holgate does the ‘Harrogate loop’ RHTT circuit Other depots include coleham for the Cambrian and north wales job, Toton for the MML circuit and north staffs circuit, Kingmoor for the carlisle to Newcastle circuit and stowmarket for Anglia, there are more in scotland and MOV circuits in the south and Merseyside Funny thing is I’m road learning some new RHTT routes in a few weeks and summer hasn’t even started yet!

Another view of the train in my previous pic shows the train also has 2 power cars

One of my pics which I believe shows a rare configuration of the bogie coach in a train

Had a look at the 73 last night with a view to the working wipacs, didn’t take any pics but after 4 hours tinkering I’ve managed to come up with a solution to get them to work but I won’t be able to turn the reds off (I think) the problem I have is the donor loco doesn’t have any rear lights (tail or headcode marker), just need to refine the finished item before posting pics as I’m on version ‘about 6’ so far It doesn’t help that Dapol use some weird roof mounted PCB plate to get power to the lights so I’ve had to work from that I’ve used the nano LEDs like on the ploughs which fit lovely in the drilled holes for the wipacs (when I work out how to secure them) then of course there is the extra roof light too!

I know, childhood ruined!

And it’s a completely different vehicle

What a difference 12 years makes! Thats my eldest who’s 14 on Friday!

We have an engine stop button on ours which we push, bis out (which lights up the APU ready light) then rotary switch to start and trip out gsm-r as early in we had them send an emergency call to the box after we had left the loco! I don’t know if putting the switch to start would shut ours down, will try that next time in on a 70 We can also shut it down with the APU isolated by pushing the ‘fuel cut off switch’ instead of the stop switch

All that way only to find the train I wanted was cancelled and it was 2 1/2 hours to the next one, it was running as an empty stock train to Pwllheli and fair dos to the driver he stopped to see what I was up to as I was in my hi viz but couldn’t let me on as the wa stunning DOO and the rules state that he ws not allowed to carry anyone at all on the train, he actually phoned up his manager to clarify it too, and he said I wasn’t alllowed on board too which I wasn’t going to argue with, I’m not getting anyone in trouble! Anyway llwyngwril at the moment is subject to a yarn bombing project with various knitted sculptures and diaramas around the village, the station not escaping the treatment With that I went home, took the scenic route via corwen, Ruthin, mold and Wrexham for a change If nothing else it was nice to see my mum for the evening, she’d just got back from her chemotherapy in Bangor so was a bit tired but we sat up late having a chat and a good laugh Interesting next week, logs cancelled every day and a loco move Monday then a whole week of road learning Manchester airport chord, Stockport to Sheffield, hazel grove to northernden and a few other ‘missing links’ in the Sheffield area

Just one from yesterday, had to show someone round crewe station and happened to see 46100 heading off on a test run while we were up by the signal box https://youtu.be/GmmbMeKT-6c This in the evening I had a drive to my mums house so I can road learn to Pwllheli later today, just caught the sunset over the llyn peninsular

Do you have a battery switch in the primary cab with the toggle below to switch the apu off allowing the loco to go into start up, we have to put BIS in then toggle the switch to fire up the computers into start up mode (nodes 1...., nodes 2.....etc) I remember when mr hardy showed me round a freightliner 70 when they first arrived and he had to open every MCB to start up as they never put a battery switch on the loco! Steadfast: I’ve never had to restart a loco because of a computer fault but have had a few where the APU has been isolated and that takes at least 45 mins of running from cold to get the water to 32 degrees before the compressors kick in, i try to leave the rear loco running (if conditions allow) if I have a job where I have to do multiple run rounds, a few flicks of various MCBs allow you to do that but the rear loco has to be manned incase of fire

I thought it would only do that if it’s gone into ‘shut down mode’ although I’m now gonna try that next time i prep a 70! Cab lights, yeah which one of the 7 switches that are positioned next to a light that they don’t switch on do you want me to press!

Agree with the notch 1-2 thing, it’s all or nothing! Do you ever use plug mode in them for slow speed downhill working, it’s pretty impressive For those who don’t know plug mode is down hill slow speed control, it’s a bit weird to use as you have to put the direction lever into reverse while going forward to activate it, if going normally up hill with slow speed on the loco will adjust the power to keep you to the speed you have set it to upto 10mph, going downhill in ‘plug mode’ it operates the dynamic brake instead using engine braking to keep you to the speed you have set, I used to in a work site from Huyton to St. Helens last year and never had to touch the power controller once between the 2 places, 5mph all the way for 7 miles using slow speed up Hill and plug mode down hill

With my driver head on too I like the 70s, ours are fairly comfortable but he one thing I’ve always said is put an air driven seat in them and they would be spot on, it take one over a 66 anyday power and traction wise but would rather have a 60 over a 70 anyday I instruct on them, in fact I instructed the drivers on today’s Scarborough spa express and find them easy to work with and like to think I know them inside out