big jim

Clever positioning of the headboard, right across the headlight! And yes as newbryford says 70s can’t couple to traditional coaching stock with corridor ends because off the anti climb feature on the cab ends

And the rest of the pics 56078 in Basford hall Settle jn looking towards settle station, the line to the left is the one to Carnforth Into carlisle where Leander was sat after coming in from hellifield, I was booked in front of it but as I was late I followed it along the s+c (but never caught up with it) And into Kingmoor to stable with 56105

Oh look...... Another one! EDIT: the one mick mentioned above as it happens!

It’s got 4 wheels and short ribbed sides, it’s a coalfish to me! Whatever it is I haven’t seen one in that colour before

Sounds like your depot should apply for funding from the lottery, you tick all the boxes, either that or get jobs in the follow up to the greatest showman! The bloke in question in my post was called ‘pat’

Just a few from yesterday Class 70s Hinksey to Bescot Left one behind and headed off to Bescot Also saw this in Hinksey, never seen a DB coalfish before 56 crewe to carlsile today, asked for a path via the s+c for a refresh in the opposite direction!

Liverpool to shrewsbury and Liverpool to Cardiff services mentioned too and “1st class service Swansea to Manchester” All this added Sunday service, do arriva drivers and guards have sundays as part of their working week, I can’t remeber what my t+c were

It’s a shame the 3rd rail won’t reach shotton (or even Deeside industrial estate) any time soon I hope the 230s have good power and traction as I wouldn’t fancy one on shotton bank during leaf fall if they did appear on the line Interesting to see a llandudno to Liverpool service, no doubt using the Halton chord when it opens proper Not sure about the station at bow st, will it be a park and ride for Aberystwyth or something but from what I’ve seen there appears to be sufficient parking in the town, wonder if the Cambrian will have dedicated units with ERTMS fitted purely for that line and out to Birmingham services

To echo Andy’s point above I won best of show at romiley a good 10 years back with what was effectively my home layout presented on trestles, no lighting rig etc but plenty of lights on the layout itself etc, a few sound locos which at the time were a fairly new concept, flashing shunting lights etc that particular award was voted for by the public which made it special as it must have caught people’s imagination, I certainly don’t think it would have won had it been judged by ‘professionals’

I’ve only ever had one trainee that after discussion with other instructors who had taken him out we all agreed he should not be allowed anywhere near the tracks alone After each ‘concerned phone call’ from each instructor management kept saying ‘give him another chance, it may just be a clash of personalities’, what with 6 different instructors who are all telling you the same thing we all in the end flatly refused to sign him off as competent, he then went to aslef and when presented with his training file including downloads etc he was advised to just quit without fuss During the time he was with me I had him powering up to a red signal despite hitting the magnet at 10mph, preempting the next signal “oh yes I can see it reflecting off the side of the other train”, getting out trackside without hi-viz on, the list goes on He claimed he used to be a police high speed pursuit driver on the M6 but couldn’t drive a nail into wood, a bit of digging by others revealed he was actually pcso desk officer and serial bulls####er, lived in Rugeley and one night we finished in bescot so I said, “you know your way home from here” a look of panic came across his face “no, I don’t know” “I thought you used to be a police driver on the M6” “Oh, I only used to go between junction 16 and junction 14” that’s when alarm bells started ringing for me that he was a bit of a Walter Mitty character if I directed you to his Facebook page you will see he now claims he works for cross country and signs Penzance right through to Aberdeen and drives voyagers and 170s between those places however he hasn’t been in work recently as he was seconded by aslef to go to Russia on the personal invitation of Vladimir putin to discuss implementing some sort of new signalling system throughout Russia as he is ‘in with the management at aslef’ I kid you not The railway attracts all sorts that’s for sure!

Pleased Loco Arrives in one piece but forgets the hob is on while taking the photo!

And back to the 73, sprayed the blue, the airbrush was playing up and I couldn’t get it to work so I bought the big guns out, literally, i poured the paint into my full size car spraying gun, turned the pressure down and used that, 2 passes and it was sprayed! Starting to look like a 73/9 now Roof grille added Next job, tidy up the orange round the cabs, maybe thin the can’t rail stripe as I used 1mm masking tape to do it and it’s a bit thick Then put it all back together

Some from yesterday, 97s coleham to crewe light engine then back to coleham where they went off to the Cambrian 97303 [/url 97304 Multied up for the run to crewe Setting up the train, front loco attached And ready to go, other loco on the rear Drs 68 GBRf 66s Overview of the yard And off to coleham we went but it was dark by then so no more pics

When leaving Aberystwyth with a passenger service the guard will push a plunger on the platform, that plunger doesn’t active the crossing but prevents the VoR crossing operating at the same time as the NR one The crossing operates a as a normal AOCL+B If you are coming out of the sidings there are plungers at the groundframe, block marker and one at the crossing itself so there is no excuse not to have pushed one of them, if however you haven’t pushed any of them then the crossing won’t give you a white light to proceed or drop the barriers so if you do go across then you are in big trouble

Some from today, 60085 carlisle to Toton Got to the yard to find it blocked in by a freightliner 66 which after getting permission I moved out of the way Moved the 66 first Then the 60 out of the way and the 66 back! And away to crewe where I had a 45 mins break Then off to derby following the stopper so I stopped in the platform at Blythe bridge while I waited for it to clear the section in front Then when I got to stenson jn there was a signal failure so I ended up going into derby, changing ends and going back out via spondon Toton Couple of lesser spotted 60 round the back of the depot Change ends again to get onto the fuel plant This makes me smile in the fuel plant block, railfreight coal tiles in the toilet! Another sad sight of an abandoned 60 Taxi to derby where the new platforms are coming on nicely 97s tomorrow shrewsbury to crewe then back to shrewsbury (97s heading for the Cambrian)

I’ve had an email today saying my subs copy is on the way with a picture of the front cover with a couple of locos showing and the title “we’ve commissioned 2 locomotives” turn to page 11 Dunno if that was planned as it’s a week away from the announcement but we’ll done on taking the chance on the fell diesel and an 009 de winton coffee pot (Am I joking, you’ll just have to wait and see)

Being as people seemed to like the last one, here is another GPS track, this time hellifield to Blackburn Same loco again Running early so time to stop for a toilet break in settle (with permission of the signaller) Hellifield to Blackburn I’m amazed how ‘downhill’ the line is, it certainly doesn’t feel it as you have to take power a fair bit to keep the speed up in places, the line speed is 30mph all the way which I pretty much managed to keep to Hellifield 507ft, the first slow bit was approaching the section signal, 28 mins in the blip in speed is approaching horrockford jn on a yellow expecting the signal to be on but it had pulled off when I go to it so powered back up The line drops all the way down to 193ft at the foot of langho bank at the 40 min mark Then to the summit of that part of the line at 467ft just past ramsgreve and Wiltshire station (climbs 274ft in 10 mins!) the blip near the top is where I lost signal in the tunnel for a short while Then drops to daisyfield at 413ft And that was that, logs cancelled tomorrow so got to move a 60 from carlisle to Toton

The lights make all the difference and it’s such a simple job to do as well thanks to the simple construction of the plough itself here is a link to mine and how I did it too, I have used LEDs a lot smaller than yours and fitted them into spare Dapol tail lights I had in stock from their freightliner hopper wagons http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/106497-big-jims-workbenchits-all-gone-a-bit-yellow/?p=3172305 As it happens I’ve just stopped at DCC concepts in settle and bought a set of flashing tail lights for the 2nd plough, I’ll have a go at fitting that this weekend hopefully

Same job again today 50 shades of yellow Farringdon curve jn 66750 passing by en route to clitheroe And into warrington Same again tomorrow!

Someone is gonna have to explain this one to me sorry!

Only one pic today but something a bit different to add 60021 again Today I set my GPS tracker running leaving carlisle caldew jn and recorded my track to hellifield, the route learning app uses similar technology but is railway based, the app I used is motion-xGPS which records (and shows) elevation, speed etc (I slipped over the 60mph max once!) Carlisle to hellifield on the map Vital statistics, time, distance, speed, elevation, ascent and decent etc First plot, carlisle caldew bridge at 00:00 climbing on to the S+C, the long drag begins at 00:50 but as you can see it climbs pretty much all the way from carlisle The long drag between 00:50 and 01:20 so 30 mins slog, was down to 24mph at the start at 514ft And at the top at ais gill, managed 44mph over the top which recorded as 1184ft (672ft climb at 4% in 30mins) From there is was pretty much down hill after dent, the dotted line was where I lost signal in Blea Moor tunnel, the 489ft, 55.8mph was passing through settle The other up and down speeds between 01:20 and 01:40 were where I went into various tunnels and lost signal for a short while (less than a minute) and it averaged out the speed

Some from Monday, logs carlisle to warrington, had it fuel the loco too Kingmoor 88 passing by M My loco away for fuel at DRS 7 freightliner 66s passing Then off I went via a glorious S+C, first stop unfortunatly right at the bottom of whalley bank, thankfully it was dry! And into warrington before heading back north Same again today

Not any more, it’s now a 3 aspect signal (double yellow/green) as there isn’t enough room between the single yellow and stop signal should it be on

I quite like Didcot ‘town’ centre, although it’s more like a large village street to me, lots of decent charity shops there, picked up some bargains there over the years, not been for a while though as I don’t get many lodge jobs that way any more, much prefer to stop there than the likes of Wallingford (which admittedly is far more picturesque) or wantage although I do prefer Abingdon

They were off eBay, I’ll have to find the link to them but I think if you search 12v SMD led’s You should find them