big jim

Sort of, lots of speed restrictions on place by the looks of it and things like I’m doing tomorrow (ie moving a tamper) are to rectify the problems First trip to aber tomorrow after signing it off, been boning up on the ground frame and ERTMS procedures for shunting there!

Beams beginning to be fitted, 3 more to go and then boarding out and fibreglassing, we have managed to reuse all the existing beams but by the time he had done that lot the local timber shops were shut to get the remaining few At the door end I’m going to get him to attach a piece of 2x2 to the underside of the board to enable me to attach a upvc facia (and framing) between the door top and roof

And there it was, gone The bitumen sheets have been very good over the last 8 years, they were originally laid on rafters but then subsequently removed and refitted on top of 10mm chip board, having taken that down today 2 from the centre of the garage are reusable but the edge pieces are all starting to go on the outer edges, the edge that was exposed to the elements behind the facia

Some from last night, could really be bothered with piccies but got a few 97301 crewe-manchester-Crewe-Lichfield and derby Marker light out! Leg stretch at crewe Away to derby, parked up and train home Next job is Monday, 97 to Aberystwyth with a tamper

I have allowed for floor insulation in the lining of the building, I wasn’t going to bother as there is a damp course and the floor is fairly level and was going to merely carpet it but for the sake of a few crossmembers, polystyrene and chipboard I may as well do the job properly or i’ll regret it futher down the line

May as well make a new thread for my next major project to document the process from day 1 Basically I still have my other layout all set up in the shed at present but I have decided to convert my detached garage into a layout/utility room, as this project gets further along to a point where the building is useable I will dismantle the old layout and turn the shed into a shed again The plan for the garage is to have 2 separate rooms, it’s a fairly substantial building at 20ft x 12ft which through the years, before we moved in 10 years ago, has become in accessible to vehicles due to the house extension so when I had the garden landscaped 5 or so years back I removed the ramp and replaced it with steps, the metal up and over door was also replaced with a folding sectional type up and over plastic door We had new Windows last year on the kitchen and one of the removed double glazed windows fitted the garage perfectly, I suspect that as the garage was built the same time as the extension they matched the sizes of a single glazed wooden frame window being removed and fitted it to the garage, which is exactly what I did! Also last year I had electricity put to the garage and shed so it has sockets, lights etc which will simply need changing/moving as work continues So to where I stand today..... The plan is a new roof which is being started tomorrow, gone for a GRP/fibreglass type, the current roof is one me and my dad put on about 8 years ago as the existing ‘asbestos’ sheets were rotten and leaking badly, we put beams across the top of the existing brick with marine ply on top of that then coralux bitumen sheets on top if that, raising it by 2 courses on one side to get a nice angle for rainwater to flow away but never filled the gaps between the beams with brick, merely put a facia board up to cover the holes, it’s worked perfectly for the time it’s been up but the sheets are now starting to allow a bit of water through hence why I’ve decided to go for a new roof rather than patch up The new roof will sit lower than the existing one as the beams will be hung between the brickwork rather than on it meaning we can have a shallower facia and from our neighbours point of view it will look a lot better This is the existing roof Weather permitting all the roofing work will be completed by Monday evening There is a skip sat on the drive which is slowly being filled with stuff from the garage, I’m being ruthless, there are things like jars of nails and screws ,bits of wire, shelving that 10 years ago I thought ‘I’ll keep that it will come in handy’ 10 years down the line and they haven’t moved so it’s all going in the skip, thankfully there isn’t too much to go! Next job will be the garage door which will be coming off and replaced by a set of bi-fold doors that I got off eBay earlier in the year, I’ve ordered double obscured glass for the panels, I was going to order 2 up can panels and a single obscure glass one the ‘normal’ door of the 3 but the 3 matching obscure/smoked glass panels should look better, in hoping to get the doors fitted the middle of next week once the roof is complete The idea is that inside the garage I will have 2 areas, a 4ft deep ‘utility room’ and the other side of a partition wall the 12 x 12 (approx) layout room The utility area will house the chest freezer, tumble drier etc to the left hand ‘normal’ door side so my wife can come and go without having to lift a heavy garage door as she does now, and on the right will be a workbench area where I can put my spray booth, 3D printer, solder station, hand tools etc, with them being bi-fold doors should it be a nice day I can fold them right back and enjoy the workbench in the sun shine The layout area should see me getting a decent sized multi level layout on the go but with this one I want to be able to have all my stock out rather than selected stuff as I do now, therefore I see myself building it at a higher level than I have the current layout at (noticed I get back ache leaning over it for too long) and having some sort of helix dropping down to a lower level fiddle yard area where I can store complete trains, of course the main thing is the garage will be far more secure than the shed with it having multi points locking upvc doors etc I’ve also been ordered by my eldest teenage son to make sure I fit a roof mount projector and a screen to one wall so we can plug his PS4 in! This is going to be a long term project, talking a year to do but finally it’s on the go and I’ll update as I go along stage by stage as and when

I dunno, but the ‘seaside’ collection from the same company includes a ‘chocolate starfish’

Didn’t get any pics on the Llandudno job as I was just sat at a signal all night before heading back to crewe but here are a few from today, bit of a trek, Carlisle to Toton Kingmoor 40 mins in crewe for a break away from the engine otherwise it would have been too long in the seat Almost there, round the back of Toton heading toward the fuel line Panorama parked up shot Sad to see the old train crew depot demolished Royal twins And a third hidden behind, shame the wall was in the way 66601 passing by https://youtu.be/v6C1yDDl7P8 And that was that, taxi to derby and train Home IM tomorrow night, crewe, Manchester Piccadilly and back to derby then long weekend off

driver wearing a shirt and tie! i cant even get a new jacket

I could see some of the DIY suggestions ending up like father ted trying to get the dent out of the raffle car ‘I thought I had it there for a moment’

Major signalling issues in Acton bridge area have stopped everything north of crewe on WCML

If your on about the one between 37057 and Caroline in the distance that’s the EMA welding department, Used to help construct prototypes, the roof is removable but you have to unscrew it

We were supposed to do Newtown the other week but the snow knocked us for a week meaning we had to continue at Mach and now there is a loco ban in place which makes things that bit harder to try and get down there TBH I think that train I worked with the red box wagons was to recover scrap/spoil etc but it got cancelled once on site

if a driver doesnt want to drive past a dead body then they dont have to, simple as, cant be forced to do so against his or her own will

some from yesterday basford hall top and tail to chester and onward to llandudno jn where i changed ends and headed off to llanrwst loving the brickwork in the skew bridge at llanrwst! and that was it, back to the jn and relief, llandudno branch ballast drop tonight

Not really a photo day today NMT derby to Newcastle Derby Rarely photographed container terminal at Rotherham steel terminal Then as we missed hull and got to Newcastle 3 hours early I decided to go home instead of lodging for the night, back at the station his caught me by surprise 6 freightliner 66s heading north https://youtu.be/yYTMnBx6SKw 156 under the nice clean roof DVT I then caught a voyager to Sheffield and a 158 onward to Stockport Both 158s were named too, ‘eastcroft depot’ and ‘the station volunteer’ And that was it, couldn’t be bothered with more pics, 175 from Stockport to crewe and Home, may go and have a look at the new set up at Blackpool tomorrow instead of my booked travel shift back from Newcastle

its the powercars but will be missing out hull and going direct to heaton from donny keep an eye on RTT for the vstp edit: here we go http://www.realtimetrains.co.uk/train/O91884/2018/04/21/advanced

It’s a slippery slope! I converted a single coach once....... And that’s not all of them, and they all have prototypical interiors too

At the moment it’s not looking likely as I don’t have a conductor past doncaster to Hull

Yeah, auto hopper drop at Blaenau end of the line by the looks of it, I’ve spotted an issue with the paperwork though so hopefully it’s sorted by Monday as I am quite looking forward to it

Not had much chance for pics the last few days but got these this morning, had a ballast drop to relieve and change ends at bidston before heading back to wrexham and crewe Bidston And crewe Varied week coming up, NMT tomorrow, supposedly to Hull then onward to Newcastle, 56s to Blaenau and Llandudno, 60 to long marsdon and 37 to Manchester!

Terrible really, the country is how wide, and HS2 happens to need the same 20m wide strip of land as a track that’s already there and being used daily!

418 isn’t in Colas colours (as far as I know) Much as a fan as I am of Colas locos I think there may be a danger of getting to a saturation point with them if they introduced lots of variations, and let’s be honest there isn’t a huge amount available for the 37s to pull round layouts as they are mainly used on the yellow trains, freight use is few and far between for them

Oliver and Stepney were 2 I managed to pick up for pennies years back, I can’t remember if I sold them or they are still languishing in a box somewhere as the youngest had no interest in Thomas If I find them during my big move from the shed to garage I’ll let you know but I’m 99% sure I sold them

Time to wheel this pic out again, 60026 on the chirk logs