big jim

We had a thread about this a few months back I’m sure? Sorry read some of the above posts after posting that, I’m not the only one to notice there is already various threads!

Hopefully It will be a bit clearer than that tonight down the Cambrian, back to normality (hopefully) taking a ballast from cemmaes rd to crewe

It does work as I wired a led across it but the pick ups let it down, hopefully the brass bearings will cure that problem

Quoting myself here but I gave the above a go, copper tape on the rear of the wheel, spring pickups etc and although it worked it was pretty rubbish so I gave up, went on eBay and managed to get some brass bearings that look to be the right size to replace the plastic one on one side of the wheel, they have obviously been delayed by the weather but once they arrive I’ll give it a go One thing I am going to try is the copper tape along the chassis to save having wires running along my coaches to the lighting strips, also useful for IM stock with things like milepost lights

The ISP’s have those, I think that’s what they are trying to get back up there to do exactly that as the icicles are more of a hazard than snow now

Stood down for the day but may be in this evening, someone else doing Stratford though with a 97

It’s been a fun few days, it’s either Stratford upon Avon or the heart of wales later!!

More plough duties later, either off to Stratford upon Avon or the heart of wales line

More snowplough duties today.... Started off in crewe and over to gresty to pick up the ploughs Shunted into place with a 68 As you can there there is absolutely no snow in crewe at all! Into Stockport Then over to chinley, waiting for the NR track staff to get on board, still only a smattering of snow here Then it was round to peak forest, great rocks and into buxton, the tunnel at peak forest was horrendous for icicles, had to creep through breaking them off slowly with the loco, only a few drifts to contend with Happy traincrew It was then into the station area for a run back down to hazel grove I back cabbed it to hazel grove then took it back to buxton, just before the station we did a left and headed up to Hindlow as there had been reports of some ‘serious drifts’ which sure enough we found, probably half a dozen or so, 10-20ft deep and fairly long in places, plenty of power and not too much speed saw us get through without issue all the way to the stopboards at Hindlow quarry Back into buxton sidings Then away to peak forest again, this is the tunnel entrance all iced up just to get an idea of what we were having to deal with! Similarly in the tunnel, 20ft icicles in places It was then back to chinley, new mills, guide bridge, Stockport and back to gresty bridge to drop the ploughs off and leave the locos for collection on Sunday Later today I’m either heart of wales or Stratford upon Avon route proving with a 97!

there is no snow whatsoever in crewe today, however im on snowplough duties up in buxton and itswhite over here, just done a run from chinley to peak forest into buxton and then were off to hazel grove, back to buxton then hindlow! and back to peak forest all being well there were some serious icicles in the peak forest tunnel, so much so they have dented the class 56 cab even at the low speed we were doing its days like this when i enjoy doing my job!

Some more from earlier, finally made the Cambrian You can see the importance of extra running brake tests when the bogies ice up Ready for the off I rode in the back can down to macc, it wasn’t that bad most of the way, to be honest it was worsening on the way back with a lot more drifts, this was tallerddig from the rear cab At macc the locos we’re split and the lead one headed off to Aberystwyth to clear fallen trees with a p-way gang while I collected a tamper from the sidings A cold damp job uncoupling them! Tamper dragged into the platform And run round to wait for the other loco to return from Aberystwyth to head back to shrewsbury Out with the beilhacks tomorrow to Buxton all being well

They were the class 40 bogies ploughs, possibly got them again tomorrow

Just a few from last night, snow plough duties Should have gone to Machynlleth but due to the 2nd man I needed for the Cambrian getting snowed in I ended up going to hereford instead Ploughs arriving into crewe And dropping them off in Gresty bridge Then away to hereford with just the 97s You can see how the snow swirls up round the rear cab as it travels And how much ice builds up too Then back onto coleham where 37116 was sat with a test train which should have been going down the Cambrian later but it looks like that may be caped and I’m off down there ploughing later An interesting couple of days!

Here we go! Shame I’m gonna lose the ploughs in a bit!

Looking forward to it, shame they will have taken the beilhacks off though! 3 layers of clothes and a big flask in the go! Shame they don’t need the whole lot to portmadog doing (with a conductor) Full moon tonight so camera and tripod at the ready too

Well I’m off on snow plough duties later, 97s crewe to Aberystwyth and back to shrewsbury Unfortunately they are removing the beilhack ploughs they are currently attached to doing a run to Buxton so I’ve got to use the miniature ploughs instead Been looking at webcams for aber and Mach and it doesn’t seem too bad down there at the mo

ive just had my renewal for the VW Phaeton from AXA and they want £578 (which paying monthly comes out at £642!) a quick look on meerkat and i can get it down to £357 but the excess is £600 with 'one quote direct' or pay a bit more and get it for £412 with a £350 excess through admiral (who ive not had the best experience with in the past customer service wise) either way i'll be moving away from AXA

Jenny’s vid put me in mind if this

I was asked late this afternoon to head to Leicester to pick up 37611 for snow plough duties over at doncaster but unfortunately the job fell through at the last minute, shame, would have been fun!

I’d read it was the new (uncomissioned) points at mostyn that’s caused the issue

if you talking an hour by car then more likely to see them in rugby heading to and from dirft (daventry) but they dont seem to run much during daylight hours iirc if you are venturing out by train then you do get 68s on the mountsorrel stone that runs through nuneaton so that may be a better bet to see both the wcml container and mml bound stone trains (and also more freight than leicester in general)

I had some coming over shap last night on the logs, started around Carnforth, unfortunately just after the summit the locos cab heating packed in so we had a very cold trip to carlisle! A few flurries throughout the day in crewe but by early afternoon anything settled had gone but by sundown it was beginning to stick again, my job is cancelled tonight due to the weather which I’m glad about as im supposed to drive a van to Machynlleth to work a train back

I’m going to start a new thread when I actually start the job proper, and also shut down my existing layout thread as that will be dismantled when the conversion starts as I need to put things like bikes in the current layout shed!

The floor will be a long way off to be honest, I think I’ll see how I get on with the rest of the job first then play it by ear as the time gets closer I’m talking months away before I get anywhere near starting the bits I can do myself

Yeah, I think once I’m in a roll with it I may well just go the whole hog, even if it’s just 25mm thick Celotex stuff under ‘attic boards’ or something similar