big jim

Trying so decide which day to go, I finish in derby at 06:00 Saturday morning so do I grab a brekkie and call in on the way home getting a few hours kip in the van at the show ground before the show starts or do I come over especially on Sunday (the downside is I’d have to use my own vehicle and fuel) Decisions decisions, looking forward to it either way

And I’ve taken the liberty of crudely amending the ‘multi layer layout’ diagram in page 34 to something a bit more realistic

Highlight for me so far is the ‘we are the borg’ letter on page 35 Shades of this.....

I spotted that the other week too, thought if mick straight away

edit: if 099 is ready I’ve got a barrow hill ‘class 37 swap’ move next Monday so here’s hoping it’s done Usual disclaimers etc

Already an Anglia one up on eBay at £215!

Some from today, NMT derby to Carlisle 37198 in derby, I believe this is going to be a Christmas tree to keep the 97s running according to rail mag Then into derby with NMT Quick stop in preston, cup of tea time! And off it went from carlisle Bringing it back the other way tomorrow carlisle to crewe

I think work starts in a few weeks but it’s mainly down tallerddig renewing rails I think

Just 3 from last night, possession in Rhyl Getting ready to drop ballast from auto hoppers And once done ran round to the other end, before crossing over to the upside to depart Was a long train, 5 autos, side tippers, falcons, coalfish 1600ft long and 2500 tons going in (1500 tons plus coming out) And into Basford hall and loco stabled with a couple of 56s And that was that, NMT the rest of the week

you wanna try writing it yet alone reading it, i was on about draft No10 before i pushed post!

Check the connections to the bed aren’t loose before writing the printer off or looking at an exchange Regards the initial problem, I had a similar issue when trying to print a raft on a print I was doing with my Aldi printer (which is the i3 with a different name) and i think it was simply the bed wasn’t completely level so when it come to put the next layer down it also pulled up the previous one as it caught on the extruded, once that happened there was no going back! I have found that adding blue low tack masking tape to the bed also helped with futher prints as they seem to stick to it better

There are a few chiltern ‘local’ stopping services from Moor st to Leamington spa that are booked to pull into the passenger loop at dorridge for anything up to 10-15 minutes to allow cross country trains to pass

Not specific to the oxford mk3s but in general I do wonder sometimes whether people’s preceptions of a model being ‘wrong’ is overshadowed by having slightly ‘wrong’ models that have been around for so long they are generally accepted by the masses as being right so when it’s done right it feels wrong!

Tried that but didn’t like the fact all photos were ‘live’ in galleries once uploaded, not so bad if your wanting to post selected ‘arty’ pictures as I do with Flickr, but everyday ‘work’ photos or workbench pics that I describe when posting in a thread seem pointless to have full screen or viewable without any context or description (I don’t do descriptions on photobucket)

Ha ha, Whoops!! Thing is I see this latest ‘offer’ as a way to hopefully ensure I won’t lose my photo heavy threads on here, admittedly it does suck balls that I’ve pretty much forced into paying to keep my current(some up to 12 years ago) pictures live in various threads/forums but $99 far more palatable then £399 which I refused to pay and was just going to keep my threads going until the account expired then start afresh with a new on line photo host, but I was yet to find one I could get to grips with in the same was as photobucket such as being able to upload pics to the net but keep the album as a whole private, I do like the simplicity of the photobucket app etc to upload straight from iPhone to app then app to internet too Here’s hoping my futher ‘investment’ with photobucket isn’t a fruitless one and they are still here in 12 months time!!

I only use photobucket to host pics, everything is saved on my computer and backed up to another hard drive You have lost me with the viaduct comment though?

Well I’ve bitten the bullet and upgraded to the above plan, with the exchange rate it worked out at £72 so less than £1 a week which is far more realistic, iirc before they did the huge revamp/price change I was paying £59 a year for the same service so it’s not that much more expensive and my storage used has gone from 48% down to 13% as I have more to use So that means my blogs on here are visually safe for at least another 12 months (provided something else major doesn’t go wrong with photobucket)

We have a road learning program that notes when you last went over a route and notifies you when you are getting near he time you need a refresh then you can request a road refresh day, it logs you as having travelled over the route and updates the central database accordingly Controlnhave access to everyone’s routecard so they can see if a driver signs a route (and is in date) before maybe calling him up to work last minute or diverting a train due to an issue as happened to me the other week on the logs, we were late and were going to end up stuck behind a possession but network rail asked control if the driver knew a certain route and control checked the database, confirmed I did and they diverted me (iirc there was a fellow rmwebber in the controlling box at the time too)

No, Hereford is my limit on the marches, next up I’m hoping to get back down the heart of wales to Llandrindod wells and get that signed

So there we have it, assessed and passed out to drive on ERTMS level 2 down the Cambrian, I already sign to Machynlleth so the next job is to sign over to Aberystwyth and Pwllheli ‘Steadfast’ asked whether ERTMS makes road learning easier? Personally I think yes it does, as all the info is right in front of you but you still need to get out there and ‘get a feel’ for the line, gradients, landmarks etc, passenger train wise youbalso need to know the station braking points for places without block markers, not so important on freight/IM trains but personally I like to know the stations ‘just in case!’ Collecting the stone blower at tallerddig Waiting at Welshpool For those who don’t know Welshpool the station was moved when the by pass was built, the building was kept and is now an Edinburgh wooden mill shop and the bypass is on the trackbed for a short distance with the current line skewed across a number of meters, it’s also double line from Welshpool to fron jn which it never was in RETB days, it speeds things along a bit as trains can pass each other at speed before the station (on the Newtown side) rather than having to wait in the platform

Submitted an application to the planning dept of the council for a change of use and building regs inspection etc, just got to pay them to come and get me up to speed on what needs inspecting etc Quotes coming in for the garage roof too, next up Plasterers’ although the guy coming Sunday to quote me can do the lot, roof and plasterboard the interior Regards the door/window I have spotted on ebay an unused/unfitted set of bifold doors that were ordered the wrong size and happen to be 1cm narrower than my garage door hole, a bit shorter but it’s been suggested I could put a box section lintle above and infill with wood and facia board up to the roof level, I’ve got a feeling the cost of the bifold doors won’t be that far off the cost of a upvc door and window with the associated boxing out or bricking up the current hole to suit If I did go down that route the door is in the right side for the ‘utility’ room entrance and should I happen to be using the mini paint booth or want to use thebworkbench in a warm day I could open the whole front of the building up

Had an email from puotobucket this morning offering a new price plan which is far more realistic in my opinion for what I want to use it for, $99 a year (so a bit cheaper in £) allowing me to still embed my pics into posts on here, only designed for non commercial users I think maybe photobucket have found their big business shake up didn’t go quite as planned

Some from today, went as far as Welshpool to have a play with the ground frame and seeing how to ‘run round’ Coleham Welshpool locked away in the siding I then operated the groundframe to allow it back out when the line was clear and we headed back towards shrewsbury Got the hang of it today combining it with the paperwork day we had yesterday so I’m ready to be signed off on it now

Did it myself, went onto Martin Lewis money saving expert site and used something called resolvr that once you register you just choose who you think you have PPI with and it sends an automatic email to the organisation requesting info, I did loads which came back as no PPI but NatWest had 4 with it, they wrote to me, I filled out the claim form they sent back and got my money back, started doing it first week in December and got paid out this week straight back into my account No middleman or anything so no fees

ive not done anything with the layout for a long time, other than it being used as a test track for the yellow stock ive been modifying ive not touched it track or scenery wise as it happens ive had a ppi payment come through which hopefully will enable me to get my garage converted into a 'playroom', im waiting on prices for the work that needs doing and if its within my price range then il basically be ripping this layout up, salvaging the trackwork (maybe bits of baseboard) and turning the shed into storage for lawn mower, bikes etc and ill build a new layout in the garage. a rough measure earlier showed it should have around 12 x 14 ft footprint as opposed to the current 12 x 6 set up, the floor plan i have for the garage involves a 12 x 4ft wide 'utility room' / workbench area at the front of the building to house our deep freeze and tumble drier on one side and the likes of my 3D printer, solder station, paint booth etc on the other side, the current up and over door will be removed and replaced by a single upvc door and window set up, internally there would be a single door through to the layout area which already has a upvc double glazed window fitted as i say im waiting on quotes, first up is a new flat roof as whether or not i carry on with the conversion masterplan that needs replacing anyway as our temporary fix from 10 years back is now starting to deteriorate, ive been in touch with the planning department who have advised me what forms i need to fill in and how to go about getting building regs sorted as it would now be a 'habitable room' as opposed to a storage facility lets see what the next few weeks bring regards the way forward before i close this thread down as the layout is dismantled, it may prove too expensive to carry on with the full conversion and ill crack on with this layout im hoping i can start afresh as i have a few ideas for a new layout floating round my head, im liking the idea of a peninsula board coming out at an angle from one of the longer walls, track wise a simple 2 track mainline again with shallow inclines, (figure of 8 set up again maybe), decent size station on one side again but im now seeing a branch line meandering off it and dropping away to a slightly lower level baseboard area with a simple 'modern day' basic terminus station, however im also seeing a bit of 009 sneaking in from there as a tourist railway as ive got a quarry hunslet 'Alice' on order! the beauty of having the extra room should mean i could put a 3rd/4th radius helix in and have storage below scenic board height for complete trains to save having to incorporate a 'scenic' yard, i would of course have have TMD on there though lets keep our fingers crossed i can get the garage done