big jim

no, only shrewsbury today, very much doubt id do weymouth again unfortunately

so the last car, crashed on the track, the police and fire dept get there but the train still cant be stopped in time?

well i read the last sentence above as "selling our wives" glad i preordered "merl" when it was announced though

So I’ve just spoke to the council and they have said fill out a permitted development enquiry form to see if I need planning permission for any work I’m planning, I am going to replace the roof regardless for a like for like one soon Regardless of what the outcome is as the garage will become a ‘habitable room’ I will need building regs/visits which will cost me £440 It’s all down to the cost of the work now really, I’ve got a guy coming round tomorrow to quote for the roof then I’ll look at Plasterer’s etc

Seen plenty of these then! Yesterday really frustrated me down there, I’m struggling with it all, hopefully it will click into place soon but it flummoxed me yesterday doing out of course stuff

Just 2 from today Waiting to get into the siding in Newtown And coupled to the stone blower to take to tallerddig, too busy concentrating on the signalling for any more pics!

Some from today, handling run to Machynlleth Doing ERTMS training A slightly bent 97304 doing the honours Machynlleth (in the rain of course) Welshpool waiting for the passenger service to arrive before getting the road to shrewsbury And for those who’s never seen it the ERTMS screen in the loco Countdown marker on the left (the 40 is the distance in meters from the block marker I was stopped at) the 2 below is the ERTMS level, then Kmh speedo, the oval in a square tells me I’m in ‘full supervision’ mode, finally the blue bit is your planning area which shows you how far ahead the route is ‘open’ to you The display is set to 4000 meters ahead but the route isn’t open yet (in simple terms I’ve not got the ‘token’ to enter the next section) the white circle/triangle symbol with the light blue but below near the bottom is the end of my authority, once it ‘opens’ the planning area will light up light blue allowing me to continue my journey and my maximum speed allowed is shown as a dial around the speedo edge The planning area also shows me speed reductions by the light blue area not extending right across to the block, as I approach the restriction I get a beep and the dial around the speedo changes colour between my current speed and my required speed, it then starts to count down and the dial around the edge drops and I have to keep my speed below the top of the dial to avoid the brakes coming on (that is called the braking curve), once off the restriction it then reopens the outer dial to my upper maximum speed and I can open it up to line speed again! It’s like a modern (but not that modern) version of the chiltern ATP system but a lot more complicated! Back to it tomorrow, picking up a tamper from Newtown to take to tallerddig

One of the cabin companies offers flame retardant materials priced per wall but to be honest by the time that’s added the cabin has gone way out of my budget range!

i remember going round allerton depot with my dad in the 80s and seeing an 08 with the unofficial name "ar$e bandit" written in chalk on the battery box, highly amusing for a 10 year old i can tell you!

ref the catalogue, one obvious omission ive noticed is colas 37099 'Merl Evans' would that be because its classed as a 2017 release with no 're-release' planned for 2018? also the price list is missing the word 'vat', ive put my foot through the catalog and sent Bachmann the bill (with vat)

oh I dunno, looking at some of the attire and beards in the picture it could well be modern day camden or shoreditch with all its hipsters

That meter rule knocks the wooden building idea on the head then!

Interesting read so far, I’m at a point where I’m torn between ripping my garage down and replacing it with a summer house/log cabin type building or just replacing the roof on it and plasterboarding the inside, I don’t think there would be much difference in cost of the 2 jobs When we moved in 10 years ago the garage had plastic and asbestos corrugated sheets on the roof that were rotten, the previous owner had simply put a gazebo INSIDE the garage and stored all of her stuff on pallets under that away from the rain (which then of course filled the garage floor) we however got it all down and replaced it with marine ply on steel cross members secured to the walls with corolux sheets nailed to it and it’s nice and dry but I have noticed some of the ply is now starting to rot under the corolux but nothing is dripping in through, as it was a temporary fix we never infilled the space between the roof and wall with bricks but I did put a plastic Facia all round to tidy the appearance from outside I’m thinking of getting someone in to give me a quote to replace the roof with a proper tiled roof, low pitched or ‘leaning’ (can’t think of the word, pent maybe?) then getting someone in to insulate and plasterboard the inside The building is approx 12ft wife by 25ft long and a single skinned construction in a good state of repair with double glazed side window, thankfully it was built the same time as the extension on the house so they took the wooden window from the kitchen and used it in the garage so when I had a new kitchen window fitted last year I moved the old double glazed one to the garage! I think there is some sort of damp course membrane fitted and I had electricity reinstalled to it last year, Oddly The garage hasn’t been able to be used as a garage since the extension was built as you couldn’t get a car round the edge of the house into it so a few years back when we had the garden landscaped the guy removed the ramp up to it and replaced it with 2 steps that go up to the up and over door (4 panel upvc type on runners that curves as it raises) so if I go down the keep the garage option I would remove that and replace it with a upvc door and window or even French doors Option 2 is pull it down and replace with a wooden cabin of a similar size pretty much using the existing garage base, my concern with that is on going maintainance with it being wooden Ref planning permission for the ‘quick fix’ if I replace the existing ‘pent’ roof with a low pitched one do you think I would I need planning permission as it will be slightly taller than it is now? Obviously if I’m going to change use to a layout room then i’ll Contact the planning department etc beforehand

dont get me wrong i like them from a reliability point of view but they were built to a budget and it shows, some of the mods ive seen on them have improved the drivers enviroment such as air con and better drivers seats and better sound deadening though

I’ve barely looked at mine, been busy in work etc but I’ve had some good results and some bad (thankfully mostly good) I’ve been experimenting with a class 323 cab someone sent me using different settings and orientations to print with startling differences in finish I’ve had no problems with the software but I may have a look at the one you have used to see how it compares

They will move 2500+ ton but you certainly know when you are trying to do so as it will rattle your filling out! Heavier trains are worked by the likes of class 59s or class 60’s which comfortably and quietly move 3000+ tons without breaking a sweat! From a drivers point of view they are horrible, they vibrate something chronic and are noisy but as I think I put futher back in the thread they are reliable, 15 years of driving them and I think i can count on one hand the number of times I’ve mechanically failed with one and needed assistance compared with having to take my socks off to get enough digits to count on for the likes of class 56s

My dad has scanned some photos of the heavy snowfall we had in the early 1980s when we lived in llwyngwril on the Cambrian coast, (pretty sure it was 1981) My dad was the local policeman there at the time and llwyngwril got cut off from the rest of the world for a few days both by road and rail, luckily the village shop was well stocked and the local farmers supplied things like milk It was so bad that the beach was covered in snow and the mawddach estuary at penmaenpool actually froze up! The line got blocked with snow between tonfanau and llwyngwril and they sent a loco to plough it which got stuck 25201 up to its middle in snow! Once the snow melted a bit they sent a rescue loco out (25260) And the clear up To get an idea how bad the snow was (bear in mind it’s right on the coast) this is the coast road And in llwyngwril, my now Mum lives on the right opposite the telegraph pole, no chance of getting up the drive in that picture And this is an abandoned mini on the main road! There may be more as my dad scans them, hope they are of interest

Just 2 from yesterday, bicester to derby Bicester Derby

the sheds were actually between abermule and welshpool (lower llegodig)

Just beat me to it, was going to post the above too They have the Ltd ed British steel yellow Janus marked up at £95 (not a sale price) which is £15 cheaper than hattons (And without blowing my own trumpet, I managed to pick one up in the wrong box for £80, they must have sold one of the NCB ones in the British steel box by mistake as they couldn’t find the respective box or loco)

You know what, that’s exactly what I said to the driver on it, last night they were lucky that we ran or it could have been a lot worse, the damage to the nose is pretty much windscreen height to a sprinter

Flickr pic, not mine https://flic.kr/p/23zNsMi

just 2 proper camera pics from last night crewe shrewsbury

Glad I Got off when I did! The relieving driver hit a tree which they sorted out then a bit later on hit a shed which caused considerable damage to the loco and cost the lives of the 2 turkeys living in it, they made it through Christmas only have their lives tragically cut short in the new year r.i.p mr and mrs gobbles!

Just a quicky from last night, pair of 97s with a rail delivery train bound for the Cambrian Got a couple more pics on the proper camera that i’ll Upload later Sure was a rough night wind wise, the van drive back from cemmaes road was a nightmare with trees branches all over the road and a bit of flooding, had to turn back between ellesmere and Whitchurch due to a fallen tree and there was another blocking 1/2 of the road near nantwich too! Glad to be in a warm bed now