big jim

I think it was dropped on the grounds of cost Noticed an error in the before and after map too, on the 'before' the line marked bombardier is actually way works 1+2 into and out of the RTC 'under the box', it's been omitted from the after map but bombardier (litchurch lane) has been included in the correct place

One from my trip along the west highland line last year We actually stopped for a few pics here as we had 90 mins to wait for the passenger train to cross us at glenfinnan! In hindsight I should have stopped on the bridge and walked forward for a picture

Snuck back in the shed again, first up was making a rigid bar for between the coaches of the SGT, had a pack of class 150 coupling bars so cut one in half and glued each end to a piece of plasticard channel Which pushes into the nem sockets on the coaches Added the laser 'barrel' , drilled holes in it for when I stick a red led in it And a lick of paint Next up I had a look at the TRU again, got the 153 plough and cut the mounting part off then reglued it at 90 degrees to its original position Which I glued to the chassis And added 'light modules' to it Then added loads of lights, camera etc to the front Only downside is I've got to do it all again on the other coach!

I think the new set up will be very good, certainly speed things along, 40mph in as opposed to 15, a possible 40 moves an hour over the south jn as opposed to the current 15 due to conflictions HOWEVER there there will be no storage space within the station, north bays will be gone as will the carriage sidings, south bays, slum sidings and the goods (to turn back), even St. Andrews loop will be going to become a run round siding for Sinfin so you can't even recess there I'm speaking as someone who regularly has to leave things within the station sidings due to not being able to access the RTC or having to move them out to there for other drivers to take over later in the day, all that will now have to stop, basically if I want to shunt out of the RTC it will now involve running into either one of the new 'london' platforms or one of the 'local' platforms, I won't be able to access the 'north south' platforms from the RTC at all any more Can't understand why in chaddesden they are taking out points at the south end of a fan of 4 sidings to make them dead ends, those sidings will currently hold a good 15-20 bogie wagons each with the ability to run round them, now it looks like you will have to run into the old no1 siding and use the new run round loop they are installing before running back out of the yard toward the mainline and propelling back into those roads, madness if you ask me, especially as the road to chadd is used regularly by EMT to hold stick waiting to go into or out of etches park f&i sidings, there is a redundant line still pretty much in place alongside the up goods that I think should be recommissioned to be used as a turn back siding from etches park Be interesting to see what happens to the NR test trains during the blockade, I have heard rumours of various outstations that may be used during it but it's not for me to say yet

The TRU has been bugging me all day, the shade of yellow is just enough out to get on my nerves so I decided to strip the windows back out (not glued back in place luckily), mask off the roof and black line and handpaint the sides with proper network rail yellow, again used my best brush and am fairly happy with the result Ideally I should have stripped it back down to the bare plastic and redone all the window blanks as it's a bit rough and ready but that's a major redo! First coach repainted, looking far brighter than the rest one that's awaiting the same treatment And both done Also a couple of other bits arrived in the post today, Hornby spares pack for a 153 with snowploughs and bsi couplings which will find their way into the TRU in due course And some laserglaze for the airfix coaches Which I fitted to the latest conversions as well as changing the old pizza cutter airfix wheels for metal Hornby ones So now it's literally a case of waiting for paint to dry!

the only MK3 "mod" i can think of is the chiltern electric door set and dvt wise there are generator fitted ones (chiltern and network rail variants), the chances are the paperwork for the route hasnt been done (no real need) rather than them being out of gauge certainly our yellow DVTs are currently limited to where they can travel, derby-leciester and derby-crewe via alrewas to name a couple as they need recertifying for other routes due to them having generators fitted as they supposedly sit lower than normal DVTs the only other thing to watch MK3 wise is whether they have short or long link suspension, long link cant travel over certain (if not all) 3rd rail track incase the airbag deflates (putting the suspension linkages within arcing range of the 'leccy rail

any more updates on the layout? thought of it earlier as we positioned this years rhtt set on the real shed in shrewsbury!

yeah, got a couple of trains to and from huyton and roby, 56s and 70s on them

Not been to Hinksey for a while, passed it at speed a couple of times in the last week though (best way to see it really) Only 2 from today 3 freightliner 66s departing crewe station Then I turned out the train we left in coleham yesterday was facing the wrong way (generator needed to be at the south end) so we had to do a turning move, I was hoping to merely go round the triangle towards abbey Forgate and propel back towards the station then head back to coleham but one of the signal boxes didn't want a propel move to happen within their station limits (despite having radios and a platform to ride on at the rear of the train) so we had to get a path from shrewsbury to Wrexham/Chester/crewe and back to shrewsbury so the train went round in a big loop ending up facing south which is what we did Ready to depart Caught people by surprise as it was a vstp move but a former school friend happened to be on Chester station and got a shot of us passing through Picture by Richard spray And that was about it really, had trains to catch so no more pics at coleham but we put a 97 on the the set too and parked up the 70 to await the arrival of another batch of them (and 2 56s) in readiness for a big job at the weekend

Yes it is a highly inappropriate post, I am highly offended by it and have very hurt feelings now, the only way I could possibly be made to feel better would be if you gave me 20227 as compensation!! I'm off to put my foot through the screen and send you the bill, (but not before I save Bachmann 20227 as a saved Search on eBay!)

No not me, may need to nick the 97 off it later though when it gets back to coleham! 56s and 97s again No not me, don't sign the ERTMS yet

only really just started modelling them, being as i drive the real thing almost every day it seems rude not to have models of them! i'm very tempted to change the engineers yard on the layout to a network rail depot to house them all now save having them parked up in the hidden sidings out of view

And today was collecting the RHTT wagons from bescot 97 in coleham 70 getting ready to go We had to sit and wait for another member of the crew to arrive at shrewsbury, they have done a load of cutting back of shrubs so you can now just about make out the old turntable pit in the triangle behind the box, this is looking back to the pit, you can see the edge just in front of me, the cut down bushes are on the opposite side of it Stabling road running off the turntable And in bescot, wagons collected and ready to roll Shunting into coleham, it's a double shunt to get in the yard, luckily the wagons had a platform on the rear and using back to back radios I rode on it communicating with the driver! Waiting the road to run into the head shunt And all parked up

Cracked on with the TRU again, masked the ends Added some gubbins to the roof, NRN pod, genny exhaust and gps ariels And primed, it's a bit rough and ready but I'm pretty happy with it on the whole And top coated, used fiat broom yellow but its come out a little bit too light Once dry added a black stripe And a grey roof, this is the rougher of the 2 sides And added the etched window frames There is the end cameras and light units to add, the unit is missing its snowploughs and fake coupling if anyone has any spare they want to part with

Well you won't have to wait long, I don't get much modelling time so when i do I crack on/rush in/rush/make a mess of, you choose Armed with a copy of BRM detailing the conversion and a load of prototype pics on Flickr I made a start on the TRU One side is nice and easy But the other side is a bit more involved And there are 2 of them, slightly different too! Then gave a few of the joints a skim of putty which I'll rub down tomorrow and get a coat of primer on, going to mask the yellow ends off as it will save me a lot of painting and masking Still a few more little bits of brass to attach to the shell but I'll do that after rubbing down the putty

The rest of the etches arrived courtesy of wolf27 so I got the UTU finished, glazing and decals to go on that one Also ordered the laserglaze for the TRC and PLP from Peter spares so hopefully I can get them done next week too, 2 pretty much prototypical test trains now, really should have asked mick to do me 2 67s though! Now I feel like I'm on top of the 'building' part of my workbench I decided to strip down the next project ready for conversion This is going to become the TRU 950001, removed the body from the chassis, stripped out the glazing etc and it's currently having a bath in the dilute IPA to give me a blank canvas to start from Psyching myself up for a decal day very soon! I'm also in 2 minds whether to model the interior of the NMT too, as I walked down the platform last night in Paddington I was looking in it thinking it would look so good in miniature!

Dead mans handel?

Some from last night, had to drive to Derby to leave my van and get a train to reading to meet the NMT but I decided to go to St Pancras and over to Paddington instead, get a few HST pics while I can! Glad I did as it was quite interesting First up in derby was a 387 unit being delivered south by freightliner Then after Pancras it was a tube to paddington, I wonder where this photo was taken, not much to indicate where I am! And into Paddington, nice surprise on the platform of the GWR band giving a free concert, just caught the end of it but info to be had below if you want to catch it yourself And then onto the trains Another nice surprise as an IEP pulled in Old and new 57604 on the sleeper train, looks stunning in old GWR livery GWR livery HST And then my train arrived Ready to depart 387 unit And away we went,I got into the driver seat at Didcot and took it back to derby Almost home Final change ends and into the RTC And that was it for the night, shut down and home Couple of videos https://youtu.be/9_S9E8r0Rrw https://youtu.be/gfnbA3NkSMc

there was talk of turning rail house into luxury flats but I think the issue is a lack of parking, I suppose 'back in the day' the people who worked there would have come in by train at all hours of the day when we had a decent 24 hour passenger rail service! I think the railway doctor is still in there but I've not been there for years

Funnily enough I called this morning too and have fired an email off and awaiting a reply to get some stuff ordered, I may well just wait until the Wigan show and see if I can get there and buy face to face

Just realised I've dropped a slight ball on the PLP coach, I've put the small 1/2 window too close to the full length windows, the etch should be the other way round so the window is the opposite side of the existing window hole, oh well not too much of a problem, I'm not going to bother changing it at this late stage

2nd coat of paint on the MK2s, also painted the ends and cantrail stripes on them TRC PLP And with the genny van and 67 Need to get some laserglaze for them both next

I'm working it from Didcot to Derby, it's booked to be the NMT so be interesting to see what turns up, it goes into Paddington before I get on it so if it is the 67s they should make a nice picture in london

Just a few from today, 70 training in shrewsbury, met my dad first at crewe before setting off for shrewsbury, he was on the horse landing waiting for the northbound DRS stobart service which had an 88 on it, in the 30 mins I was stood with him I was quite surprised what went past 88 66 86 DB 66 Then at shrewsbury 2 coal trains went past both heading south to iirc avonmouth While we had a play with the 70 up and down the yard NMT tomorrow

Put a coat of yellow on the PLP and TRC, need touching up a bit but looking alright so far