big jim

I'm pretty sure they are gone now mick, removed when they started the electrification work, I've certainly not spotted them in the last 12 months, in fact the bolton bound loop has gone too! They were stuff of legend when I was doing my driver training in Bolton back in 2001

Yes it's a single track bay, iirc I don't think locos can go into it as it's quite narrow, I do know it has no OHLE in there It also still has the old motor rail ramp at the end

Carlisle 'barrow' bay, Derby platform 5, 7 bays in crewe's 2 island platforms, those are the ones I can think of off hand

https://youtu.be/y0C59pI_ypQ

I'm going to leave them as they are for now, may see if I can get some of the actual 'mentor' crew 3D printed to put inside! Just realised looking at rs4s pic I've only put one horizontal rail on my generator module so I'm going to need to change that to 2 rails on each side, and make them thinner Hopefully I may be able to crack on with it on Saturday with any luck

Being as I DJ as a sideline I was tempted to stop and drop a few beats!!

Ah, happy days!! I do miss the old fastline livery, I was the first person to drive those locos on the mainline when they were imported, 66301 with 0 miles on the clock!

Finally a train home! Unfortunately the 153 which was full and standing when it got to tutbury with footy fans And now to enjoy 5 days off

love it, i really need to add the 'dusty bin' to my SGT at some point the one think i think you do differently if you can change it is rather than having 'slits' in the drum have holes instead as the lazer beam comes out in spots rather than a 'sheet' of light you could be really clever and make the laser switch off below 9 mph as per the real thing

some from last night, got some proper camera pics too that i'll have to upload whenever i get home! caught a train to norwich where the anglia 'short set' was waiting to depart for lowestoft 153 unit 37 ready to depart and away it went, a very spirited departure! https://youtu.be/_8ohArSwOt8 after that went another set came in with 68s on, followed by my train top and tailed with 37s top and into lowestoft into saxmunden to wait for a unti coming from woodbridge and away to ipswich then back to lowestoft again, waiting at woodbridge had to go at caution due to police on the line looking for an illegal rave! lowestoft back to norwich and back to cambridge, then this afternoon caught a train to kings cross tube to paddington and out to didcot, all the wires are up now and to oxford, the new chiltern platforms and off to another hotel for the night for a last minute job back to derby tomorrow morning!

Walked past this shop in Cambridge earlier, wouldn't have thought there was much call for dry cleaning of penguins!

no, but thats one of my loco's for tomorrow, (37254 the other end) for norwich-lowestoft-ipswich-lowestoft-norwich-cambridge its a real pain to fott at night that loco too

some from today logs carlise to warrington, 60085 this time 66705 passing by, this was the last gbrf 66 i drove back in 2010, doesnt look the same without its union flag on the side into warrington heading off to chirk i then got on a train to london, walked over to kings cross where i caught this to cambridge buffers on platfom 9 slightly futher back than those on 10 after a unit hit them yesterday! terrible pic of the station exit got to say tonight was the first time ive ridden a 387 unit, what a truly terrible ride, quite possibly one of the worst units ive ridden on, the seats were rock hard but the ride was absolutly awful, thrown all over the place all the way, shocking! off to norwich and lowestoft tomorrow

its shown as s+c but ive reminded them i dont sign it so unless i get a conductor it will be wcml also annoyingly its a 60 on it, wanted a 70 but 60085 is doing the dalstons tomorrow then dropping onto 6J37 while 70804 which has been on the logs is booked to take the empty dalstons back to grangemouth

Nah, just normal time and I'll get my annual leave day back that I gave up Some from this morning, ballast from bescot to bloxwich, sounds simple, a nice 4 mile run in a straight line, unfortunately I had to go via Stafford making it more like 50 miles 56/60 combo, too and tail 38 coal fish 60026 Onto the rear of the train for the run to bloxwich 56113 leading to Stafford, bit of a balls up there as I was too long to change ends on the goods so had to run north of the station to do it on the slow Then the soul destroying bit, into the possession at Rugeley only to find the worksite marker board just inside the possession limits meaning I could only do 5mph......for 13 miles! Stopped for a 'facilities break' at hendesford as there is a worksite with toilets (and a Tesco), what's an extra 10 mins on a 2 1/2 hour trip! Then to bloxwich where the train was used to collect spoil from drainage works (the rear had fresh ballast to replace the old stuff) And that was me done, quickly home and pass to carlisle for the logs tomorrow

what about shotton high level to hawarden bridge?

some from last night, crewe-liverpool-crewe-derby (via new st) lime st crewe, stopped to let the other driver off and back to derby back in tonight with an engineers job bescot to bloxwich with a 56/60 combo then pass to carlisle at the end of it!

Me in the cab of a 151 unit back in the 80s in Derby

Couple of hours in the mpv earlier, looked at the pcb and realised I can just move it below the chassis as is if I cut the bottom end mounting bracket Removed and ready for wires to be tucked away And out the way So to the flatbed, cut out the space for the motor And built up with plastistrip and card And in place Then to build up the edges and bottom for the frame Couple of cabinets either side And the uprights on the generator module In place Then added a roof to it In place again Genny in place

Tamworth at Lichfield is about 10 miles

Wrexham central to general isn't very far

Looking at the time of the post you are quoting it's about the KFC meme, It's coz you can see the fuzzy outline of Ronald mc Donald running off in the corner of the picture, hence the 'when you see it' tag Personally the one above about the liquor store isn't funny to me

And we're back, 3 weeks off and back to it last night Unusual occurance in the RTC all the 97s were parked up and these 3 were in number order too 301/302/303 Loco for the night, 37175 50008 Into derby And getting ready to go rightaway to Birmingham new st at 30mph all the way Steel train passing through And into Birmingham Back to alrewas via the cross city line at 30mph again And back to new st again Then back to derby at 30mph again, from there it was an extra trip to crewe which should have gone via uttoxeter but as I was so early they let me go via alrewas again, until I got to wichnor and they couldn't accept me, they were then going to turn me back to derby to wait time but I suggested running via Tamworth, Sutton park and Walsall which they agreed on Stafford And into crewe Then home to bed!

If you look carefully at the modules on the real thing there are 2 modules, one has the generator fitted and the other is a long unit (ooh er missus!) Also if you look how they sit on the deck one end is hard up against the back of the driving van and the other end sits a good foot back from the cab, using the module bases as I have done in the above pics gives the same spacing, the only difference being the generator end will be the 'wrong end' as it were due to the motor position, the correct way round means the flywheel would impinge on the generator position

You'll end up getting arrested hanging around street corners!! Would you be interested in scanning a Bracknell wills pantograph if I can get the use of one (away from the top of a train of course!!)