big jim

big possession on this evening removed the hump on the rear line cut it right back to the start of the rise no nail's some wooden batons to the wall and poly risers and refitted the original corner piece but this time sloping downwards and added a piece of wood for the track to sit on bit of card both ends that the cork will butt up to the road bridge is now able to be a lot lower so not as steep, will still have to be raised up slightly to allow trains under it will have to rebuild the centre parapet because of the shallower angle

some from today, a nice little crewe to derby via stoke, stone and stafford job with 37254 kidsgrove something yellow here lurks stafford class 88 passing through 37254 into derby noted the 67s on the RTC with a couple of new additions, pics to follow when im sure i can share them

ive ended up with one of each as i bought them from different places, of the two i prefer the cool white ones, less 'clinical' looking

Was thinking how to add the roof detail to mentor when I had a brain wave, raided the eldest's LEGO box and came out with these angled parts which when placed upside down with the hole filled and a tiny bit snipped off the back will make handy camera housings

It may lot look like much but finally after 4 years I have electricity to the shed (and garage) so no more having to roll out an extension lead from the conservatory'

it was but i only did blackpool to preston, not done it since i signed it so needed a run over it to keep it in date first job was to see the NMT out of crewe carriage sidings then to blackpool 37421 37025 into the station wasnt until i got to on my way i realised id not put the marker lights on! and into preston https://youtu.be/seoMASqsRvo couple of freightliner 90s passing through

Some from today, NMT Derby to Holyhead and back to crewe Derby Crewe Chester Holyhead Panorama view Then coming back I got stuck in traffic resulting from a bridge bash at shotton so crawled section to section Rhyl Then at Chester we were 11 mins late and the signaller held me for 4 minutes to put the crewe shuttle out in front of me despite me being a class 1, 90mph train and him being a class 2, 75mph unit that I was actually booked in front of anyway, he said I would delay it at beeston as the section from there to crewe steelworks is 8 mins, in reality he knocked me for another 12 minutes by the time I reached crewe, so much for regulation! (Come back John fitness!!), I would have easily made crewe before he got to beeston If nothing at least I got a rare pic in beeston castle and tarpoley station! And into crewe where it then headed off north to Liverpool Lime st 3 peaks challenge train in platform 12, getting ready to head off to Bangor once a pair of 37s arrived to take over the train And here they are! And that's yer lot, off to the seaside again tomorrow, Blackpool this time!

Hopefully you can see this if your not in twitter https://twitter.com/crispymick/status/874999483326754817 Check out his reply to the sun's tweet and the number of retweets of it Top man, for both his response and also for putting his life on the line during the terrible fire in the london flats

The goods lines between Derby london road and LNWR junction (towards burton in Trent) are still permissive freight, surprised me a few months back when I got position lights to follow a freightliner stone train along there! EDIT: acton grange to walton old jn just outside Warrington bank quay is the same

there was an emergency speed restriction on the down slow at stableford imposed on Friday afternoon, chances are the train was on the fast to allow them to put the speed boards and Dalek out, (it was lifted on Monday)

Last night was the usual blast round the midlands, first time with the europhoenix 37s though, last time was the 67s on it Must be something in the water in tyseley Fellow rmwebber 21aLizard bringing the train in Stratford The woman on the platform was loving it, filmed the whole train end to end as did a few American tourists! Hatton Fenny Compton Couple of frights passing by And away to whitacre Managed a break in Nuneaton And back to fenny Compton Back to Stratford Then along the north warwick where I had to wait at whitlocks end of an ecs to head back to tyseley in front of me Into moor st And back to tyseley And that's yer lot

Just don't remember them, I was only 7 when they were withdrawn, similarly westerns, a far better looking loco than a deltic but don't interest me, not a lot of big 'heritage' stuff does, show me a 25 on the other hand, I like those coz I remember them

Some from today One for mick, go on, go on, go on, go on, you know you want to! I'm not a fan of deltics but this looks soooo good! We paired the europhoenix 37s up and I think those are my locos for tomorrow to Stratford upon Avon

You'd better tell the trainee signalman to do that then, I did suggest it but he said I only needed to draw up to 9881 signal for him to put the frame back I knew I have to clear the rear of 9882 for him to get it back, still the walk did me good

It's just a bit of fun!

Yes the lune gorge from the other side of the valley, had a bit of time to kill one day so decided to try and find the road I'd seen for years from the railway, and well worth it it was too the heart shaped coppice is actually known as 'the heart of cumbria', the day I took the above pic the floor of it was covered in bluebells, was going to stop for some pics but there ain't many stopping places near it!

And here we are... Nice little job today, Washwood Heath to bescot but as Sutton park/Walsall was shut I had to go via New St with the loco 70804 Leaving Washwood Heath Out onto the mainline and a walk back to put the ground frame back to normal and shut the gates Then away to New st Unusually the signaller pulled off the position light for me to draw closer to the voyager but I decided to stay 'my side' of the signal as I dint like the idea of getting up close and personal to the passenger unit, unusually he then had a 323 unit draw into the same platform behind me! Once the voyager left I drew up the platform And away to bescot and attached to its train for tonight Also got the other end loco and put that in position too And that was that for the day

I'm going to fill this post with waffle as it's the last one on the page so today's pics don't get lost when someone replies Normal service will be resumed on the next page......

Next a sunrise picture

I think there would have been room to run round at Llanwrtwd after the drop hence why I've suggested that for the future Regards the wagons due to the low RA (route availability) of the line (5) it had to be 10 wagons loaded to 30 tons each to keep it under the RA, had they run 5 they would have needed 60 ton in each which means they then become RA8 and far too heavy, hence the reason why they also use class 37s Mick: you are not allowed to have 2 dead locos on the rear of a train, class 20s aside, (I asked the same question last year for another job we did that would have been much better if it could have been done

It's absolutely ludicrous but If the ballast paperwork says top and tail it has to run like that, if it deviates from the written plan then the train will fail it's performance figure and be classed as a non runner (even if the job is done) and the company dont get paid! I've asked that in future they plan the train to be double headed and run round once complete

yeah that was me, one of those jobs today that one, something different but also somewhat taxing, certainly dont want to do it again with a single 37 started off by going to derby, cadged a lift from the station to the rtc on this locos for the night into derby crewe into basford hall and split top and tail on the ballasters and then the fun started, followed an express towards shrewsbury which because of the frankly dire automated signalling on the line the train describer or whatever heath robinson device they use classes us as a local stopper and brings us to a stop at all the local stations with crossings which meant i had a standing start from nantwich and wrenbury which in turn meant the loco was working extra hard and promptly set the fire bells off, i had to come to a stand and investigate before letting the loco cool down and continuing on my way, it happened again while heading towards church stretton but once i got over the summit of that part of the line the loco could 'have a breather' to craven arms i was supposed to get off there and drive home but NR said they didnt want the train on the single line incase it got stuck so i suggested i stay on board and 2nd man it and should we get stuck id fire the rear loco up and give the train a shove which was agreed on and away we went! first stop was knighton where we sat and waited for 45 mins for the local service to arrive in from llandridnod direction then it was away towards llandrindod over the steepest part of the journey, to say it was interesting would be an understatement, we managed a max speed of about 20mph and at one point after knucklas were down to 5mph for a vast majority of the time, it did however despite the firebells going off again manage to single handedly make it to llandrindod which quite frankly we werent expecting as it weighed 775 tons llandrindod i got off there and had a taxi back to craven arms for the van i should have gone home in a number of hours earlier! fun, yes, interesting, yes, would i like to attempt it again with a single 37, no chance!

i think we're in nip? what rules are we playing by, oh hang on wrong thread anyway, a colourful vinyl wrap (or two) next up a loco named after a lady

some from today, 47739 from Barrow Hill to Carlisle to pick up a pair of ex DRS 37s for harry needle Barrow hill ready for the off changing ends away to crewe giving 250BOB a toot at Uttoxeter and into carlisle for the 37s and pass to wigan to collect a van then home nice job tomorrow, pair of 37s on a ballast from crewe to craven arms (and onward with someone else onto to the heart of wales line)

that confused the hell out of me after i started with colas as they were always refering to the S+C tampers and i thought "blimey they have a lot of machines just for the settle and carlisle line" took me a while to figurout what they meant