big jim

A quick sneak into the shed earlier Before I can do anything with the top level of the layout I need to fix the track on the bottom, there is only one hidden section of track but it needs to be in before I continue First job was a cork base On to with the new loop from the yard was laid and secured as well as positioning the points for the hidden sidings I will drill holes for the point motors and retro fit them as I go along, I am also going to add point detection/direction LEDs to the hidden sidings using the same electrofrog method as I used previously so I know which way they are set Squared off the edge of the top board while I was aligning the bottom tracks, the goods line now comes out from a 'skew bridge' Then round to the other side of the layout, dremel'd off the track end and cut away the existing polystyrene curve Scraped it away with a big wood saw!! 3rd and 4th radius curves, you can see by the old alignment how much tighter it is but still not too tight hopefully I had some spare risers in the garage so I Added those, I will add a layer of card or thin ply to the top before fixing the track down Getting on with it slowly! EDIT: couple of pics removed!

And the proper camera pics from yesterday Crewe, RHTT heading back to shrewsbury And over to derby where 37099 awaited me! Into the station And away to southport, stopped in crewe for 5 mins Southport Popular loco! Let's not forget the humble DBSO, seen at Wigan wallgate on the return And back into crewe at 01:30 Today is a road learning day but I'm not having much luck getting into the cab, northern have a lot of drivers out road learning too! Anyway a couple from kidsgrove station, doing there to cheadle hulme to fill a gap in my route knowledge Crewe to the left, Stockport to the right Nice 1960s station building

There is also nice footage in one of the suggested links at the end of the above video of plumley and northwich Taken from the side of what looks like a very new M6, oh how I wish it was that quiet now! Also the 8F going over the viaduct at northwich is going somewhat faster than the 20mph that trains have to travel over it nowdays

37099 Derby RTC by jim scott, on Flickr

nice shot, i would have come and said hello but it was too cold to be bothered to get out of the cab! a few niggles with it tonight but nowt major, the headlight needs adjusting, it was doing a good job of scaring owls in the lineside trees, alternatively it would make a good OHLE stantion inspection loco! pictures to follow sometime tomorrow

37099 will be leading derby to southport

'Merl' is off to the seaside later, I've got it to Southport tonight with a UTU Proper camera and tripod packed ready

no thats not him

Not a name I know

Some from this morning, nice short job, westhouses to toton with the railvac Crack of dawn at westhouses And into toton Back to IM tomorrow, off to the seaside again, somewhere new this time though

regards the barriers staying down for a while, i have mentioned this before, i've had it at bicester perimiter road where the lights came on and the barriers didnt drop when i pulled the operating rope, it was amazing the number of cars that after 2 or 3 minutes edged onto the crossing then jumped the lights, more shocking for them though i should imagine as my loco was well hidden behind some bushes and the first they saw of me would have been my lights 10M from the road the outcome was to put the crossing in local control and manually drop the barriers, once we were over manually raise the barriers again, i dont know what the plan for that crossing is once work starts on phase 2 of the east/west link as its a busy road and the current 5mph railway speed limit will be raised to 100mph

some more pics from today, after the naming i went off to tyseley to work a train to wrexham and rugeley amongst other places 153 in derby wolverhampton rugeley

here are my proper camera pics

057s headlight is lower down than 099

and they still fell off (thankfully not at the important moment!) actually that picture is the colas rail 'village people' tribute act, next frame is "M", "C", "A" and so on

here's hoping! if a model one does come out remember you can have a little 'big jim' in the drivers seat!

The challenge was also (inadvertently) thrown down to try and get the loco to Aberystwyth I'm sure we can tuck it inside a 97 and get it down there at some point

Being as i knew about this naming for a while I was hoping it would have been the latest collectors club model, hence why I joined just before warley 'just in case'!!

Whats this...... Into the bay in derby Something a little bit special, 37099 had had its nameplates unveiled this morning at a ceremony in derby station, as you can see it was named 'merl evans' by his widow with his family in attendance as well as his former work colleagues from Bachmann, Andy Y was there and has prepared a separate thread which he will upload later with more detail And in all it's glory Nice to have been involved in a small way with the naming, I've known about it for a month or so but kept it under wraps so had offered to be the driver for the naming ceremony, unfortunatly I've got a job this afternoon so I've had to scoot away early

thats good enough for me and how it would be on the layout with the actual toe of the 2 points outside the crossing area so it wouldnt look too odd, besides the corner its in if i place the buildings strategically on the viewing side you wouldnt notice too much

Cut the top piece this evening, cut it down the middle to maximise the use, I will add extra bits like the station forecourt area using offcuts from the old boards but this is how it looks so far This is where i will have to add the 15cm wide fillet between the removable section and normal board to allow the goods line to sweep round towards the scissor crossing At the ofher end the girder bridge looks quite smart over the lower lines, I will trim the edge of the top board back a bit where it curves this side of the bridge and cut an angle into it where the goods line will come out Station wise if I add 2 sets of curved crossovers either side of the station on the approach I should be able to fit 3 platforms and a bay, as you look at it in the pic the left track traffic will go away from the camera, next track across is bi directional but normal working would be traffic coming towards the camera, 3rd track can be a loop with normal traffic flow towards the camera and the 4th line can be a bay, trains can depart that platform and go to the small station on the low level via the station crossovers and scissor The only thing non prototypical but I will have to live with is the curved points will be pretty much slap bang in the middle of the level crossing I want to add! So really the next job will be to secure the hidden low level tracks in place (and of course lay a cork base and sort the new curves in the already sceniced bit) before i can fix the top boards down, and then there is the removable section!

My youngest was drawing earlier and had a go at drawing a man with a bazooka That's some weapon

Welland before anyone asks it's not "Big Jim" unless they haven't been totally honest with me

Ooh, covered up nameplate!!!