big jim

the 70 disappeared off the train to work to moorswater anyway some from last night, just iphone pics, 37025 oxford to tyseley oxford leamington spa waiting for a possession to be lifted and into tyseley while was waiting in oxford i could hear a 37 for a while and i thought it was mine but turned out it was this coming south

some from today, derby to tyseley via toton, loughborough and burton derby burton east yard toton loughborough stenson jn and relieved by forum member 21Alizard at hall green same train again tomorrow

not got a clue whats going on down that end of wales (the end where the talk all funny) but at the other end of wales the 56s plod on on the RHTT coleham bidston and thats it, back to shrewsbury and home, hopefully thats the last time i get the RHTT this year, dirty job

Got another piece of wood from B&Q this afternoon to replace the various offcuts I've used to plan the top level however first job was to remove the existing board from the removable section and replace it with a blank board Planning boards Removable section stripped down rebuilt and in situ I then placed the lower level track on what will be the high level boards to get an idea of where I need to be cutting to maximise the space on the top of the layout, I've worked out that by adding a 15cm wide fillet of ply to the narrower board on the right I can bring the lower curves futher across and gain 15-20 cm width to the top board, especially useful on the curve coming off the removable section as I can now bring the station back up to a decent width, possibly even the same size as before In addition to that I can fit 4 or 5 hidden storage sidings below the station, I wanted to avoid hidden sections but if I add these I can park up my full takes of wagons such as the freightliner hoppers or megaboxes and full length passenger trains like the WAG, NMT etc, I'll make sure the walls in front are fixed with magnetic tape to retrieve any derailments etc Going back to the high level but again but looking the other way I recon I can gain more station space and make the area more interesting by smoothing out the curves so the line comes in at an angle rather than along the back wall as it did on the positioning board, again as much as I want to avoid hidden areas by adding a board similar to this one I can sweep the curve round and use curved points before the bridge to allow trains to cross over to various platforms before the station meaning I can have longer platforms If I can I may get a level crossing in there so I can reuse my town buildings?

You too

some from last night crewe to holyhead via llandudno llandudno manchester to llandudno service holyhead chester and that was that, RHTT tomorrow then back to IM next week, all over the place!

managed to get hold of the model rail ltd ed class 97 this morning for £155 which im pleased with, ok its more than it cost new but they dont come up very often and ive not seen it listed for less than £250 on ebay (not that they sell at that price) and i know of one trader at shows who has one for £250 on his stand had to have a bit of a clear out of other stock to justify buying it though, my detailed Hornby TTS 97 is the first loco to make way for it

Don't let newbryford hear you say that!

that crossed my mind too

called in hobby goblin again earlier hoping to get a couple of single track versions of the bridge i got last week but unfortunatly he only had one so i took it anyway as i have a plan for the removable section i was thinking of having a pir of the side by side but slightly skew to allow me to get the 3 lines below to curve underneath i can also do it with the double bridge but the tracks will be a lot tighter/closer both top and bottom as ive just been planning the top level using the old wood i can now see where it would benefit it to be wider etc so i may well go and buy the proper wood later in the week ready for that

but not in the 'new' colas livery https://flic.kr/p/GKPWbu not my pic, random one off flickr

oh please be a colas 47 in the new livery

Let see, as long as it's 'current scene' I may be interested

ive just joined the collectors club over the phone and when i gave my email address the guy said 'ah, your the famous big jim off RMweb' heres hoping the collectors club model is something of interest

we were 25 late through nantwich then held to time at gresty the passenger we normally wait for was 15 late at hereford so the box let us run and as we only had 13 wagons on we were a flyer all the way

What a flippin' night, if it could go wrong it did go wrong! Only managed one pic before i attempted to depart derby for longsight before things went progressively downhill!! So off I set towards Chesterfield to collect my route conductor for a trip over the hope valley to chinley then on to peak forest and ultimately longsight, got as far as ambergate before finding out that the line to Chesterfield was flooded so I would need to turn back, did an interesting unsignalled move across the junction and headed back towards derby with the aim of then turning towards toton and heading along the Erewash to Chesterfield and into the hope valley as booked, got as far as derby before getting news that the hope valley was now shut due to flooding (and my route conductor was stuck on an EMT train the wrong side of the flood!) His train eventually made it though and he joined us at derby for 'plan C', a transit run to longsight via the north staffs and potteries lines to pick up the back end of the shift recording the Cheshire lines via knutsford and northwich as well as the sandbach branch, so off we went, on to the line towards uttoxeter when suddenly 'pop!' dankness as the generator on the DBSO shut down approaching eggington, a bit of fault finding and we discovered it had had an earth fault, possibly due to the huge amount of rain that had been deposited on the train in the previous few hours, spoke to the box and decided the best course of action was to head to uttoxeter on battery power and leave it in the loop, however I asked him if his crossover was still in use and low and behold it was so we decided to turn back at eggington instead rather than risking losing all power between there and uttoxeter and stitching up the last passenger service to crewe Into eggington, isolate the DBSO controls to effectively make it a normal coach and changed ends, cross over and back to derby where a fitter eventually met us and rectified the problem, couple of frantic phone calls from the on train tech to his control and we were granted a path to longsight to get the train in position for today's job, this time we went via Lichfield, colwich, stone, stoke, Macclesfield and Stockport and on to longsight Changed ends to head in to the depot and the genny on the DBSO Went out again, thankfully we got it over the ladder and onto the depot where we left it for the night for the fitter to come over and have a look later today In all a very challenging night with a lot of thinking on my feet both due to the traction and route failures, to top it off I think I've caught a cold from walking from derby station to the RTC! Anyway a nice change tonight if I don't get flooded out, Hereford to chirk with the logs, and a class 70 on it too

Since we're going down the knitwear route this is a hat my eldest used to have, he loved wearing it

Managed a good few hours in the shed earlier New boards fixed down Top boards loosely fitted and cut back 3rd and 4th radius curves on the top And on the bottom Then more track placed roughly where I'm hoping it will go Then the high level station was put in place, I thinkn going to struggle to get more than a 2 track station on there in reality I'm trying to use as much wood from the old layout as I can, the high level curved piece of wood was one corner of the old lower base boards, fits nice but limits the width of the station throat on that end of the station, none of this is fixed so it can be chopped and changed around before I think of a final set up The station building is placed in a board that reaches to the edge of the baseboard which I can make look like the access road is off scene Looking below it the 3 lines from the removable section disappear under which I think looks quite effective However adding a curved point will give me an extra hidden siding Which can join the yard exit under the bridge Lots to Think about before I start to fix down boards!

Some pics from derby, shunting again 97301, I've got this tomorrow to Buxton and peak forest amongst other places! Couple of 37s So busy yesterday that I had 2 08s on the go, first time I've driven the black one Different paint jobs And there we go

This made me chuckle earlier on crewe station, couldn't resist grabbing a picture of this man's shopping bag, I think he may be the reincarnation of father jack Champagne and floor polish!

ive been road learning the north warwick, he was one of the drivers i rode with

thats him

Couple of days road learning this week, Tyseley to Stratford via Henley in Arden, a nice simple route, lots of stations though, didn't bother with many pictures Birmingham tram outside the ian Allen shop 68 and 168 in moor st 172 arriving in to moor st I was going to catch a certain train until I realised it went via Solihull to Stratford which I sign so I waited for the next one which was only going to whitlocks end, from there I came back to yardley wood to get another train back to Stratford At that point the heavens opened and the ride to Stratford was horrendous, the unit was unable to get more than 20mph due to the wheelside protection, as it was so late getting tonstratford it ran back express to moor st From there I headed home but the weather was also causing chaos on the WCML with a tree down at rugeley and flooding north of stafford, ingot a train to stafford to give me a few options of getting back to crewe l, what never was happening the signaller must have been playing trains as 2 southbound services came 'bang road' through the station and crossed over at the south end, nine of that would have been possible before the resignalling a few months back Normal running too Then today was another couple of trips to Stratford but again couldn't be bothered with pics 68 in moor st again

Gotta love this, jimmy fallon, the roots and Metallica playing enter sandman on kids instruments (The Adele 'hello' one is a cracker too)

Luckily that side of the layout hasn't had much done to it so taking it apart wasn't too much of a bind! Anyway, was talking about you today, stopping work every time a class 37 went past while you were building walls in stetchford!