big jim

Just some iphone pics from today, training run shrewsbury to Holyhead and back Ready to depart coleham Crewe Conwy, waiting for the train in front to clear the section And into Holyhead Then back to shrewsbury but too dark for pics

some from last night, started in crewe where the WAG arrived in from Llandudno 175 for holyhead and one for cardiff and then my train came in, hence the reason i was wearing my HST 40 "lucky badge", last night was my maiden solo voyage on the NMT, a nice short hop crewe to derby via the WCML and lichfield into derby an enjoyable first drive, a lot to think about, i'd gone throught he manual what felt like a hundred times throughout the day to be sure i changed ends correctly and disposed of it right, hopefully i did! nice to get it up to 100mph on the wcml between crewe and stafford and armitage and lichfield, a really nice train to drive, feel quite privileged to be allowed to train up on it and drive it to be honest, even more special that my first drive was on the 40th anniversary to the day since they were introduced and the day i passed out on them i met Sir Kenneth Grange! got it again tomorrow to holyhead, not before i go there today with a 56 though

cash convertors special, £125, its the fourth fujifilm ive had and i love it, as i say so simple to use and pretty good results

In celebration of 40 years to the day since the introduction of the intercity 125 I thought I'd wear my special badge this evening......

The latest batch (Blackpool onwards a few months back) are from my fujifilm 30 exr bridge camera, I've gone back a step from the Sony camera with fewer megapixels and less zoom but the pics are so much clearer and the camera is a lot easier to use Saying that the pics immediately above are off the iphone 5!!

its only a short hop, crewe to derby, late on too got it to holyhead on thursday as well

quick job today 37116 from derby to barrow hill 37025 and 37424 ready for the off and into barrow hill and a random 158 in chesterfield, caught the train home via sheffield and stockport maiden solo voyage on the NMT tomorrow

i'll just leave this here.....

i wonder who left 37025 there? (couldnt get them any closer together for a decent together pic)

some from today, this morning was finishing my static training on the NMT before heading back home via the NRM where the designer of the iconic nose end was giving a speech got him to sign a piccie for me and when i mentioned i had just been passed out to drive HST's he congratulated me which was a nice end to the day the man himself iconic streamlining some TV production company actually got sir kenneth to "tag" the loco with an aerosol, quite why i dont know but it was off as quick as it went on! there were lots of smiles while he did it but not from the head of engineering at GWR who looked very serious!! eurostar unit in the great hall

i think the gb 73s were doing the mersey circuit last week, they have our drivers on them, some sign 73s

some from today, on the shunt in derby, conducted this off the rtc into the station then train up to newcastle upon tyne, passed 43002 and 43185 outside a very wet NRM and one from a work collegue, 56113 on shrewsbury coleham depot in readyness for the rhtt season, ive got this loco to holyhead wednesday next week on a training run training day for me in heaton tomorrow

The buffers in platform 1 got compressed quite considerably in 2013 by a voyager! And an arriva drivers bike got flattened too http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/78872-spotted-on-twitter-voyager-whoops-in-chester/

wasn't me was it? without going too much o/t but another farcical thing about the new signalling is you are unable to make a reverse move on the up goods any more, ok its not a common thing to do but the other week with a test train we recorded the goods and had to head north, to get back i had to head south to pretty much the M40 bridge to get behind the bi-di signal to cross over and come back north, the biggest issue being a lack of any form of safe walking route along the length of the then 5 coach train, of course with there being major ground works going on it was a bit dodgy underfoot to say the least! i did report it and lets hope some sort of path is added in the future

and some pics... didnt get any til sandbach after going to northwich and back into crewe to change ends, to get from manchester to chester you can only go into platform 6 (without going south out of the station, which at 16:10 causes a bit of chaos! chester, break time and a change ends again warrington, there and back at 30mph back to chester over to stockport at 30mph and back to chester, again 30 mph and back, line speed this time to crewe lurking in the shadows at midnight and illuminated by by headlamp and that was that

nice pic, thought you would have hung around for the return though! i was actually rest day today but got asked to work that train as i have route knowledge for the whole circuit, a long old day, best part of 180 miles driving in total but at no point was i futher than a 30 mile radius from crewe you can tell autumn is on the way, the 'cheshire lines' from mickle trafford to stockport via altringham got quite slippy around delemere and mouldsworth despite there not being any rain today (early on) the 37 was wheelslipping a fair bit and i had to use the sanders to keep it in check, and that was only at 30mph, its going to be fun down there when the leaves really start to drop (delemere is a known 'published' area of low adheasion) ive got some pics to upload later today

apparently they lifted the track in error when they cleared the site for maccy d and the 4 eagles and they had to put it back in, nothing looks to have used it since relaying, they tamped it with handheld machines rather than on track plant the mainlne connection is still in but i think they would have to do some serious tree surgery before anything could use it again

and some from today, Llandudno Jn to Bangor and back to crewe 175 in "the junction" 150 heading to manchester and my train rolling in another 175 over to it and into bangor and back over to the up side sat outside llandudno Jn for 30 mins so grabbed a few pics from the DBSO droplights looking down the Conwy valley towards glan conwy, can you spot the 150 unit? here it is, in Glan Conwy station! conwy castle also the smallest house in the UK (red building), imagine how much that would cost in central London!! and into crewe, shut down and home

that wasn't me, i got on at llandudno jn for the trip to bangor and back to crewe (pics below) yes that was me in the 2nd mans seat, were you expecting me or was it a surprise?

back to it yesterday, stafford to carlisle via basford hall, earlestown, newton le willows, carnforth and the cumbrian coast stafford preston sellafield waiting for the unit to leave the single line so we can get the token to St Bees whitehaven, my trainee walking back to return the St Bees to whitehaven token and eventually into carlisle Bangor later today with 37025

I've had no issues with the latest iOS on both the iPhone 5s and iPad

Maybe the search was set to "iPad only" rather than search all apps, im sure someone had the same issue a few pages back

Same train again tonight, this time to Manchester and Stockport Prepping the train in crewe And after a reversal at longsight over to Stockport And that's me til Sunday

some from last night, yet another 37, stafford to crewe via stone, back to stafford, down to preston and back to crewe 37254 on it, thankfully i had the DBSO for most of the night crewe stafford on my return from crewe super power for the cars! preston and that was that, same train tonight over to longsight and stockport

My mum has had an operation today to remove the last traces of ovarian cancer that the chemotherapy didn't get rid off, by all accounts she's fine and they have caught it all before it spread to other organs luckily At the less dramatic end of the scale music magpie have p'd me off over a broken iPhone, no attempt to repair, return or replace it just sent me a refund with a 'sorry no stock to replace it' note despite there being loads for sale on their website, it's "different stock" apparently but I can if I wish "reorder one via the website" using the refund money, only problem being the phone is now £50 more than what I paid for the first one in April with a warantee that I may as well just wipe my arse with! Then some shenanigans with some paperwork in work has just plain annoyed me And if this bloody wifi goes off again the router is going out of the window!