big jim

Never got a chance to upload the proper camera pics today, I've had to come out and practically have a rerun of yesterday's job, the 60 I took to Warrington failed so I'm off to Toton for another one And we moan about Hornby quality control, 3rd one I've had so far this week! Another one from the phone yesterday

i had to wipe my feet before getting in the cab! a taster for tomorrows pics, class 60 Warrington to Toton......

i dont want to get into the politics of how things are done to be honest, just post some pictures of pretty trains! basford hall then popped up to Nantwich really hard for pics as the sun was on the wrong side but i managed a couple and a vid

It's more of a subliminal thing with individual drivers I think, some look at locos with fear and dread! No greater chance of a loco failing than a unit

Quick iPhone pic, 50007 and 50050 in basford hall with a train of hoppers to donnington

ive uncoupled a 67 from stock in a couple of minutes, the most important thing is to look up and check the various electric cables are all out!, the longest part of the whole job was calling the box to get the adjacent platform line blocked and then calling back to get the block lifted of course then there was the fall out afterwards, other drivers saying i'd set a precident so they would be expected to couple and uncouple locos themselves, as pointed out by my then DSM we all had a days training on coupling, buckeyes etc so there was no reason not to do it, besides it made a possible 9 hour fuelling job less than 2 hours (rest day work) unfortunatly as russ says, and ive not been on the railway that long myself, but some drivers just dont want to get in and get their hands dirty, indeed some are simply scared to drive locos, the common factor being they are worried incase it fails, there were a number of drivers at chiltern who would sell their granny if it meant they could get out of driving the loco hauled stock as you say its just a case of getting in there, admittedly when i multied up a pair of 97s last week it look me a while as one loco had ploughs and im not exactly little to fit between them, thankfully it was just the one or id have really struggled!

And all dry in natural light Compared to the original it's certainly toned the yellow down! And the prototype in action

The dealer is also by MIG, it does so dark when you brush it on but once dry the pigments return to their normal colour I quite like the fact that when you brush it on it can run down the bodywork causing streaks or pool in crevices with pigment in I've just given my network rail 08 a quick going over with the powers before work, it's kept quite clean so I just wanted to tone the yellow down a bit but add muck around the panel edges so I have used factory grey on the sides which I practically rubbed back off on the slab sides leaving it around panel joints and rivets, also added smoke pigment to the roof, grime pigment to the running boards and underframe and brake dust to the rigging This is it pre sealing And with wet pigment sealer on having just been brushed on I'll get a pic of it when it's dry when I get home from work later

while having a tidy up in the house I found a pair of Dapol intermodal flats that I bought to replace a pair of s-kits fea-B wagons I built from a kit a good 6 or 7 years ago, on my old layout they were OK as it was a shunting plank but on this layout they just didn't want to run at all, forever derailing, I even changed the bogies on them for Dapol ones but no use I know the Dapol wagons are visually different, perminantly coupled twin as opposed to a pair of individual wagons with buffer stocks at both ends but I'm not too bothered as lon as they go round the layout when tested! This is the original S-kits RHTT train with the brass wagons (heavily weathered) And how it looks with the Dapol wagons instead, obviously once it's tested and proved to run ok I will heavy weather them too One thing the original wagons have is a through wiring set up so I can run my sound chipped DRS 20 at one end and the speaker fitted dummy at the other end with a speaker cable "jumper" between them, I may look at refitting that to the Dapol wagons Next up I found some MIG weathering powders I forgot I had so decided to dirty up one of my falcon wagons Mucked up a touch And brushed over with the sealing solution (so still a bit wet) and next to an out of the box one Quite pleased with it, I'll do the rest at some point

damn you! sad thing is im even spotting subtle differences on the real thing now, newbryforditis as its commonly known

excellent, duly ordered now what should MY next yellow project be?

i looked at the SGT sheet on there but saw the old style OHLE flashes etc and thought it was just for the old train, should have looked properly! i will contact steve and get a set of them ordered (showing as out of stock) as it will do all 3 coaches from one sheet

what, like this one.... http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/108907-network-rail-betton-street-chapter-13-already/

or you could have asked me to get the consist for you but thats no fun its definatly 2 UTU sets as it was running to old dalby for them to be calibrated, i think the front is, as you say the short UTU train i had last week (9702, utu2 and genny 6260) and i have recently ran with a SGT/UTU combo in service as a 5 coach set, although looking at that picture im not convinced that the rear coach is a DBSO as it looks to be lacking drivers steps anyhoo, what/who do you use for number decals on your models, im looking to finish off my SGT and DBSO but arent sure what size numbers i need to make up the number set, or indeed if i can get them prenumbered on a sheet from railtec, i certainly cant find 9708 as a DBSO option on there, similarly what NR decals should i be looking at, can only see pre 2009 logos (which to my eye look no different to any other NR decal ive seen!)

I have sanders but didn't use them, I wouldn't have liked to have tried it on a wet rail though! Unfortunatly were not allowed to run round the rear loco to the front prior to departure from the possession, no logistical or practical reason why we can't but a ludicrous paperwork issue, (no doubt devised by someone in an office who has never actually seen a train!)

Here is a video of me attempting to lift 900+ tons out of cosford loop yesterday with a single 97 Stopped a couple of times as I began moving as it overloaded but then with some careful jockeying of the power controller to keep it below 2000 amps I got it underway and got a bit of momentum behind it, doesn't help that the loop is 5mph and it's pretty sharp uphill grade! Not much better between oakengates and telford either, think I was doing 20mph max here, the video shows nicely how the hoppers are only partially loaded to be able to run on the Cambrian because of certain weight restricted bridges en route

Just 4 from today, shunting in derby Mad busy, my Fitbit buzzed at 10:00 to say I already covered 10000 steps (just over 5 miles walking!) and climbed 24 sets of stairs (one climb into a cab normally counts as one flight of stairs) And into the station with 37116 and UTU4

Some from today Shrewsbury to Bescot with top and tail 97s, for whatever reason it wasn't unloaded last night so was just short of 900 tons which was interesting getting out of cosford loop to say the least! In Bescot In company of 66846 (that will annoy my dad as he needs that one to finish his colas 66s) And then it was back to shrewsbury with the locos (I put them in multi to speed up the change ends at sutton bridge) And onto betton street....sorry coleham! Had to walk to the box to give the gate keys back, first time I've ever walked there! This is the old bridge hole behind the box that used to go towards ironbridge and Bridgnorth And looking back towards shrewsbury

i was going to comment on the LT ones earlier too but didnt as it opens a can of worms, however as brushman says you can order them from the shop, as i did 2 weeks ago, there is quite a lot of discussion about it (the rights and wrongs of the system) in the dedicated thread as for 66779, its actually kind of growing on me a bit now, if it was released as a limited edition i may well partake as im quite partial to gbrf machines, i havent ordered the rainbow one yet, but as also discussed on the LT 66 thread its purely the cost of all these new 66s appearing at once (including pre orders i have on mainstream items) that puts me off ordering one and thats without a model 779 making a surprise apperance to futher dent my wallet

And today, a video recording trip round crewe and the surrounding area on this weird little thing Strange swirly lazer thingy (that's the technical name) Changing ends north of crewe, the good thing is it is a single unit with a walkway between the cans so no climbing up and down on the ballast We went all round crewe, through basford hall and to Warrington Then back to crewe and into lnwr then back into the station And away fastline to stafford (60mph max!) Back to crewe basford hall and along the independants onto gresty PAD, we had to ditch the trip to Nantwich due to lack of time which was a shame as I've not done the new crossover since it was made an automatic one, last time was a manual emergency groundframe and I was a guard on a branch line society trip with a 101 DMU! And as for the signaller on gresty panel today, that's another story!

some from today started in derby, 37057 parked up on the RTC out of the yard and into derby to change ends and head off to llandudno so the dbso was leading for the rest of my trip, stopped in crewe to pick up the network rail staff next stop was llandudno Jn freshly vinyled up utu coach planter dedicated to rodney, long term staff member at the junction, 50 years on the railway back in 2014, only just retired i believe! and into llandudno and back to the junction where i got off and the train continued to blaenau london bound voyager i then made my way over to bangor to see my mum in hospital there and later on got the train home 175 heading off to holyhead my train arriving and low and behold what should turn up train back to crewe and home 325 passing through and that was that, good job tomorrow, something a bit different from the norm

Off to Llandudno today with a test train, 37116 up front Had a bit of worrying news last night that my mum is in hospital after being rushed there on Monday, possibly some form of cancer, just waiting on test results, as it happens she is in Bangor hospital so when I finish at Llandudno jn later I'm going to jump on a train to Bangor and meet my stepdad there to go and see her Other than that had a collision with a cyclist yesterday in the van, I was coming down a long driveway and was about to turn left at the junction with the main road and she was riding on the pavement, with her headphones on eating 2 cornettos, as I emerged from behind the bushes fo sealing the drive she went straight into the wing of the van and into fell onto the windscreen! Got out to check she was ok which she was thankfully, I think her pride was hurt more than anything, she dusted herself off and rode away had to report it to control and they will have to investigate it now! There has been much laughter about my report mentioning the fact I was impressed by her multi tasking of eating 2 cornettos while riding a bike!

just 4 from today, 97304 derby to bescot derby bescot

just a few from today, logs for a change, a fun journey to say the least, had to pass two signals at danger near penrith then had 2 signals revering to a more restrictive aspect aproaching shap, one was going yellow to red every 5 seconds! carlisle station waiting for the pendolino on the right to depart and away it went and into warrington and off it went to chirk derby to bescot tomorrow with a 97

Made the 2nd flexi girder for the higher bridge Then I realised the spare panels I had were enough to make a parapet over the tunnel entrance, I'll have to cut the wood back a touch so I can get the removable section out but it should look good when fitted properly