big jim

some from last night, did a sutton bridge to newtown (well almost caersws), no class 66s available so had a pair of 97s instead sutton brg newtown, as usual taken from position of safety etc, no other trains or plant about then off to the middle of nowhere to drop the ballast, had to sit round while they finished the work so tried for a couple of pics, absoluley no external light whatsoever just my headlamp and ballaster lights so not easy, i trapsed up a field for this one! then once dropped it was change ends and back to sutton bridge protection lifted and away to sutton bridge for relief and that was that, first 97s since doing the class 37 conversion, nice to get on one but i hate to say it give me a 66 down there any day, better headlights and slow speed control for the ballast drop!

After hunting high and low for a 'rare' buffet I called into my local model shop in dagfields and Richard had a solitary arriva mk3 on the shelf, guess which one it was.... I must have looked at it loads of times over the last few months and never twigged it was the one I've been after!

yep, somewhere around penstrowedd i think

i'll give you a ring at 3am sunday morning to remind you of that then! i'll be somewhere in the middle of nowhere waiting to drop ballast at that time, the worst part being its a class 37 which are not the easiest loco to try and get some kip on

some from today, started in crewe XC voyager heading south Pendolino on the fast line desiro and 153's pendolino pulling away from plat 5 virgin voyagers departing plat 6 across the ladder to the fast line 175 heading to carmarthen, 66 in the background too then busy until a few stops en route, pretty much did all loops between carlisle and preston! shap carnforth and into Warrington arriva 67 and DVT and thats yer lot, wasn't going to bother with a camera tomorrow night but i've just discovered ive got a pair of 97's (37) on the train

Hornby do indeed do the coaches/loco etc, the buffet is a bit like rocking horse doings though so I model the Manchester to Llandudno service instead

Sign on a fence in Doncaster marshgate yard

some from last night started in crewe 175 heading to chester 158 for holyhead desiro and into kingmoor and that was that

some from last night, just camera phone pics this time as i knew i'd be busy (or in total darkness) pass from crewe to newtown, nice pair of 150s on a manchester to cardiff turn! freightliner ballast heading off to holmes chapel by the looks of it first up down to newtown to collect my train for bescot, unfortunatly the lead loco had failed so we had to propel from near caersws to newtown to run round the rear loco to the front, just short of 3 miles, propelling at 3mph! anyway into newtown, run round and ready to roll it was then off to bescot where i left the train, the loco then had to go to crewe to pick up a railvac, the problem being as i'd arrived from the north the dead loco was now leading and there was no where to run round easily, so with a bit of forward planning i arranged for the train to leave bescot via tame bridge, perry barr, soho and back north to wolverhampton and onward to crewe into basford hall and shunted away for the night, they departed this morning with the railvac according to local gen 68003 departing with a train of coalfish, sounded very nice! nice view of the yard back to the van and home to bed, logs tonight to carlisle then due to my finish time tomorrow i cant make job tomorrow night which was 97s bescot to shrewsbury, shame as ive not driven one for a while

some from last week and last night bescot with 6C70 a week friday just gone, 59204 and my lead loco 66850 66849 on the rear and last night, hinksey to banbury , 66849 again with 41 coalfish wagons and into banbury, walked down from the signal to the van so used the opportunity to get some pics of the soon to be demolished south box and inside this picture focussed on the window frame instead of the station as i planned but i think the effect looks quite good and that was that, tonight its off to newtown to collect 6C70 to take back to bescot and then take the locos to crewe

i wonder if they are being sold in number order, if so then RS4s wagon is almost half way through the run of 1000 wagons

just been into cash convertors in town and they have the newer version on my camera with 63X optical zoom!! Also a Bachmann 4F for £65 and some nicely weathered pannier tanks for £48

some from today, smae job, different stops started in crewe again quite an unusual sight in crewe now, a 142 unit! pendolino waiting for the off nowt at kingmoor today, first pic just south of carlisle 350 unit class 90s pendolino passing by and over to eden valley loop 350 unit again then carnforth then to preston, sat on the goods at skew bridge Jn 156 passing by 319 unit pendolino's one of the functions the camera can do it filter certain colours, like a colour splash function, this one is the red setting and into Warrington and that was that again

Yeah, And you could use the veissmann working tamper to secure the ballast

some from today, a daytime job! started in crewe, 67 heading off to chester up to carlisle, unusual sight of a voyager in the bay, a connecting service with the pendolino going to glasgow via dumfries over to kingmoor where the dalston tanks was departing for scotland while my loco had an A exam and off it went couple of DRS 66s heading north with the stobart express trying out the zoom while i waited for the fitter to finish once the train was together i moved down the yard ready to depart GBRf and freightliner 66s GBRf 66741 ready to roll to just outside carlisle then away to eden valley loop 350 heading south, camera poked through the 2nd mans side window pendolino and that was it til preston where i had 5 mins to stretch my legs up to balshaw lane jn then golbourne jn for a good hour or so and finally into warrington where my relief took the train on to chirk a few trains while i waited for mine back to crewe and that was it for the day while i was sat in eden valley loop and golbourne i had a play with the zoom settings on the camera and am very impressed with the results, this camera is growing on me now but the preview thing is still very annoying, i have found a place in stoke on trent who can repair it for me and the bit is available on line so i'll get it repaired some point soon, anyway here are some zoom pics the pics are straight out of the camera, no editing at all, all pics were freehand, camera on "point and shoot" setting, resting on the loco window ledge so a bit of movement/vibration from the engine first up, no zoom, can you see the "giants golf ball" on the top of the mountain on the horizon (ive added a red V to give you a clue!) now you can see it, zoomed in 50X optically then with added digital zoom to 100X and somehow 200X zoom pretty impressive eh? and a few from golbourne jn in fading light see the pylon? 50X optical zoom 100X digital zoom 200X digital zoom i think i may grow to enjoy this camera!

As it happens ive just treated myself to a 'new' car that was £1800! 3.5l 270bhp. V6 petrol, the other £1800 rake cost will be for the fuel

nah, biomass that would only be about £1800 worth of stock to replicate

funnily enough i saw those last week passing basford hall but couldnt get my camera out quick enough to grab a shot i had the same thought when i saw them too, "ooh one for mick"

When my dad had his dinorwic quarry hunslet 'alice' someone gave him the original nameplate from it from which he had a pair of new ones cast to fit to the loco the original is safely on display in his house In a similar vain to nameplates, i was looking at a scrap 08 in bescot the other day and thinking about flamecut numbers, with the amount of repaints and liveries these days would privitisation era 'flamecuts' be as collectable now as they are for locos scrapped in the 80s, i mean the ews livery 08 had its current number on the fuel tank side whereas originally it would have been on the cabside, locos scrapped back in BR blue days at the likes of gic berry tended to have numbers in the same place most of of their BR blue lives which to me makes them more 'authentic' as it were, ive certainly seen flamecuts with previous numbers still visible below the last one

the night shots are in manual mode mainly

some from last night, caersws this time sutton bridge 175 passing by newtown llanidloes road crossing over to caersws level crossing after the ballast drop it was a change end and back towards shrewsbury, 66078 on the rear tonight and back to shrewsbury in daylight protection lifted and the other driver took it away to bescot looking down towards hereford, DB 66 in the loop and that was that!

Night shift last night down the cambrian with an ews 66, finished that at 08:00 in shrewsbury and straight over to stafford for the model show, just sat in the van waiting for the doors to open Hoping to have a few hours here then home to bed

Very nice, you must be on too much money! Think of all the Hornby biomass wagons yiu could have bought for the cost of that

this minion looks tyred