big jim

Not this week, early friday on the logs ive got a feeling i may well get a bescot to longport class 66 move on thursday

3 different colas 60s in 5 days through uttoxeter for you!

Nice little job today, crewe to toton with 60087 Started off in gresty bridge, one final pic of the box before it goes very soon The loco was in the western sidings And after a shunt, into crewe station And over to toton via uttoxeter And back to crewe, walking back to the van i saw this pair going onto the old diesel depot

Another early one, dropping the eldest at the bus stop then over to gresty lane to take a class 60 over to toton for maintainance, then back in time for parents evening at the high school Got a new car last night to replace the espace that my wife put petrol in 6 weeks ago, its been sat on the drive since then while i decided what to do with it, anyway the bloke i bought my last car off has given me £200 for it against a megane scenic so ive only had to pay £400 out of my pocket which is pretty good for an 05 plate car, just needs a window regulator fitting (common problem), filled it with didsel last night and it says 750 miles til empty, 55mpg average mpg which is brilliant, another bonus is it has a manual parking brake as the electronic ones can play up (as our last one did) The house looks like a mid noughties renault dealership at the mo as there are 05 plate laguna, megane and scenic parked outside!!

You have been studying this diagram again haven't you?

One from derby, 37421 on etches park for some reason

i did think about it but having had a test item up there for 2 months with no interest i thought ebay would be the better opinion, as you say without stirring things up, had the old classifieds been running id have put them up there, although id have undersold myself on a lot of items as a few went through the roof compared to what id have priced them up at on classifieds

Lovely morning in crewe, got a few thing to post this morning then over to derby to be passed out on some new traction Sold a load of model railway stuff on ebay over the last week, items that i bought but have been in my stock box unused for a number of years, ended up raising £1000+ which is nice, the £100 ebay fees are a bit of a killer though! Next items to finish on there are a complete collection of meerkats from compare the meerkat, some have bids which is nice, gonna use the proceeds towards a 'new' car, i will of course have to insure it, and the circle will restart As for the rest of the week, chirk-hereford for a couple of days then next week learning yet another kind traction (of sorts)

Couple from derby this morning 37667 with a NR test train stabled in the gas tank sidings And 47580 and 47802 in the station carriage sidings

some from today, straight over to toton after rest to collect 60047 caught the train from crewe to derby voyager pendolino and voyager desiro 57's voyager and over to toton then it was off to warrington via alrewas, lichfield high level, lichfield low level and stafford where i used the new down goods loop which is the old royal mail platform then i stopped in crewe for 10 mins and onward, ended up going through warringon to wigan springs branch to add the loco to 6J37 as it could be done as a signalled move 319 coming in from liverpool 350/4 speeding past 319 heads back to liverpool finally dropped onto the front of the logs and right away warrington and unusually a 319 in bank quay too and that was that

The 70 is probably coming off in chirk tonight

some from yesterday, sinfin tanks crewe to carlisle, first class 60 on it (ok technically 2nd as 056 bought it south and was swapped with 076 at derby) crewe station voyager heading north 323 and 350 150/2 60076 arriving waiting for the signal signal checked at winsford, 66715 passing by signal checked at wigan for 30 mins, waiting for the logs to come into view only to be bowled by a pendolino! tebay for 1/2 hour, tried for some pics but there is no light what so ever on this side of the loco, the only light being from my torch! and into carlisle where the train sits for 3 hours before heading north and i headed south! next job, over to toton to collect 60047 to take to warrington and add to the log train (the 70 is coming off this weekend)

You should have come over to platform 12 and said hi, she was a beast up shap, only 350 ton so from a standing start at tebay i was up to 60 at scout green and shutting off well before the summit!

my justification is a bay platform was removed but the canopy was been retained for the remaining platform, the area then became a drop off area

one of the reasons is to stop 'screen burn' i remember the signaller at gresty lane telling me that they had their monitors for willaston crossing (cctv) replaced with 2nd hand equipment, only for it to show clear as day the outline of the previous crossing which had the monitors on all the time i think they stay on for a short while, gresty did while i was in there and certainly derby box can see spondon for a time after the barriers are dropped as i had a signal put back on me after someone smashed through the barriers as i aproached at 75mph and the signaller saw it happen after the protecting signal was pulled off by him so he put it back to danger certainly a heart in your mouth moment to pass a red at 75mph and see the barriers all over the track in front of you, luckily i stopped before the crossing

message from bryan (howes sounds) In response to those who are asking about Howes Sounds, fear not, still going strong, in fact I am just finalizing the 05 decoder which will probably be listed on their website next week.. Bryan

One from derby 08417 and 08899, not many places left where you can see 2 different companies 08s working at the same time

picked up some 2nd hand Hornby station canopies last week after being inspired by the article in model rail about how to improve them. i was hoping to fit them over the tracks but they dont quite fit, the legs were too close to the platform edges, so i moved them over the road and bay platform instead which i think looks, gives me a covered drop off area, i will look out for another canopy to make it longer just placed on the layout loosley for now i think once i fit them properly and detail them up it will look pretty good

here is the stacker

i told my stepdad he had made a mistake going into cardiff to get a train to pontyprydd to collect a van he'd bought the other week as he'd travelled from shrewsbury and passed through pontyprydd and new inn station so wasn't far from there at that point, it was only 2 days later while road learning the route i realised its actually pontyPOOL and new inn!

yes, in a yard its headlight off you cannot have marker and tail lights on at the same time at the same end on a 70 as its the same lighting unit, just different rows of leds illuminated at any one time

no problem, the headlight doesnt go off when stationary though (like a class 60) , i just switch it off at night so it doesnt glare in the pictures

next one arrived today, the konecranes stacker, no free gift this time round (thought there should have been a folder for the certificates) pics to follow tomorrow but its pretty much the same as the oxford diecast model more worryingly was the fact the courier (yodel) just opened our front door without knocking and put the parcel in the hallway, i was on the phone to my wife at the time and she thought i was having a laugh with her when she heard the door as she thought i was pretending to be in the van on the handsfree but really outside the house, she was a bit shocked and surprised to say the least when she realised it wasn't me

http://quirker.co.uk/story/video-kestrel-gets-up-close-and-personal-with-webcam-mounted-on-beach-in-dawlish-devon sorry if its been mentioned already

first update in a while, been mad busy but with stuff i cant put on here, anyway back to the core work last night a ballast drop between small heath and stourbridge jn, 10 auto hoppers dropping stone as and where required in the length of the 14 mile worksite first stop moor st, makes a change from stopping there with a 168 then snow hill and finally after we finished into stourbridge jn set back into the loop run round sat there for 2 hours then headed back to bescot the 70 was awesome up old hill bank, 60 at the bottom, slowed for the 40 through old hill then opened it back up once on the 60 again and had to shut off power while climbing the bank through rowley regis, an absolute beast of an engine up there with just 600 ton behind me, again somewhat quicker than a 67 and stock or 168!