big jim

Well i got my train back to the yard early, put to bed, looked at my watch and thought hmmmm, im not far from here and the ETA on the map said 10am, it would be rude not to

Looks positively tropical

3 hours into todays job and already on my 4th loco, orange and yellow, one blue, one green! Back to it in a min after a short break

thats me done for the night, got to be up at 04:45 to be in derby for 6, good thing about that is my job is done for 12pm got a load of stuff to post tomorrow, had a good night on ebay, decided to sell some surplus stock off, first batch gone, some more to list tomorrow although tonight was so good i'm thinking of keeping hold of a few of the items as deep down i dont want to sell them (no sentimental value but nice rakes of wagons) and im feeling i'll regret it if i do get shut

put my big coat on today and now its glorious heading over to derby on the train! wife phoned me last night to say the laguna wouldnt start, been having trouble with the key card and i kind of fixed it yesterday but it gave up the ghost last night, anyway got an espace on the drive that is u/s since she put petrol in it (its a diesel) so i took a chance on taking the card reader out of that and putting it in the laguna, started 1st time which was brilliant, however when i came back to fit the unit properly the car immobiliser wouldnt let me do anything, start button not working but unit was live as radio/depash etc all came to life but anable to lock the doors etc so this morning i went back to it to see if i could fix it before work, took the original laguna starter unit back out of the broken espace and put it back in the laguna and low and behold i managed to lock the doors but still immobilised, so there was life, then i spotted the problem, the plastic housing on the broken starter was missing 2 tiny plastic tabs that when the key is inserted push 2 microswitches down, one to activate the dash and the other to open the start circuit, looked at the espace starter housing and spotted the tabs were still on that one so i swapped the pcb's over, fitted the now complete starter unit to the laguna and low and behold it started good as gold, so basically the old pcb (which is obviously car specific) in the complete housing, that leaves me with a broken one in the laguna, but its probaly going for scrap anyway as we dont use it as a bonus with the complete starter in the laguna i can now lock the drivers door on the button which ive never been able to do with the old starter, it appears that with tabs missing the car will lock but not the drivers door but now it will lock completly, also its not possible to remove the key card with the engine running as i could do with the old starter a happy bunny now, was dreading having to get the car de-immobilised or a new key coded up

Nice morning in crewe but big coat on as they have given rain for the afternoon in the east midlands which is where im heading Hopefully the train will turn up today, cancelled yesterday so had to drive to derby which took me 1 3/4 hours, realtime train is showing the inbound working as being on the way so im in with a fighting chance!

bit of a bump for this.... if anyone is interested the unfinished 172/2 is up on ebay as i've got no interest in finishing it now, just needs the bogies wiring up and a bit of cosmetic fettling

http://www.hows.org.uk/personal/rail/lego.htm

its definatly still there, or was in july anyway!

Another early start, got to be in derby for 09:30 so have to get the 08:00 off crewe, better than having to drive there at that time of day but its such a drag on the train, soooo slow! Got a week learning some new traction, a bit overkill i recon but appaerntly i have to have 10 hours driving on it in that time, i just cant say what it is at the moment! Looking forward to it though

Ron, Touchcab certainly made me keep hold of my lenz system rather changing to say a Z21, with the excahange rate and buying the wireless adapter from germany it cost me less than £100 and i couldnt be happier with it shame it wont be developed futher, lets hope someone can step in and develop a new app to work with the lenz interface (without a computer)

Foggy all the way from crewe right over to the staffordshire moorlands on the way to derby this morning but cleared up by burton Got a bit to do in work but hoping to be done fairly early so i can go and have a look at the mickleover show on the way home

And back to it for a few hours Card a bit futher along the front Glued the road and car park area down Then over to the drive through, herringbone paving around the building itself Placed down with the pavement bases around the edge Then with the paving card added, still need to add the copings to the edge I also paved the pavement between the station and drive through with the herringbone wrap But it just didnt do anything for me visually so i swapped it for traditional paving I also added the pavement to the bridge, again still need to add the edging (and wall copings)

a trip to leicester and nottingham with 37605 leicester and nottingham that is all....

Cold and misty morning when i got up at 06:30 but the sun is burning it away already Off over to derby for class 37 instructing again, hopefully a couple of trips to leicester today with the loco, certainly want to get one in

been instructing on 37s, did a run to barrow hill, had to wait at broadholme loop for one to come off the matlock branch and into barrow hill thats yer lot, too busy instructing for any more pics

not sure how long its on for, been busy elsewhere so not up to speed on whats happening on the logs now

dull day in crewe, no better on the train through stoke either, hopefully derby will be a bit brighter got a day instructing outdoors so i'm hoping the rain holds off or we will be doing a lot of work in the engine room!

Didn't get as much done as i had hoped but still got a bit done anyway Clad the pavement this time i have used herringbone buff paving With the road in place Just need to print off some more tarmac sheets but the ink is running low so i will have to wait And i finally glued the road down on the bridge

its not the class' debut on the carlisle logs but it is the class SOLO debut, we had iirc 70804 earier in the year (or even last year) piloting 66849 as far as hellifield and/or warrington

a quick 1/2 hour earlier, hopefully back in there in a bit first job, carried the card underlay along the front of the station you can see where the road will run along the edge with a car park/turning area alongside, just used some scraps of tarmac here, as i get futher along eith the layout i will be adding a thin strip of wood on the outer edge of the layout but i want to leave it til a later date so i can get in and add lights etc to the station and with the pavement card placed down roughly junction set up, again just using precut bits, i will be printing off the proper junction markings when it comes time to stick it properly that was going to be it but i managed to get another hour in there to sort out a few other bits and bobs first up, got another pack of rolson mats so now i have them covering right up to the doorway. had to adapt the end piece slightly though as i've moved the station entrance i've had to make a new one piece retaining wall added the offcut pieces of stone card to clad the rear of the walls, just need to make some more copings then using a set of cutting compass' i made the pavement base "proper" for the low level entrance just using a scrap again..... .....you can see how the pavement will look really starting to come together now i think i'm going to make some more copings in a minute so i can get them out of the way, if i at least get them fitted on the bridgei get the roadway glued down on there

Not a clue as im not involved but id hazard a guess they will use 60s as the loaded train is fairly weighty compared to say the sinfins

Lets hope! I only recently got touchcab and am very impressed, shame if it were to go as i for one am very inpressed by what you have done

the strip club was shut at that time of day! .................oh you mean nando's (i am in that picture actually, just about to get out of the cab)

you didnt get a pic of me then