big jim

Some from this morning Shrewsbury again 158 heads off towards south wales, a former chiltern collegue at the controls Ecs voyager arriving into the bay platform And into hereford where im waiting to get a train home

Thanks, there is one in this months rail express as well (under an alias)

couple from the proper camera, nowt spectacular, just 60087 in Carlisle baglan logs tomorrow morning as far as hereford then a couple of days off and the tanks doncaster to nottingham one day and doncaster to leicester the next, also late next week maiden voyage over the chase line from walsall to rugeley and onward through stoke to crewe

mikes pretty much got it spot on, the main thing is people know what your up to, there is an 'urban legend' story you get told when you are doing your training about someone who did a fiddle only for there to be an incident, the police turned up at the house to inform the wife her husband had been killed/in hospital/injured, whatever, only for him to walk through the door hours later somewhat worse for wear from an afternoons drinking! although the main thing nowdays is ensuring you dont cause delays to anything which is why it was handy that the train that normally follows me was cancelled so we had a bit of breathing space at the change over point, had he been running i would have been held to time at preston for him to pass as booked and still done the sawp as planned but without him on the scene we managed to do it earlier, but i still didnt arrive into crewe until booked time though due to how busy the station is at 06:00 with trains arriving and departing as well as coming off the depot

anyone want to buy a new class 66 i wonder how many miles its done now?

Just a couple from this morning for the wagon fans Worked the logs North from crewe last night and thanks to a very helpful signaller at preston, early running trains and a lull in the paths i managed to do a footplate swap with the driver of the sinfin tanks in carnforth, meaning i worked them back south to crewe and he carried on to carlisle with the logs saving us both 2 1/2 hours on our day travelling back home on the passenger service! 56302 departs for derby And a look at the new wagons on the service Ive got a couple of pics on the proper camera that i'll upload later when i get back up

Im easily pleased!

That cab view is one ive seen many a time from 67018!

One from this evening, just heading south to work the logs back to carlisle, dunno what his is doing sat in the centre road of the station

Just one from this morning in kingmoor, especially for newbryford, a different class 60 for you later

Southbound isn't a problem but going north you have to cross over to platform 3 (stratford platform) before the station and back out again after it

The point delivery train is the one that carries fully assembled points at an angle on special wagons It runs as a X classifiaction (yesterdays was 6x39) as its an exceptional load due to the clearances, i cant run through platform 2 at hatton for example

some from today, nice little job, banbury to bescot with a class 70 on the point delivery train banbury 68009 172s heading for stratford my train with 70809 up front and into bescot and all parked up super shunter 60044 and one of our 60s on another point delivery train and thats yer lot, back to the logs tomorrow for the rest of the week

Lousy day along the marches this morning, rain all the way from chirk to hereford Couple of shots from shrewsbury while i waited the road (for 20 mins) Lots of different types of signals! And hereford London midland 150 on one of the 2 daily turns to and from hereford to keep crews traction knowledge up And im now heading back from hereford and home to bed!

If its anything like 37670 had in ews days its to allow it to fit through a certain tunnel on the harrogate line

the new order for the sinfin's, 56078 in carlisle with the new wagons, just as i prepare to turn my rake of Bachmann green BP TEAs into the A1 fuel tanks too!

The new logo is called 'oscar' its slowly being rolled out onto locos, tampers etc Heads up for the sinfins today if your about today bob it has 'new' wagons on it, 7 x TFAs (and one old green TEA) Just bought it down from carlisle to crewe, couple of pics to follow when i get home In the meantime, a pic from tuesday night from a workmate Must get round to weathering these 2 locos!

Yeah i nearly got blocked in crewe ETD for 2 hours in my van while they off loaded a class 92 from one of those trailers! Luckily the driver stopped while he was reversing into position just to let me pass or id have been stuck

the raised bit will probably end up as a street scene, high level entrance the the station etc, not decided yet

home for a few hours so spent the time in the shed first job was to remove the cork i'd laid for the original set up through the station, then i drilled the extra point motor holes i needed and secured them in place, then secured the front part of the layout with some new legs (still got a few more to add) and finally secured what track i could basically the track on the left hand side board is pretty much in place where there is existing cork underlay and all other track is in its final place but ready to be lifted to lay the cork the bay is long enough for 8 wagons and a loco to set back into the oil sidings, you may notice i've moved the industrial unit from the shed area and placed it in front of the bay, at the end of what will become a car park, that frees up a bit more space in the depot and fills a nice bit of the front board, i will probably turn it into a network rail p-way depot as i say moving that makes a bit more room in the depot, i could place my diesel tanks there maybe? looking from above the tracks in the station i think it should look quite good once i start the scenics. i picked up a red star parcels building from c+m models last week which i'm going to use as the office for the oil terminal however i've got the idea of making it look like it should be where it located by when i do the scenics putting an old barrow type crossing alongside the building going towards to a now removed ramp, as if brutes used to be pulled from there to the platforms in red star days looking at the shed i did as pete harvey mentioned and removed the frosted glazing, not sure about it yet but it certainly makes the shed airier, the only problem is i'll now have to detail it inside thats as much as i can do until i get some cork underlay then i'll crack on with it, more importantly i need to do some serious house keeping in the shed as its a disgrace, i can sneak the dyson out there while my wife is away though!!

managed to get mine off its stand with the end of a pair of scissors and the trailer does indeed extend interestingly enough, underneath the tractor unit... with the trailer extended it fits a carriage/unit nicely, adding rails would make it look spot on managed to snap an exhaust top off but i can glue it back on no problem, the only thing i cant do is remove the tractor unit from the trailer really pleased with it now i know it extends

a few from today, done a few jobs over the last week but not bothered with pictures until today, been up at the caravan so started my day in carlisle (luckily) i dropped my van in kingmoor and hitched a ride on the logs to the station and i had planned to get myself some dinner then head down to warrington on the passenger service that overtakes it to take it to chirk and back to warrington a few from carlisle 8 car TPE loco hauled from the coast southbound TPE 37 head back to the coast scotrail 156 heads toward newcastle while a northern 158 does a shunt 66432 and 68004 heading south i caught a pendolino south planning to get off in warrington but got a call from control to say there was a major incident at helsby and the line would be shut so did i know an alternative route to chester? i came up with wigan-chat moss-manchester-stockport-altringham-northwich-chester to avoid a run round OR straight down the WCML to crewe and into basford hall, run round and back crewe to chester, the reason i put thankfully above was i got the call just after preston so i got off the pendo in wigan just in case i did get a route via manchester (which is what i was really hoping for but being as it was the tail end of rush hour i very much doubted i'd get!) had about 30 mins in wigan and my train pulled in, the driver got off for his train to warrington (which was uneffected by the incident) while i pulled onto the goods at springs branch and sat at bamfurlong Jn while a decision was made, in all my years signing the WCML, ive never done that move before eventually got the road from there and was told i would be going to basford hall to run round which was a shame, especially as i'd refreshed manchester last week (see method in my madness!) so off i went south and into basford hall where i ran round and headed back north very surreal colours in this pic! and back on the other end and that was it, arrived into chester over 2 hours late and into chirk almost 3 hours late by the time we got the single line between chester and wrexham, ended up leaving the train there as we couldnt get out on time before a possession and the only alternative route was via cannock which as you know i've learnt and am happy with but am yet to be signed off on so cant drive it! a long but interesting day all told, shame i didnt get to go through manchester though, there is something mildly satisfying about lifting 1300 ton along the viaducts between deansgate and piccadilly

My low loader has arrived, very nice it is too, im hoping that once i get it off the plinth the trailer will extend, if it does then i will add some rails to it and pose it as a loco/carriage delivery truck, i have a handy GBL mallard and duchess doing nothing

And some colour light versions in kingsland rd, bristol apparently

moving the outer bit up certainly makes things easier, i've just put it in position temporarily to get the idea i then went back to the set up i tried last week, just need one more set of points doing that means i can use existing point motors in a few places, in the old yard area ive turned the 3 way point round to give me access to the bay/turnback into the oil termainal the extra space means i can move the whole lot to the right a touch which means i can fit a platform on the back wall as well as the island looking at the other end of the board ive got in idea for the station entrance area, basically i think the foreground should just be a car park, NR office area, oil depot road entrance etc rather than building it up into a street, using a few bits and bobs as a guide this is what ive come up with the box in the corner could be the station entrance, out front a taxi rank, bus stops etc accessed from the bridge i made the other week, again just using some Bachmann low relief offices as a guide i think it should look good above there could be a street area or shopping centre with a high level pedestrian entrance to the station, the retaining wall i have built on the opposite side of the layout could actually continue right round the back wall of the shed and join to this side another view from the end, the area over the tracks can be used to make the platforms look longer than they are even just cobbled together i think it looks quite good i think i'm going to settle on this set up, not much more flexibility than before other than the bay, trains on the 'down' can only use the one platform next to the bay where as 'up' trains can use all 3 platforms because of the crossovers i'd already added previously