big jim

another interesting day yesterday, i'll upload the pictures later when i turn the computer on but heres one i found of me on flickr to wet your appetite https://flic.kr/p/vxBr5T

a view of a dormant hatfield colliery from yesterday evening, (taken from the 2nd mans seat)

Its still used for passenger services on a daily basis but not that much, the first LMs to Birmingham in the morning go from there and im sure there is a north wales bound voyager that uses it too The shelter is where the 'crewe oracle' lives, a spotter who is there day in day out come rain or shine and knows about everything that comes and goes!!

and a quick (somewhat shaky) vid of the WCR train leaving Crewe

its already shut bob, last of the coal came up on tuesday sickening that the reason given by a spokesman being "there is no market for our product" spookily enough i'm working a train to and from hatfield and stainforth tomorrow, not in the colliery but should it be light i'll grab a few pics of what little you can see before it goes, as happened with daw mill, there one day, gone the rest i wish i could say i had many a happy hour sat in the colliery siding there but i'd be lieing if i did, it was a god forsaken hell hole of a place to have to sit for hours waiting to be loaded and an awkward shunt to boot!

a few from today, had a days road learning on the cannock chase line, as well as a look over stoke to norton bridge en route 37601 in crewe (i took this yesterday but its not moved today!) didnt have my camera on until i got to rugeley where i had about 30 mins to spare before my train left to walsall, here it is arriving on the inward service chester bound voyager freightliner 70 london bound voyager crewe bound 350 glasgow bound pendolino garston car train crewe to dirft DRS 57 i then got the train out to walsall where i had 20 mins before getting a train back to rugeley london bound voyager OHLE maintainance train chester bound voyager london bound pendolino from here i was hoping to get a train back to crewe via stone and norton bridge but i was refused entry to the cab by the london midland driver despite having all the relevent up to date passes so i went back on the 170 over to walsall and ultimatley new st and hme that way instead, all was not lost though as i used that to have a look at the new signalling around wolverhampton station so into crewe, by now it was raining heavily! plaque in memory of the train robbery victims on platform 12, i'd forgot it was there got chatting to a WCR driver who was waiting for an ECS service to arrive so i hung around and waited to see what it was, and it was this, 47760 with a rake of pullman coaches off that went and in rolled the 57 i'd seen earlier in the day at rugeley bringing back some wagons from daventry, it ran round then headed back to gresty bridge by now i decided to brave the rain for a walk back to the van, got soaked wet through though and after all that my road learning the rest of the week has had to be cancelled so i can (possibly) work a couple of oil trains via the erewash tomorrow due to the derailmant in lincolnshire, watch this space!! other than the driver being shirty with me i quite enjoyed the day, not too much to the cannock line, lots of up and down speeds for freight but an interesting little line

nope, would have had to split myself in half to do the baglan and carlisle logs!! (still need to get the S+C route on my card anyway)

the baglan logs will still come through willaston but the empty carlisle logs are going via wolverhampton-walsall-rugeley-colwich-stone-stoke-kidsgrove to crewe when they shut stafford and norton bridge for resignalling/realigning etc

I was an hour late through crewe anyway! Early into hereford then regulated for late running ATW services, even picking up 20 mins by not stopping in sutton bridge was wiped out by following the local stopper from salop to crewe then sitting outside the station for 20 mins Couple of pics though, just iphone again Waiting at hereford And during a 'wee break' (and not in the scottish sense!) outside crewe at 21:45 in the last of the evening sunshine Tonight was the first 60 ive had up gresford bank with a loaded train and it certainly is an improvement over a 66, from a standing start at green lane it got to about 55 at the bottom of the bank and by the time it reached the top it was doing about 35, compared to a 66 that is about 5mph better at the bottom and a good 10mph better at the top, the other thing to bear in mind is the baglan logs tonight was about 200 ton heaver than the normal carlisle train so i should imagine that would be better still, hopefully i'll get to compare those soon, the main thing was it was so much quieter than a 66! After a signal check at wrexham i finally got into chirk, the finish of 60002 is superb! I must admit im quite pleased about getting on 60002, i think its because i had a Lima model of it back in the 90s when it was 'capability brown' and its always been a favorite ever since, in fact i only sold the model a few years back! Off to Rugby later for a meeting and im going to get a bit of road learning in on the way down, stoke to norton bridge in preperation for the logs being diverted that way before the end of the year

Thats pretty much what its going to be, when i get round to ballasting i'll make some of those road rail access boards you see round the network, when i get to fine detailing ill put up NR signs such as the 'direction of travel' info board

i'll coming through willaston later, got the logs hereford to chirk

Painted up the fencing earlier and built up the first pack and started building up the columns, very time consuming The main problem i had was after making up about 4 of them i realised i couldn't be bothered but i persevered! Once built up they make I channel Then it was add 2 tiny strips to the rear of the individual panels I made up the individual panels with a single leg and have left them to dry overnight Just to get an idea of how it will look i stuck a few panels into some foam board, i am going to add a strip of it between the backscene and incline to mount the fence and some shrubbery onto I then trimmed the backscene to fit and mounted it to the wall with spray mount glue, had to get it right first time and thankfully i did!! Then yet another change in the corner, this time ive taken the track away and added the displaced portacabins from the depot fuel plant and this years "bus on a bridge" the atlas stobart excavator! So now its going to be a site access!!

I was thinking the same as i dont really want the fire tender but i may just send that back unopened as i do want the unimog when that arrives

Just having a look through my subs copy of august model rail that arrived this morning and i notice gaugemaster are advertising some 'coming soon' fordhampton structures again the old Hornby products such as the 60s house kit but of interest is the 'GM406 locomotive depot' which is the old Hornby HST servicing shed, they were quite highly sought after a few years back via ebay etc, they can be adapted and detailed quite cheaply and simply The rrp is £19.99 which is not too bad compared to some of the prices on ebay for the Hornby example

my excavator arrived this morning, p!$$ poor packaging so the box was damaged, no biggie though as its going to be "played with" anyway quite an impressive thing, have a nice corner of the layout where it can live looking at the paperwork with it it says the next model, the scania low loader it goes on is £9.99 plus £4.99 p+p with 4 free postcards and a trucks and trailers dvd, after that the Doosan Daewoo Earth mover will be the "Normal issue price" of £14.99 plus £3.99 p+p with some free coasters, then you will build up your collection at £14.99 a month (plus £3.99 p+p) not quite sure what to make of the prices, it seems steep for the likes of the airport crash tender but then cheap for the konecranes stacker (normally £20+ for the oxford one) and it will of course be interesting to see what the 66 turns out to be

Also picked this up from c+m models in carlisle on saturday from the 2nd hand shelf I was thinking of replacing my substantial scratch built depot building with it But it looks a bit lost!! So i have tried it at the other end of the shed area, replaced the single fuel road with a double track by adding an extra set of Y points to it Combined with a Bachmann fuelling plant instead of the 2 knightwing examples it looks quite good I also got a 2nd hand Bachmann 'modern wash plant' that im hoping to place in the yard somewhere, there is enough room on the road nearest the platform for that I was thinking of a 'back story' as to why the old (Bachmann) shed and new (scratchbuilt) one would be side by side and i recon it could be that the new shed is sited on the old station carriage sidings which since the introduction of units has been under used so has been redeveloped into a modern servicing facility, think derby etches park with its new meridian shed and the old 'wind tunnel' fuelling plant

The backscene and fencing arrived over the weekend The backscene is very good, good quality thick paper and not glossy, ive just placed it on the wall with blutac in the picture below to get an idea of how it will look, obviously ive got to remove the white border and line it up, the building on the scene will move closer to the wall end once its mounted properly The fencing wasn't what i was expecting, thought it would be thicker however ive not actually made any panels up proper yet, as removed from the card they are very flexible but i recon once the legs and bracing is added to each panel they should be quite sturdy, i thought id see how they look in silver and green, painted in panel of each, silver is enamel and green is woodstain! They recommend acrylic paint which is what i'll use on the finished product but those types of paint were all i had to hand I think the silver will look best against the backscene, the green is just lost against it I recon these fencing panels will be ok for areas of the layout where they are not likely to be knocked, leant on or caught by clothing etc, if im going to put pallasade fencing up in 'high risk' areas then i'll to for etched

Couple from last night, final night of the warrington to carlisle logs Signal check in carlisle And in kingmoor And that was that, bit of variety next week, got the baglan logs one day and 3 days road learning for a diversion thats coming up in august

had a change around in the corner, again from the pile of unused stuff, i've replaced the tunnel mouth with a Hornby bridge instead wasn't sure if it would work but i recon once the back scene is in place and the bridge hole is "pallasaded" up and undergrowth added behind it will look quite good had a bit of a running session too, Heljan 47 with the hachette rake (complete with squeaky bachamnn brake end) inwas going to repair a bit of track on the edge of the removable section but i got frustrated with it so gave up and ran a train to soothe me, either that or something was going to get thrown!)

Carlisle this morning, couple of spotters watch a 37 head into the sidings Out of interest what was the part of the building to the right that sticks out used for in the past?

Damp day in carlisle earlier, heading south now on a pendolino, 9th time in as many days, same job again tonight but at the end of it tomorrow im going to the caravan which thankfully is only 20 mins from kingmoor Racing south to get home so i can get the eldest to his induction day at his new high school, a hig day for him, hes very nervous as can be expected!

i have ordered a couple of packs of these from a company called "scale model scenery" hopefully they will arrive this week, anyone had any experience of this company before? https://www.scalemodelscenery.co.uk/shop/laser-cut-2m-palisade-security-fencing-gates-oo4mm176/ i think finished in green they should look the part, ideally i;d have liked to have gone for etched fencing but these are a lot cheaper as i need a fair bit also thought i'd give this backscene a try as its exactly what i'm after, a little bit of industry and a lot of countryside https://www.scalemodelscenery.co.uk/shop/modern-countryside-landscape-backscene-oo4mm176/

a few from last night, proper camera pics 90 on the beds and in comes my train signal check at preston into carlisle and run round tornado 60019 and back to the station changed trains at warrington same again tonight

Nice morning in carlisle, overcast but dry, just on a pendolino heading home pulling into penrith Took the proper camera with me last night so got some nice pics of tornado in kingmoor, ill post them in my thread later on when i upload them

done a bit more trunking on the other line, again going to handy as a ballast shoulder as im running low on the platform edge i'm going to wall mount the cable run along the retaining wall, going to use some plastic strip for it, a lot cheaper than buying more platform edge, obviously i'll paint it up prior to fitting but this is what i'm thinking, (blue tac'd on at the mo) also added a bit more wall between the lines and added the copings in the disused line corner i've had a bit of a move round, i'm a long way off getting any scenics in but i thought i'd see how it looked with some trees in place! i got a gaugemaster scenic kit when i subscribed to model rail which had a load of trees in so i've placed them on the embankment, as i mentioned i was going to extend the embankment back towards the retaining wall but i think i'm going to leave it as it is as a "cut back" embankment, with the trees in place its also not as noticable that the embankment top is somewhat lower than the bridge parapet you may notice that i've moved the signal box across to the other side of the line, i've also moved the bridge hole to the left slightly and bought it forward by 'embedding' it into the spaceboard, there is also a Hornby lineside cabinet added once i do the scenics i'll position the trees properly and add some more but as i say its a long way off in my head i can see the blank area between the tree embankment and retaining wall will have a countryside type backscene with some 'shrubbery' disguising the join behind a nice run of pallisade fencing