big jim

This badly worded email i get from work earlier made me laugh....... "A few weeks ago you both did an assessment on Warrington drivers can you confirm who to roger." I must add rodger is a man, not an action!!

Joking apart, I'd love to do that!! Even the touring one would be nice, if i ever get out to the states again i'm going to track it down and go and see it, my mum is in florida and my sister in LA so i have 2 bases covered there!

And a video of the sleeper

Kernow are doing the mra's at £89, i think hattons have them too, they have a slight livery fault that ive not spotted but its a fair saving over the normal price, they are good wagons at that price but you may have to do a bit of fiddling to get them to run good There is a thread elsewhere on here showing how to fix the derailing problem with various solutions

Groundhog day!! Same job again and a little bit more variety 150/158 combo in crewe 87002 on the sleeper Then my train came in And onward to carlisle, non stop again but hindered by a freightliner that i followed all the way from winwick jn, he of course got away at some points as he can do 75 but i caught him up as gravity slowed him down on the hills! Tried to get a nice pic of a 66 in kingmoor....... ........But someone had parked this in the way! And that was that, nice to see tornado this morning, apparently it will be there all week until it works a train to glasgow on saturday

basically the coupling bars are less than useless!! anyway, a bit more time earlier, first up was tidying up the outside of the shed by giving it a fresh coat of wood stain, went for green this time! and so to the layout..... finished the coping stones next up i wanted to have a look at the final bit of high retaining wall along the rear of the shed, i wanted to avoid just sticking the brick card to the wall of the shed so decided to push it out a bit with a piece of wood do give me a bit of relief nice simple job, piece of wood screwed to the wall and levelled up roughly level with the Hornby bridge parapets then starting at the tall end worked my way back with the brick card added some copings and job practically done ive only gone about 1/2 way along the rear wall, to where the track levels out before dropping again to give the impression that "once upon a time" at the end of the retaining wall and there used to be a junction (curving into the shed wall as it were) that ran up and over the disused bridge portal i'm putting in the corner i'm going to make the very edge of the old embankment out of spaceboard when i carry on with the scenics that way (it will only be about 1cm wide) which i will get to join up with the bit in the corner, part of which i've also started on this evening, again i've moved the bridge hole away from the wall to give a bit of relief, i can come too far out as the disused signal box will not fit if i do so!

Groundhog day!! Same job again, some interesting stuff at crewe prior to departure last night though Just iphone pics again this week Desiro in crewe This rolled into platform 6 from the north, it runs as a route/traction retainer, 57308 and 390157, it comes in from liverpool, the thunderbird comes off, the pendo goes to longsight and the 57 heads off to preston Panorama shot Then these pulled in 20305 and 20309 Another panorama And off they went, followed by the 57 in the opposite direction Then my train came in.... And onward to carlisle, pretty much running to time today so daylight(ish) shots at 04:45 Waiting to run round Car train came in while we were running round And safely parked up ready for the return trip later And off to the station, dalston tanks on the return trip And that was that, should be home in 1/2 hour (just left wbq on a voyager) then same iob tonight

Here we go again, sitting on crewe station waiting for 60087 with the logs, day 1 of 5

joking apart im not quite sure what he's looking for, there's nothing to check there on a class 70!

Not ebay but picked these up from a charity shop earlier If anyone is interested in them i'm going to try and put them up for sale individually on the buy/sell site later

little un (5yr old) has just brought me my fathers day breakfast in, he made it "all by myself" its called 'cheshire cheese skyscrapers with flora foundations on a bed of cold pasatta'

a bit more time in the shed this evening, a bit more scenics done i picked a load of peco platform edges when modelzone had their closing down sale a few years back, i think i paid about £1 a pack, used what i needed to make the platforms but had loads left and didn't know what to do with them.........until this evening fresh out of the pack, this is the 'stone/brick' sided type with no uprights cut the top off snapped the platform top mounting lugs off exept for 3 and pinned it down alongside the track to make a run of 'cable troughing' and continued down the embankment added a couple of AWS cabinets on a plinth part way down, the junction and short piece to the plinth are wills 'cable troughing' parts, as you can see the peco bits ive used are exactly the same size then continued all the way down the embankment into the tunnel mouth, its tacked and glued to fix it in place so is solid, it will act as a nice ballast shoulder/retainer when i get round to doing that next up i added some narrow columns to the rear of the wall where the brick card joins are and added coping stones and that was that for the evening apart from sorting the handrail on my colas 56 and finishing the buffers on the inspection saloon

Famous last words, "no variety"!! Caught these 2 at crewe when i got back this morning

not much variety this week though!

Groundhog day!! Good run at it last night, 3 hours again but running earlier than the night before The 66 had tuned back into a 60 this morning And all run round ready for monday morning

Terrible news roundhouse, thoughts are with you Damp one this morning in carlisle, didnt manage to get the 1st train home so grabbing a coffee in maccy d's before i walk up to the station for the 07:03 direct to crewe May try and get in the shed later if i can to carry on with a bit more scenery etc but ill be sleeping most of the day probably

Here i go again, crewe to carlisle with the logs Got a few shunts to do in the morning so may not get the first train home but hopefully home by 9am

so anyway, here is the fencing im going to use on the high part of the main line while picking up my colas 56 from the model shop earlier i bought some bits to build the road access bridge first up i made a frame from 'RSJ' and box section plastistruct then made a central support column from tube and larger box section next up i added a plasticard roadway and intermediate columns between which peco girders will fit added the last bit of road and with all bar one girder in place (coz i cant find it!) just enough room underneath for the trains to pass under i think its looking quite good!

You cant fool me, thats the trafford centre!!

Lovely run on the pendolino back down the lune gorge this morning!

Groundhog day..... Left crewe at 00:46 and arrived into kingmoor at 03:46 so 3 hours on the nail, a non stop run last night, its 145 miles so averaged 48mph which for a 60 mph train with shap en route is pretty good!! Kingmoor The resident 60 had morphed into a freightliner 66 this morning And off i went to get my taxi to the station The sleeper was leaving as i got there and the DRS top and tail 37 for the cumbrian coast had departed a couple of minutes before that

Damp morning in carlisle, had a bit of drizzle en route this morning between shap and penrith but other than that nothing so the rain must have been heading south Waiting for the 05:45 back to crewe (with a change in warrington) should be back in bed for 08:30

Back to it again, had a very good sleep today so feel a lot more refrwshed than i did last night! Dentist tomorrow for a check up then off to trident trains to collect my non sound Hornby colas 56

You are goverened by hidden rules, basics are 12 hours between shifts, no more than a 12 hour shift, 5 1/2 hours maximum driving before a break etc Its not a bad shift this one, on at 01:00 and off at 08:00, the actual driving is only from 01:30 to 04:30, the haddest bit is trying to stay awake on the train home so i dont end up in london!

Groundhog day! Crewe Kingmoor, different siding for a bit of variety! Run round ready to set back Dalston tanks runs into the yard And off to the station, the sleeper was on time so missed seeing that this morning but the dalston tanks that had run round in kingmoor earlier in the morning headed through Heading home now for a sleep then guess what, same job tonight!