big jim

Its not often i get a bit of time to get pics but the derby job has a bit of sitting round while they unload the tanks

sinfin tanks today, lots to see, glad i took my camera first up at 05:30 the caledonian sleeper with 87002 up front into derby, DCR 31 in the station yard as i was showing a driver round etches park we walked the possible moves, so i took my camera to grab a few pics of stuff on the RTC 37670 CIF 37 37424 and 37407, i believe there to be resurected for DRS at the expense of 37688 and 37682 73952 class 45 one for mick EMT hst meridian waiting to get into the station 156 back to the loco where we headed off etches and into the station yard for a short while the reason being i knew this was coming and i wanted a couple of pics! the new London Rd bridge with 66618 on a coal service 66618 later in the afternoon we sat waiting to run round, captured a 153 heading to crewe and 70001 and off to crewe where we had to wait for my relieving driver to come in from carlisle with 60002 and that was that, day off tomorrow!

A central trains 158 heads towards llwyngwril on the cambrian back in 2007ish

only a couple from today, water eaton again, this time with a pair of 70s which once the train on the left cleared out of the way i worked to hinksey where i detached the lead loco onto the rear of another train and continued on to bescot with the single loco and 10 ballasters crack of dawn pic in the current dead end line with the new platform buildings on the right and shunted over ready to depart sinfin tanks tomorrow

couple from last night

nice! hopefully i may be doing static training on it on saturday (if i dont get taken off it for something else!)

No but you get a 70 instead tonight

Not my pic but 60002 is heading the logs to hellifield today then heading back l/e to carlisle, makes 66849 look a right mess (on that side!)

cheeky sod! You wont be in my way tonight, only got an oxford north jn to hinksey job, 5 hours van driving for a 15 min turn!

Get it right, a sickeningly fantastic rate!!

i've driven 66731 'interhub' too but it was in barbie livery and un-named at the time, driven most of the GBRf ones up to 66737

Sure is, dont think it will be on the logs on monday but MAY venture out on it tuesday Im gutted as my job wednesday means i cant do the course!

back to it again todaydecided to sort out the bridge as i wasnt happy with it first up removed the peco girders and added stone walls instead while i was in the model shop earlier buying an extra metcalfe retaining wall kit and brick paper i spotted this bridge girder kit which i thought i give a go instead of the peco sides you basically build the individual panels so you can make a structure to the size you need you get the top and bottom beams in the kit but i decided to use some plastistrip angle for the bottom and the supplied parts for the top fills the space perfectly next up i fitted a column on the opposite side of the high level bridge then glued a couple of offcuts together covered the other side in brickpaper and fitted it under the bridge then a couple of columns on the other side i really didnt think i'd have the room to fit proper recessed walls on this side, i was going to use brickpaper but i managed to get a couple to fit with no messing i did have to adapt the other ones though and on the other side, when i eventually dot he scenics on the main bit i'll extend the 'stone' into the tunnel mouth its certainly tight with my longest wagons, in real life you wouldnt want to be stood there when a train passed, must invest in a load of limited clearance signs!! but the almost finished product looks a lot better than i thought it would! going back to the other side again, i added a piece to the bottom of the column so it 'beds' into the riverbank made a similar underbridge for the other side, i'll be refilling the hole in the foam when i begin the scenics made up the 2nd bridge girder and loosly fitted it up, you can also see a couple of doors on the bridge side that will be an 'authorised walking route' when i detail up, paint them as steel doors that was it, so i though but when i ran the log train round the wagons caught the outer wall as they left the removable section so i ended up moving that away from the track, i have had to add an extra column to the other edge but i'm glad i did as it looks a lot neater and will make the transition between the removable section and fixed layout a bit easier to disguise/model just need to cover the hole over with card or plasticard, once its all ballasted up it wont be noticable at all and most importantly the panel is still removable, i will have to be carefula about the card fading in the sunlight though, both when in storage on the door or in situ on the layout next up i recon i'll have a go at fitting the point motors in the yard as i've had my scenery fix this week and fancy going back to something 'technical', not sure when i'll get in the next though as the kids are back from hols today

thats an interesting read, i like the list of open crossings and the number of incidents, frightening really! 93 incidents at bucknell, thats the crossing with the famous cctv of the old boy in the reliant robin being side swiped by a 150 then getting out and checking his engine in fact a lot of the high incident ones on the western are on the heart of wales line

that was just the standard wash, i certainly wasnt going to wax it afterwards, although it did smell like it had a pine air freshener but that may have been the 800 tons of logs behind it!! a few more pics from yesterday pendolino heading for london passing a northbound 'yawning' pendolino drs 37 with a pair of mk2s, one drs livery, the other in scotrail colours my train arriving i normally follow the loco hauled arriva and class 175 chester service but last night the stock was about 25 late and the chester cancelled so the signaller let me go first, so flat open to chester on greens, its normally box to box, got into chester where the signaller held me in the centre road and low and behold the loco hauled came in behind me and left in front of me to saltney jn and that was that other than washing one side of the loco as you can see above

Had 20 mins while they were unloading the train at chirk so managed to clean one side of it with a yard brush and 'fireman sam' type hydrant hose, that was great fun!! It wouldnt reach round the other side so thats still filthy, i wonder if the driver on it monday will do it for me (the loco changes direction with every trip!) Yeah, good to speak to you earlier, i may make sawyer models a regular stop if im running early, nice shop and very competitive prices

Yes the 'green side' is my original soldering from a few years back with the wrong flux but ive changed to silver solder now and its much better and cleaner

seeing the finished product up here i'm looking and thinking something doesn't look right, i may actually shorten the steel sides of the bridge so they only extend over the 'water' and extend the brick walls 'over land'

Done a bit more While im rest day.... Yesterday i fitted some PCB board to the edges of the removable secion and join, i then soldered the track to it but it just didnt work so i ripped up the track (again) and replaced it (again!) I was planning to glue the track down with epoxy resin and split it with a dremel, however while looking for the tub of glue i found a length of brass box section i must have bought when i was doing some work on my old warmington layout! the box section is sleeper height so it was just a case of bonding it to the baseboard and soldering the track to it, i used evostik epoxy Once bonded i soldered the track to it And importantly split it down the centre Had a good running session with one of my Bachmann 66s and log wagons and Heljan 47 with TTA wagons to prove the track was ok, had to do a bit of adjusting in places (not on the new bit though) As the trains were running round i started to think about the scenery on the removable section, i dug out some bridge sides and loosly stuck them to the sides of the bridges I had a metcalf retaining wall kit in stock so i decided to have a play about with it, first up i made a wall on the station side Got to add a wall below the bridge and around the opposite side, going to do that with metcalfe brick sheets as i don't have the room against the low level track side Looking quite good in my opinion, i'm going to do the scenery on the removable section first before i carry on with the rest of the layout, going to add cable ducting, dummy point motors etc to the track area and a riverbank etc to the scenic side

whatever it is i hope the one in the foreground doesnt have a soundchip!!

just 3 from last night, had to assess someone so met up with him on the immingham to preston tanks a long night, the road trip to immingham took me the best part of 3 1/2 hours, even at 21:00, road to the A500 shut, A50 shut, M1 2 long traffic jams, then the sat nav sent me to the wrong gate, got there in time though!! 60021 in immingham and on arrival in wakefield where we got relief, and then had to drive back to barnetby for my van! now i'm off to bed!

did a bit in the shed earlier, started by removing the damaged track from the joint between the main board and removable section as well as the track i removed the pcb board from both the sections i then wired up the new point on the removable section before fitting it up hopefully removing the various bits of filler track i'd used on the removable section after fitting the points and replacing it with continious lengths will make running smoother unfortunatly thats as far as i got today as i needed to go to maplin for a new length of pcb board but i'll carry on tomorrow as i have a day off work im going to use epoxy resin type glue to fix the pcb length to the baseboard edge, solder the track to it again then possibly epoxy the track to the pcb as well for added strength/durability

just a few pics from the last few days, not really been in a position to get pics! sunday i travelled from wigton back south 156 entering the station voyager in carlisle then this snuck in behind a pendolino as i waited for my train, if i knew it was coming i'd have gone to the platform end for a few more pics! and one from today, in canton for my rules 60076 tomorrow night is assessing a driver over the eastern side of the country which i'm looking forward to, a nice ride on a 60 between immingham and preston

time has not been your friend!!

is that you in the loco cab in the background picture? it certainly looks like you, but not the 'you' i know, he looks a thinner, younger, fresher faced, more head of hair version of you!!