big jim

ah yes, a blue fold up bike

Yep, phoning round to sort the headlight!! (And i was in a position of safety btw!!) I presume that was you stood on sinfin central platform waiting (hoping) for us to head up towards you?

Sinfin today, didnt bother with the proper camera but got a couple on the phone Sad to see just a single loco sat in derby station yard when you think how busy it used to be! Still at least it was a 56, the colour really suits it After getting fuel we then returned to sinfin only to discover the headlight had failed on the loco, a bit of phoning round found us one from east midlands trains which we picked up while we did the run round Despite appearing dimmer than the LED markers it gave out a surprising amount of light when we passed through meir tunnel on the way back Into crewe and job done

Typical i was in etches park today getting fuel and i took some iphone pics of the blue coaches for you but never thought to get a pic of that yellow well wagon that was parked next them, it had an english electric engine sat on it today! Not the best of pics as i didnt bother with the proper camera today but thay may be of use to you What exactly are they used for and why blue, are they ex railtrack?

some pics from last night, what should have been a straight on the footplate and go job turned into a full blown ballast drop as it wasn't able to be done the previous night due to the ballast being frozen in the wagons we got there and split the train into 2 halves, 10 wagons per portion and we moved them onto the chord ready to drop the ballast as the other driver moved the first half of the train onto the chord myself and the trainee waited for the points to be reset by hand to allow us to enter the line next to him here we are sat under the abomination that is tubbs lane bridge, this lot replaced a foot crossing!! we then drew forward onto the chord and waited for the other train to drop its ballast, you can see how steep it is from this picture, although we didnt struggle up there with 1000 tons behind us! the other train waiting for the groundstaff to fire up the ballaster generators and once activated it began to drop its ballast we then moved to the top of the chord ready to drop our ballast while propelling backwards, much better for pictures last night!! and on the mainline a colas tamper was waiting to tamp the points got the job done and left bicester only 40 late but we had to stand at haddenham again so it was not too much of a problem, i finally arrived back into bescot at 08:00 this morning

The headcode was/is 6C32, i'm on my way back there to collect it as we speak, i was hoping i was a straight get on, brake test and go but it turns out the train never got emptied today as the ballast was frozen so ive got to empty it tonight (assuming its thawed!) instead Not a happy bunny about that as we now need to split it again and go along the chord Geoff, its now booked an hour later off claydon jn in the morning (which i think will cause problems at risborouh personally) so i should imagine it will just go straight through again

proper camera pics arrival into bicester with the first train, 70806 leading and the first train on the new chord, 70806 propelling 10 autohoppers up it then i bought 70805 on the other line chord with 15 autohoppers at the top of the chord with 70805 and after the job 70806 under tubbs lane bridge waiting to set back onto 70805's train to head back to claydon it made its way back to claydon this morning at 01:00 where i picked it back up after bringing another 20 autoballasters in from hinksey last night and headed back to bescot with it, left claydon at 03:00 and got to haddenham and thame parkway only to look at the schedule and see we were booked to sit there for 2 hours waiting for a possession to be lifted, as it happened it got lifted an hour early so i got a run only to be held at hatton til time so finally arriving into bescot at 08:30 this morning got a couple of good shots though!! and that was it for last nights job, heading back there tonight to bring this mornings train off and take it back to bescot again

Good night last night, even made a bit if history! Started in bescot with a fairly substantial train of 25 loaded autoballasters top and tailed by 70s, there was some concern over the weight but as it happened it was lighter than anticipated (just over 2000 ton and 1500 ft long) Off i set for claydon jn but just as i aproached haddenham i got a call from the box to say the job was cancelled and as they were going to be using the bi-directional line between risborough and bicester i would have to continue south until they decided what they wanted to do with me so we headed to high wycombe where we changed ends Nice to see they have tidied up the sign that was discovered under an advertising hoarding a few years back, they have added the words 'formerly' to it so as not to confuse non locals!! By now we discovered that it was mis-communication and the train was in fact running so off we went north and made our way to claydon jn and ultimately bicester On arrival at bicester we were told that we were dropping ballast on the new chord, this is where we made a little bit of history, we were the first train EVER to use the chord! We split the train into 2, one loco propelling 10 ballasters up the bank on the 'up' line and the other pulling 15 up the down line First we used the propelling set dropping top ballast around the freshly laid track then went onto the other set and drove it up the chord from gavray drive, and boy is it a climb, 1 in 33 at one point i believe! All the way to the top where you cant go any futher!! Just beyond the fence is the connection to the chiltern mainline, probably only 30M away, i believe the up side is attached but the points arent commissioned yet King of the hill!! After we did that i set the train back down the chord where i left my relief to piece it back together ready for me to take back to bescot tonight, but not before i bring another 25 auto's in from hinksey first!

touch wood, ive got 20 odd points on the layout and apart from wiring up a couple wrongly prior to fitting they have worked pretty much straight away through the accessory decoders the only big problem i've had was in the yard where i have had to remove the frog polarity wires from the motors as it was shorting the layout, the reason being the yard has a reverse loop module fitted as it exits and enters on opposite lines (ie up and down) and throwing the polarity of a point within the yard confused the module

Yeah, shinohara, im going to have a look at fitting it this week maybe

got a few hours in the shed earlier, carried on with the points first up i removed the metal fishplate and replaced it with an insulated one, after that i cut a hole in the baseboard to fit the peco pl-10 point motor as recommended by mick (newbryford) to save me struggling trying to fit motors from below i mounted the motor direct to the point using the tabs and wired it up prior to fitting into the hole and fitted in place, gave it a test via the accessory decoder and it worked lovely next i moved to the other set of points, these are on an inclined piece of wood but the points need to be level, cut the hole as before and fitted the points in place, a nice tight fit as you can see i will need to pack the track and points and i filled the gap with plain line i'm going to pack it with plywood rather than the poly risers the point motors ive used are peco low power ones (again as recommended by mick) as i hoped to make the 2 sets of points co-acting, anyway i wired them together via the decoder and they both worked in unison without issue which i'm pleased about, wish i'd known about them when i bought seep motors! one other job was to fit a lenz faceplate nearer the front of the shed also found this train-tech bufferstop light that i forgot i'd bought, looks quite good, will be nice when i get some more for the rest of the various sidings next job will be to wire up the track again beyond the points as i've added the insulating fishplates so there is no power to the track on the station side of the layout

here are the uploads from the proper camera first night was the stormy night down the bicester branch as you can see it was somewhat damp! another one of the 66 in hinksey then the next night it was drier, but a lot colder, unfortunatly i forgot my tripod this week so all these pics are taken from on top of walls, spt's, digger wheel arches, anything i could find really! last night was the coal, 70 on it again, had a run straight through to hatton where once the stratford service left he drew me forward into the platform, dont stop here very often so grabbed a pic while i could and on to landor st where i got off and fought my way home via the partially closed M6! back in tomorrow for 3 days of trains to claydon and bicester

just got in from 3 days working away, little un is asleep on my side of the bed so im perched on the edge, cant get him back into his bed as its a cabin bed and i cant lift him up high enough without disturbing him! back in work sunday night next and away for 3 days again, still, i have a job that starts and finishes in crewe at the end of the week so i've only got a mile to travel to work that day

70s are good, nice and powerful, cant beat a good 47 though! no idea about the 86 thats correct, i think they would struggle to get over the 6 miles of missing track between banbury road and the MOD sidings if they tried to go the other way! its starting to look good at the water eaton end now with double track laid from the site of the new station back towards bicester and lots of rails stockpiled ready to be laid, september is the proposed opening date there are quite a few 66s that look or indeed are bent!

yep, couple of his from tonight, 60085 in taunton... i'll upload my pics later today

My stepdad went there once to get the weekly offer only to find they had opened early because of the queue and all of the item had gone, he then had a minor under his breath hissy fit and abandoned his trolley in the shop in disgust...... .....only to then have to sheepishly return for it to get his £1 back

In the restraunt earlier i was settling up the bill and using up some if my meal allowance by buying some soft drinks to take home for the kids, i told the girl behind the counter i'd like half a dozen 'capri suns' She just looked at me puzzled before saying "how many is half a dozen?" ......Things that make you laugh or cry (with despair!)

Couple of teaser from tonight, better pics on my proper camera that i'll upload on saturday 70805 in banbury rd, all nice and clean now the graffiti has been removed And as a slight aside, my shunter tonight, paul, has sent me some pics to post of a little job he and 'my man in the south west' worked the other week to St Ives, a few cracking pics, loving the one looking down onto the station 70803 in the platform at St Ives . Down on the beach Looking down on the station And at night And one final one of his, 60 on the steel at didcot Hope you like em

Ideally you want to lose the blutac blobs from your set up and maybe fashion it into a ring for the speaker to sit in, looking at the pic its probably not helping that one blob of blutac looks to be actually touching the speaker cone which may be preventing it moving fully and muffling the sound Ideally it would be best in an enclosure but space is a premium of course! Edit: pretty much what tesudofan posted while i was typing!

Boy its a rough night, managed a couple of pics on the camera at banbury road but i'll have to upload them when i get home, amazed to see that there is now a staion building at water eaton parkway! Just one from the phone, 66601 in hinksey, you can see how rough it was by the sideways rain!! Note how the loco has new led style lights on it

some from yesterday pass from chirk to hereford, at chirk they have installed a disabled access bridge at the north end, it should be quite good for phots of stuff heading south round the curve once its open a 175 approaches from the south, the tunnel in the background is where the GVR used to pass over to get to the canal wharf, the line to the station ran behind the embankment on the right the station and bridge and the bridge itself, quite a nice one compared to the likes of tubbs lane in bicester the train to shrewsbury where we hasd to change for a train to hereford. 66135 passing through on a steel to shotton and on to hereford to wait for the train to come in to work back to chirk, couple of LM 170s on services to and from birmingham new st, note the temporary bridge in the foreground while the main bridge is rebuilt with lifts to do away with the barrow crossing waiting for a 175 to pass, taken through the windscreen hence the raindrops but its come out quite well and all the way back to where i started but this time under a blanket of snow! backed the train in, fuelled it, shut it down and headed home off to oxford later for a ballast on the bletchley branch, who says there is no variety on todays railway!

kit: hopefully the link will work.... http://goo.gl/maps/PHjvM i'll try and get a pic next time im down there (but its normally dark!)

yep, off this evening, back in tomorrow hereford to chirk may get a few more hours in the shed this week if im lucky, just realised too i've forgotten to cut a hole for the point motor on the new points so i'll lift them and do that if i get the chance

it should be ok, i can cut the edge copings back a bit if needs be, as i say not 100% sure whether to use it yet