big jim

I downloaded sketchup 8 and had a play, really confused me so just gave up, i left the computer on and by the time i came back to it half hour later my 10 year old had made a 3D empire state building complete with an interior!! Told him it was for grown ups and not to be so smart!!

a few from today, did a Sinfin this morning, crewe to derby, not a lot about but had a wander round etches park while the loco was being fuelled running round the train on the way into sinfin 66008 in the station carriage sidings 156 heading in from crewe 08899 in midland maroon livery 37670 on RVEL DRS 37 just for mick 57605 then this came on to the wheel lathe as well as my 56 these 2 were there too 56103 and 56303 EMT meridian couple of deltics (as you do!), they were booked along the goods but the signaller ran them through 1 so i missed out on a good picture ready to depart etches park and after running round in St Andrews loop starting to get dark and a bit misty, XC voyager passes by thats it for me this week, back in on monday, another sinfin next week then back up to claydon Jn

one of the many things that impressed me about banbury? the inflatable sofa, genius!

yeah i noticed the new link road the other week while we were looking at a caravan in morecambe, it should bring a lot of relief to the road through lancaster (the old trackbed one) when it opens, causing chaos at the white lund end at the moment though!

warrington-chirk-warrington

a few from this week bescot shed aylesbury north loop, RHTT passing by bicester gavray drive sat under the A41 bridge behind bicester village Colas take over aylesbury, 2 tampers to the left princes risborough after changing ends back to the logs tomorrow for a couple of days

i wonder if they will do a 2nd set with just a pair of SKs at some point?

It is indeed very impressive having seen it in the flesh, so very nearly tempted earlier but managed to resist The detail on the interior "test panel" is something else

They were 70806/70809, i picked them up last night and took them back to bescot

3 weeks ago it was still operational

Just one iphone pic from last night, the remains of bescot shed!! Will be home tomorrow so can post a few pics from my the last couple of days going up to claydon, not taken many as its so dark up there

both! i bought the red one from them in august and they said they had no more white ones left and i really want one.... off to look on the website or give the shop a call later edit: nothing showing on the website, will call the shop later

cracking set of shots there spent ages looking through them, a few familiar faces, then i stumbled across one of brad pitt that must have got mixed up with the batch!! http://railpicturelibrary.zenfolio.com/p565588551/h6698e6e3#h49bd04f0 (first time i've seen that pic, seems like a lifetime ago!!)

i picked up a maroon one from the crewe show today from footplate models, they have one left at the time of writing

I believe they painted them like that during the war to disguise the works from ariel assualts I'll get some pics tomorrow if i get a chance on my way into town to the model show

37259 is a personal fave as its the first one i drove with drs 37510 is a fave too, here i am driving it near whitchurch en route to oxley back in 2007 http://www.railpictures.net/viewphoto.php?id=193789&nseq=3

56078.....still going strong with colas

got a couple of the peco low current point motors today that im going to have a go at fitting to the points at the other end of the station this week, if they work then i'll add them to the bridge points too

similarly on the up, a nice fast lead in at banbury jn would be appreciated and an increased line speed on the goods as far as banbury north jn from what i can gather the existing goods line behind the station will become a passenger line with a new platform, the goods will move across to what is now the yard from the plans it looks like the cattle road is the new depot access line and the mileage sidings have dissapeared too i hope that in the resignalling they make all the platforms bi-directional as, as it stands now on the up there is no flexibility (or indeed set up) to allow passenger trains to pass in the event of a failure or late running etc, in fact only the bay platforms in banbury are permissive and that is for ecs moves due to the set up, you can't enter an occupied through platform as there are no calling on signals and you can only (officially) uncouple in the platform with permission from the signaller, or once split you have to let him know, it does happen as i used to bring 2 units in from london at night that need to be split for separate services in the morning it will be a shame to see the boxes go but if it improves the flexibility and service round banbury then needs must

had a play with the sony lens camera tonight in the shed making some videos, its very good for getting some unusual angles of the layout but its not very good in low light conditions colas class 70 doing the honors again, i must get round to adding the decals to the other side! i need to diffuse the green lights on the points display too, still a bit too bright i'll give it a go tomorrow in the day if i get a chance with a different loco too next layout task is the 2 sets of points at the other end of the station

fitted the points to the bridge this evening, not secured yet but it all works! i'm going to have a look at the point motor situation tomorrow before i think about securing the points while i was doing that i let dominic have a play with my other new toy, a 2nd hand Dapol track cleaner, only did the hoovering but it certainly does the trick hopefully i can get the other pair of points done later in the week

cheers everyone, its nothing major but need to be off for a couple of weeks

Ive got a separate maplin AC supply to the accessory decoders so i may give it a try, i did have a go at it on the co-acting points in the hidden section but for whatever reason the points didnt throw properly, the supply is a fair way from the decoder though but i am using mains spec 2 core cable so i wouldnt think there is too much of a voltage drop to cause problems

warmington had a pair if co-acting point motors that worked fine, those were seep running through ztc accessory decoders with minimal wire these would be peco running off a Bachmann decoder, it does say you can set the switch for peco motors to give it a stronger 'kick' but i doubt it would manage 2

And always remember to check the points are set under your train before you move off!! Couple of pics from a few years back in derby after a loco moved off and one bogie went one way and the other went the other way after someone stabled a loco foul of the points and the driver next day never checked them before he moved off (someone had come in the yard and changed them during the night)