big jim

i believe the 56 had a tpws fault and the 66 was sent to preston to assist the southbound train, they stayed together all day until crewe on the northbound train where the 66 came off and the 56 took the train on its own, sounds like the fault was in the southbound cab only glad i was day off! only one pic from today, worked 70802 rossett to bescot this morning with 20 empty autoballasters

the long walk!

as mick says its a propelling "cabin" on an EWS flat wagon, i think its used to propel an MOD train somewhere or other anyway a few from today, a bit of a long local job, 2 trips from saltney to crewe via wrexham-shrewsbury-bushbury-stafford first up was a taxi from basford hall where 70802 was shunting onto its train then it was a class 70 from balderton, had to do a standing start at the bottom of gresford bank with 1200 ton, it flew up there obviously in the possession so limited top speed but it didnt half go compared to a 66 waiting to leave the worksite in wrexham at 05:50 with 70810 into wrexham where we had to wait for the passenger service to reach gobowen bafore we could set off, colas tamper in the bay and into shrewsbury, again waiting for a passenger to head off to wolverhampton and eventually into crewe where we then grabbed a van and headed back to chester to pick up the next train which was 66848, you can see the progress of the track doubling in this picture and into wrexham, same place as the 70 5 hours earlier waiting to leave the possession! and again, waiting for the passenger, annoyingly this time the passenger service was in the platform and we sat there til departure time, a good 15-20 mins, we had left the possession 20 late and could have had a run to shrewsbury and not affected the passenger service but they held us and we got to shrewsbury 65 late! the 153 heads off past croes newydd box and so we followed him to shrewsbury and again another passenger service to oxley before finally getting to crewe at 15:00 and home a long day indeed!!

Probably, cant even remember where i got it from or what for!!

Had an afternoon in the shed, got nothing i planned to do done but did a few other little bits and bobs done that ive been planning to do for a while I did a bit of track fettling around the points at the end of the station, there was a dip in the track which i've got rid of by re-packing the track with fresh polystyrene riser pieces, doing that made it a much smoother ride Next up i decided to fill the missing sleeper spaces throughout the layout, this is the mainline before i started.... And afterwards And in the yard Just a couple more sets of points to add sleepers to and the whole lot is done I then turned to a blank corner of the layout, i'm miles away from doing any scenery work but this is what i want to do in the bottom corner of the layout Im going to use some old hachette track to make a lifted line that will head off into a corrugated up tunnel mouth, i'll also use a Bachmann derelict signal box i had i stock as well as a damaged Dapol semaphore i got cheap from the factory While i was doing all work that i just left the trains running round ......

i got some silver solder, much better job, as it happens im just about to go back into the shed for the day and have a blitz on the layout, point motors in the yard, wire in the accessory decoder for the depot and run a few trains going to have a stock swap today as i dont leave rolling stock in the shed, fancy getting my DRS 20s and flasks out and maybe the megabox train

sometimes the not focussing isnt intentional!!! most pics i post now are from my proper camera with a few iphone pics added for last minute pics, my camera is an £80 cash converters jobbie, had over £150 of pics published from it so it owes me nothing i'll definatly be taking it with me early in september to get some pics of a class 70 in marylebone!!

nice little job today in readyness for work next week, had to move 70810 from bescot to basford hall for the engineers trains we have running between wrexham and chester in relation to the line re-doubling 70810 in bescot EWS 66194 bringing a liner into the yard stopped alongside GBRf 66746 i think someone tried to pick it up while the waterslide transfers were still a bit tacky!! the EWS train sat there for a while before it split, drew forward and set the front end of the train into an empty road you can get a good idea of whats left of the old hump from this picture and onto crewe where it was stabled with the 66 i left there yesterday (66848), 70019 for company, one of the freightliner modified ones with the toast rack on the side defiantly in freightliner country here!! and under threatening skies a 175 makes its way into the station, the picture was taken from the walking route between basford hall and the old diesel depot it lashed down not long after this, luckily i made it to my van before it did!! couple of days off now then doing a few trains between chester and crewe

brick on the dsd, throttle open and jump!! caught the next pendolino to warrington where i got off and jumped back on the tanks it as it passed through simples!!

To add to this thread, this is the latest work being done on the old works site... That is the old entrance to the works off west street (where the 'new' road diverges off), they have demolished the old black and white LNWR gate house and built a new housing estate comprised of 'affordable housing' and housing authority homes, the road stretches back almost as far as the works buildings Similarly they are building houses on land nearer to the morrisons and are also clearing the narrow strip between dunwoody way and the chester line for futher development, basically building on what was the old access line so we can safely say crewe works will never see a train again by rail!!

off hand i dont know the numbers, there are a couple of different types of wagons in the consist, they are all TEAs but some have slightly smaller barrels than others, the wagons actually date from the mid to late 60s i've got a rake of the Bachmann BP green TEAs to represent this train, close enough for me!

i always get the signaller to drop me in the carriage sidings, i can get a decent break and some piccies

derby today

had a daytime job today so a chance to get some piccies did the sinfin tanks from crewe to derby and back, you get a little break in derby station in the middle so grabbed a few shots there and when back in crewe loco for the day, 56302 66232 on a washwood heath cemex job. note the new "london road" bridge behind, it looks like they will slide it in place over the tracks but i may be wrong voyager 156 off to crewe 66952 on a rugeley to hunslet sidings turn voyager 56302 sat in the bay 66954 on the goods at st andrews and passing 66513 on a coal service and into crewe and home and that was that!

Ive got 70802 on a ballast job tonight, crewe to saltney jn and back but outbound via bushbury jn-shrewsbury etc, first colas 70 shrewsbury-wrexham-chester-crewe i believe? Be interesting to see how it goes up coton hill bank with 1500 tons behind it

this made me laugh, spotted in the catering area of a 350/4 transpennie desiro im currently sat in heading from lancaster to manchester piccadilly i sure hope we dont take off!!

Oh well in that case i can summise its something LNER and that it wont interest me!!

Nothing diesel wise has struggled on the gradients yet, the 4MT is limited to 4 coaches though! May have a few more days on the layout this coming week, going to try and get an extra point decoder fitted for the depot points, maybe get the points motors fitted in the P way yard and wired up to the points decoders

There isnt much of the network they cant go over because of dimensions, no more than a class 66, ive got the full list of up to daye banned places on my ipad and its only 5 pages long

They dont fit through some tunnels, meir tunnel in stoke they can go through in the derby-stoke direction but not back through in the stoke-derby direction! Similarly wrexham to bidston they can go to dee marsh from wrexham but are banned beyond there as they cant get through heswall station

Just one from last night, former WSMR loco 67012 working the WAG express to holyhead, back on its old stomping ground through chirk!! A few days off now that im looking forward to, time to recharge my batteries!!

carlisle logs this week, 66847 earlier in the week then 56105 for the rest (including tonight)

Nope, even my route card ain't that big!! Been on the logs all week, long weekend coming up and looking forward to it

OX116, used the GSMR phone sat at that the other week and it put me through to ascot signal box!! (OX116 signal is in oxford)

due to last minute staff sickness we (trainee and myself) had to do warrington-chirk-carlisle, a full 12 hour job and a bit of a killer, thankfully the last bit is pass back so you can get a bit of sleep until warrington because of that i cant catch the start of my job tonight so have a nice little chirk-warrington after rest just 3 iphone pics taken at 04:00 in kingmoor while we were running round almost sunrise couple of ews locos our train after running round ready for the key to be inserted and the train set back into the log sidings