big jim

Mmmmmm shiny!

In all fairness they are a damn good engine but i've had my fill of them this week working top and tail as there are so many things you need to do just to change ends, and ive had to do it twice on each trip on the job i've been on A lot of the problem is you cant do anything until the computer says you can, so what would be a 5 mins change ends on a 66 took me 45 mins on a 70 and then it said i couldn't take power due to a problem! Get them on something like 6M50 going westbury to bescot and back there are fantastic but having to change ends at 03:30 in the middle of no where on your own and they are a pain in the bum And guess what im doing tomorrow night!

its also not a pubilc footpath between the 2 foot crossings along there, had to report a couple of dog walkers/ramblers using it as a short cut in the past few years

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!

Neither did i!

There is actually quite a bit of room in there, i can get in ok and i'm not the smallest of guys, it looks worse than it is because of the cowels

Yeah, its very dark around brill tunnel at 03:00!! In the 4 years since i signed the chiltern line last night was the first time i ever had to drive the wrong direction on the bi-di line, i think the people working on haddenham station were a bit perplexed when i passed though one way, passed back through in the opposite direction on the same line then went back through again a bit later on with 2 locos on the front!

Just had a photo from the driver who has picked up the 70s from hinksey and other locos en route to eastleigh We've got ourselves a convoy!!

Theres not much room between those overriders, if 'someone' were to try and couple them up and not take the portable tail lamp off first it would get a bit squashed as the lamp irons are on the overriders

a beak! well i have been 'running round' like a headless chicken 3 days off then back to claydon next week for a couple of days

Couple of pics from this morning, had another trip to claydon to collect various wagons and plant, had a few operational difficulties so had to walk the length of the train a few times, 1700ft worth!! Waiting at aynho jn to get out onto the mainline 20 autoballasters, kirow crane and support wagons and a sleeper delivery machine (NTS machine) And im having a well deserved weekend off now, back to claydon next week

now this looks good..... https://www.flickr.com/photos/60963146@N04/14187864071/in/photostream/ 37423 with class 68 style decals

i was hoping to be on it this thursday night but they are sorted for a driver, would have been nice to have a local job for a change!

ALL STOP DRIVE!!

it can wait!

Yes a 66 and 70 can work in multi And the picture on the other page is bescot looking south from the down side

You have to do a route a certain number of times before you can sign it, the time may vary depending on the complexity of the route, ie multi track layout, signalling systems, spad risk etc Then you have to be assessed by a qualified person as ok to drive the route as well as answering written questions etc

yes thats right

Keeping it simple... North to carlisle South to marylebone East to doncaster West to chirk/hereford If i need to go Places like newport i have to have a route conductor with me

Its a fujifilm finepix exr-28, £80 cash convertor special, its more than paid for itself with the pictures ive had published in rail express, railway mag etc I cant see the point in buying an expensive camera just to throw in the bag, if it gets damaged its easily and cheaply replaced The camera has a 30X optical manual zoom and is 16megapixel, im slowly getting used to using it, ive always just used a point and shoot camera but this one i've been experimenting with setting it up manually for night shots etc, some pics are hit and miss but i normally eventually get my shot! There is no image manipulation on the pics on here, they are all as they come off the chip

i agree with that, nice to go all over the place even though i rarely see home for days on end, as an example, i thought i'd have a couple of days off this weekend but i ended up working a ballast from basford hall to newport last night, had a freightliner 66 with 20 side tippers, 2300 tons so quite a slog most of the way, had to wait for a route conductor from hereford then we had 4 hours outside cwmbran waiting for a possession to be lifted! one for beast and then this came in from scarborough and a very wet newport at 05:00ish this morning!! then to top it off i've got to drive back to oxford tonight for my job tomorrow and then away all week doing claydon again by the looks of it!!

here's a question for you...... on the run up to claydon i traversed part of the old GC north of quaindon rd through calvert, the island platform at calvert still exists in a delapidated state but is unmistakably a GC design, now, are there any other former GC 'rural' stations still standing with tracks running through them? in fact how many GC design stations of any design remain on the network, both open or closed ie marylebone, sheffield victoria etc (dont include the preserved GCR though) it was actually quite eeriee passing through claydon this week, hard to imagine the things that used to run through there, and amazing how the mileposts still count down to manchester for the short while im on the old GC

a few pics from this week, mostly been nights so not that many drs 66 at bicester after propelling the train to the end of the line oxford, waiting to head to bescot then after the trip from bescot to claydon (the one where we failed) we left the train there went and rescued them the day after with the 66 and took them to hinksey waiting at aylesbury to get on the single line to princes risborough then last night it was light engine from hinksey to claydon to collect the remaining traffic, annoyingly as the line is out i had to go oxford-banbury-risborough-aylesbury-claydon, all to do a 10 mile straight journey!! waiting at banbury for the road to risborough then from claydon it was a lift to bicester to move the train up to claydon, a move back to bicester with the kirow crane, a l/e move back to claydon, attach to the train and head off to bescot with a turn round at risborough again, left at 03:00 and got into bescot at 06:15, again annoyingly i passed back through bicester on the chiltern mainline right over the top of the crane i'd left near london road a few hours earlier arrival at bescot it was interesting to see how quick they have laid the track, where there was none on tuesday morning, by friday i was slowly traversing a newly laid bit of rail across bicester london road crossing with a train!! quite un-nerving as there is no ballast as such (thats next weeks job for me!!) and to top it all off tonight i'm on another ballast to newport, not even a proper day off!!

Sinfin seems like a distant memory now, not been there for a while!!