big jim

ruined in what way, the walkways and ladders?

tidied up a couple of the pictures above, what do we recon. trimmed them down to get rid of that annoying spot in the corner and added various filters using photoshop express on the ipad

a few more from me, had a couple of days of proper jobs and today it was back to the heart of wales line started in crewe..... and onto shrewsbury where the 153 was waiting to head down the heart of wales shrewsbury box and onto llandridnod where the unit corsses with the northbound one, the drivers also swap over here llandridnod station buildings 153 heading off to swansea into knighton where the driver exchanged tokens, lovely looking buildings here and into shrewsbury where i had a bit of time before my train back to crewe so i got a few pics i then had a look on realtime trains and spotted there was a charter booked through shrewsbury on the avoiding line so i wandered down to abbey forgate to photograph it... abbey forgate box signal gantries on the approach to shrewsbury left to right (plat 3, through road, plat 4) (bay plat 5, bay plat 6) and then this came round the curve, "Earl Of Mount Edgecombe" on a herefrod to tyseley run and then i caught my train back home!

after a bit of a break from the layout i finally managed to do a bit more yesterday morning, i have been distracted by hachette coaches and respraying locos, first up was checking i'd wired everything up on the low level as i was going to secure the high level station area in place, once i was happy i screwed it down and made a start on track laying, first job was to glue down some cork sheet with spray mount glue, then i went on to securing the track i have reused the thin platform from 'birmingham central' and used that as the straight edge, i then made up a small piece of platform to use as a width marker for the island platform, unfortunatly i ran out of spray mount so didn't manage to get the cork down on the line on the other platform face i placed some track at the top end to get an idea of how the curve will look, the inner curve is roughly 4th radius so not too tight compared to the removable section end of the layout, i have to fit and test a couple of point motors that end (one on the low level and one on the high level) before i can secure the final small piece of high level board and complete the circuit, hopefully monday next up i decided on the spur of the moment to build the island platform, parts from the modelzone closing down sale, peco platform edges and wills rendered plaster sheets, need to fit some cross bracing underneath then i'll paint it to match the other one, may well have a go at curving the platform round the curve a bit, not decided yet

Dominic trying on his new hat and face warmer

regarding level crossings i was streetviewing pantyffynon earlier as the station building looked quite impressive from the air and the crossing there threw me a bit, no signs, barriers etc but is signalled either side had a look in the sectional appendix and there is no special instruction for there, the appendix shows the crossing as being a MCG type which again threw me a bit so i had to look in the rulebook what type it was and it stands for Manual Crossing Gated (although the definition is not actually shown in the rulebook!) but looking at the streetview there is no sign of a hut, i'm wondering if the guard operates the gates (but that would be shown in the appendix) no doubt it will all become clear when i go over there

Whle road learning the HOW earlier the driver operated the crossing at llandridnod wells using the pull chord, the sequence started and a good 3-4 seconds after the reds started flashing a green volvo went through the crossing as the barriers were actually lowering, unfortunatly neither of us could see the reg number, there was a network rail man working on the crossing too and he was caught by surprise and didnt catch it either, shame as the crossing has no cameras.

was it for the HOW line that the dmu's had the headlights fitted?

just checking you were awake mike! it indeed the up heading towards craven arms, in my defence the arriva maps i have don't actually have the directions on there, i've just had to refer to the sectional appendix to clarify, also checked up on the route availability along there, 47, 56 and 66 are all banned so it looks like a 37 refresh may be in order depending what jobs we i cover down there, however "heavyweight" 37s are also banned so that rules out 37800 and 37886! a few pics from today, forgot to put the memory card back in the camera this morning so only a few phone pics first up is the chirk to baglan empty logs passing through salop behind 66850 llandridnod wells signal box museum, apparently it was relocated from futher along the craven arms direction of the line my return train heading into the platform the hut on the right is the token exchange point, where the driver gives up the llandridnod to llanwrtydd token and collects the llandridnod to knighton one another day at it tomorrow, im going to go on to llanwrtydd tomorrow

and so to today, first trip down the heart of wales line, i went from shrewsbury to llandridno wells today as to do the whole line there and back would take me about 10 hours! caught the 09:00 off shrewsbury which was 150208, a unit i have driven myself a while back, so long ago it was in scotrail livery! the driver picked up the token at craven arms for the run over to knighton which is the first token exchange point, lovely little station, fantastic architecture and on to llandridno wells, an absolutly stunning line what i have sen of it so far, knucklas viaduct is a beauty, on arrival at llandridno wells the driver gave the token back but could not get release as there was a train in the section ahead which turned out to be this i had planned to have an hour in llandridnod and catch the same unit back but i chanced my arm and asked the driver of the 37 if i could ride back to shrewsbury with him, which he agreed to!! so off we went, in the down direction there are crossing where you have to operate the barriers manually, either by a pull chord or plunger, the first being just outside llandridnod, the next being at dolau where i jumped down for a picture and on to knighton where the driver swapped tokens so another pic was in order eventually onto craven arms where we were held for a couple of passenger services on the mainline, so again a few more pics the signal leaving the branch and into salop and back home to crewe, where continuing the test train theme the 67 i photographed yesterday in toton on the managers train, 67015, was now top and tailing this with 67016 so a summary of the HOW line, not as bad as i first envisaged, the maps i have make it look a lot more involved than it is as they show all the foot crossings, over bridges, streams etc, it very much put me in mind of the cambrian with its open crossings, single twisting line, it was nice to see it from a "freight" as well as a passenger service. back to it again tomorrow, might go on to llanwrtydd tomorrow

must admit i did laugh at the suggestion on WNXX that the colas "hard hat" logo on the class 70s should be replaced with a firemans helmet!

i think its for conducting moves for tampers and the like, possibly working possession trains should they arise its a heck of a route to learn, tomorrow is really a reccie over there to get a feel for it, i've never been over there in my life so should be interesting, due to the length of the line (120 miles) im only going to llandridnod wells and back tomorrow (or possibly the next passing loop/token exchange point if i can get off the unit there) got the arriva wales maps for the line already so have been boning up

had a trip to toton today to catch the walshingham coal round ratcliffe power station as a refresh, got a few pictures while waiting for it to arrive at toton lots of class 60's around, 3 were actually working trains (accidently wiped the picture of a schenker livery one) tata livery 60 60035 was shunting the yard then one of my old locos came in with the ews managers train a class 70 headed the other way with a lafarge cement train then our train came in, 66848 at the helm and them after the trip round ratcliffe back into toton to run round and head off to gloucester! something different tomorrow, starting to learn the heart of wales line

I've put dib's in to go and collect them from the docks when they arrive (as long as they come in through LBT!)

did a sinfin today, first time i've had a 56 on it running round in derby this came in while i was sat in the station, gbrf lul stock move, a good excuse to run the new Bachmann GBRf 20 with a blue one! if you squint it could be the 80s 66721 "Harry Beck" bringing up the rear this came past while i was waiting to leave for crewe after running round and into crewe leaving for grangemouth back on the logs tomorrow for the first time in about a month

ive got the depot sign from chaddesden from my time at fastline my dad has a fair bit of stuff, cambrian railway bench, lnwr boundry post when c.c.crumps moved from connahs quay i picked up various chairs (track holding variety) including lner, lms, gwr and even a WM&CQRly one (wrexham mold and connahs quay railway) unfortunatly we scrapped the points throws which included creat central weighted ones

I can honestly say i've not heard anything along those lines but it would be nice if its true!!

this may be useful to to, i had to drag the DVT from chiltern's wembley depot to crewe last year, i had trouble with it so ended up running the 67 round onto the front and hauling the DVT nose end first, you dont often see views of the inner end!

im just happy to wait til i get home to upload them

a weeks worth of pictures this time started off the week by having a trip to reading before work, wanted to see what was left in modelzone, caught the train from radley to save driving into oxford (and having to pay for parking) and got a few trains passing through before my local service arrived changed at didcot and into work, 66849 waiting to head north from hinksey and into the loop at hatton, a few of my old chariots passed by and another day, another stop in the loop, raining this time and the next day, waiting to leave hinksey and into hatton again! and onto friday, had problems with the 66 so ended up using the 47 on the northbound run to crewe, to be honest i didn't hold out much hope of making it to crewe as its quite a heavy train and the 47 can be a bit "temperamental" however it ran without problems and in fact it outpaced the 66 a lot of the way and was a pleasure to drive! as it happened the southbound run has been cancelled due to no traffic arrivng from carlisle so i'm now at home instead of working it south whcih is nice! took the 47 over to lnwr for a service and i'll pick it back up on monday to put DIT for the run back south

i noticed over the last week while driving along the sutton park line through sutton coldfield that there is one of those 'speed indicator' devices on the road that runs along side the railway (east view road) to tell motorists if they are speeding, if they are under 30 the speed is green, over and its red, i think it may be a bit over sensitive as it picks up the speed of my train as i aproach it from about 300 metres away, so far i've been in the red everyday doing about 40 mph!! http://goo.gl/maps/LxbNs

nice pics on there, not me driving it though as i've only been on it this week but i am in the 2nd mans seat on one of the pics

been on the hinksey job all week, still got a couple more days of it to go, been taking pictures on my proper camera so haven't been able to upload them from the SD card as i have an ipad! took my camera to bryan (howes) house and he downloaded a couple of the pics and tidied them up with photoshop for me, here is a taster.....

i've sent the link with the disposal list to my boss....... a 60 would look nice in colas colours