big jim

i spotted that on my daily sheet, its going out as 0Z47 but coming back as 0Z66, there is a colas 66 there so dont be surprised if that comes back and not a 70! nice if it does go there though as im in canton tomorrow!

i might be grumpy though, lots of early starts this week!

yeah, the carlisle to warrington bit of it

another interesting day and another first for me (well quite a few first to be honest!) the day started with a drive to bescot to collect my train of ballast wagons to take to a possession south of gobowen, on arrival at bescot i saw the train but no sign of the loco, spoke to the shunter who informed me it was on the shed itself, i have learned the yard and refreshed it yesterday but had not bothered with the shed environs as i didn't think we would be using it, so that was my first "first" of the day, coming off bescot shed, thankfully EWS had a shunt driver there who came over and walked me round and guided me off, its not the easiest place to get off in all honesty as you need to speak to a number of different people to make the move (shunter, depot DP, down tower and walsall box!) not to mention the number of ways they can have you off as i said i reviewed the yard and have a nice map for it too but confusion can arise when "local" names come into play, i knew my train was on the No1 engineers siding road but locally its known as the "middle slip" i think! anyway, got the loco over and onto the train another first, the first time i've worked a train of ballast wagons, 2100 tons, 22 wagons worth! and on my way towards the possession entry pont at wrexham via stafford, crewe and chester, had a good run there, gresford bank was "interesting" to say the least, i think had we have had a little bit of drizzle i may not have made it over the top, at the bottom of the bank i was doing the line speed of 60mph, by the time i got to the top of the bank the train was down to 9mph and pulling just over 6000 amps of power!! the first stop was at wrexhams section signal where i was authorised to pass it at danger and proceed to the stop boards protecting the possession, (this photo was taken in a position of safety as the line was shut to all other traffic) after i had permission to enter the possession by the handsignaller i went on my way towards the worksite, another first, never been into a possession before! i had to pass over gobowen crossing under local control, basically the signaller giving me a green flag from the box, admittedly i did stop at his home board which was on and rung him to clarify i could pass his signals at danger as i was now under the control of the picop up until the worksite, better to be sure than pass it at danger without authority, it was a bit un-nerving trundling past signals at danger though! i'd been given info as to where the worksite boards were and i bought the train to astop there to await futher instruction from the ES (engineering supervisor) he then appeared and lifted the board and gave me permission to enter the worksite and told me where to wait until instructed to move, basically the down line was being renewed just beyond the loco i stayed on the loco and "read my rule book" and as it happens i didn't make a move while i was there again a position of safety, way back from the worksite on closed lines i then got relief and made my way back to the ESs van who ran me to baschurch for my own van at baschurch the train in front of mine was ready to move off site towards shrewsbury so i grabbed a few pics of it, once agin using the fact i was in a safe area to get a couple of pics from unusual angles, also i've passed baschurch box many times but obiously never had the chance to get any pics of it and that was that, into the van, stopped at my dad's house in ellesmere for a cuppa then headed home to upload the pictures!

had a few days away with the family this week in hartlepool but had to be home before them to work this weekend, i used the trip back to refresh a few routes between doncaster and derby and onwards to birmingham, got a few pics en route but obviously the camera is away in the cab start off with a few "holiday snaps" the view from the caravan and from the edge of the camp and outside the camp..... 66737 "lesla" i think this was 66718 and so heading home, started the day in hartlepool where this came through.... 66718 on a biomass train caught a northern service to middlesborough where i changed for a TPE service to York for another change to what i hoped would be a XC to doncaster but i just missed it so i ended up getting an east coast to doncaster instead, i caught the train in the bay in this picture and so onto doncaster, had about 40 mins here for a look round, got a few pics while i waited for the XC service grand central passing through on the fast east coast heading north couple of TPE 185s ews livery 66172 heads north arty shot couple of 67s, seems like a lifetime ago since i drove on of them!! sand train and so on to derby and then birmingham then back to chirk for my van

have a look here, you might spot some of them.... http://goo.gl/maps/Yj82e regard the wagons i had a look at converting a Heljan cargowaggon, using the ends (although they are slightly incorrect) however when i took the top off the pivoting coupling mechanism is in the way, it protrudes above the floorpan by a good 5mm+ so without modification you cant get a flush wooden floor down my plan was to cut the wagon ends off the one piece top box moulding or possibly use it as a template to make my own out of plasticard, the main difference between the model end and the real thing is the 3 uprights on the model one are angled and end at one central top point whereas the real thing has 3 separate vertical uprights, there are of course a few differences in the shape of the solebar but its something i can live with if i decide to have a go at it. one way around the coupling mechanism problem may be to make a loaded wagon but that wouldn't be cheap as i would need 6 "log stacks" per wagon X by the number of wagons i'd want in a rake!

well ive done my first bit of work for the day, 56087 on the logs from chester to chirk at 05:15 and am now back home about to do my ebay parcels before heading off to refresh bescot yard for an engineers train tomorrow, then a quick kip and into the shed for the rest of the day.

you know as much as i do mick! platform end wibble and froth would suggest colas are having it but then again we are also having the dollands moor 37s too apparently and we have the contract to dig out the straegic reserve from box tunnel, so said my boss, lord lucan who shouted it to me from shergar as he rode past heading to atlantis ..........so i've heard!

one from this afternoon at the NRM

do kernow accept paypal? i cant see any accepted methods of payment at all on the website and i don't want to "checkout" the wagons i'm after until i'm sure!

yes, your right catkins, it is the steel train running around the houses while nottingham is shut, they are utilising some of their ex freightliner intermodal drivers for it mick, thats right for the name on 66850, he is founder of the railway children charity

did you notice that 66850 is now named? typically i never bothered taking my camera with me last night, first up i saw 47580 in crewe on a wcr train from scarborough, then when i got to carlisle it was a lovely clear moonlit night night so i could have got some cracking shots of 56105 as i had 2 hours to wait before my train home this morning then when i got to crewe these were sat in the bay, they are off to llandudno later on the GBRf staff jolly the london underground one looks stunning now its a little bit weathered!

i dunno, i sign doncaster!

And just so they are completly sure.....

I was supposed to relieve it last night at hereford but ended up heading home as i dont sign south of there so i couldn't assist in the rescue and it would have been too late to carry on into chirk due to engineering work, thankfully the driver got it to pontrilas so other trains were able to be looped round it via the goods loop

im listening to the new pet shop boys album, electric, absolute stonker!!

from the very last radio 1 show, go out on a bang! i've got the show on MP3 and took that song out with some software so i could listen to it when i fancy a chuckle

is it worth owt? in that condition, priceless

i may well do a matching panel for the high level points yet to go the other side of the roof brace, and of course there is the fiddle yard side too! one question though, could i add resistors to the wiring to dim the led's? there are some in line on the strips but they do need dimming a bit more

back to the points indicator today first job was to fill in the gaps with more led strips and mount the lot onto a board i then tidied up the wiring, i was hoping to be able to use 2 wires for all 4 points live sides and 4 switched negatives but it kept giving me "wrong side" indications on the opposite tracks to where i was taking the feed from so i ended up running 2 separate set of lives (red and green) from the up and down line which solved the problem i then added a top and bottom to the panel i then noticed i'd had another "oh cock" moment when i realised i'd mounted the panel upside down! next job was a bit of "brass rubbing", using a piece of A4 i rubbed over the top of the led's which i then taped to a piece of plasticard, i then drilled 6.5MM holes in the plasticard where the LED imprints were showing which left me with this and back on test and here it is in action, just need to add some sort of plug so i can remove it if needed, as well as adding the "line of route" to the panel, then mount it on the wall

a few pics from the trip to stoke on thursday, nothing of the work or machinery inside the sidings but a few of the locos and passing traffic (what little there was!) 66849 and 56105 arrived in from crewe and split the 56 once the work was completed dropped onto the train....... .......and dragged it forward towards the old steelworks sidings allowing the 66 to drop on the rear, i then took the train out towards stoke where we changed ends and ran back to crewe where we changed ends again and ran into the pad where the train was split and stabled for the night, the 66 then went off on hire to freightliner and the 56 sat in basford hall until i collected it on friday to take to chirk passing pendolino, quite pleased with this picture

Yeah, i ran 56105 from basford hall to chirk earlier to add to the train, i had it and 66849 on an engineers train yesterday in stoke too 849 went off on hire to freightliner yesterday and is working in the blockade north of wigan and 105 sat in basford hall until i picked it up earlier Got a few new pics i'll upload tomorrow

Ive got 66846 and 56105 on the return working of 6X60 later from stoke, should be fun! Then tomorrow its 56105 over to chirk to go back on the logs

This is the thread http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/73915-wiring-fiddle-yard-points-for-led-lights-insulfrog/?fromsearch=1 Yes they are insulfrog points btw The only other thing im going to do with the mimic panel is put some resistors in to dim down the LEDs a bit Just been thinking about a way of simplifing the wiring to the panel, i think i would i get away with running a single pair of "live" wires from the tracks (one to the red leds and one to the green) and linking ALL the strips together on the positive side and then run the 4 separate negative switching wires from the track to the panel to each individual point indication my thinking being looking at the wiring ive set up temporarily there are 4 individual power supplies all picking up from the same external supply (the track) which i think are not needed, as long as i keep the negative switching side point specific (as they are now) then it should work, it will reduce the wiring from the track to panel down from 12 wires (3 per point) to 6 (2 positive track wires and 4 negative)