big jim

right a few pics from the last couple of days..... wednesday evening, 66850 rolls into warrington BQ 175 passing chirk, still cant get the focus right on the front of the train again trouble focusing but it was about 21:00 and geting dark and this was really at the last bit of light, bescot to wrexham (and onwards to the bidston line) and onto yesterday (Thursday) GBRf leaving LNWR with a mixed rake of wagons 66847 waiting in warrington 6j37 is booked to sit in chester for about 30 mins now, this came in while i was waiting, the beatles experience unit rounding the curve towards bache 175 arriving into plat 2, it wasn't too long ago they were banned from that platform because of clearances 158 disappears into the rain so off i went, delayed by late running passenger services, all was good until the 66 decided to give up the ghost at cosford, got it going again only to pretty much immediatly shut down and again at bushbury so it was decided after trying all available avenues (ie gettign a 66 off drs, freightliner etc) to swap the loco for a 56 that luckily was in crewe ETD for crew training, dropped into basford hall and removed the 66 and went over to the ETD with it only to find the 56 blocked in, a couple of calls to the on call man finally managed to get the unit blocking us in moved and we got back onto the train a few hours later ready to depart north, the only problem being the relieving driver didn't sign 56s so i had to go with him to traction conduct him to carlisle as en route i would reach my continuous driving limit so would have had to have stopped driving! and so into carlisle kingmoor, i don't sign the yard yet so the other driver continued driving while i oversaw him, handy for me to see the moves though, got a few pics while we were waiting to set back from the recess yard into the wood yard... running round after running round and having pushed the train back as far as a ground frame we had to wait for schenker to finish a move before we could continue setting back, i'm wondering if this is part of the old hump yard?

I dunno, the 56 over shap was pretty good!!

Had a taxing night, late running passenger services knocking me for time, a loco failure and eventual swap and an unexpected run to carlisle!! A few pics to follow when i upload them when i get home but basically the night started in warrington with 66847 at the helm and ended in carlisle with 56302 on the train!

Its a shame some sort of 'parry people mover' service couldn't be run down there in conjunction with the weymouth eye etc We went to weymouth back in february and i wanted to have a look at the old line but it was so cold after our visit to the sealife centre we just got a bus back to the town centre and got the train back to the holiday camp!!

nothing particularly interesting this week, same job, same loco so same photos, but here are a selection of pics i took while waiting for my train to work and a couple while i was fueling the loco, its getting lighter later now so i may take the camera and try and get a good shot of the WAG express passing by tonight

Up until the night time class 56 pictures they are iphone 4 then the zoomed in pics, derby, edge hill etc are taken on a finepix 4400, my £30 bargain from cash convertors, cracking bridge camera with 28X optical zoom, 14MP

Believe me i WILL get into all sorts of problems as i go along, already realised i can't fit the curved point i wanted to fit at the door end so will have to use a small radius point instead, i think the hardest bit is going to be the raised part as i will have to reach through the lower base board to fit point motors etc so that side will need a bit more forward planning such as not using the space board under it and i will make cut a few more reach through holes to the lower board And ive not even thought about wiring either the layout or shed yet!!

just done a big description of the work i did on friday but hit backspace on the keyboard and lost the lot and quite frankly cant be bothered writing it all again, anyway here are the pics, i'm sure you can work out what i've been upto!! laid cork in the yard area removable section work the 2 blocks need to be planed down while in situ to get the tops level i then added some hobbycraft plastered cloth to the risers also glued some of the offcuts from the B&Q space board to the outside of the incline, it will need to be surformed down and filled before i cover it with the plaster cloth, the inner (yard side) of the inclines will be retaining walls so i don't lose any siding space. going to try and crack on with it this week before i go to work EDIT: PICTURES SEEM TO BE ALL OVER THE PLACE BUT LINKS ARE CORRECT, WEIRD!!

did the tamper move today, never been on one before, interesting ride!! the view from edge hill station towards lime street, if you look closely you can see a 142 in lime street station as i was waiting a DRS 66 came in with a rake of EWS wagons and run round in the wappings, i think it was a schenker working the tamper and 66 EMT 158 passing through Edge Hill station the 66 departs the sidings and into huyton it then departed for the worksite near earlestown, the signal protection for the possession was the signal its just passed at danger (with authority) you can see the stop board protecting the exit to the possession on the other line in front of the tamper

here are the gullet sidings.....

called in to hattons today en-route to edge hill, last time i visited was in 2009 and i wasn't impressed, boxes everywhere so not able to see what was in the cabinets easily and no service to speak of HOWEVER calling in there today i was impressed, no boxes, helpful staff and the items i wanted (not going to say needed!) were available in the shop to take away at a good price (£66 for 8 BP green TTA wagons) i take it they have moved the mail order side of things away from the shop?

No not today, been refreshing liverpool, will be on it for the next 2 weeks though starting monday

had a road refreshing trip to liverpool today so i can conduct a tamper from edge hill to huyton on sunday, a few pics but forgot my camera so used the iphone again had to go into lime street to get a train back out to huyton panorama pic of lime street then headed out to huyton on a northern service..... huyton looking towards liverpool apparently they are reinstating the 4 track formation from huyton towards liverpool hence all the groundworks, not sure how far towards liverpool it will go though, not been up on the northwest scene for a while, also it will be being electrified very soon high security!! huyton box will be going once the new track goes in and the line is electrified then back to edge hill on another northern service, seen here dropping down into the tunnels into lime st a very busy station with a wide variety of units passing through, lots of different routes to be had too! my tamper is already sat in the gullet sidings, have clarified with the box which way i will be coming on on sunday which is via the hand points into the down wapping sidings and back out via them onto the chat moss line, been a very useful day, nothing has changed signal wise, reaquainted myself with the various indications i need for the move etc finally after a look round i headed back into lime st to get my train back to crewe another panorama shot

don't look much like that now though!! i'll get some pics of the area tomorrow

Y.M.C.A.........

yep, looks like i meant the gullet sidings, got to conduct a tamper from edge hill to huyton on sunday, happy with the route out to huyton just needed to confirm where the machine will be stabled on the day, had it been the tuebrook side then i'd not do it as i've never been into that side of edge hill (and its token working!)

bit of a bump for this topic but where are the gunnell sidings in edge hill? beast has given me a good idea where they may be but i cant find them in my sectional appendix (or indeed the wapping sidings), we seem to think they are the sidings off the wappings, accessed from hand points on the left hand side (as you enter) wapping siding or possibly the 2 sidings where locos using the wappings run into to get behind the signal to rejoin the train

derby this morning

nice video bob! did the sinfin today as bobs video shows but photo wise there was nothing much different than the last 2 times i did it, i decided to take my "grown up camera" with me today so took the opportunity to get some pics while having a break in derby station using the zoom lens, pretty pleased with how they have come out iphone picture into the sun, unusually today i fuelled on No3 fuel road and into derby station southbound voyager heads under london road 66847 again on my train london bound meridian, taken from the carriage sidings on mid zoom couple of 170s, one for nottingham the other for cardiff cardiff bound notingham service (on full zoom from the end of the platfrom) Dr yellow heading south smoky old bus!! freightlner coal service heading north and journeys end in crewe got a route refresh day tomorrow and instead of my planned trip to donny i've got to do liverpool for a conducting move on sunday

called in at hereford model centre earlier and got a stack of 2nd hand peco code 75 points for less than £5 each including 4 express points, Y point, a few medium sized and small radius ones, not sure exactly what i need but at hat price i thought i'd get them in stock just in case. one thought i have had, and previously mentioned is im going to use the express points in the hidden area so i can cross from up to down and vice versa to get in and out of the yard without a propelling move, it was the cost that put me off but having picked up the points cheaply i will do it now, just need to work out how to make myself a points indicator of some sort! i also knew i needed a couple of curved points to get into the yard so i called into trident trains and got a couple of those too, turns out the one for the down side is too long to fit before the removable section so i'm going to fit a small point in there instead and use the curved point to make the entrance to what will probably be a platform loop line therefore giving me a longer loop in the station than using a straight point next up i cut the wood for the transision area between the risers and high level area, very loosly placed on the layout to figure out my way forward, you may be able to make out that the wood is actually sloping towards the taller inner riser but then bending back out level to meet up with the outer lower risers, as i say very temporary and i may in fact split the wood to save having "bendy wood" if i do cut it, i will do it at the narrowest point next to the riser in this picture, the difference is caused by me adding a flat section to the middle of the inner riser making it a longer distance to climb, the wood to the right of the riser is on the level i may well cut it back a bit more to give me a bit more height at the tunnel exit (basically the tunnel mouth/bridge hole will be nearer to the lower end of the riser

Wonder why it ran that way?

yeah, it was bad this morning too, our shunter lost control of his van in the snow en route to chirk this morning! part of the reason for the delayed departure was waiting for late running atw trains due to the flooding

yes i've been in the cellar a few years back, interesting to say the least! looks like friday i'll be photographing east coast HSTs too

yep, 2nd time i'd seen it today and in 2 different countries too!!