big jim

no not this week, should have been bringing a set from carlisle on friday via the wcml but its been caped just heading back from hereford, took 6Z52 as far as there and booked back pass to chirk to get my van, left 2 hours late so missed by booked train home, no great hardship though only a couple of pics today from hereford funny how yesterday i was road learning/refreshing and i was photographing EMT hst's today its FGW!

i do wonder sometimes! joking apart, i do take the job seriously, when i road learn/refresh i do it properly, the end of the day its my job on the line if i don't and have an incident but it is nice to have the opportunity to get pics while about, record the everyday stuff after all some of my fastline picture locations are history now such as daw mill and roberts road depot, things you would have thought at the time would have always been there!

a days road refreshing today, basically going over my old fastline routes around the east midlands started by making my way down to birmingham to get a train over to leicester, called in at moor st en route to see what was going on and it turned out they had a move planned from brush in loughborough to doncaster so i spoke to chiltern control who in a rare bit of cross company co-operation said it was ok for me to travel on it (with a chiltern driver and west coast conductor) to refresh the route, and i also used it as an opportunity to have a look at coming off brush for future reference (plus chiltern know they may have me available to move 67s from loughborough for them now!!) made my way over to loughborough where 67012 awaited with a Mk3 and DVT, apparently they had had trouble with it the night before with an air problem, anyway the driver got t started up and sure enough we couldn't get the brake to build up on it, had a play about and eventually got it to build up and the loco could take power etc but from the DVT as the traction interlock wasn't coming off so we couldn't get it to take power, after a while we admitted defeat and gave up and shut it down which was annoying as i had trouble shooted the air leak but was flumoxed by the interlock, especially as i'd isolated what needed to be and still nothing then i remembered i don't work for chiltern anymore so after heading off in separate ways to the other 2 guys i continued on my way to nottingham............. couple of trains came through express while i was waiting nice HST (which i will be seeing more of later) very impressive new bridge in loughborough and the platform is a lot longer than the last time i drove through there and so onto a meridien to nottingham, no pics as camera is away in the cab, but here is the train on arrival into nottingham nottingham looking south, currently underthe control of trent box but very soon to be under the east midlands SCC in derby, one thing i did notice coming in was the line from lenton south Jn across to lenton west jn has been singled with a single lead from the (current) goods line which i think may become the slow under the new arrangments, need to see the yellow peril for the area asap! at this point i was going to head over to derby but i though, hmmmmm HST in the other platform heading south (the one that passed through loughborough earlier) so i went over and spoke to the driver who let me travel back to leicester with him, again no pics but here it is on arrival in leicester from here i was going to get an XC over to nuneaton and head home, possibly using my virgin cab pass from nuneaton to refresh the WCML to stafford but i sat waiting on the platform for the train to appear before 3 minutes after departure realising that it had already left from the other side! i decided that a trip back to derby would be in order and get a train back to crewe from there, got a few shots while waiting, by now it was bucketing down got a meridian back to derby, again no pics before catching a 158 back to crewe, what should have been a nice easy day refreshing, due to the unschduled trip into brush, ended up as being a 10 hour jaunt around the east midlands but at least i got what i wanted done tomorrow is the teigngrace chirk to shrewsbury and road learn as far as hereford (as it doesn't run into newport) although i am very trempted to stay on as far as bristol temple meads to sample the severn tunnel on a 56!!

Nice pictures, looks like the headlight has gone again though on the first shot?

Another trip to newport today, drove it all the way this time, its not a bad little run, shouldn't take too long to learn, no complex trackwork really, a few potential traps such as the signal 2 lines across from the mainline in abergfenni that applies to you! Waiting in chirk for the shunter to let me know the frame was shut, train was complete and ready to go Had a bit of trouble with the headlight, it is actually lit in that picture, it went out completly between shrewsbury and craven arms but a good fiddle with the switch made it come back on No pics in newport as i had 3 mins til my train home, had it looked like i was going to miss it i would have stayed on to cardiff for the ride

mick, i was thinking of somehow wiring the main bus feed from the controller into the removable section so the whole layout wont work without it in place?

ok bob, i'll have to ty and get up to you again soon, i will give you a toot on thursday afternoon though when i pass through uttoxeter on the tanks!!

hi bob, its not hinged, it just lifts out vertically using good old elbow grease, got to fit some grabholes/ handles at some point, also a shelf for it to sit on when removed

thats how i want to try and do my joint, the picture has given me a lot of inspiration, can pcb strip be picked up from maplin? i don't have a trackplan at all, just making up as i go along, its going to be simple whatever i do as i just want to run trains, going to make it as close to operationally prototypical as i can though when it comes to signals etc

Last night i secured the boards on the yard side of the layout before i made a start on glueing down the risers with pva, used a couple of pieces of 4th radius set track to get the inner curve positioned right then butted the outer curve riser up to the tighter curve piece. Let it set over night and this is what i came back to this morning, some of it is still drying as its a bit cold in the shed and i spread the glue quite thick in places I have placed some track on to get the idea of how it will look This is the "down side" entrance to the yard, a single lead between the figure of 8, it will be accessed from a curved point on the down line, the other end will be similar with a curved point from the "up side", i recon i could get 5 decent sized roads in there, my longest train is the 8 100 ton tanker wagon "sinfin tanks" train which may just fit in, i'll worry about that once i get down to laying the yard area As the yard will have to enter and exit from opposite lines (up and down) im going to isolate the whole yard from the rest of the layout and fit a reverse loop module to automatically change the polarity of the yard depending on which way trains are entering Due to space constraints i dont have the room to easily fit cross overs from down to up and vice versa so anything wanting to leave the yard will have to propel out onto the main line, the only place i could put them would be in the hidden section and that would invlove putting something in to tell me what way the points are set, may look into it before i secure the high level bit down though Along the back wall i thought i'd do something for a bit visual "stimulation" (cant think of the word i need!), i have made the up and down line split at different levels, originally i had the front line rising first so the rear one went out of view but suddenly had the thought the uphill side would be better to have the gradual climb and the down hill side could be a little bit steeper so i changed it over Cut the riser along the line where the removable section detaches, gonna put the amae wood i used for the layout framing along the edge of the risers on both sections so i have something substantial to work to when it comes to having to cut the rails between the sections The next job is to cut the last bit of wood for the high level area and I think i may well plaster coat the risers this week too, also going to see if the local pound shop has any cork tiles to lay in the yard area

Yeah, 07:13 off chirk, 6z53 i think

nice shot, i'm hoping it was fuelled on saturday as i've got to take it to newport tomorrow morning (work it to shrewsbury then route learn the rest) and i dont fancy having to book on an hour early to fill it up!

just a couple from last night, didn't get any night shots as the train was fuelled and recoupled by the time it got dark waiting for the passenger to pass and get to gobowen before releasing the frame

im learning as far as newport but never say never as it is within continuous driving hours limits to get there

worked the teigngrace last night from shrewsbury to chirk via crewe and chester, got a few piccies before i left shrewsbury and a couple en route, got a new camera so was playing about with it to see if i could get any night time shots, took me a while to work it out but got a couple of good ones (in my opinion) in the end, forgot my tripod though, will try and remember it tonight for 6J37 first i had to drive to chirk to leave my van there so i stopped and got a picture of chirk viaduct, this is the camera with no zoom and fully zoomed in, which im impressed with then pass to shrewsbury (with all the drunks from chester races), got a couple of pics there, another one for dave, class 175 ews 66 heading to buckley for a possession then my train arrived but only got a shaky photo of it so binned it and onwards to crewe where i had to wait for an arriva service to depart to chester, couple of shots there but still not used to the camera so they are a bit yellow from the light, this is the better of the few and onwards to chirk, had to wait at chester as there were reports of a drunk on the line, good old race day! so there we go, think i should be able to master the camera with time!!

Im on it friday evening, it should be 66850 again

spent the evening refreshing crewe to chester and crewe to shrewsbury to work a train over it tomorrow night, the line between crewe and shrewsbury has been resignalled using those wierd looking LED head signals which should have been comissioned back in december but for whatever reason its not been bought into use and the old AB system has been retained! the last train i worked over there was conducting a WSMR set while i was with chiltern back in 2010, nothing has changed since then though next week i'm starting to route learn shrewsbury to newport (i already know as far as craven arms) as well as refreshing nottingham amongst other places and working a train from carlisle, now thats what i call varied!!

I was just using up offcuts otherwise i would have put full lengths of wood in there, the only piece of B&Q wood i had left had previously been used to check the curve of bananas i recon, or possibly come from whatever tree they make boomarangs from!!

A little bit more done today First job was to cut a river bed/road cutting/disused railway cutting into the removable section so i can build a couple of bridges to span the gap Fitted a couple of barrel locks to secure the removable section in place, still need to add metal plates on the hole side Put some cork down in the hidden section I then had a think about what i want to try and achieve on the staion side, as this is the side that will need to be finished first due to the hidden track section underneath The more i thought about having a big station with lots of platform faces/island platform/bays, through roads etc the more i thought "in this day and age they are few and far between" so im thinking of having a couple of platforms, maybe a single bi directional loop to the rear with a chord going into a low relief industrial building (think warrington bank quay backdrop!) however one thing i did want to do was to reuse my scratchbuilt shed off the birmingham depot so i came up with this idea. A while back i bought some ecoboard from b and q to see if it could be used for scenics, i cut it down and placed it on the lower board, chamfering the edge while cutting Placed the shed on top where it fitted nicely I then cut the top board down to sit on ecoboard so the shed would be slightly lower than the station area, as the board is quite flexible the right hand side is sitting on the batoning for the high level board dropping towards the shed which is sat on the level, i have also turned the ecoboard over to lose the chamfered edge which gives me a bit more "hard standing" area around the shed And finally the first bit if track is laid, the part in the covered section as once the top is secure i wont be able to reach it to lay track Next job is the final bit of upper board at the far end of the shed, the transition between the upper board and risers, going to try and disguise the climb a little bit (i have an idea in my head!)

damn, rumbled! quite a few ideas are borrowed from bobs layout, mainly the figure of 8 set up and using scenecraft risers

Todays project was to get the high level boards in place (loose at the moment) First up i went to B&Q and got another sheet of 9MM ply cut to size, one 8ft by 2ft and the other 4ft by 18" to mirror the bottom boards for now, i then have the option to cut them back a bit to allow me to add something scenic low down on the starion side, possibly room for a siding? I decided that the boards should be 3 1/2" high so made some stands which on the wall side are screwed to the shed batoning, they are then screwed crossways with a short leg on the outer part With the boards in place The view from below the boards Plenty of room under there I then placed the risers in position, they need to be double the width you can see there, i have however set them so that the curve that is laid is the sharpest for each bend Im wondering whether to make the up and down line split slightly on the incline and put a small 2 car island platform in between the lines? Overall view The parts of the layout that will be laid on the risers will have 3mm ply on top to secure the track to To get the idea of how the low level will come out from below the upper board i placed a small board on top, it will however be a lot bigger once i get the proper board in place

couple more pics of tiviot in another library of the same collection http://www.sutherland.davenportstation.org.uk/ws-007.html

yes it was, some of those wagons have had air holes cut into the ends to reduce drag when empty

got the videos added to the above post, for some reason they wont embed when i use the ipad but the desktop computer allows me to do it

had a sneaky hour earlier so i had a look at how to solve the door area problem, quite simply i wanted to keep things as easy as possible so i have simply made a removable section..... the top is the bit i'd already cut to which i added sides underneath i braced it with small square strips of wood set back a bit the reason being i needed to be able to fit a piece across the end however this part isn't attached to the removable section, its screwed to the main board side, clamped into place to line up then screwed into place both parts in place and the board slides down over the fixed blocks to look like this i then cut a curve to the corners of the removable panel to make it a bit easier to drop down and in place from the other side when it comes to wiring i will put a bus wire on the removable bit with a connector to the main boards not far off actually getting some cork down to lay track in the hidden bit before i can add the high level area