big jim

During our visit to the paralympic games (Edited for spelling)

i've sent the picture to the daily mail, disgusting that someone would operate a machine with their eyes closed that at could potentially kill hundereds of people if the wrong "train go key" was given to the man steering the locomotive!

I think thats what struck me about it, that plus the clean hardstanding and driverless loco with cab lights on

this looks a bit model like in my eyes nice little bonus for me just after midnight at tyseley, just walking back to the station and i thought "i can hear a class 60", walked back and sure enough 60011 was running round a train on the goods, terrible lighting to ge a shot from ground level buti wasn't letting it get away without a photo

i bought a liza minelli album today from a charity shop, its surprisingly good, the reason i bought it was it is produced by the pet shop boys (huge fan of them) and has that 80s/90s psb sound to it, most songs on there were written by tennant and lowe too and it has her versions of psb's rent and tinita tikaram's twist in my sobriety amongst other things

here's one of me at the controls of 47802 (in muti with 47501 at the time!) road learning LBT (under derby rd bridge) passing out on 67s dan johnson (now with gbrf), dave jones (now with freightliner), mick ? (left the railway now i believe) tangmere in crewe alan peters (part time poster on here as 21A lizard) on a special one off cornish fastline 66 a very busy marylebone my youngest at the beeches light railway another very part time poster on here, after a busy morning my trainman gets a bit of shut eye on the way back from valley

yeah, that photo jumped out at me too hope you dont mind but i made it black and white on the ipad then coloured in the loco and building using the colour splash app i origionally just did the loco but i think the building in colour balances it out nicely

just got the new pet shop boys album, elysium, really good, loads better than "yes" can thoroughly recommend it

not exactly passing but nice all the same

on a similar vain to DD's pictures above, this is one i took last week using the iphone! ive done a screen grab of the iphone home screen as i'm using it as a screen saver hene the dots at the bottom, will upload a better version when i get home

been here 25 mins so far!! not looking good, they have just drawn the train forward to let another one into the platform behind us this is where companies limited route knowledge gets let down, ideally the driver could change ends and head into walsall, change ends again and go via bushbury but the drivers don't sign darlaston to walsall (i know it but can't offer my services as its no longer on my card!)

nice little 5 hour job this morning, dont normally work before 6 so swap off the job normally but felt like an easy day, heading home now but stuck at wolves due to points failure!

thats him, his name escaped me as i was posting the picture

one from today, took a trip on the shakespeare express with my dad for his birthday, here is the driver after running round at snow hill

spotted this today in tyseley also been past this wagon a few times but never really had a look at it, made by R T pickering in glasgow, 1954 last inspected by my step dads company a month before i was born!

just had an hours PNB in wembley depot so decided to go for a walk to see what i could find of the old loop line, well the entrance side of it at least due to time constraints! first up here is the bridge that took the line under south way.... looking south looking north the trackbed has been built on here, the bridge is still marked up as WSL1, wembley stadium loop bridge 1 maybe? looking back towards neasden jn, the dvt in the distance is pretty much level with where the steam loco is in the 2nd picture of the first post i then went a bit futher towards neasden jn and into the builders yard, after getting permission i wandered into the car park which is pretty much on the trackbed of the loop line looking south these cars are on the old trackbed, the mainline is behind the palasade fencing turning through 180 degrees you can see the line of the trackbed curving to the right, it didn't rise as much as the current ground level as it has been back filled over the years, the trackbed is roughly right on the left edge of the concrete pad, you can just make out the corner of an art deco looking relay room of some sort looking south id say the trackbed is between the 2 cones, as you can see it has been very much back filled turning 180 degrees agin this is the bridge again (wsl1) looking from track level (give or take), filled in again, the blue bins are visible on google earth to get you bearings back out onto the main road this is 2nd avenue, the trackbed is following the curve of the buildings this breezeblock building is behind the buildings on the previous photo and follows the curvature of the line, pretty much where the pic of the small tank engine entering the station is finally, turning through 180 degrees again this is about as close as i could get to the position on rons first picture, the blue steel building is an add on to the brick one with the big D on the side zoomed in you can see the brickwork behind the cladding and thats about it for today, next time i have the 2 hour PNB at wembley job i'll explore the bottom end of the loop

Nice, there are a few faces i think i know there, the BOP at rugby was also my fastline one when they moved out

using the combined brain power of half a dozen drivers who all sign the route we worked out between us where the line came off the mainline from the picture in the first post, also the location of the station by the fact that it is the only straight section of line on the loop as well as the course of it until just beyond the station but we thought it rejoined the met line around the current jn of hannah way and forth rd if you street view the junction of the B4557 and southway you can see the bridge parapets where the line went under, although looking at it when i passed earlier it has been back filled have a look at this link to see the wembley back on fa cup day 1928 and the area as it is now, the what i suppose then was a new station is clearly visable, however the shallow angle of the photo means you cant see the return loop http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1355388/Britains-iconic-landmarks-90-years-development-seen-air.html

did the return loop come back on to the met line? we are all sat in the mess room at marylebone looking at old ariel pictures of wembley to try and identify the location, we can see where it comes off the wycombe line but cant see how it turns back on itself!

well i am off to bed, worked the 01:30 off london last night, brum for 03:30 and train home at 05:30, had a bit ofa kip on the sofa in the mess room but you cant beat our own bed!

Not sure about this one

Up on the roof!

Another one from earlier