Saturday 28th October 2017
Ok, so, today, I got to see my fledgling layout in its infancy. The overall track layout hasn't changed much since its original plan back in the spring, since then the layout has gradually come to the fruition, and now, with the discussions I have had with the project director today, that the layout track plan is now finalised and the other parts of the layout not shown. The main part of the layout is going to be electrified with the reverse head shunt to be electr
In the words of the great Richard Wilson
I doooooo not beeeeliieeeeeeeeevvveee it...
For the last few months, I have been trying to explore ways to have my third Bachmann Class 90 re-liveried into my favourite class member, 90024 in its current colours of Malcolm Rail, (for those of you who dont know) the rail Division of Malcolm Logistics, who operate daily freight routes from Mossend to Daventry on the West Coast Mainline - (and a train which runs p
16th September 2020
Its been quite a busy time for those paying attention to the world of the Class 90, Freightliner have not that long ago acquired Greater Anglia's 90s with them going to EMUs, they have also been in the process of reliverying several of these into G&A Orange and black and even more recently than that, they have started putting some of them into service, even those which were are still in ex-GA are now working on FL workings, which tehnically means Freightliner
19th March - Multimodal arrives
Christmas 2020 for Johnson Street was one which would see the arrival of two more DB Cargo Class 90s. They would both be red and would hopefully add to the variety of DB liveries that will litter Johnson Street.
It was always envisaged that their arrival would be in the early part of 2021, this further delayed by a few decalling issues, availability and then the emergence of the Glider decals for 90037, which ironically was the one loco I d
Saturday 1st May 2021
Having thought my 90 pool was going to remain at six for the foreseeable future, I underestimated one key consideration, "desire"... :-)
Having seen a couple of 90s which had wetted my taste buds, a Grand Central liveried one and also a Scotrail liveried one, this was the inevitable sign of things to come.
The latter of these two really interests me as Johnson Street IEMD is going to become a centre of excellence for the maintenance of
Loco update - March 2024
Latest DB90 to join Johnson Street IEMD
90035 was one of DB's active 90s during their tenure of the contract to provide traction for MALCOLM Group. 90035 was, during this time, repainted from tired EWS livery with faded decals into new DB red but unlike matching classmates 90019 and 90028 wasn't named.
One of my first DB90s to join my fleet was 90028, named Sir William McAlpine, nicknamed "Bill", named at York's National Railway Museu
23rd November 2022
The advent of my layout returning home following the sad passing of good WCML and model Rail enthusiast Ian Rae in September known to some here as amertonman, has seen my OLE plans changing somewhat.
The original plan was to be using nBrass and whilst this may still feature in some capacity, the main catenary sections are here and now going to be using ebay innovator blueflash90 whose catenary is available on ebay currently.
Tonight, having
23rd September 2021
As the layout continues to move forward, the depot scenes continue to gain a more polished look - although different in their usage and track work access, both the electric shed and the long term maintenance sheds are operated by the same TOC so they will get the same sort of treatment - expect to see a similar look to the electric shed, as seen here, with the yellow hazard markings for the inspection pit edges soon also.
Just beyond the Buffer Stop wi
11th September 2021
OLE
Yesterday (writing this, on Sunday) I had a brief visit to see how things are coming along with the layout - getting to see the backscene board nicely in place, looking at where the OLE masts would be placed and what exact form they would take - PIC 4 shows roughly how it might look - having found some brackets a couple of years ago that ''might be'' adapted - siilar in overall resulting appearance to those seen at Chester's Making Tracks layout -
6th September 2021
Whilst I was chasing Cans and Dysons, my eager beaver @amertonman was pulling my backscene and cracking on at pace to get my layout finished off.
The idea is that a long enough fiddle yard siding will be sufficient to rotate the loco movements to depict their movements in and out of Johnson Street IEMD.
This is all good progress ... i am actually pinching myself :-)
OLE's coming soon .... Wooooooooooooooo !!!!!!
Then
1st September 2021
September, that spiffingly super month - and the electric depot now has its hardstanding sorted, following on from the work to do a similar thing at the Long Term maintenance shed. Thank you @amertonmanfor the speedy progress - expertly modelled by Multimodal, Armistice and Shed 65.
31st August 2021
The man in charge of bringing Johnson Street IEMD to life is making tracks on the later parts of the project and having undertaken an exercise in testing all of the points and their respective motors - he's now laid the hard standing between the tracks on the Long Term repair shed before undertaking a similar exercise on what will be the electric depot. Voila !!!
22nd August 2021
Having recently changed to a new project manager who has the time and know how to complete the project. The layout has also been moved nearer to its eventual position and as part of preliminary inspections, the layout wiring has been adjusted and is all now working as it was originally plumbed in - thank you @amertonman.
@amertonman has also been tasked with harnassing the third of my DCC sound chips for a Class 66 to a recent acquisition, Bachmann's most
7th August 2021 - Malcolm (90024) and Multimodal (90019) at Making Tracks
Having first laid eyes on the Chester Cathedral layout on Youtube several months ago, seen below on Hornby Magazine's clip, I just knew i had to see it, not on someone's video as such, but get out there and see it in the flesh, there have been a number of exhibitions where OLE layouts have been present but this was probably the first where i was either (a) able to get involved in or (b) had sufficient en
1st August 2021
Having recently attended the Making Tracks event at Chester Cathedral a few weeks ago and firstly got stuck in traffic, secondly, got stuck with my CVs - Bill made a oh so brief but not very impressive appearance - Jack, faired slightly better - see third and fourth clips - and possibly a tiny little boob with the coupling rods on the Bachmann intermodals, a third time lucky mission was sought, and in order to do this, my Skoda CVs needed adjustment and through this p
7th June 2021
A recent opportunity presented itself to make one of my DB90s sound fitted and knowing that two of them were still analogue. It was a toss up between Barbie and Bellshill to get the nod, well its ladies first and Barbie has gone digital and the sound has gone to Multimodal which I expect to be the busier of the two.
A quick clip of this is below:
26th May 2021
With the ready supply of DB Cargo Class 90s out of Crewe IEMD due to Grand Central's demise, DB have opted to increase the number of different services 90s are hauling, starting with a trial on 4X40 Shell /BP tanker service from Warrington bank Quay to Wembley sidings, seen passing Rose Heath to the south. Meanwhile Malcolm rail 90024 out on test but failed just south of Rose Heath station.
Note:
In the real world, there is a place near Lockerbi
Layout Update
On a day when three DB Cargo Class 90s went to Warrington to recover a Class 325, three DB Class 90s also made a short trip down the line to Johnson Street IEMD. Multimodal, Malcolm and DB Blue all got chance to see their forthcoming new home and I got to see how much progress has been made and also what's still to do before Johnson Street IEMD is signed for active workings.
Palisade fencing has gone in around the main electric shed including a gate out to
10th May 2021
Soooooo good news, a little more headway on the layout the access to the yard is nearly sorted, the fencing alongside the diesel depot.
The ground outside the postal depot lorry access area now has a hard standing.
The long term store siding is a bit more greener.
Pictures of progress made
What a great prize !!!
Imagine Backbone@JohnsonstreetIEMD !!!
He would fit nicely in with the "Team Red Skodas" at Johnson Street IEMD !!!
Kat@johnsonstreetIEMD
Johnson Street IEMD on Youtube
Johnson Street IEMD on Instagram
DB Cargo UK (@DBCargoUK) Tweeted:
We’re giving away a Class 90 model to celebrate the findings of a report commissioned by the Rail Delivery Group which highlights the value of rail frei
Like it or not ?
DB Cargo's latest Class 90 relivery comes in the form of an unusual black livery with the "backbone of the economy branding" on the side and a promotional video to follow with it.
As an active follower of the DB90, I was surprised when I first saw this some weeks ago, initially thinking it was all about peculiar. It turns out DB in Germany did the same with another electric loco, I'm guessing electric hauled freight plays a much greater part as opposed to
Sunday 21st February 2021
Rewritten (27th)
Having recently added Pride of Bellshill or as I now fondly refer to him "Bellshill" (DB Schenker liveried 90018) back in October, I thought it extremely unlikely that I would be looking at two skodas poking their heads out of my stocking on Christmas day but tis the season of magical things, isnt it ? Like it snowing, the lovely food we all get to eat, seeing friends and family, we should all enjoy this soooo much more next time
January 2021 Update
DB 66139 gets sound ... and ...
Recent arrival Ex-EWS DB liveried Bachmann Class 66 has now been sound fitted, thank you to @amertonman (with a Bachmann 66 sound chip and speaker). Do I keep the host sound 66 027 ? well, I think it's probably going to go, but im still umming and arring on that subject, we'll see... Currently, two of my three DB66s are now sound fitted, 66009 and now 66139, its my intention to get 66065 sound fitted, and when t
