big jim

Much of the same last night but with a power pack isolated to see how it does with reduced power crewe stafford Varamis unit again Off to oxenhome and then away to Carlisle Back to carnforth and back again to Carlisle Then just before the final trip back to oxley this rolled in and we ended up behind it all the way to winsford, as well as a GB service so it was a drag of a trip back Into wolves to change ends and into oxley same tonight, if it goes well then we won’t need to go out on Thursday, I’ve got more testing next week to Holyhead though

the issue I have with them is on the motorway, if a lorry is coming in the opposite direction, in particular in an area with solid concrete central barriers you the sensor doesn’t seem to pick up on their headlights so it puts the full beam on, of course they are higher up so are getting dazzled and inevitably they put their full beam on, which on some trucks can be like perma noon! the one thing I always turn off straight away when I get a hire car!

One of my few muted people on Twitter along with vine (and I’m a cyclist!)

pretty much, ring the box and tell them what your doing so they know to signal you right into the station at Carlisle we check open train maps at oxenholme to see what’s ahead on the signalling diagrams to get a clear run, last night there was a class 4 (75mph) freight in front of us that we waited until it had passed though Penrith before we set off

not a clue! These runs are really ‘pushing it’ braking and acceleration wise, I think the in service runs will be slower than the time I have to do it in (I hope!)

Night one of avanti testing, turns out it was an 807 not 805 331 in crewe my unit to Stafford changing ends North end another 805 came in on another platform Varamis parcel train heading south A brief stop in crewe where another 805 turned up, a different one to the unit seen in Stafford! Awful colour to get a pic of at night! Then it was away to oxenholme ready to do a timed run to carlisle And into Carlisle, made it in time, 4 seconds under the required time Ready to head back to oxenholme for run 2 had us away early back north to Carlisle, different platform this time but amazingly exactly the same time, 4 seconds under! DRS 57 156 Once that was done it was a bit of a break and a sleep before heading back to oxley Changing ends in Wolverhampton and done same again tonight

until next weekend! taking one to site next weekend so hopefully get a better pic at the other end which is a bit more open

did you do a thread about it or anything, or did you see a guide as I really want to get mine up and running

I’ve not run mine yet as I’m not sure how to DCC it up!

I get a lot of hire cars through work, I called in at Aldi the other day en route to collect my personal car from basford hall, I sat in the car while my wife grabbed some bits, she ended up ringing me from the car park after wondering round it a couple of times as she couldn’t remember what car we had! me and my lad thought it hilarious though as we’d seen her walk past twice but didn’t acknowledge her

I recon that’s the case, I’ve got a pic of it in vic berry’s yard in Leicester in the famous triangle stack too Bachmann have a model of it previously, the old tooling though

im going to have to ask my stepdad about it as its unusual that the ‘box fresh’ wagons are heading to crumps as well as what looks like a shot blasted wagon as there is no way a train could leave the yard and head back along the coast without turning back at the likes of mold jn but again why they would do that I don’t know the only other thing I can think is the tanks may have been coming from Ellesmere Port, some work was outsourced to Jake’s tank services next to the station so I’m wondering if they have been painted/blasted there and are off to crumps for finishing as the TTAs are unbranded

I don’t know why the unit ended up in the shed at Llandudno jn to be honest, this thread from back in 2016 kinds of explains why they were in the area though

Possession train from valley to crewe started by cascading the rear loco from my train to the one behind Back to the pointy end of my train, brake tested and ready to roll and head toward the worksite marker boards The boards were at Ty-Croes where we had to wait for a while before being able to leave The signal box is only a crossing box now, not a block box so the section across Anglesey is from gaerwen to valley We then set off for the possession boards at Bangor and as we were a bit early we had the chance of a quick stop on the Britannia bridge for a pic! Don’t get a chance to get a pic like this every day! Next quick stop was Chester and into basford hall where someone took the train from us and we got away a week of 805 testing to Carlisle then another valley job on Saturday

Here we go, a tripper to C.C. Crumps a bit more variety in a Scotrail 47/7 on a ballast from penmaenmawr or even a 31 dragging a scotrail unit from Llandudno Jn!

i did wonder if it was a replica as I wondered how they got the wings on and off for transportation!

Sandbach transport festival today, lorry day given the towns heritage, TBH if I’d have know I wouldn’t have bothered going until tomorrow when they have lots of cars instead!

A spitfire at Sandbach transport festival today

that didn’t work for me unfortunately

What’s that green No 29 loco? it’s very nice whatever it is but I can’t for the life of me work out what LH & JC stands for!

Finally a new page! had a relaxing evening in the garage doing a few bits and bobs first up was glueing the 2 half’s of mentor together and filling the gaps with fine modelling putty While that cured I painted up some figures to populate the coach Which you can just about see though the windows a quick put together on the track before I took it back apart and rubbed down the putty, gave it a coat of primer to show up any areas that need refilling etc, quite happy with it but it needs a touch more filler on one side While the paint was in the wet pallate I finished off the rest of the seated figures, just need to choose a couple of coaches to fit them to now Put the gutters on the workers cottage Trying something different on another cottage I’m doing, air drying das clay rolled out And stuck to the front of the building 3D printed brick roller off eBay Building front placed on a flat surface and rolled the roller along to create bricks Pushed the clay down into the window holes started to cut them out with a blade but I think it needs to properly cure before I try the smaller windows as the clay was moving too much, it may or may not actually stick to the wood, if not I’ll strip it off and use brick paper but I thought I’d have a go at something different

that doesn’t sound too good!

A ‘do as you likey’

we had that about 15 years back, a crash for cash scam, they tried to claim for a bad neck and back but unfortunately for the other person they didn’t bank on me finding a photo of them an owners club website doing a cartwheel and running up a mountainside 2 days after the crash! he’d claimed he’d been to his GP who said he had whiplash etc but on the same forum had said the week previous that he didn’t have a GP since moving house some 3 years previous! I sent the pics and a screenshot of the GP thread to my insurance company who forwarded them to their solicitor and surprise surprise I didn’t hear a thing back after they got convinced of dangerous driving in the crown court and ended up having the book thrown at them I went through aslef and sued them back, it hadn’t crossed my mind at the time but as he tried it on with me I thought I’d do it back to him especially as he put my then 5 yr old kid and 9 month pregnant wife in hospital, we all got compensation from his insurance, the joys of being in a good union!

never went in the loop, nor rowley Regis so got back to bescot 3 hours early! Worcester tunnel jn bescot loop changing ends to head back into the yard into the yard, Shunters taking it away for me Back home and in bed at the time I should have been sat in rowley Regis loop!