big jim

805s have different engines so have to be type tested as a different class (or something like that!) 807s are pure electric, no diesel engines at all only 4 from today, bescot to toton 66783 up front points failure at Trent east jn meant I got stuck in a line of traffic for an hour, I was 6D44 Into toton, backed over the mainline and into the old bank Loco shunted off and moved over to the down yard ready for some more locos to be coupled up and taken back to bescot Loco swap at shrewsbury tomorrow

Lola and Hank the Black Cats chilling in the shade earlier this evening while John enjoys the last of the rays!

Last day of 805s for me oxley Bangor Chester on the return trip Waiting for the other unit, merseyrail 777 in platform 7 Other one arriving in coupled up and ready to go And off at crewe but no pics there, toton tripper tomorrow, weedsprayer loco swap on Saturday and a valley possession on Sunday then a week of weedspraying out of shrewsbury

Back to it today, 805 to Holyhead again strike day so a full oxley On the up side again so had to wait for a trian to pass before being allowed to cross the mainline by the signaller Quick walk around to check for chocks and not to be moved boards Crewe Into Chester where we uncoupled Bangor holyhead, as the station had avanti units in the platform I had to stable on the wash road catamaran and ferry in the harbour Lifeboat Back to Chester for coupling back up before heading off to crewe Crewe And that was that, same again tomorrow then I’ve copped for a toton tripper on Friday before the weedsprayer on Saturday and another possession at Bangor on Sunday!

Conventional signals have gone, apart from the bit around Machynlleth depot where there are a couple of ground signals but there are block markers, I wonder if the ECML bit will not have any block markers lineside?

forgot about those too, they were still in place but out of use when I first started going to ratcliffe there will be some Dr Who fan along to tell us that’s wrong!

I find it funny that ‘dalek’ is pretty much the universally agreed name for an emergency indicator! it’s way before my time so don’t know, they have always been reflective for me I can C what you mean!

we used to live in a house on ‘Trelech court’ so I know of all sorts of permutations for that name! tree ledge trel-ch tree leck

The neck at gresty bridge has a couple of wagon gap between the end of the line and buffer stop currently, the neck is good for (iirc) 15 falcons but a shunter a few months back didn’t walk the move and call a train back, choosing to stand at the signal at the top of the sidings to stop the train once it was in clear of the signal, the slight problem being he’d miscounted the wagons and there were 17 not 15! I had a safety brief yesterday and one of the point raised was buffer stop collisions and we saw some CCTV from 2018 in theale, where once again the shunter didn’t proceed the move and the train went through the buffers, quite scary to see just how far it managed to go without any tracks, the first wagon hit the buffer stop lifting the whole panel out of the ground by about 4 ft before it came crashing down and then riding over the top, it then managed to push a whole other wagon up and over the demolished stop block before the moment came to a stand! another, less serious but embarrassing incident I know of is when a driver uncoupled a pair of DRS class 20s but forgot to take the jumper cable out, the locos got about 30ft apart before it snapped! of course I’ve been snowy white in my career have never had anything embarrassing happen!

T board, yes, thats what I call it, not really thought about what the start board is other than its actual name Then there R and T/A board now too, for those who don’t know the A is below the T board at the end of a restriction to tell the driver to accelerate when the front of the train reaches the board rather than the rear, mainly seen after say a foot crossing with poor visibily or a history of misuse to save the whole train trundling over the crossing for no real reason

2 that immediately spring to mind for me Talacre - Tall acre clogaenog - cloggy nog when I was a kid the cinema in Bala used it have an advert for the only local Indian restaurant in town, it was done in very posh ‘Queens English’ (popular in rural wales at the time) and the announcer pronounced it ‘Baa-La’ as in a sheep sound and a scouse boy, made us laugh every time! @Pilotman never heard a speed restriction board been called a ‘see board’ before. assuming it’s a restriction board as I’ve not seen a blue one either!

Afternoon out at the SVR visiting the model railway exhibition at Highley started at Bridgnorth 76079 coming in Ran round and on to the shed and back off again A Quick Look on the footplate Hampton loade signal box 20142 Western heading for Bridgnorth Inside the exhibition, absolutely loved this layout, loosely based on fairbourne with driving cars and loads of detail Temple Bridge Back to the station for the train to Bewdley Western up front Colas HST Bewdley Token exchange DMU back to Bridgnorth DMU stabled for the night Taw Valley Safety brief tomorrow

Not many from last night, ballast drop between Lichfield and atherstone (where I got off) freightliner takeover in Bescot my train of 10 autos ran round in Stafford before heading south and doing the drop Atherstone having a day out today as I’m not in work, more pics later

I just saw an elegant dismount

most of the time with our lot is hey have run out of time to unload, I’ve worked one back to peak forest from small heath with 13 of the 21 loaded before now, you suggest leaving the wagons in the yard but they seem insistent on running them back and forth loaded for some reason! it’s a pain as empty you are a class 4, 75 mph train, loaded it’s 60 mph with weight restrictions in place for the heavy axle load! this is actually the first time I’ve seen this thread, very impressed with the layout

I remember when I was little and living near mold, north wales there were a pair of narrow gauge rails sticking out of a raised mound at the end of ‘cannons field’ in Sychdyn, when railmaponline came along I went to see what it may have been but there is no refrence to it, I assumed the mound is some sort of mine or quarry tip Google maps link won’t work so here’s the co-ordinates (53.1850118, -3.1368773) They stick out somewhere near where the gap in the trees is, it was 40 odd years ago so I wonder if they are still there as it’s not changed at all

looks a bit different now days, the only point of reference is the long factory with the small south light roof panels

Not much opportunity for pics last night, ballast to Berkswell Bescot shut down on site waiting for my taxi, the train behind arriving into the station for splitting another ballast tonight but somewhere between Lichfield and nuneaton, think it’s auto hoppers tonight though

Theres a whole thread about Mr Cann and his alias’ here, the thread title is one of his original names but there have been about 4 more since!

and no doubt in a few months another oakhampton based seller will appear selling all the same items i know its more of an item for discussion in the eBay part of the forum but how on earth are they getting away with reappearing after a few months. I’ve certainly reported previous incarnations of the same seller, what’s also puzzling is the huge feedback figures the new seller will have when they reappear!

whoops, meant 2 years!

could well be but it’s still a shocker for a car less than 2 months old!

I know @russ p complains about new MGs being cheap Chinese rubbish so I’m sure he’ll appreciate this! This my current hire car, a 72 plate MG MS suv, not a bad car, does the job it has approx 25k miles on clock and this is the state of the carpets in it, granted there are no mats fitted but that’s shocking! my Skoda Superb has 230k miles on the clock (almost 10x the MG mileage) and the carpets are nowhere near like being in that condition!

I’ve not properly looked at the diagram or ballast notice yet but I’ve got to go to fenny compton to run round via dorridge before heading back along the branch and entering the possession from the Coventry end