Jim’s “out and about with GBRf” thread

[Chris116]

Enjoy your rest and hope all goes well with being passed out on the 805s on Thursday.

[Bruced]

Jim, One of your 66’s has escaped in Scotland. 

[nightstar.train]

8 hours ago, Bruced said:

Jim, One of your 66’s has escaped in Scotland. 

Massive thanks to the driver of this loco who gave me and my lad a cab ride up and down the platform. It’s my boys favourite engine class so he was absolutely thrilled. (I was more thrilled by the class 37s thrashing up the hill 😃)

[big jim]

Had to go home today for something so let the train take the strain, booking advance tickets worked out at £35 for the 3 of us so not worth the hassle of a 300 mile round trip on the M6 plus the cost of diesel,  Just as well we were in no rush as the train we were booked on was cancelled so we had to wait for the next one an hour later, luckily for us that made us 61 mins late into crewe so I went straight onto delay repay and claimed the cost of the tickets back, the return was then 70+ minutes late so I’ve claimed for that too, so hopefully a free trip! 
 

couple of things in Carlisle 

 

colas 56 heading for Doncaster via the s+c 

 

TPE units

 

 

that was about it, in Thursday next hopefully doing the 805s 

[big jim]

Had a day away from my break to finally get passed out on some new traction, it tied in nicely with being at my caravan so nice and convenient

 

caught the train from Carlisle to Preston first 

57307 in the sidings 

 

pride Pendolino heading to Glasgow 

 

88 heading south 

 

Northern 158

 

My train to preston

 

The same 88 passing through Preston 

 

My train back north, 805001 

 

Back into Carlisle 

 

 

Pride Pendolino heading back south 

 

A good run north to Glasgow Central, absolutely flew along, 110mph feels like you’re barely moving and the acceleration is amazing! 

 

Lovely station 

 

Scrubbed up nicely today, even had a shirt on!

 

Ready to head back south 

 

I didn’t drive back to Carlisle, heading toward beattock passing a Pendolino, with a closing speed of about 220mph! 

 

I got back in the seat at Carlisle and drove it to Preston where I got back off 

 

Back into Carlisle where I realised the Pendolino I was on was City Of Carlisle

 

that’s me until Monday now when I think I’ll be road learning for an upcoming engineering job 

 

 

[BR traction instructor]

...didn't recognise you there in scrubbed up mode Jim 😃👍

 

BeRTIe

[Jack374]

Nice to chat to you on Tuesday Jim, totally by coincidence! Nearly saw you again today…I was at Carlisle heading home and the 805 pulled in. In the time it took me to finish my conversation you must’ve got in the hot seat and were off again. The 805 was in Preston when I arrived, but when I headed over I spoke to SB who said you’d already gone!

 

I'll be back up at Carlisle next week…I’m not stalking, honest! 😇

 

Thanks,

Jack.

[lmsforever]

Thanks for an interesting post you certainly  did some traveling good to see pics of Glasgow I always enjoyed my trips there Central is indeed a great place and has a special atmosphere,how does it feel to doing 110mph over the WCML?

[big jim]

23 hours ago, lmsforever said:

how does it feel to doing 110mph over the WCML?

it’s certainly different to slogging up there with a 66, the acceleration on the unit is something else, 105mph at the bottom of Shap and barely cracked open climbing the hill, had a lot more to think about than on a 75mph freight, had to remember where the likes of 90mph restrictions were and also remember neutral sections as I’ve not driven an electric before (other than 86101) 

 

looking forward to getting on them on a regular basis though, might get enough trips in to sign through to Glasgow! 

Edited June 2, 2023 by big jim

[5BarVT]

And you would have been able to do 100 through Carstairs with the new layout.  (110 EPS for pendos).

Paul.

[big jim]

2 hours ago, 5BarVT said:

And you would have been able to do 100 through Carstairs with the new layout.  (110 EPS for pendos).

Paul.

yeah the new set up is impressive, only downside was a 50 esr at the north end so couldn’t give it the beans 

[big jim]

Went out this afternoon and had a ride on the ravensglass and Eskdale, started and ended at dalgarth, river esk the loco 

 

 

Passed northen rock en route

 

Shunter at ravensglass

turning the loco

 

We had an hour there, caught the last train back which was diesel hauled

 

Northern rock arrived back in and shunted it’s train away 

 

 

Lovely clear day 

 

 

 

 

 

Back home tomorrow then class 69 move on Monday, road learning Tuesday to Thursday then another 69 move Friday 

 

Edited June 3, 2023 by big jim

[corneliuslundie]

And we all thought you were going to stay away from trains!

Jonathan

[Chris116]

2 hours ago, corneliuslundie said:

And we all thought you were going to stay away from trains!

Jonathan

Jim relaxes away from trains on trains! He just can't keep away. Just the way I like to live my life.

[big jim]

Back to it today, weedsprayer move, caught the train from crewe 

 

northern 331 

 

EMR 170 to derby 

 

And over to toton

 

 

 

 

 

 

Into bescot 

 

Took the loco off and run round to couple to the other to stable as it was having a loco swap for colas 97s to go down the Cambrian and heart of wales 

 

That should have been my day up but it then became apparent that there were no locos booked or come to bescot to go on it so I ended up putting 69002 back on the far end of the train again and taking it to coleham with the 69s!

 

wolverhampton, held me there for a bit so I managed to get a snack and drink

 

A triple shunt in coleham to get into the yard

 

Removed the lead 69

 

Then ‘borrowed’ 97303 to go out and pick the sprayer up from the neck

 

 

Took 69005 off and parked it up with the other one ready for me to collect in the morning now 

 

once I’ve moved the locos back to bescot I’ve got a day of road learning from Kidderminster to Worcester and onward to Cheltenham spa, might try and get Bromsgrove to droitwich and Stoke works to abbotswood in too, got 3 days of it this week then a few more the week after 

 

 

[corneliuslundie]

I notice the timber wagon is still at the end of the headshunt at Coleham. I assume it had a hot box or similar.

And a question. A few weeks ago I saw the Aberystwyth logs pass through Newtown with an NR 97 and a non-ERTMS fitted 37 (Harry Needle I think). How does that work?

Jonathan

[big jim]

Yeah the wagon is still there. Don’t know why though,

 

they can send non ertms fitted locos down there as long as it’s not the leading loco, they would be in multi so they can both power, that will be why it was down there 

[corneliuslundie]

Thanks. So some shunting at Aber.

Jonathan

[big jim]

13 minutes ago, corneliuslundie said:

Thanks. So some shunting at Aber.

Jonathan

Ill have to ask my mate at colas how it’s done but it’s possible the non ertms loco could go dead on the rear of the train to aber as it’s a lot lighter and down hill that way then be fired up and multi’d to the 97 for the heavy run back up tallerddig 

[big jim]

First up today was retrieving the 69s from shrewsbury 

 

this may be of interest, a black shunt disc, not many about (although I saw 2 today!) 

 

with the route set for the sidings (left) I can pass it in its ‘on’ position as many times as I like

 

when the road is set to the mainline (Right) that signal now applies to me and if I pass it in it’s ‘on’ position it’s a SPAD

 

when it’s ‘off’ I can go out to the mainline 

 

A quick trip to bescot with them, caught the other green loco, 66779, while I was shunting them into the yard 

 

 

stabled up until Friday 

 

I then went off to tame bridge for a train to new st 

 

I couldn’t get in the cab of a train to Worcester from there so I went out to smethwick Galton bridge to get one from there

 

 

Unfortunately I couldn’t get in there either so I rode in the train to droitwich, passed the Stourbridge town car en route 

 

Droitwich, spent 1/2 hour here studying the maps and signalling, simple enough 

 

 

 

Got in the cab of a train to Worcester shrub hill, again not a lot to see en route, simple line but the station itself is quite complex with lots of strange ‘western’ quirks, signals on the wrong side, one line over, ground frame signals on the goods etc

 

looking out toward norton jn 

 

Restored waiting rooms 

 

Birmingham end signals, the one nearest has a mechanical stencil indicator attached, the rear multi signal is for the other platform and can take you toward hereford, the sidings or Birmingham.

 

The goods line has 2 signals either end of the yard which are operated from a ground frame which is left in the ‘pulled’ position for normal running, (I think stationmaster mentioned it in the ‘speed signalling’ thread as being unusual)

 

It operates the signal at the end of the 196 unit and a similar one on the up line, when set to danger by the shunter it allows trains to shunt around within the signal section, since I last went to Worcester route learning (with colas about 10 years ago) they have reinstated the sidings between the goods and the ‘Oxford bay’ for stabling 196s and there are a couple of sets of crossovers within the shunt limits as well as new points into the yard etc

 

Back to the station and this is the other black shunt signal today, also the canopy mounted disc signal 1/2 way down the platform which is actually the main aspect! 

 

I was going to spend a bit more time here but a train to Cheltenham came in so I jumped in that to see that bit, unfortunately this is where it went all wrong!

 

as we approached ashchurch we got a yellow stopping us at a red before the station, it then pulled off and we got a signal section further along, turned out there was a complete signal failure between ashchurch and Barnwood jn, it made us over an hour late into Cheltenham with info saying disruption expected until 19:00 so I ended up getting a taxi back to Worcester to try and get a train home, not long after I got in the taxi the problem was cleared! 
 

I got back to Worcester and missed the direct train to Birmingham so I jumped in the cab of a GWR 800 at Forgate st

 

and got off at the new Worcestershire parkway station which serves both the Cotswold and Birmingham to Bristol line 

 

 

 

From there I got a cross country to Birmingham as things were running fairly smoothly by then, gave me a chance to look at the line to Bromsgrove, again simple enough so won’t take many trips to get that in my head 

 

same again tomorrow but I’ll concentrate on Kidderminster to Worcester if I can get in the cabs, try and spend a bit more time in shrub hill watching trains come and go and visit the signal box 

[CovDriver]

Great pics Jim, if you was on the service before at Tamebridge I would have been your chauffeur to New St. 

 

 

[big jim]

I only Just missed that one, I was walking under the bridge from the yard when it pulled in to the platform, think you might have blew up for me 

[corneliuslundie]

Interesting to see the distant ground signals. I have come across one before somewhere completely different but as you say they are pretty rare. Two different designs, too. Now everyone will be trying to find an excuse for one on their model railway.

At least you didn't get delayed by horses on the line - north of Abergavenny on Saturday afternoon. There was also a fatality between Birmingham and Wolverhampton over the weekend.

Jonathan

[big jim]

They aren’t ‘distant’ signals but proper shunt discs, the difference being you can pass them as described in the previous post 

 

I seem to remember the sidings around dr days junction in Bristol have (or maybe now had) LED colour light versions of them 

[St. Simon]

1 hour ago, big jim said:

They aren’t ‘distant’ signals but proper shunt discs, the difference being you can pass them as described in the previous post 

 

I seem to remember the sidings around dr days junction in Bristol have (or maybe now had) LED colour light versions of them 

 

Hi Jim,

 

Yep, there's at least one 'Yellow-Yellow' Shunt at Bristol, a couple of Swindon, one at Chessington South and a couple more around the country. Banned for new works since 2002.

 

Mechanical Yellow Shunts are very rare, the only one I've seen is on the Mid Hants at Medstead!

 

1 hour ago, corneliuslundie said:

Interesting to see the distant ground signals. I have come across one before somewhere completely different but as you say they are pretty rare. Two different designs, too. Now everyone will be trying to find an excuse for one on their model railway.

Jonathan

 

They are way over used on Model Railways, as everyone assumes you use for signalling into a Headshunt or Private Line, which is true, but they were always fairly rare.

 

Simon