Jim’s “out and about with GBRf” thread

[big jim]

Some from last night, had to drive to Derby to leave my van and get a train to reading to meet the NMT but I decided to go to St Pancras and over to Paddington instead, get a few HST pics while I can!

 

Glad I did as it was quite interesting

 

First up in derby was a 387 unit being delivered south by freightliner

 

Then after Pancras it was a tube to paddington, I wonder where this photo was taken, not much to indicate where I am!

 

And into Paddington, nice surprise on the platform of the GWR band giving a free concert, just caught the end of it but info to be had below if you want to catch it yourself

 

 

And then onto the trains

 

 

Another nice surprise as an IEP pulled in

 

 

Old and new

 

 

57604 on the sleeper train, looks stunning in old GWR livery

 

 

 

 

GWR livery HST

 

And then my train arrived

 

Ready to depart

 

387 unit

 

And away we went,I got into the driver seat at Didcot and took it back to derby

 

Almost home

 

 

Final change ends and into the RTC

 

And that was it for the night, shut down and home

 

Couple of videos

 

https://youtu.be/9_S9E8r0Rrw

 

https://youtu.be/gfnbA3NkSMc

Edited September 23, 2017 by big jim

[dvdlcs]

Some from last night, had to drive to Derby to leave my van and get a train to reading to meet the NMT but I decided to go to St Pancras and over to Paddington instead, get a few HST pics while I can!

 

Glad I did as it was quite interesting

 

And into Paddington, nice surprise on the platform of the GWR band giving a free concert, just caught the end of it but info to be had below if you want to catch it yourself

 

 

 

Oh no! I'm sure the composer of the Water Music suite was named Handel...

[big jim]

Oh no! I'm sure the composer of the Water Music suite was named Handel...

Dead mans handel?

[big jim]

And today was collecting the RHTT wagons from bescot

 

97 in coleham

 

70 getting ready to go

 

 

We had to sit and wait for another member of the crew to arrive at shrewsbury, they have done a load of cutting back of shrubs so you can now just about make out the old turntable pit in the triangle behind the box, this is looking back to the pit, you can see the edge just in front of me, the cut down bushes are on the opposite side of it

 

Stabling road running off the turntable

 

And in bescot, wagons collected and ready to roll

 

Shunting into coleham, it's a double shunt to get in the yard, luckily the wagons had a platform on the rear and using back to back radios I rode on it communicating with the driver!

 

Waiting the road to run into the head shunt

 

And all parked up

[corneliuslundie]

Are you driving the special on the Cambrian Coast line next month? I assume it will have to be class 97s from Coleham.

Jonathan

[CazRail]

Are you taking a Tamper to Aberystwyth today...?

[Iron Horse]

What traction have we got this year on the RHTT please Jim?

[big jim]

Are you taking a Tamper to Aberystwyth today...?

No not me, may need to nick the 97 off it later though when it gets back to coleham!

What traction have we got this year on the RHTT please Jim?

56s and 97s again

Are you driving the special on the Cambrian Coast line next month? I assume it will have to be class 97s from Coleham.

Jonathan

No not me, don't sign the ERTMS yet

[Rugd1022]

Nice selection of shots there Jim, good to see dear old Paddington again. I'm off to Bescot tonight, the first of four nights on the trot with 6V25 to Hinksey. Rock on (G)WR!

[big jim]

Not been to Hinksey for a while, passed it at speed a couple of times in the last week though (best way to see it really)

 

Only 2 from today

 

3 freightliner 66s departing crewe station

 

Then I turned out the train we left in coleham yesterday was facing the wrong way (generator needed to be at the south end) so we had to do a turning move, I was hoping to merely go round the triangle towards abbey Forgate and propel back towards the station then head back to coleham but one of the signal boxes didn't want a propel move to happen within their station limits (despite having radios and a platform to ride on at the rear of the train) so we had to get a path from shrewsbury to Wrexham/Chester/crewe and back to shrewsbury so the train went round in a big loop ending up facing south which is what we did

 

Ready to depart

 

Caught people by surprise as it was a vstp move but a former school friend happened to be on Chester station and got a shot of us passing through

Picture by Richard spray

 

And that was about it really, had trains to catch so no more pics at coleham but we put a 97 on the the set too and parked up the 70 to await the arrival of another batch of them (and 2 56s) in readiness for a big job at the weekend

[Swifty11]

Nice pictures and info Jim!

 

Have you got any of the engineers jobs this weekend? Hopefully some nice 56s or winning 70s for the Sunday morning runs. 

[big jim]

yeah, got a couple of trains to and from huyton and roby, 56s and 70s on them

[Powerhaul 70 Pey]

yeah, got a couple of trains to and from huyton and roby, 56s and 70s on them

Good to see some Colas action coming up in the north west. I will try and see the Sunday morning trains. Thanks for the information Jim.

[big jim]

some from last night, did a job to liverpool, thought i was working at huyton but turned out it was down the branch to the docks near anfield 

 

basford hall, firing up mine and another drivers locos

 

shunted round

 

and into site, not fantastic pics as i didnt have a tripod

 

 

after dropping ballast on one side it was all the way back towards edge hill to cross over and do the other side

 

then once complete wait for the paperwork

 

and away to exit the possession at mosseley hill, exiting my worksite at bootle branch jn with its interesting (previously discussed) bridge hole

 

through picop land and into the next worksite

 

changed ends at edge hill

 

 

and away to the possession exit

 

and into basford hall, shunted and locos parked up, no pics as it was a long day and i wanted to get the train away and home to bed!

[Powerhaul 70 Pey]

Hello Jim did you take 70802 from Carnforth to Crewe yesterday?  I am hoping to see some Colas engineers trains tomorrow morning in the Warrington area.

[Davexoc]

Some stunning night shots in there, you could start a new thread with some of them, 'When the real thing looks like a SIM'.

 

Dave

[big jim]

Only managed 2 from today, working at Huyton, taking the train back to crewe

 

Sat in the worksite ready to head off to St. Helens jn at a leisurely 5mph all the way

 

Discovered something new on the class 70 tonight which was great fun, I've known about it for a while but never got it to work until today, it's called 'plug mode' which is part of the slow speed controls, basically with it engaged the loco will stay at whatever speed you put into the computer while going down hill

 

I set off from Huyton to rainhill which is up hill all the way so had the slow speed set to 5mph (max speed within the worksite) but once past there the line drops all the way to sankey viaduct so I had a go at 'plug mode' as far as the worksite marker boards

 

basically you toggle it and the slow speed on using the computer, inputting your chosen speed then the bit that doesn't feel right is you put the throttle to 0 and put the direction handle in reverse while moving forwards then take power again but this time instead of the loco powering up the higher the throttle number you choose the more the dynamic brake operates to hold you back to whatever speed you have already chosen!

 

I had just short of 1200 ton behind me at 5mph and notch 2 on the throttle (i.e. Brake) held me at 5mph all the way, the slow speed control then kept me at 5mph in the flat bits without me having to touch anything!

 

I must admit I am very very impressed with the function and can see me using it a lot now I know how, I also discovered it can be set from a standing start too, so if it can be set while setting back then backing into chirk at 3mph will be a breeze

 

Only one more pic while I was walking back to my van of a DRS 68

 

Back to yellow trains later, 73s around the north west again

[big jim]

Lots of proper camera pics today but here is a taster iPhone photo until I have a chance to upload them all

 

Helsby Jn

[big jim]

so proper camera pics...

 

started off by going passenger to stockport where i had 20 mins to wait for my taxi so i hung around the platform knowing there was a cement train due

 

323

 

the plane, the plane!!

 

cement train coming into view

 

voyager

 

66610

 

another plane

 

then over to northernden jn to wait for my train, it was running 90 late at one point and was 70 late getting to northenden jn

 

DB 66

 

freightliner 66

 

 

and heading off to hazel grove

 

142 passing by

 

the line towards stockport heading off in the distance, it becomes a single line just beyond the bridge

 

66 again

 

and my train

 

 

waiting at Mobberley for the section to plumley

 

wrexham

 

then a trip to bidston and back to wrexham central

 

 

helsby

 

and over to warrington

 

 

then back to chester 

 

and that was that, same train again tonight then pick up a UTU to go to holyhead and bangor 

[big jim]

Some from last night, 73s again, this time from crewe diesel depot

 

 

Where a 42XX was being delivered for repair, amazing to watch it practicaly offloaded in lass than 30 mins!

 

 

Then off we went to northwich via sandbach, at Middlewich we had a spurious brake demand which halted us for about 40 mins, had to fault find the problem, as the 73s can be a bit let's say, temperamental, had jumper cables out, isolated bits and bobs, reinstated them, shut them down, restarted them to no avail, it was starting to look like game over when the OTT pointed at the pass comm butterfly valve on the outside of one of the coaches and noticed that it was in the 'pulled' position despite there only being 3 on board and that coach was locked out, we recon that as we passed some close trees a branch must have hit the butterfly valve and opened it! Anyway we got it shut and the brake came back, what was confusing us was there was no significant escape of air from that coach to indicate the pass comm had been pulled so we by default went to 'worst case scenario' mode and went to the loco to look for problems!

 

With he likes of MK3's if a pass comm is pulled you put it in full service so when you walk back you can hear the coach with the pulled pass comm 'whistle' so you know where to look and it saves a lot of hunting around for the pulled chord

 

Anyway after that delay and due to the slack timings we still arrived into northwich early and headed off to Chester, a good run as northern were on strike so I never got stuck behind anything'

 

 

And away to warrington again

 

Where I got off and went pass back to Chester to pick up a UTU to conduct it to Holyhead at 30mph where we went into the sidings

 

Changed ends and back out to Bangor where we stabled for the day

 

Back on it tonight to Chester where another driver takes over and takes it to Cardiff at 30mph all the way!

[Great Western]

Which end is the loco on please ? i.e Loco leading to Crewe etc trying to work out where to go tomorrow when it comes down here.

 

Ta

[big jim]

Loco leading to crewe with no planned turns

[big jim]

Just a few from last night, Bangor to Chester with the UTU

 

Bangor with typical north Wales weather

 

 

And into Chester and home in my van

 

Anyone else on the coast see the burn off flame at point of Ayr gas plant last night, in all the years I've been along (and lived) in the coast I've never seen the flame so big!!

[big jim]

And some from yesterday, NMT to Holyhead and Liverpool

 

Crewe first, postman pat passing by

 

And my train

 

Chester

 

Llandudno jn (panorama pic hence the wonky platform edge!)

 

Holyhead

 

 

Back in Chester

 

Crewe with the 73s lurking in the background

 

Edge hill

 

Then it was back to crewe and back to edge hill again, recorded both fast and slow lines hence the 2 trips

 

Temporary walking route as all Lime st bound trains are turning back at south parkway, some have to continue to edge hill depot to turn back as I did

 

Then as we were running an hour early I had a chance to fuel the train at crewe, also gave it a run through the wash and watered it too

 

 

Nice little 08

 

That was it, parked up and home to bed

[big jim]

Just a few from last night

 

Derby to Birmingham and Rugeley with 37175

 

 

New st

 

Rugeley

 

 

Then back to new st and Derby, couldn't be bothered with any more pics after that one!