Jim’s “out and about with GBRf” thread

[big jim]

1 hour ago, 5BarVT said:

Do you have to arrange for the hire car to be returned when you get a changed turn at short notice?  Or do Control do Road vehicles too?

Paul.

luckily the driver who was with me road learning the s+c part took the car I left at hellifield and I took the one he left at tuebrook so it worked out good but otherwise I’d have had to somehow at some point gone back to hellifield to retrieve it, quite when and how I don’t know! 
 

in normal circumstances where we’re done with a car that’s not going to another driver we fill out an app with its location etc and it’s collected, the local enterprise hire car place isn’t far from my house so I sometimes drop them off there to save space outside the house

 

There is a dedicated road fleet planning department who work out the vehicle plan for the week, I don’t envy their job as it’s as complicated as the train planning with more things to go wrong such as cars not turning up, drivers getting swapped so cars are left stranded, only this week I’ve found 2 ‘most wanted’ missing cars in various places which I’ve managed to use instead of a taxi and return to the local depot, tomorrow morning I’ve just been told by my relief that his car hasn’t turned up so I’ve got to taxi home from site (thankfully only 15 miles), luckily that car isn’t needed by anyone else afterwards so it’s not a hardship and the car i got from Liverpool yesterday will stay with me for the rest of the week to get to and from oxley 

 

 

Edited March 23 by big jim

[corneliuslundie]

"they came over bleating and started following me"

You mean you forgot to take the Sweetlick"?

Jonathan

[big jim]

40 minutes ago, corneliuslundie said:

"they came over bleating and started following me"

You mean you forgot to take the Sweetlick"?

Jonathan

They must have sensed I’m Welsh 

[big jim]

Popped to the MIOG show earlier in crewe heritage centre, I don’t model O gauge but went for a nose anyway and had a look at the visiting class 20s from LSL, very nice indeed 

 

 

 

 

 

Some sort of new build loco, info in the link below 

 

https://newprincegeorgesteam.org.uk

 

 

 

O gauge class 69!

 

 

Edited March 23 by big jim

[Mol_PMB]

It wasn’t the only 69, here are two more!

I think your colleague @birdbath needs one to go with his GBRf 60… but perhaps not the £1650 version. 

[big jim]

An interesting night to say the least! 
 

started in basford hall taking a train to site at plumley 

 

 

my loco at the front with our own mike Delamar photo bombing me!

 

and from here on in it went down hill!

 

first up I put my hard hat on the hot plate not realising it was on 

then I dropped a whole bag of crisps on the floor, and I hadn’t left the yard yet

 

surely that was it for bad luck?

 

Off we went, Mike left with his train first with a single loco front and I followed top and tail, it was an unusual situation as the locos needed to be cascaded but also switch to the opposite line when arriving at plumley so we both went through plumley and headed to the single line between northenden jn and hazel grove where we entered a possession put in place purely for us to do swap locos, once cascaded and changed ends it was back out of the possession toward plumley and into the main possession where the work was taking place

 

I got to the cascade possession, permission to enter and stop at the back of mikes train, chopped my loco off and put it on the rear of mikes train (making it his lead loco back to plumley), we did a brake test and Mike walked back while I walked forward to my rear loco (which was now my leading loco)

 

as Mike walked back his loco for some reason shut down and no matter what he did couldn’t get it to restart, it had been fine for me all night up until that point and it had to be declared a failure, of course without that train on site the possession was in danger of being cancelled! 
 

came up with the solution to couple the trains together and work it as one to site so at least it was there, could be put into position and worked on, the only issue being things like length, weight and having a dead loco in the middle of the consist which NR weren’t happy about but I found a work around in the rulebook and our own operating appendix which allowed it to move so i backed my train up, coupled, brake tested and awaited further instruction!

 

Mike got in the rear loco and using radios to maintain contact throughout we set off for plumley with him giving me a shove where required (which surprisingly was only on one occasion) 

 

the train was an absolute monster but the 66 handled it well, I took my time to avoid braking too much as there were a lot of wagons, it weighted about 3200 ton and was 3/4 mile long, as an idea if it had been stood in platform 13 at Manchester Piccadilly the rear end would have been at the deansgate end of Oxford road station! 
 

And I got relief at plumley as the sun rose 

 

before I set off we got the train to draw forward so the broken loco was sat in the station for the fitter who was already en route 

 

 

as I say an interesting night, even if it hadn’t gone wrong the move into a dedicated possession to cascade was unusual by itself

 

back in tomorrow, 805 testing all week 

 

[corneliuslundie]

Not one anyone is likely to be able to recreate on a model, except perhaps in T gauge. 15 metres long in 4 mm.

And not sure a 4 mm Class 66 would cope.

Jonathan

[Nick C]

So was the dedicated possession simply a way of allowing both trains to be in the same block section?

[big jim]

2 hours ago, Nick C said:

So was the dedicated possession simply a way of allowing both trains to be in the same block section?

basically yes! 

[Ray M]

Sounds like a ghost in the machine, on 66778.

[WessexEclectic]

On 24/03/2024 at 12:30, big jim said:

...came up with the solution to couple the trains together and work it as one to site so at least it was there, could be put into position and worked on, the only issue being things like length, weight and having a dead loco in the middle of the consist which NR weren’t happy about but I found a work around in the rulebook and our own operating appendix which allowed it to move...

Tidy.

Edited March 26 by WessexEclectic
Translated into Welsh...

[big jim]

46 minutes ago, WessexEclectic said:

Tidy.

I like to find work arounds, the NR guys on the ground were also glad of it as they needed it moving asap, the electronic rulebook is an absolute boon when things go wrong and you have to think on your feet 

 

had it not been able to move the whole possession could have been cancelled and there were already 3 other trains on site waiting to start work, I believe the loco was a complete failure in the end and they managed to use one of the other locos on site to go back and rescue it, thankfully it was the last train in the queue! 
 

Edited March 26 by big jim

[newbryford]

Was 66778 the dodgy loc?

If so - it also failed at Ribblehead last week..... 

[SM42]

8 hours ago, big jim said:

I like to find work arounds, the NR guys on the ground were also glad of it as they needed it moving asap, the electronic rulebook is an absolute boon when things go wrong and you have to think on your feet 

 

had it not been able to move the whole possession could have been cancelled and there were already 3 other trains on site waiting to start work, I believe the loco was a complete failure in the end and they managed to use one of the other locos on site to go back and rescue it, thankfully it was the last train in the queue! 
 

 

The real success here is that 18 months of planning and quite a few pounds were saved by sorting this out. 

 

It is this sort of problem solving that often goes un noticed but keeps the job going. 

 

From cascading locos, buying some tools at a nearby garage to fix a tamper to this sort of solution.

It all helps keep the job going. 

 

It's all too easy  to throw in the towel and waste thousands of hours and pounds in the process

 

Well done Jim 

 

Andy

[big jim]

Seems like ages since I’ve been in work, the 805 jobs were cancelled all week so I’ve been spare but got asked to work last night 

 

conducting a stone blower for Harsco from walsall to soho Jn and back 

 

soho jn at the end of the job, 2 machines on site tamping side by side, waiting for the 2nd machine to couple up to head back to the depot 

 

soho depot

 

possesison tomorrow in Warrington then a few days of Stoke diverts and an 805 to Carlisle at the end of the week 

[corneliuslundie]

The 805 testing seems to be cancelled quite often. Odd if they want to get them into service. Or are there problems? (if you are allowed to say)

Jonathan 

[big jim]

2 hours ago, corneliuslundie said:

The 805 testing seems to be cancelled quite often. Odd if they want to get them into service. Or are there problems? (if you are allowed to say)

Jonathan 

no issues with the 805, last minute emergency engineering was put in place which prevented the run 

[big jim]

Possession last night at Acton grange, the work was done where we got there, had to do one propelling move though to clear some track circuits 

 

66707 up front 

 

 

we then headed off back to crewe via Manchester but had to wait over 2 hours in longsight goods loop for another possession further down the line to be lifted 

 

into basford hall 

 

class 47 on the walk back to the car 

 

mixed bag tonight, landor st to stockport via Warrington and chat moss then crewe to nuneaton with the mossend car train 

[big jim]

Running around all over the shop last night 

 

started at landor st with an empty stone train to Stockport due to the landslide at new mills and various other planned line closures it had to go via Warrington and chat moss 

 

landor st 

 

waiting outside castlefield for an intermodal to pass from trafford park 

 

Into Stockport, running 30 late 

 

We then jumped into our hire car and headed back to crewe to pick up the car train to nuneaton 

 

crewe

 

Into Nuneaton 

 

change of job tonight, rail drop at Madeley then another ‘can you just’ tomorrow on the 805 again 

 

 

[big jim]

Emergency possession last night, rail drop near Madeley on the WCML 

 

The inbound  loco was delayed getting there so we had to shunt it onto the train and get it brake tested etc 

 

Changing ends after running through the yard 

 

and onto the train

 

the green 47 again!

 

we had 15 rails to drop but as the train had been loaded incorrectly we had to start with the rails destined for the bottom end of the drop then set back, that set back was 1.5 miles at 3mph, the draw forward at 5mph was bad enough! 

anyway we got the drop done and away pretty much on time, into bescot via Wolverhampton and Perry Barr to keep the train facing the correct way and away to my hotel

 

bescot down goods loop

 

805 tonight and tomorrow (so far) 

[Nick C]

16 hours ago, big jim said:

waiting outside castlefield for an intermodal to pass from trafford park 

 

That's an impressive selection of bridges!

[decauville1126]

15 minutes ago, Nick C said:

That's an impressive selection of bridges!

Very popular location for Manchester-based band photoshoots.

[adb968008]

6 hours ago, Nick C said:

That's an impressive selection of bridges!

It always amazed me how these bridges survived 30 years out of use before the tram came.

 

After Central closed it became GMex in the 80’s effectively killing the chances of these arches. They were wrong side of Manchester for needed capacity too.

 

There was a forest up there at one point in the 1980’s.

Elsewhere they would have been gone for scrap a long time ago.

 

Today the tram has generous amounts of space to use.

Edited April 4 by adb968008

[woodenhead]

9 minutes ago, adb968008 said:

After Central closed it became GMex in the 80’s effectively killing the chances of these arches. They were wrong side of Manchester for needed capacity too.

 

 

Once the Midland route closed (now hosting trams), the only place Central pointed was the CLC to Liverpool with no way off, so all Central could be was a glorified Oxford Road platform 5.

 

[nigb55009]

Oxford Road already has a platform 5. Why would it need another?