big jim

His was my wedding car back in 2004! Thats my fiesta lurking in the background too, £300 special, 4 speed box and manual choke!

Very nice, my mate had one and traded it for a DC5, both nice

They are immobilised in so much as the battery switch is turned off, on a 66/69 you can padlock it in the off position to save anyone turning it on, we used to padlock them in chaddesden with fastline as it was rife for trespass, the doors have locks on them so they can be secured to stop anyone getting in unauthorised

I don’t know what the market is like now but I certainly got the best part of £350 for it, possibly more, I had loads of harrop stuff from when the kids were little, mainly roald dahl figures and they some went for decent money whereas others were pretty worthless but Ivor (that I got for myself) was the most popular listing I did, I did have to think long and hard about selling it but I didn’t have anywhere to properly display it once the other stuff had gone so I decided to move it on

my eldest (who’s now 20) was terrified by the Ninky nonk, when it was revealed which ‘vehicle’ was that episodes vehicle if it was chosen he’d run out of the room until it had gone! we went to Alton towers a few months back and we made him go on the night garden ride where it comes from out of the hedge, I think he got PTSD when it appeared! as for the Ivor model, I recon I’m going to order the loco and stock as, as a kid I was Ivor obsessed, especially living in the top corner of wales, I did have the Robert harrup sculpture of it that I bought in 2004 for about £70 and sold it last year for 5 times that figure as it turned out it was one of their more sought after sculptures, paid for a few more models that for sure!

simple as that!

A quick ‘are you doing anything tonight’ job got asked to work a train to the derailment at Aston moss jn, I do t sign the north side of Manchester so I had to pick a conductor up at Eccles for the last little bit through Victoria to site class 90 in basford hall 37405 my loco, 66719, I picked up 3 wagons that are going to be used as brake force runners to get the train off site it was planned to try and do it tonight but for whatever reason it didn’t happen, we were to stand clear of the jn and the train be bought forward by the colas 56 and us drop onto the rear as brake force runners as the retailed wagons would now be through piped (no brakes) As it wasn’t happening we just on site and shut down ready for it to be moved another day colas 56 attached to the wagons that really is me done until Monday now as I’m going away for the weekend and my work phone is off!

Sorted out an annoying whine on the mini today by having a tensioner pulley swapped as the bearings had gone, my mate then put his diagnostic machine on the car and I’ve discovered the fan isn’t working at all, hence why it overheated on the way into Silverstone the other week ive got to take it back to him next week for him to swap the fan/resistors, drove it home and got it in the ramps to sort out an exhaust blow then when I restarted it it sounded like a tractor, sounds like the chain tensioner is stuck (again) so he’ll have to do that too! About if small issues are coming to light now as the car is being used a lot more as my daily drive as opposed to being a bit of a toy last year doing very few miles

Day out to Cardiff today for a double loco naming ceremony, started in crewe and went over to new st to meet the train nice trip down to Cardiff via Gloucester and Lydney Cardiff first loco named, 66774 Sue Coles, the boss down south wales and down to the other end of the train Where the 2nd loco was named ‘Yvonne Bradley’ after the shift manager/shunter from Bescot, John smith saying a few words On the return trip we had a nice meal my dad enjoyed his meal! Back in new st where the train went off to Cardiff again and I headed home before coming back to Birmingham later in the evening TFW Mk4 set back to new st to work the ECS train nice little job taking it to Lichfield, should have been burton but the driver I was conducting signed from the high level to wichnor so he didn’t need me That’s me until Monday now

do you not know about brunels secret tunnels under the great orme? They extend all the way to the south wales valleys and link up with the mines!

not sure but it certainly caught my eye as ‘something different’ I also saw a work worn rover 200 coupe T-bar in crewe the other day which is a rarely beast (my mum used to have one in the 90s) but it does mention build your own ‘post apocalyptic look car’ in the spiel, so you can get the gist of it!

Crewe to small heath last night basford hall freightliner away to tyseley to run round, 66732 this time, still immaculate Backed into the unloading area train home from new st LSL HST in crewe electrics on the walk back to the car tomorrow is an interesting one, I’m going with my dad on a GBRf staff charter to Cardiff and back where they are naming 2 locos after one of our Shunter’s at bescot and a manager in Cardiff, later in the evening I’ve got to conduct the empty stock from it between new st and burton on Trent via the cross city line and Lichfield high level