big jim

I mentioned you to him and he knows who you are, and @birdbath anyhoo, back to valley, got the train from crewe, 47815 came in as we were waiting for our train, an empty rail house looming over the station our train to Bangor, was hoping for a 158 again but no such luck, thankfully it was fairly quiet Taxi to site, spotted this stone yesterday in the wall near the access point, had tk put my shadow over it to see a bit better but it says LNWR and something else underneath The train in front of the train in front of ours! then there was another I forgot to take a picture of from the front, 66727 on that one before we eventually got to ours, 66777 We all then went in convoy to ty croes to exit the worksite Trains can only enter ‘Picop land’ one at a time so we had to wait until the train in front made it to Bangor and exited the possession….off it goes I’ve already put these pics in the ‘ghosts in the machine’ thread but I’ll post them again here for those who don’t follow that thread I didn’t realise that the signal box at Ty Croes has the old station building attached which housed the waiting room and ticket office, it’s actually grade 2 listed as well we managed to get the keys for the annex building and were allowed to have a look inside, it’s in poor condition but watertight by the looks of it complete with working lighting, it seems to have been used as a workshop of some sort fairly recently (there is a 2002 rail news paper on the desk) waiting room area Ticket office area complete with desk Sign on the door Now these are interesting and the reason we wanted a look as my trainee had heard about a couple of old posters still hanging, unfortunately either someone has tried to remove them or they haven’t withstood the test of time a ‘conditions of carriage’ poster stating they had changed in 1963 about could date from then or it could be a few years later depending on how long they were displayed this one I’ve managed to date to 1968 thanks to the motorail thread on here as the same illustration was used on the brochure that year but I’ve not been able to find a picture of it used in poster form, it appears to have some sort of track plan at what remains of the bottom of the poster so I’m wondering if it’s related to Holyhead in some way We then locked up and returned the keys before heading back to our train to await our turn to depart, when we did it was away pretty much straight to basford hall, where we shunted the train away and stabled the loco 66752 on an adjacent road Freightliners later acquisitions, a pair of DB 90s And that was that, home to bed, nice little job tomorrow a 66 off longport

I’ve passed this hundreds of times but didn’t know it was there until today, attached to the signal box at Ty Croes is the old waiting room and booking office that I believe closed in the late 60s Managed to get hold of the keys and went inside for a nose, lights still work which was a bonus and there are some modern bits and bobs lain around so it is still in use as a store room (kind of) I must add is nothing of worth in there for any wannabe treasure hunters! ticket window and desk couple of old posters Dated this one from 1968 thanks to the motor rail thread on here (pic posted there too)

Bit of a bump for this topic but I’ve just found this little beauty hidden away in a closed booking office/waiting room, using your original gallery I can see it’s from 1968 going by the identical illustration and phrase unfortunately someone has had a go at removing it or it’s just plain old but the bottom part is practically missing but there appears to be a track plan, im wondering is it possibly Holyhead as you can see 2 lines with onward arrows which in my head correspond with the platforms (2+3) under the canopy that had car ramps right before the old ferry terminal ive done a google search and can’t find any pics of this illustration as a poster

ONLY!

yeah, from a passenger company, he’s actually a driver on the Ffestiniog and Welsh highland railways too

Some from today, basford hall to valley again Convoy of 5 locos Engine off and running through the yard to the train And onto it ready to be brake tested 66711 Class 18 Had to be done! Ty croes Fresh ballast being unloaded We then taxied over to Bangor and the last train home to crewe back there again tomorrow evening to bring it off site again!

I’ve only managed to do that a couple of times in ratcliffe! I wasn’t going to order a class 60 as I’m happy with my Hornby ones but having since received the class 56 and seeing the likes of the cab interior I think I may well succumb to a GB one!

anything can double its design speed, quite how long for is another question!

Don’t really want to put too much info out there as it’s probably industry sensitive!

Johnny sat cross pawed at the top of the stairs! The radiator pipe goes right under where he’s sat

A short run back to oxley tonight Former Scottish observation 101 saloon sat at the back of LSL sidings next to the horse landing 197 Into Wolverhampton for a change ends and done mixed bag next week, possessions to and from valley again Saturday and Sunday, something I don’t know on Monday then 805s to Holyhead Wednesday /Thursday and something intermodaly on Friday by the looks of it

Hellfire mileage on my hire car my own car is in the EMT meridian numbering range!

imagine how boring it would be watching a train unload in real time for an hour! 0.5 is the norm but if the coal is damp or poor quality it’s slower, also you have to stop a few times for the hopper to empty (in ratcliffe) soul destroying but interesting at the same time

unless your modelling a power station coal discharge plant (0.3 to 0.5mph)

Couldn’t really be bothered with pics last night Couple from the day when I drove into town, 37108 en route to the NEC for the @Accurascale stand First trip ready to leave oxenholme, the moon peeping through the trees 2nd trip the full moon higher in the sky A stop in crewe on the way back And done should be cancelled tonight as we got it all done but I may have to go in to take it crewe to oxley, had a look at the mileage for the week, I was doing about 550-600 miles a night which is a fair old whack as quite tiring both physically and mentally!

Nice, would have been so much easier for me! as it happens I need an extra warwell anyway so I’ve ordered one of your Ltd Ed ones and a set of sides

If not watched the vid but my trainees mate is part owner and he said it was off there for the weekend im working both days so went make it unfortunately

wonder if it’s this?

Well at least he didn’t blame the extra grille counters, the pink wheel counters, the wonky rod counters…….

Spotted this in oxley this morning

It’s moved down the yard now to where the green 47 has been sat for the last month or so

Much of the same last night but with a power pack isolated to see how it does with reduced power crewe stafford Varamis unit again Off to oxenhome and then away to Carlisle Back to carnforth and back again to Carlisle Then just before the final trip back to oxley this rolled in and we ended up behind it all the way to winsford, as well as a GB service so it was a drag of a trip back Into wolves to change ends and into oxley same tonight, if it goes well then we won’t need to go out on Thursday, I’ve got more testing next week to Holyhead though

the issue I have with them is on the motorway, if a lorry is coming in the opposite direction, in particular in an area with solid concrete central barriers you the sensor doesn’t seem to pick up on their headlights so it puts the full beam on, of course they are higher up so are getting dazzled and inevitably they put their full beam on, which on some trucks can be like perma noon! the one thing I always turn off straight away when I get a hire car!

One of my few muted people on Twitter along with vine (and I’m a cyclist!)

pretty much, ring the box and tell them what your doing so they know to signal you right into the station at Carlisle we check open train maps at oxenholme to see what’s ahead on the signalling diagrams to get a clear run, last night there was a class 4 (75mph) freight in front of us that we waited until it had passed though Penrith before we set off