big jim

Not many from last night, ballast drop between Lichfield and atherstone (where I got off) freightliner takeover in Bescot my train of 10 autos ran round in Stafford before heading south and doing the drop Atherstone having a day out today as I’m not in work, more pics later

I just saw an elegant dismount

most of the time with our lot is hey have run out of time to unload, I’ve worked one back to peak forest from small heath with 13 of the 21 loaded before now, you suggest leaving the wagons in the yard but they seem insistent on running them back and forth loaded for some reason! it’s a pain as empty you are a class 4, 75 mph train, loaded it’s 60 mph with weight restrictions in place for the heavy axle load! this is actually the first time I’ve seen this thread, very impressed with the layout

I remember when I was little and living near mold, north wales there were a pair of narrow gauge rails sticking out of a raised mound at the end of ‘cannons field’ in Sychdyn, when railmaponline came along I went to see what it may have been but there is no refrence to it, I assumed the mound is some sort of mine or quarry tip Google maps link won’t work so here’s the co-ordinates (53.1850118, -3.1368773) They stick out somewhere near where the gap in the trees is, it was 40 odd years ago so I wonder if they are still there as it’s not changed at all

looks a bit different now days, the only point of reference is the long factory with the small south light roof panels

Not much opportunity for pics last night, ballast to Berkswell Bescot shut down on site waiting for my taxi, the train behind arriving into the station for splitting another ballast tonight but somewhere between Lichfield and nuneaton, think it’s auto hoppers tonight though

Theres a whole thread about Mr Cann and his alias’ here, the thread title is one of his original names but there have been about 4 more since!

and no doubt in a few months another oakhampton based seller will appear selling all the same items i know its more of an item for discussion in the eBay part of the forum but how on earth are they getting away with reappearing after a few months. I’ve certainly reported previous incarnations of the same seller, what’s also puzzling is the huge feedback figures the new seller will have when they reappear!

whoops, meant 2 years!

could well be but it’s still a shocker for a car less than 2 months old!

I know @russ p complains about new MGs being cheap Chinese rubbish so I’m sure he’ll appreciate this! This my current hire car, a 72 plate MG MS suv, not a bad car, does the job it has approx 25k miles on clock and this is the state of the carpets in it, granted there are no mats fitted but that’s shocking! my Skoda Superb has 230k miles on the clock (almost 10x the MG mileage) and the carpets are nowhere near like being in that condition!

I’ve not properly looked at the diagram or ballast notice yet but I’ve got to go to fenny compton to run round via dorridge before heading back along the branch and entering the possession from the Coventry end

Not really in a photo mood today! up side departure from oxley Splitting at Chester 777 unit Liveried up unit passing at Bangor Bangor on the return 777 in Chester DRS convoy in crewe LSL 37s possession tomorrow night near Coventry I think!

It’s to add to the collection….

805 to Holyhead today repositioned preserved semaphore in oxley started in oxley with a pair of them which I worked to crewe, we left Stafford at the same time as a Pendolino so have a bit of a race upto 100mph as that’s my linespeed, the 805 pulled away at a fair old lick to line speed the. The pendo obviously pulled away, was very impressed with it! crewe Chester after splitting rhyl Conwy tubular bridge Another one for the Conwy collection, got similar pics of a class 56, 70 and NMT stood here Holyhead couple of jets flying over, the first time they went over they were flying upside down! Llandudno Jn on the return we had over 2 hours in Chester so they dropped us onto the goods so we could get off for a coffee and leg stretch We then shunted back out into north gate tunnel to wait for the other unit to arrive in from Euston where we then coupled back up And off it went back to oxley with the ex euston driver same job tomorrow

Picked up this paint organiser from the model show in Macclesfield last week, comes as a flatpack and once glued together (using rocket glue laser cut building glue) makes up a nice rack for 56 Vallejo paint pots as I put in the previous post the DAS clay on the front of the laser cut building is ok, not fantastic but it’s stuck to it! gave it a coat of white, not bothered about the window surrounds being rough as there are separate bay window frames to go on the front as well as window surrounds on the upper floor I’ll add some das to the sides too but may leave it smooth like it’s been rendered

Sounds like a Spanish resort! I only visited for the first time a couple of years back and thought it was fantastic, I also after my trip rode my bike from ravensglass to dalgarth and back, I took the family last year and they loved it too (and they hate trains!)

The clay on the front of the building has kind of worked, looks a bit rough, will have to see how it looks painted, worst comes to the worst I’ll just chip it back off again! anyway today I opened up the hattons/accurascale Warwell and side extensions I’d ordered from @Trains4U, thought I’d give them a go instead of using brass as I’ve done on my previous Warwell modifications a lovely print with the added bonus of the fillets below deck that I hadn’t bothered modelling Superglued in place A coat of Vallejo military green as it’s a more Matt finish than the tamia paint, also gave the end a bit of yellow for completeness but I need to mix the correct shade at some point (as I also need to change the yellow ends on the Oxford wagons) The MOD train is certainly coming together now, need to order 3 more extensions as well as some chocks from Trains4u and the warwells are done (as well as stealing down the final vehicles) the containers look better with a variety of colours

Warwell and 3D extensions arrived over the weekend, fitted them this morning, so much easier than the brass strip ones I made up with the addition of them having the proper below plate bracing A bead of glue along the edge And a coat of green, I’ve used vahello military green as it dries a bit more Matt than the tamia paint, need to mix up the correct shade of yellow for the end plate though I’ve got 2 Oxfords and a Hattons Warwell needing the extensions adding so I think ill Be ordering some more Trains4u prints instead of doing them from brass

John gave it a try yesterday but kind of failed, he still slept in it for a couple of hours!

you’d think that wouldn’t you! 45 mins to get from basford hall north end to departing the station heading south

Another interesting day! light loco move longport to Tamworth, or so we thought 805 in crewe our train to longport 56081 we collected 66723 and set off for Tamworth high level via walsall and Sutton park, it was due to continue to Roberts road from there with another driver so off we went, just after stone my trainee opened up the throttle and at about 40 mph lost all power, as we had a bit of momentum I suggested keeping rolling to clear yarnfield jn so if we were a failure any trains heading south from stone could use the old chord toward Norton bridge station and we would be out of the way, spoke to the signaller to tell her what had happened and why we were carrying on incase there was something behind us that could have been trapped had it followed us beyond ‘the points of no return’ sure enough after a few phone calls and tests we had to declare ourselves a failure as we couldn’t get power at all as there was no other drivers around we had to leave the loco there under protection of the signals and get a taxi back to basford hall to get a rescue engine, that meant a long walk along the path alongside the cutting but not before getting a line block cross the running line! damn thing! These boots are made for walking And onto the bridge to wait for the taxi who in all fairness was there in 10 minutes, very good considering the location! 66720 was the rescue loco in basford hall Into the station to change ends before heading south we were expecting to go via Stoke to attach to the rear of the failed loco and push it to Stafford where we would run round and drag it onward to bescot but the signaller pulled off for us on the slow line of the wcml, where we got to little bridgeford jn we drew past the points and changed ends before making a wrong direction move toward the front of the loco, a move I didn’t think they would do so it’s nice to see someone using their initiative as it was a quick move and saved a lot of shunting at Stafford Onto the loco and brake tested before heading off to bescot some 200 minutes late but without causing any delays or cancellations to any passenger trains into bescot and the broken loco was removed I then of course had to take the rescue loco back to crewe, there was the added bonus of 37405 in the yard though We then followed a freightliner all the way to basford hall which was soul destroying before we stabled the loco and left, booking off about 3 1/2 hours later than booked, luckily its a day off today, certainly an interesting day and plenty for the trainee to put in his assessment book!

they looked quite happy a few years back when someone painted their claws pink

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)