big jim

On 27/04/2024 at 21:05, Mol_PMB said:

And once upon a time on the Fairbourne… 

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 

3 hours ago, DaveF said:

only about 48,000 are railway

ONLY! 

29 minutes ago, Mol_PMB said:

That driver's hi-vis looks extremely clean - is he a new starter transferred from another company? ;-)

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

2 hours ago, bradfordbuffer said:

Did manage a distcharge with out stopping and without setting back!

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! 

16 minutes ago, jamie92208 said:

At times, the two machines on the Chiltern tunnels were getting 30 metres per day,each, double their design speed

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

18 minutes ago, mikejames said:

a bit back you said you did the oxenholm carlisle with a power pack isolated for comparison purposes

but you didnt say how much difference it made.

did it have much affect?

regards

 

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

Hellfire mileage on my hire car

my own car is in the EMT meridian numbering range! 

29 minutes ago, rob D2 said:

True, have yet to see one in OO yet though !

imagine how boring it would be watching a train unload in real time for an hour! 
 

6 minutes ago, Roy Langridge said:

As slow as that? I thought MGR discharge was at 4mph. Every day a learning day.

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 

7 minutes ago, rob D2 said:

Don’t much see the point of the crawling . Real life trains don’t crawl much unless they are coupling up

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

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 

On 20/04/2024 at 11:07, Accurascale Fran said:

we were asked to bring something else that is big too

wonder if it’s this?

1 hour ago, Colin_McLeod said:

lt's the rivet counters whohave spoilt it for everyone else!"

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 

1 hour ago, StuAllen said:

I do know what you mean about the headlights though, my previous car had auto dipping and could be sluggish, probably one or twice a week I needed to manually take over as it didn’t react. Can’t say I’ve noticed with my current car, its reactions are very quick.

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! 
 

3 minutes ago, SM42 said:

By far the worst I've experienced is lane assist

the one thing I always turn off straight away when I get a hire car! 

5 minutes ago, Sidecar Racer said:

Are you related to Cycling Mikey by any chance ????

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

20 minutes ago, mikejames said:

are you more or less promised greens all the way?

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