big jim

Rattle tin time again, another work collegues kid had their head shaved for charity, the hair donated to make wigs for children with cancer i only found out about it today otherwise I’d have posted it earlier on in the fundraising, not far off the target now though https://www.justgiving.com/page/flynnmillward-1708041543167?utm_medium=fundraising&utm_content=pag

it’s in Doncaster now, travelled up overnight, as I’ve put above I’ve got it Monday morning to longport which should be interesting

Back to it Sunday morning after a week off decent week coming up by the looks of it too, rowley Regis to bescot engineers on Sunday, conduct the sleepers and moving 69009 to longport on Monday (@08221 coming via uttoxeter if your about) coton hill stone Wednesday, 805 testing Thursday, weedsprayer to Bewdley (SVR) Friday night and bescot to Worcester shrub hill on Saturday!

Oooh, guess which loco I’ve got on Monday!

I keep suggesting it to John smith but no luck yet, I think as the first reply when I asked him ended in ‘off’ might say it’s not going to happen

I like that!

Last day of my week away in burnham in sea, also my birthday so going to head into Weston super mare again later to have something to eat and another look in the 2nd hand shop I picked up a Kernow 4TC for £100 from earlier in the week been a nice week away, done very little, just spent the time relaxing and playing it by ear day to day back to work on Sunday though

It’s only Hank that comes in and sits on the layout, the other 2 don’t bother Likes to sit on the back of the chair while I’m painting too

there’s a fantastic picture of on an NSE class 50 on an engineers train at brierley hill on the now closed Stourbridge to walsall line and I’m sure it’s 50017, can’t find it now though, looked on Flickr but no joy, only one of 50018 edit: found the pic but it’s 018 as per other pics I found of the same location on a different day http://bescotplus.co.uk/trains/50018_9M01

Whilst looking for something else I came across this thread, what’s happening/happened to BCB? can we expect it at the NEC show maybe?

In wondered why they went right out to see on the old maps, I couldn’t work out if there was an old pier or something that had been removed but that explains it the NG rails I photographed were right at the south end of the esplanade about 1/2 mile south of the main railway, the area has been redeveloped over the years by the looks of it so I wonder if there might have been an old boat yard there at some point, it just looks like a little line to get small supplies down from the road toward the little marina thing on the tidal inlet

Rails down to the river in burnham on sea front

Ghost(ish) in the machine as they were installed in 2018 but nice to see all the same burnham on sea old excursion platform signal box Buffer stop and the original goods shed

Not eBay but got a couple of bargains today, I’m on my hols in Somerset and went into Weston super mare this afternoon, my lad spotted a Lego sign on a shop so we went to have a look and it turned out the shop was a toy/collectors shop who bought and sold used items including trains spotred what looked like a Bachmann MK1 coach for £30 which seemed a bit expensive then I spotted another 3 and on closer inspection I realised it was a southern unit of some sort as a couple of coaches had yellow ends which may be worth looking at for £120, asked the guy if it was the best he could do and he said he’d do the 4 coaches for £100 turns out its a Kernow 4TC unit! was just about to pay for it and I also spotted a Heljan Falcon for £80 which I got down to £70, it’s missing a buffer beam at one end but I’m sure I can get one as a spare, as I was photographing it I noticed it says ‘DCC and sound fitted for Olivia’s trains’ on the label, just took the body off to check and it’s been removed, had it have been in there it would have been bargain if the year but still happy with it for £70!

Can I ask for 56081 in this livery….

Could well be, I wasn’t exactly technical with my question!

I’ve just asked my mate at LSL and he says the black does have a tinge of brown to it, I’ll see if I can get the ral code at some point

LSL have purposely painted 37409 in scotrail livery, it’s not a mistake, there hasn’t been one before but it will run with their push pull set

Arrived yesterday and it’s better than the pics show, it was just cobwebs on the end, one of the etched grilles has come adrift but nothing a dab of glue won’t fix, really happy with it!

think I had the ultimate ‘can you just’ shortly after posting the above could I go to King’s Cross and take an 802 to North Pole depot with a route conductor? Admittedly I was tempted!

I was wondering the same thing as I fancied doing similar but to my eye the black on 37409 has a bit of a brown tinge to it

luckily I don’t sign anywhere down that way!

he seems to be catching me all over the place! This was todays job, testing 69011, had to go to bescot first to collect my ‘insurance loco’ which needs to run with the 69 incase we have a catastrophic failure and we need to clear the mainline, like I said before I did try to get 56081 on it but it couldn’t be done! Bescot to collect 66765 Changing ends at kidsgrove Into longport and coupled to 69011 Running round in Bescot Back to kidsgrove, I was booked to alsager loop but there was enough time to turn back here instead 66 leading back to longport Back on the depot 69 moved aside I took the 66 back to bescot, departing 2 hours early but Stafford wouldn’t accept me so I sat outside Stoke station until time and went off and got some dinner! Back into bescot and coupled to its train for the night Couple of 66s in the yard And that was that, today is officially my last day as a West Mids driver, next week I move to crewe as I have to live within an hour of my home depot and hams hall is just outside that so I’ve switched to crewe depot which is 2 miles from home, 10 mins on my bike, I shouldn’t see much difference as I’ve got a good route and traction card, for example my first week as a crewe driver I’ve got jobs down Aylesbury way but I’ve got to learn south of rugby to Wembley and Euston (maybe Dagenham) as well as at some point learning the sleepers and class 92s but that will be a while off annual leave next week and off to Somerset for a little holiday

No trains today sorry!

Back to the figures, had some more delivered form scale3D rhis time via eBay they are a different plastic than before, a bit more forgiving should you be a bit heavy handed with them, I didnt lose any hands or feet etc when removing them from the sprues, quite flexible compared to modelu figures though I treated myself to some more Vallejo paint and washes from the Amazon warehouse to see how I do as I liked using the last lot also got myself a wet pallate to keep the paint fresher longer, very impressed with it, wet the sponge base, add a sheet of wax paper and the paint will stay moist meaning I can use less most of the paint was on there for a good 6 hours and was all useable until I threw the paper away at the end Primed up using warhammer primer After doing that another Amazon bargain arrived, an led magnifying lamp, £20 from the returns department Onto the figures. Cruel close ups again and I’ve not highlighted any facial features as I need to watch a few YouTube vids and read some articles on how to do it effectively as I seem to make a mess of it and make the faces look unwashed when I’ve tried in the past! Mr Bean Hermes delivery man Footy fan, got to tone down the tattoos Batman, this one has a separate cape but I need to try and highlight the outfit ‘ruts’ and belt before I stick it on Old man having a cuppa Police horse, again I need to highlight the horses sheen and muscle structure but I’m not sure how The Beatles crossing the road pretty pleased with them in general, the Vallejo paint is lovely to use, not tried the washes yet as, as I say that’s what messes up my figures as I’m not doing it right