big jim

Saturdays crewe to small heath was cancelled so had a sneaky day off, ended up underground where I had no phone signal so couldn’t get any ‘can you justs’ id passed speedwell caverns on my way back from hope last week so decided to go and have a look, a great trip if somewhat claustrophobic to start with when the boat set off into the tunnel! cavern at the end, ‘the bottomless pit’ today was a toton to bescot light loco followed by an intermodal back in the opposite direction 66787 was the loco, it came in on a ballast which I took down the yard and uncoupled Into bescot Jumped on the intermodal and worked it back to toton and a walk back to the car a week of 807 testing coming up

dont think id like to be anywhere near a 100mph out of control ‘missile’ if they get shot on the move! The by-pass past small heath yard is awful for ‘street racing’ and the side streets feeding it are lawless, I don’t like driving round there, yet alone cycling like I did regularly the last few years

Noted on Google maps that Tutbury models (Staffordshire) closed down as of the middle of January, I was going to call in on my way to toton this morning but luckily checked before I pulled off the A50 This is the notice in the window courtesy of Google Used it a few times, was one of those shops where if you had a bit of a dig around you could find a few hidden gems at ‘old prices’ my last purchase from there was a ‘new’ Bachmann NSE mk1 for £20 shame to see another model shop go

common as muck round here! (I can see the factory from my bedroom window)

Job cancelled today so wa still to keep my phone on, well I did but went 100s of meters underground where there was no phone signal! had a trip over to speedwell caverns near Buxton, I passed them the other week on my way home from Hope on a possession job and decided to visit them today with the family, a great trip, took about an hour, I could see gethin was a bit anxious when the boat set off, admittedly I was too as it was a bit more claustrophobic than I thought it would be but after a couple of minutes I felt fine and we enjoyed the trip, the threat of ‘no refunds for claustrophobia’ willing me on then gethin decided to sprint up a mounting for a picture!

one from Buxton, the water column at the end of the disused platform but all is not as it seems, it’s not an original one on the ends of the old midland platforms toward Matlock but one that was placed there in the 80s? By peak rail when they had a site in Buxton, they built new platforms but nothing came of it , I believe they planned to run through to their current line in Matlock sharing running rights with BR toward Blackwell then raking what is now the monsal trail to Bakewell and onward given the amount of rail traffic that uses the line between Buxton and great rocks and the popularity of the monsal trail it’s hard to imaging how that would work now however there are still plans being mooted around to relay the line for quarry traffic which if it happened would be wonderful but I can’t see it happening in my career (or indeed lifetime!) Here’s a pic I took of the site in nov 2021 while waiting at the signal on the Hindlow branch, since then the building behind is finished and the Aldi is also a ghost in the machine as it’s closed and moved elsewhere in the town!

This doesn’t look like an 805 Unit testing cancelled but got a can you just to take an intermodal from rugby to birch coppice, running about 4 hours late due to a loco failure, as you can see above I got on at rugby Kingsbury, changing the points and into birch where another driver took over Another 66 shunting around crewe to small heath tomorrow

Had a mild panic just now as this thread has disappeared from my feeds and I thought I’d deleted it but I found it again via my notification settings! anyway short job today showing someone round basford hall, as it happened a class 69 came in on a road learning trip so we ‘borrowed it’ for a few trips up and down the yard to see the moves Not many pics as I was concentrating on showing him what’s what! class 66 Filthy 69 and a couple of DRS 37, there were a couple more behind too 805 to Euston tomorrow

If I didn’t laugh at the ridiculousness of the situation I’d cry!

And I bet they were relieved by a saltley man!

Had a reply from the school regards the issues with the wagons on the zig zags he head informed me that no members staff have ever told drivers to park on the zig zags and the ‘site manager’ (caretaker) said the wagon yesterday once asked to leave site by the then parked on the residential side of the road and not on the zig zags,(see exhibit A on the previous page of the wagon parked on the zig zags!) In the most bizarre of justifications he said this: The reason they were asked to wait outside was in fact for the benefit of yourselves and the residents as the lorry is too large to be able to get out of the exit to our site due to the cars parked opposite and therefore needs to exit through the entrance gate During end of day collection I'm sure you can understand why this would not only be unsafe for our students and those in vehicles but it would also create unnecessary traffic backing up on the estate. The highlighted part is exactly how the planning regulations and tracking maps state it should be done so I suspect he’s not actually aware of his own policies, and if he is, does not enforce them and has tried to apportion the blame to me parking completely legally outside my house typically today, for the first time ever someone visiting our house to drop something off parked on the zig zags so he’s made a note of that and thrown it back at me, tbh I’m really annoyed at said person, of all the times for someone to do that! Ive told him had I been in at the time I’d and saw them I’d have got them to move straight away, and on a similar vein when his staff see one of their delivery trucks stopping and being unloaded on the zig zags then they have a duty to ask them to move and not allow them to continue to unload

now that’s interesting! Another avenue to go down

in a way the above paragraph was kind of how ERTMS was touted, all the info you need is on the screen in front of you, speeds, target speeds, gradients even station stops if the target speed was set to 0 at a platform end, it was reconed you could drive a route you’ve never seen just by looking at the screen they didn’t take into account external human interfaces such as trespass, foot and road crossings, operating issues, passengers etc, you know the things you need to be able to see and react to! The electronic revolution has been a huge boon for the railway industry, real time trains, open train times maps, tracksy all of which are very useful (but shouldn’t be used for safety critical work) admittedly at the times I’m not ‘safety critical’ in work RTT and the maps are used by myself to see where where my train is, how it’s running etc, certainly saved me standing out in the rain waiting on many occasions!

we have pretty much what you have described, maps and videos all on the internal intranet that I can access from my iPad, similarly the sectional appendix’s are on there too so there is a good resource at my fingertips for road learning when it comes to the actual ‘out and about’ learning we get get TOC passes and go out on trains or jump on one of our freight services if there are any about, we are then assessed by someone competent on the route with either a drive or walk around, personally for newer drivers I insist on seeing them drive (if possible) as well as the question papers complex routes or areas, the likes of shrewsbury, I always walk round be it a new or established driver as there are plenty of quirky moves and dodgy signals to be seen, the end of the day it’s my name going on their paperwork so I want them to be 100% happy with it as it happens I’m walking someone round basford hall and crewe station tomorrow, he already signs them both previously but hasn’t driven them for a long while so we’re going to have a look round, as long as he’s happy with it again I can get the route people to put them back on his card, there won’t be any written questions to answer as it’s really just a refresh I've got to learn Worcester to Malvern wells for some engineering work soon, I’ve already watched the videos and studied the maps to get a grounding on the route, TBH seeing what I have I’m going to learn through to Hereford for the sake of an extra 15 mins in the cab, I’ve given myself a solid 3 days back and forth on that which should be ample then hopefully someone can sign me off on it Of course if the current press narrative is to be believed it’s just a case of pushing some buttons and looking out of the window so the above is all made up!

I’m sick of the school over the road, deliveries are still going on on the zig zags and today a refuse wagon went into the yard to collect the bins only to be yelled at by the caretaker and ordered to leave and unload on the zig zags as ‘we’ve got parents arriving to pick up the children’ the wagon driver was actually quite angry about it as she came out screaming at him to move and he thought he’d ran someone over, my wife heard her from inside the house too! they really don’t give a flying fig about anyone outside of the school, they are actively encouraging law breaking and despite highlighting it to the headmaster he hasn’t replied to my emails I’ve reported it to the police, council planning department as I think that they are once again in breach of planning regs and I’ve raised it to a proper official complaint with the school so they’ve got to respond, I’ve asked the head how he can possibly justify what’s he’s allowing to happen!

Nowt spectacular today, medical in Birmingham A tram in Victoria square and dropping down toward new st and the Eurovision 350 home walking someone round basford hall tomorrow

yeah a knock like that has rendered both locos worthless, better send them to me to dispose of @adb968008

I think it’s further north at pye bridge itself looking at the bridge, I can’t see any more like it in the area on google earth https://maps.app.goo.gl/oUCuLLPkwJ2T3HV28?g_st=ic The MRC junction is slightly further south by about 1/4 mile at condor park EDIT: pretty much what @DaveF put as I was ‘researching’!

Ive got a pair of Halfords lights on my bike, mounted on the underside of a couple of Garmin mounts, the top of one mount holds a go pro (when I remember) and the other holds the garmin computer one is 1500 lumen and the other is 1000, this is both of them illuminating the old GC line through rugby and just the 1000 lumen one on the line to Leicester I very rarely have them both on at the same time as they are so bright but they certainly help you see and be seen I’ve also got a basic lamp on my helmet for more focused ‘looking’

Back to it today, light loco burton to longport and back 66783 and 66758 Changed ends at alsager and headed back toward longport, waiting at kidsgrove Stabled up 56081 my loco back the other way, a rather clean 66746 Colas 56 passing by having left land recovery at the other end of longport loop, I couldn’t go anywhere until that had left and back into burton a good 75 mins early, I was booked to take it to coleshill but burton was better for both of us as the other driver had driven down from Doncaster, the drive back on the A50 from burton is a lot easier than coleshill on the toll road and M6 medical tomorrow!!

It’s a nice little walk/ride along it, I rode there from Derby in 2022 (on the hottest day of the year) on the old GNR line toward breadsall before heading through Shipley park (the old American adventure site) then dropping down through Ilkeston and heading onto the viaduct

and being as they have all gone that was indeed my final Hatton order!

I’m pretty sure I’ve just made my final Hatton order, their own brand 18 pin decoders are down to £8.50 so I’ve bought half a dozen to put into stock (I may well order some more before they finally close though!) I’ve not got any 18 pin locos needing chipping but I can get a 21 to 18 pin adapter cheap of eBay to fit them to other locos

i’d better get some rest days in to pay for mine!

Skaledale midland signal box for £12 pretty sure it’s the model rail Ltd Ed ‘Barrow hill’ one, if not it’s no biggie, it’s missing its finials (as is my existing barrow hill box) This one will be a nice companion to the existing one as well as my tall coalville crossing box