Davexoc

I think it looks more like 44002 Helvellyn there. Zooming in looks like there are 9 letters on the nameplate. And as for the driver, looks like he's nodding off....

Interesting reading the different circumstances and takes on retirement. The government say I can't claim until 2031, I could take my railway part of my pension from next year, not much, but when I started paying in I was an apprentice on £55 per week... I contacted PensionBee a while ago and decided to let them do the searching for me, as the various bits and pieces I had kicking around had changed names, merged or been absorbed, and some of the companies I had worked for had gone as well. After managing to consolidate 4 schemes into my online PensionBee fund, the railway scheme plus 2 others were in the defined benefit over £30k catagory. Positive IFA advice required to transfer, at a cost.... So, I'm looking at 3 DB schemes, a fully flexible one that I'm currently paying into, a workplace scheme (that I can consolidate once contributions stop) and the State pension when it cuts in. I was keen to get full flexibility owing to the fact that I lost both parents in their early 70s, becoming the senior member of the family line at 47. My father took early retirement due to work pressures, and I'm seeing that myself now, but back then annuities were basically the only way. The annuity paid out for far less than it could have done, so the fund won there big time. The great thing about the online element of PensionBee is it is flexible and you can play around with the calculator to see how doing different things might affect your pot. But it also strikes home how investments can go down too, still suffering slightly from the Lettuce/Quasimodo economic effect amongst others. At its worst I could see my fund had dropped by over 22%, but it has recovered most of that since.. Now I'm not mortgage free, but lumps sums from the DB schemes and downsizing will fix that bit. I just feel that I need to put life first, as work is getting more demanding and ruling life. If only I could work to live instead of living to work.....

As Paul commented, they were usually one type or the other, some shots from Tees Yard.... I have a series of photos of a passing train of hoods which carried TOPS codes HBA, HDA, HFA and HMA within the same rake.

I wouldn't say all steam locos don't perform, but they can be a bit temperamental. Although I run DC, the Farish Castle is a superb runner, but my steam is all preserved, so they don't run very often. Not a great fan of Dapol tender drives. My normal method for running in is to double up with a similar loco and leave doing circuits, then if either stutters the others gives it a nudge to keep going.... Class 08 doesn't run as well as 04, which will creep along with 50+ minerals in tow. Bo-Bo locos are all good, others need a bit of pick-up tweaking, especially class 47s for some reason. All Dapol diesels though need more volts to actually get going.... I look at OO and admire what is made these days, but for me, the desire for scale length trains says N all the way! Stick with it, Ben and Mike were extolling its virtues on Radio 2 earlier.

Just happened to be listening when this went out. Thought it all came across really well with a class 59 running in the background, and the way Ben dug Jeremy out of his perceived 'train set' slip at the end....

I would say there are two connections, what I believe to be the northbound access arrowed in orange, leading to the new road bridge circled, which has two spans that are currently shown in a video over on the HS2 thread....

Well, looking at this map, I think as it appears to be the entrance to the infrastructure yard from EWR, then yes it could well be.....

Looking the other way at the old Queen Catherine Road level crossing there is what appears to be a permanent railway compound. Plenty of lineside ducting stockpiled. And there is now a sound barrier erected alongside the old railway cottages. Some of that ballast look like it has come down from Scotland, red/brown tinge to it....

Looking a bit beyond we can see the new road bridge coming along nicely, with the ramp up to the HS2 bridge beyond, with the to be demolished bridge behind that, and I think the next bridge towards Bicester after that too (Charndon).

A quick visit to Steeple Claydon this evening to see what that train delivered the other day....

Didcot by night back in First Great Western Link days....

More re-wiring going on under the boards, meanwhile shuffling back and forth testing the sections was this interloper, some way from home.....

Yes, shortly before the remodelling and resignalling which led to demise of thr semaphores... (May 2007) 5 months later it looked like this, with the single slip now a diamond, and parts laid for the new cross-over. Then just over a year later it was completed, with signalling controlled from West Holmes. Trying to keep the photos OT and note that the second on isn't taken from the top floor....

Another level crossing, but very different angle...

Level crossing shots...

Switch and crossing delivery train was in the Mursley area this morning at 7.40, should be at Claydon by now ???

66116 being shoved out of the shed to be started by the shunter...

A couple that have recently been through the paintshop at Toton 079 and 168.....

When your liquid flush glazing doesn't quite turn out as planned....

A dull day at East Holmes....

Not alot of progress to report really, family birthdays and rockin' at The Bowl with Muse, Royal Blood and The Warning eating into modelling time. A bit more done to the great wiring tidy up, and a little running, just because.... A few phone shots, because it can get where the big camera can't....

Back then a loaded test run was usually 09.10 Padd - Oxford, used for pre or post major exam, or for persistently problematic locos. This was always an additional loco piloting the train loco, which if passed fit, could do the return solo. Getting a path for a test run during the day was nigh on impossible. You need a clear run on the main between HSTs, the relief will tell you nothing mixing with the stoppers etc. One time I did a trial run on a weekday late shift, we caused mayhem on the down main when the 47 threw a main generator earth fault causing us to stop at a green alongside Southall DMU depot and request a path back to OC in limp along mode. Another occasion it was a 31that let us down, with the main generator flashing over as the driver opened up as we crossed onto the down main. Both these were light loco only, loaded test runs were rarer as they take a bit more arranging. Taking an HST for a run was easier, and they usually were Swindon and back. Through Didcot at 132mph coasting from the overspeed cut-out is quite memorable, blink and you miss it.... Most test runs were during the night shift, light loco to Slough and back. Load simulated by using a bit of straight air brake. I did manage 3 in one night, and I think it was 6 for the week, but there was too many locos sitting around OC awaiting a run at the time.....

Can't think why a selection like that would need turning, so, is it a stock transfer from Old Oak to somewhere north or east? Leaves OC heading west, turns off towards the Birmingham direct route, comes off there at Greenford to head back towards OC, but then heads up to the NLL after Acton Mainline, Acton Wells towards Willesden, then on towards Stonebridge Park/Wembley or Wolverton, or around the NLL towards an ER destination. Runs that way purely to avoid an extra run around at Acton.

It should just be the four screws as shown in the instruction sheet https://Bachmann-spares.co.uk/file/Class-20.pdf I haven't had mine apart, but there might be some form of light clip on feature that requires a little prising apart....