Siggie in the east

I believe the car park was rebuilt around 1992 in conjunction with the shopping precinct being rebuilt/remodelled. It was also about the same time Chiltern remodelled Aylesbury Station and built the depot. I went there as a boy with my Dad and did a guided walk of the depot and station and Chiltern also held a model railway exhibition and trade stalls on the platforms. It does have a covered walkway over to the shops and then out into the town square. Been 21 years since I last visited there 😬 Hope that was useful.

What was the headcode of 66017? Only ask as we had a liner "fail" twice between Stowmarket and Haughley Jn and was wondering if it was that. Cheers

Yes Ely was not looking good Friday when I was last in. All we heard at Colchester was that there had been a massive signalling failure at Ely, one driver saw fire and sparks coming from lineside equipment and then we were getting calls from control asking us not to let any liners up from Felixstowe unless they were going via North London. Coupled with all our own issues on the NYL and GEML, it made for a sh*te Friday afternoon. Haven't been in since so not sure how it's going now, but back Monday night and expecting a difficult night. Cheers

And today it worked a train from Whitemoor to Stowmarket Good yard with wagons on 3Z01, didn't understand what the wagons were on TOPS unfortunately.

Does this service come out of a warehouse/siding just outside of the station by any chance? Cheers

Cheers for the review, unfortunately both Lidl shops in Colchester are sold out but ebay have exactly the same one so will order one from there. Just want to be able to use my mancave to play pool and not freeze 😆 Thanks again and happy new year.

Hey Jim, how are you getting on with the heater? Looks like a great find and I'm considering one for my pool table room/bar but wanted an opinion on one first. Cheers

How about an option 3 - a mix of both disused sidings and operational sidings. I used to live in Princes Risborough as a kid and travelled through this area quite a few times on Ghost trains with my dad. I live in Essex now working at Colchester PSB and we operate trains in/out of Lowestoft and Yarmouth. Both areas have sidings dating back to the 60s with some of them still in use after some vegetation clearing and maintenance to bring up to spec (yarmouth carriage sidings) and in Lowestofts case, had a new sidings and run round laid between/adjacent to the old ones. Ive added a pic of when the area was remodeled and re-signalled for inspiration. This way you can keep the layout prototypical to the area with "modellers licence" used to liven up the operational potential of shunting of wagons/carriages etc. Hope this helps, I was a modeller once upon a time that did prototypical areas so can feel your pain when planning/starting a layout 😁. Cheers

Wow I wish our PSB at Colchester looked that attractive 😆

The stadler unit you got from Liverpool St was a 745 1xx Stanstead unit subbing for a Great Eastern unit. Stanstead units dont have tables so they can fit more flying passengers in with their luggage. The 745 0xx units which do the Great Eastern to Norwich have tables, first class and a buffet. The 755 bi-modes on the East Suffolk have had a lot of feedback about being rough rides. Nice to see you round my neck of the woods again! Cheers Rich

That charter came through Colchester today on the Thames Haven-harwich International-ely-euston leg of the charter with a 66 and two 73s, had the hammer down, very impressive sight. Cheers

Theres been an implication at a UWC near March this morning with 4L02. Tractor and trailer stuck on crossing. Driver is ok. Loco and some wagons derailed. It appears the farmer mistook the green aspect on the signal as an ok for him to cross and disregarded the red/green miniature warning lights at the crossing. He also failed to call the signaller. Thanks

I believe I signalled those 90s onto the train in Ipswich yard as I'm guessing that was 4s88.

The reason it was stood for 5 minutes is probably because there will be a safety timer on the selected route on the panel in the signal box. If the train has been 'wrong routed', the signaller must make sure the driver has come to a stand, ask permission to take the route back putting the signal back to a red aspect and then the timer kicks in for the route to time out before the route dies out and the correct route can be set. Timers are generally 30 seconds upto 4mins depending on area, technology and line speeds. Id say the timer was 3mins and the phone call/chitchat was 2 mins. Cheers

A rare runner around our way, 6M69 15:42 Sizewell C.E.G.B - Crewe coal sidings with 68016 leading 68001 seen here in Colchester. Apologies for the poor photo, so many wires!! Thanks

Im back in again Saturday so will keep an eye out. Thats because I mentioned that you were 100mph to the Ipswich and Norwich signallers an they kept you moving as you would pretty much outrun anything around you! Any reason why we have an 88 running around here? Is it for a new flow or something?

Afternoon! Was nice to speak to you on the gsm-r, sorry for putting you away, if I'd known sooner that you were doing a ton I'd have told my learner to give you greens Ah right, the racket those fans were making i thought you were going to overheat outside the window. Cheers

A rare visitor to the GE today. 88001 as 0Z88 to Norwich Crown Point, on the down goods at Colchester. Overheated slightly at one point I think as the pan went down and the roof fans kicked in. Thanks

Nice surprise this morning on the down goods at Colchester PSB. 37425 and 37558 on 6P01 Thorpe-Le-Soken to Whitemoor Scrap train following the re-signalling of Clacton-On-Sea.

Yeah I heard yesterday that the loco had taken a battering from the drifts, was much damage done? I've been in since Saturday and its been odd weather, didn't even know that it was still drifting that badly. In the 5 years I've been a siggie I've never experienced weather like it. Speaking of experiences, what was it like with the Norwich MOM on board, bet he was excitable

I was the siggie you spoke to on ipswich panel when you were in Stowmarket loop, I was ipswich-thorpe that night. My points were freezing all over the place, colchester had 7 sets frozen, not the easiest of nights for anyone.

These two were on 6P04 last night, whitemoor to Thorpe-le-Soken with 15 Autoballasters. Did think it was odd to have a 37 on an infrastructure working. Normally its 2 66s. Driver gave it plenty of thrash coming past the PSB in platform 3 colchester!

Crewe is looking a lite soggy following the storms. Picture courtesy of Network Rail Take care

GBrF are also doing the fault free running of the new 720s on the GE, mainly out of Ilford depot. Thanks

Hi Jim Is the 66 next to yours at the head of a DB service ? Looks like the 4E63 service for Felixstowe South that I see on the CCTV on the workstation. Cheers