Rugd1022

Sad news, amongst many others Chas played with Jimi Hendrix and Bob Dylan in his time. Got my beer in the sideboard 'ere.... here's to you Chas.

LA Woman - The Doors

Off The Wall - Michael Jackson

The Back Of Love - Echo & The Bunnymen

Wet and windy hereabouts, some debris scattered about in the road but thankfully only the contents of the blue recycling wheelie bins, no damage to life, limb or property for us or our neighbours but sympathies to those so afflicted. Just back from Stoneleigh where 'she who crafts' spent several sovs on various crafting goodies while I was having a bit of deja vu thinking the last time I was trawling through the same halls I was surrounded by shiny classic cars. Which reminds me, with Autumn in view it must be getting close to the annual big bash at the NEC...

Baby You're A Rich Man - flowerey Fabs B side to 'All You Need Is Love'...

So elegant... the epitome of 'la dolce vita'.

A very young looking James Paul McCartney with Long John Baldry at Liverpool Lime Street station in 1963... nice period poster on the wall behind...

The Last Waltz - Engleburt Humperdink…

Good Morning, Good Morning - hairy upper lipped Fabs... (Just finished reading Geoff Emerick's book on recording the Fabs, highly recommended - Geoff was the engineer working alongside George Martin and actually did most of the work in the studio, particularly so on 'Pepper', often staying on well into the night after George had gone home in an effort to get things done the way the band wanted)

Photo c/o Simon Record - 50 033 and friends at New Street in 1984...

I Guess It Doesn't Matter Anymore - Buddy Holly

Waterloo Sunset - The (dandified) Kinks...

Photo c/o Albert Abear : Ronald Skipper and Archie Cameron on the Greenford Pilot...

Love You To - Sitar drenched Fabs opus from our George...

Looking at the photo again I notice the ride height doesn't look anything like as high as every other R080 pic I've seen Ivan - was it altered or is just the way the car is sitting on the ground with the handbrake on..? And what a fantastic looking car it is by the way, it certainly look its age there.

Oh fully understand your comment Mike, Dickie's 'railway CV' would make the weapons of mass destruction enquiry seem like the gospel in comparison!! If he told me he'd just made a fresh pot of tea I'd question the validity of his statement...

Caroline, No - The Beach Boys

Pic of the week for me Ivan, and several bonus points earned for it being brown. Rumour has it that one of the lads at work is thinking of offloading his Eastern European classics to buy an SM, I'll believe it when I see it (he's even slower off the mark than me) but knowing that he's had some high end exotica in the past I wouldn't put it past him to go through with it. He owns eleven classics of varying hues spread across several lock ups and garages in Northamptonshire, most of which haven't run in years and I'm always cajoling him to cash in some of them and get something he can actually use and enjoy. We shall see. In the meantime I'll try not to look at any Ro80s for sale...

Remember though, it's not just passenger traffic being disrupted, a whole load of freight activity is out of kilter at the moment - paths are being missed and diverted traffic is being funnelled down routes with all the other booked traffic. My ballast job at Market Harborough early this morning was booked to return to Bescot via Wigston, Nuneaton and Whitacre but because of the derailment I had to go back via Bedford, Bletchley, Rugby, Coventry and Stetchford, thankfully it was top 'n' tailed but it was actually only booked to have a single loco. With my train being very late it caused a knock on effect to other services too, I was supposed to take the locos back to Crewe but was already on twelve hours when I finally arrived at Bescot, the DB yard man relieved me on the goods to put the train away and I jumped into a waiting taxi. Multiply this scenario several times around the Midlands area and you can see how everything ends up in the wrong place. Another slight spanner in the works (although nothing to do with the derailment) was that the desk key for the rear loco somehow got left behind at Bescot before my train got to Market Harborough, so I had to make sure I carried the key from the front loco with me at all times when swapping ends several times during the shift. Best of luck to the recovery crews!

Old Oak, 1985, amongst those on the footplate are 81A stalwarts Dickie Bedford, Dennis Mansaull and Peter Keep, photo c/o Denis Lewis... Another 81A man, 'Poacher' Davis, photo c/o Des Wright...

They've just appeared on BBC Midlands Today too.

It seems the Coventry Telegraph are taking credit for my mate's on the spot photos as well as Emma Watson from some media company.

Is Vic There? - Department S

By coincidence this popped up elsewhere this afternoon... I've no idea what the differences are between the 6 and the 8!