The new DVDs are on the PMP shop. Amazon shop for PMP withdrawn at present due to abuse by customers and Amazon. Everything is one the PMP shop which accepts all types of payment online. Here are some shots from Huddersfield this week. I have managed to edit the five films which I recorded before the wet and windy weather started, a few pots and bins thrown around but the main act it tonight. I've also edited the photos ready to make the DVD covers, to file them and use them in my blogs. Some good shots of the strike buster buses some all the way from Wales. It was my first ever film in Salford which came out quite well. The master for that is burning now. I'll try and get the covers done tomorrow and then clips to Youtube and films on the shop. More hassles with Paypal this morning, two hours. I ended up giving them Mandys mobile to get a code, we'll look at it once a week as it involves a trip out to get a signal, I wasn't at all bothered saying farewell to bad rubbish but we have a lot of folk who like to pay on Paypal. Anyway a lot to do, we have a church PCC meeting on zoom, oh joy of joy, can't even all pile into the pub afterwards like we did when there was another life. Here we go with the early morning schools services etc at Keighley on Monday, first day kids back at school, first day of pre Covid bus schedules ( weekdays to start). Some good stuff filmed today, mainly cloudy, not too cold and here are just a sample of what will be added over the next few days blogs when we get rough weather and no filming will be possible. Magic Youtube , now they hit us with paying USA tax, however it seems that having waded through lots of forms I am exempt as we have a royalty earning agreement as long as I don't actually produce things there, dear USA tax I have no intention of visiting said country! Hassles again getting into my Paypal account, Paypal seem more like a scam than a bank. Here are sample shots from our three location I filmed today. As I expected the strike busters with Go North West are radically different as school contracts would need some of the providers vehicles, really shaken up the mix and I did get ones I'd missed or stills I missed, all round great time except bit of light rain. Bolton Vision buses seem very numerous now. Salford Go Ahead routes mainly Edwards coaches of Pontypridd. The biggest challenge of the day was wind and rain plus un-forecast sun, par for the course on the BBC weather but none of them get it correct, even when it is current and they could look out the window they get it wrong. Met one of our lovely viewers at Keighley first thing , managed to get lots of school services as the day that most companies reinstated pre Covid weekday bus service levels. Then it was via Halifax to Hudersfield, an uphill and down dale route if ever there was one. Then got Stotts VAC1 route shuttles. Start with a couple of samples to set the scene then on to slide show. Fingers crossed the weather will suit Bury and Bolton tomorrow. So Stotts VAC1 route to get your jabs in Huddersfield. I got quite a lot of shots of morning school buses in Keighley as children returned to school and college although in Huddersfield most seems to be roaming the area around the bus station looking for trouble. Lots of new DVDs now released with no less than 7 truck films ready now. I'm not sure if I've actually put them in the shop, possibly not but it has been a very hectic day with some house deorating and work filing photos and getting a bit of 'sky' on my latest diorama. I picked too bright a blue image to match the backdrops I've bought so scanned the ones I bought, chopping of the landscape and retaining the sky, its eating up my sticky back copying paper. Anyway tomorrow I'l be covering Keighley and Huddersfield on the day which sees children back at school and bus services back to pre Covid levels. In the mean time here are the new DVDs. Regulars will know why we have just had a heavy bias on lorries, buses resume pre Covid levels of services in most of England from Monday 8th March and we shall be using all reasonable weather days to keep on top of the scene particularly in the interregnum between schools and non essential shops opening. I've built a top to the stationary cupboard above the packing bench in the PMP office, I have also at last put a safety mirror screw in each the the display cabinets, that's the full length ones, I'll do similar with the shorter but longer diorama cabinets which I'm working on at the moment, I just want to get the backdrop in first then I'll publish photos as I progress, is anybody out there actually interested? I don't want to be chatting to myself now would I. I've almost moved all the model vehicles which had gone to the top diorama shelf and squeezed what I can into the shallow full length show cases even though this leaves quite a few 'out of order'. The big three appear in the second diorama which I'm working on. The building based on the new Derby bus station now hosts an epic array of Stagecoach buses, pity nothing on the horizon yet in the latest livery. The top of the stationery cupboard was made from some spare hardboard, I set up the bench in the garden as it was dry and sunny, although only 5degC it felt better. We had quite a few DVD orders which went out Friday and now have a lot ready to post Monday and a few more came in the post today. The weather for the week ahead looks challenging for filming but I'll try and go where it is best, I need to get mt 'to do' list revised. I'm about to start getting the DVD covers done for the 7 truck DVDs released this week, then I'll park lorries for a while. No news update on the Go North West strike but if there are hints of anything greatly different I'll probably head to Bury end of their area. Here we go I've deleted the dross from the photos of lorries this past week ready to do the DVD covers but it makes it easier to grab some for a slide show. I also need to update the Smug Mug stills site, remember we have nearly half a million still images available. I decided that the cloudy weather would actually favour a visit to the roundabout near Appleton Thorne where the UK road services HQ for Stobarts is. This has become a spot which I found a few years back which has just got better and better albeit it doesn't work on a sunny day just as Lymm Poplar services doesn't. Anyway I got enough for three programmes. I've edited the third of the lymm visit programmes so should have another clip for Youtube. Everyone today was ultra friendly with lots of flashes, hoots and waves and really it couldn't be bettered. The one that got away was as I arrived and hadn't parked up when an ERF artic came round the corner, never saw that one again. All four of the Stobart group featured today that is probably a first. When I got home mid afternoon I had several things I wanted to get on with then got bogged down with Amazon verifying bank accounts only it already is and their service department couldn't see anything wrong but I bet there is, remains to be seen if the cash comes through if it doesn't it means they are up to their old tricks again, I hate Amazon with such a passion, anyone who buys our DVDs via that source is no friend of the PMP archive. Anyway here is a clip from some of the photos I took today aood news for those interested in buses as the government has requested that weekday services return to pre pandemic levels starting Monday 8th March, weekends may still be less than what was normal but given that some school services which also took normal passengers will be separate buses this could mean more than pre covid. What it will mean to Manchester with the Go North West strike it is hard to say as many of the vehicles being used are usually school buses. For me it is a big win as low levels of people about and morte buses will mean that our full attention will be towards buses around England and then Wales as they get non essential shops open sooner. Plenty of time for lorries later we've just done 4 at Lymm this week. Obviously the effort to produce archives will diminish until autumn, fingers crossed that the great decline in Corona levels, hospital cases and deaths continue the steady fall. here are some more shots of the lorries, there will be a couple of clips on Youtube later. So to recap our bus visit plan will be extended to include areas which may normally have come round up to June, we'll do those within easy reach first, then as our shops reopen Mandy will come as well to give back up driving longer distances and then when hotels and restaurants open we can extend to cover south and south west England, East Anglia etc and as they open up Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales also hoping ROI get to open some time. Any transport visits abroad will be later in summer when situation settles. We'll look at Asia for autumn and winter travel It was the best haul of the year so far with some brightness but plenty of cloud I did a bit of tidying up of the shrubs and trees backing on to my 'spot' on the roundabout outside Lymm Poplar Services,It was a bit colder than of late but the heated gloves and socks took care of the extremities. I've nearly downloaded all the film so I can start editing. Tomorrow shopping day then Friday it should be buses again, if there are lots of different buses emerging on the Go North West front I may have another bite otherwise there is Huddersfield, Keighley , Derby and so I I'll get something! I'm trying to tie in the left hand side of the diorama modern era, most of the elements required are there and I've been quite pleased with the shops for sale or let scenes using photos I've taken on recent trips, no lack of subject matter! OK so now to Lymm. |
PMP Sponsors the North West Vehicle Restoration Trust at Kirkby.
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