Getting the Christmas trees up outside and indoor took a bit of time and I've also got the latest DVDs ready with covers done this afternoon. I'm now in a position to get the Robin Hannay and Merseyside independents films made. I also did some work on my docks diorama with some paint work left to do on the sky plus the back drop so I can start creating the link between backdrop and the access roads to the post and distribution centre. Just a quick tea tonight as its the 9 lessons and carols tonight at St Oswalds. I thought I'd give you a few more shots from the M6 I took earlier this week. We went to look at material for new lounge curtains after getting the settee back and being delighted with the colour, curtains was the last part of our 2021 domestic changes which will creep into 2022 along with new outside lights. We picked up a Christmas tree, I need to get the decs down tomorrow and Mandy will sort the lights out on the trees I hate tangled wires. We popped into the craft fair at The Crown, really good as we met several old friends there. We did shopping at M&S and Tesco and I've edited the two Haydock truck films. Clips to go on Youtube and covers to make for several volumes. The to do list is as long as ever. Meanwhile some more shots from Haydock of lorries and I', hoping to get a little bit more work done of my dock diorama, the sticky backed copy paper has been replenished, once last push to get it done before I need to turn back to film editing. I caught sight of the weirdest little entry about us in Buses, with a couple of lines they managed to get nearly everything wrong. We did not abandon Amazon to increase margins so we could give sponsorship to NWVRT, There is an assumed relationship which is accidentally connected. Amazon was causing us so much grief that it wasn't doing my health any good. Obviously selling direct to customers is better for our not for profit operation.We have sponsored preservation and rallies for many decades and merely continue that tradition. We are scanning all the collection of cine we have obtained from friends of ours to place for onward safe keeping with the OTA and are proud to also assist OTS with scanning of some of their own existing collections. The promised light cloud did not happen, 100% wrong BBC so I filmed at Haydock on the trans Lancs road at Haydock where it crosses the M6 motorway. Not an ideal spot but very busy and somewhere I filmed in our early days of truck videos. So here are some shots, I've got three films to edit this evening and I think five covers to prepare plus a couple of new archives features to compile. A morning trip down the road to Warrington to look at the Blackpool loaned buses, I'm sure they could have sorted 20 or more easily as many must had hardly seen regular passenger service. The weather was just about spot on for winter filming, at was an 'extra' visit to Warrington we'll still do the 2022 version later next year. Tomorrow I hope to have a run up to Wigan then next week we are hopefully heading to Hereford to get the last days of Yeomans there and after New Year we'll go again for the Sargeants services. I don't think there will be much of a hurry to get anything of National Express and Stagecoach as the merger won't be finalised until the end of 2022., maybe the Megabus and Falcon routes will drop away before then. Wednesday we have the funeral at Pershore but that is 4pm so we'll have time to cover something Wednesday morning if I can get some inspiration for location, Meanwhile here are some shots from Warrington aka Blackpool . This morning it was frosty and sunny but as the days are so short the shadows were over most of our usual haunts for filming locally. I ended up near our base in the next village Plumley. This was one of the locations we used to film 'remotely during the first round of lock downs, since then it has been fully converted to 'Smart' motorway status and generally with this and the rebuild Junction 19 the Bermuda triangle of British roads seems to claim fewer victims. The DVD order flow has really picked up this past week but the turn around is still within a day of receipt by post and telephone or online are dealt with even more swiftly. The temperature midday was in double figures and I could feel a little warmth on my back. We had a superb trip to the RNCM yesterday evening, we were the only 'audience' other than the students/performers. An entertaining talk by another world renowned music professional which we are regularly invited now as part of the Principles Circle and so far our small band of circa 46 has raised a quarter of a million pounds in five years to cover the cost of the 'extras' that students need, we paid for the reed room, supported overseas engagements etc. Anyway without further ado here are some shots from this mornings shoot on the M6. Tomorrow it may be Lymm Truck Stop then Friday Warrington for its hired buses and Wigan because it is on the list and I couldn't get to the bus station for road works last time I tried. Regular readers will know that our friend Robin Hannay passed away earlier this month after a short illness, he was at home among his family. I first me Robin and Mike his son through the Model Bus Federation back in the mid 1970's. The first picture is Robin in the 1950's on an engineering apprenticeship at Guy Motors. Robin Hannay
23rd November 1933 to 4th December 2021 Robin Hannay was born and spent his childhood in Derby. From an early age Robin was a bus enthusiast standing on the gates of his parent’s house to watch buses travel down the A38 to Burton upon Trent. In his formative years at Bemrose Grammar School Robin developed a strategic ability to avoid all forms of physical exercise instead sitting in the school library observing the comings and goings of the Derby Corporation bus fleet and importantly the delivery of new vehicles from Guy Motors to coach builders in Loughborough and Leeds. On Saturday mornings Robin cycled the four miles from his parents’ home to local operator Blue Bus Services in Willington to clean their fleet of buses. Supported by his father, Robin joined Guy Motors on the Student Engineering Apprenticeship scheme in September 1950. Little did he realise what a pivotal career choice this would prove to be. In later years he would produce numerous articles and books documenting the history of Guy Motors. His apprenticeship served him well gaining experience in all departments and enabling him to attend the Commercial Motor Show, an annual event for Robin until his retirement. In 1959 Robin joined Dennis Brothers as the Loline sales manager and quickly got involved in the re-design of the Loline to create the Mk3 which was launched at the 1960 Commercial Motor Show. Unfortunately, Robin’s enthusiasm was not shared by Dennis who decided not to increase production of the Mk3 which led to a parting of the ways with Robin joining AEC in the summer of 1962. Robin was promoted and moved from West Bromwich to St. Helens. AEC merged with British Leyland to eventually form the British Leyland Motor Corporation and Robin remained with British Leyland until 1975. In 1975 Robin joined Kays of Buxton, a Leyland dealer, as Sales Manager before moving onto Chatfields of Manchester where he remained until his retirement in 1998. Robin was a lorry and bus enthusiast for over 80 years joining the Omnibus Society in 1950, the PSV Circle in 1953, the Historic Commercial Vehicle Society in the 1960’s and was a stalwart of the Model Bus Federation since its inception. His knowledge was encyclopaedic making regular contributions to magazines including Buses, Classic Buses, Historic Commercial Vehicles, Vintage Roadscene and society journals. His published books provide authoritative information on the history of AEC, Dennis and, of course, Guy Motors. In his retirement he was never happier than when correcting “misconceptions” particularly those related to the Guy Wulfrunian. Even in his final days, as he sorted through his extensive model collection, Robin was happy to provide his family with an education on the subtle differences between operator liveries, explain the need for proper research and extol the virtues of the Guy Arab Mk IV, for which he produced the 1956 Commercial Motor Show brochure. Robin’s funeral will take place at The Vale Crematorium, Evesham Road, Fladbury, Pershore, WR10 2QR on 22nd December 2021 at 4pm. No flowers please but donations to the Salvation Army and Shakespeare Hospice would be most welcome. I understand suitable transport to the service has been arranged on an AEC lorry, his friends Guy lorry was under the weather. The next photo is of Robin in recent years. We are preparing a DVD which looks at some of Robins work with cine and rescuing Guy archives. Our normal daily blog will follow under a separate posting. No Panic on the Stagecoach National Travel merger its not due to go through until the end of next year. News released today. We were still asleep when the phone started ringing, first the settee recover job was on its way back and then the chap to replace the shattered triple glazing panel and lo and behold the dustmen arrives. Outside was like a Amazon distribution centre. I don't think we ever really recovered from the three day power outage which put us behind. As well as trying to gather together the obituary for Robin Hannay and talking to his family we were desperate to get the lasts batches of Christmas cards on their way, very few now left to do. I'm also trying to get the memory card in my still camera cleared ready for filming this week. It may be too sunny tomorrow but if so I'll be out early Thursday and then all day Friday. The bus targets are Warrington for hires in and Wigan as I failed to get to the bus station, they can't really have sealed the town off altogether with road works but I gave up last try. Then I'll also get some truck footage and next week weather permitting we'll cover Hereford before Yeomans pull out. I wonder if we shall get a rest for Christmas, we are out tonight at the RNCM at a masterclass then its their Christmas opera on Thursday. We are now in a position to pick the material for the lounge curtains with the new carpet and recovered settee in position. The Covid position I think is not as bad as they would have us think, I believe the data should be more in context and weekly death totals have fallen for three weeks running. Writing Christmas cards is getting more difficult as the Dupuytren's contracture on my hands increases, from friends in similar positions over the years we noted that attempts to surgically intervene can be dire. I constantly drop things as the position of the fingers and stretch alters, particularly bad handling the DVDs. As long as I can type and press a button on the camera I shall be ok though. So where does that leave us this afternoon, cheese on toast and then off to Manchester as it happens. I have started work on the elevated roadway down into the dock area on my third diorama, I'm hopeful that it will move on to the other side of the distribution centre section before New Year. I won't restart scanning until the dust has stopped, cutting card creates a lot of it. Photos today of family as the season and the passing of friends brings reflection. As people often say can we have the bad news first. I learnt today that my friend and transport industry author and expert Robin Hannay died on 4th December just into his 88 year. He worked initially for Guy Motors in Wolverhampton and retained a vast wealth of knowledge on the company. These were the halcyon days of public transport and perfect to serve an engineering apprenticeship. His experience straddled the latter years of trolleybus construction and the development of the Guy Wulfrunian. He was still in touch with the Guy family, I copied some 16mm cine to DVD for the Guy family just a few years back. I met Robin in the 1970s when he was engaged in commercial sales in Buxton. Mandy and I will attend his funeral in Pershore. In his later life he had been in the next village to us but moved more recently to be nearer his son in Stratford upon Avon. Anyway the good or even very good news was that I certainly backed a winner when asking the North West Vehicle Trust if the wanted more sponsorship. We had their annual dinner yesterday afternoon at Rainhill and it was a chance to get to know people I'd been on nodding terms with for many years. Membership at the trust has soared in recent years and the buses belonging to the trust or its members has also substantially increased. A stable financial base and plenty of volunteers with a sound mechanical team and commercial back up see this Merseyside group go from strength to strength. Even though the annual running day was in the autumn in 2021, next year will see it at the platinum jubilee holiday weekend and although hot on the tails of a bumper harvest of 'new' restoration June 22 should still see some interesting additions from the workshops. I've managed to complete the Down Your Way Scotland programme and am now about to start similar for Yorkshire with a blend of buses, industrial steam and preserved railways. Today it was catch up with DVD orders and some domestic jobs, tomorrow we have the return of the recover settee and the replacent for the thermally cracked bedroom window being fitted. Then we travel to Manchester to watch a masterclass at the Royal Northern College of Music ( we also attend their Christmas opera on Thursday). I hope to squeeze some truck filming locally in the week. Bus destinations still on the pre Christmas list are Hereford and North Wales, fingers crossed for next week. I might well be at the New Year Wrexham/Chester service. Some stills from the DVD A look at the new front tab to the PMP films now going on Youtube, recent additions, these are widescreen squeezed into the blog format. Although the weather has been awful this past week I will have produced two new DVDs featuring the Down Your Way series covering Scotland and Yorkshire and each will contain quite a mix of transport subjects from buses through ferries to industrial and preserved steam railways. We have a number of engagements this week but will try our best to keep bother bus and lorry coverage going. When we have a pm meeting or delivery I'll try to get film locally in the morning etc. On my to do list are Hereford and North Wales for buses. As we shall be looking at Scotland mainly in the 70-80's here are some shots from my collection taken a little later. The third diorama has made progress with sections completed of the port facility. Yesterday was a day without a minute to spare, my meeting with Peter Waller of the Online Transport Archive was in the form of an almost Christmas dinner, well we had Christmas pudding. Then I called in at Tim Bubbs and Glen joined us soon after, had a refresher look at Tim's collection of die cast and tin plate models and even spotted the garage that I played with aged 3, Minic circa 1950 ish. Hows that for long term memory, shame the short time is not getting any better but its easy enough to laugh it off, Mandy has me on expensive vitamin pills. So today our friend Sue is with us and its her favourite spag bog for dinner. I worked my way through lots of possibilities for the roads on the dock part of the diorama, really I've fallen back to my original thoughts, I really need as much space as possible for displaying the lorries and that will work out best so I've even been laying the concrete base for the back drop and the outline span of the elevate entrance road, they'll exit to a roundabout on the rear so a line in and out, some parked up outside. Containers hide the vanishing roads. Quite pleased with it so far. The older section will be fun with a truck stop from 1960s and a nice muddy parking spot. The girls have been out shopping and getting presents, the PMP DVD orders weren't too onerous so on top of that. I'm going to try out super smart photos for the Youtube clips, I can't use the stills they are too high resolution but I can take a screen shots and put titles on it, if it works I'll go back and see if I can freshen up interest a bit. The milk float DVD is still No1 for Christmas period. Anyway enough of lorries how about some trams, the illumination are on late this year at Blackpool how about some trams then. |
PMP Sponsors the North West Vehicle Restoration Trust at Kirkby.
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