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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. Comments are closed.
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PMP Sponsors the North West Vehicle Restoration Trust at Kirkby.
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