It really was pot luck today headi9ng out filming with wind and cloud plus sun and more cloud never the right mix though. I did get some good shots though and have already edited the first disc from the outing, at least the temperature was mild. Mandy is still on the evening hospital run for cousin Trish although she is now in a rehab unit nearer home but far from any bus stops so Mandy is doing her bit once more. I'm hoping that the weather will allow me to get some bus shots tomorrow but not too far away although I do have hopes for Oxford later this week.

We had a superb afternoon and evening at the brass band festival at the RNCM yesterday, the Cory were the afternoon feature then the end of the festival were Brighouse, amazingly varied programme and it was a thought provoking fact that half the music there was by living composers. We met Jose who had come in as he had 3 staff off, we got the tickets for the Session band at the end of February. I had a bit of a catch up today and clips for latest releases are in Youtube plus I've updated the EBay shop albeit I implore our friends to use the PMP shop. I'm keeping an eye on the weather for suitable matches for our list of locations to film at this week. I've downloaded some material that was from telecine on to Hi8 tapes. The clean up aspect was as usual with NEAT and did a great job but Edius couldn't cure jumpy picture sections. Anyway here are the new releases.

I'm continuing looking at some of the cine derived material loaned to us over the years and transferring these to HD files, the only big problem is that they download at some horrendous file sizes in the hundreds of Gb's. I'm trying to just get one on to an extension drive as the computer c drive is 100% full. It will take about 24 hours to transfer, once that is done there will be enough spare capacity to process the three tapes I've downloaded. I'm looking in particular at a lot of Southdown bus film in B&W which I'd like to put through the colourising process. This has now given me a lot to play with while still getting through the weeks film at York, Harrogate and Bolton. The former now finished Bolton downloaded but nothing more. I need to wallop a load more on Youtube as advertising rates have suffered the usual January flop.
I had a nice reply from Rapido on their 'threats' to axe any more bus  models, I think they have now realised that stating over a thousand pounds worth of new models in one go isn't going to put it within the realm of most collectors. Anyway we may have settled our trips for the year, Mandy will have a girlie week with Sue to make up for the one cancelled when Sean passed away 1st Oct 2022. Then the three of us will visit Czech Rep in July, hopefully will fit in but not too close with Martin and I visiting Slovakia. We will go to either the South Pacific or Panama early 2024. I'll do a somewhere hot trip for transport. Anyway lets have a dip in the archive for a Czech selection.

 I'm going to try and record at the areas which will be most changed by franchise in the autumn starting with Bolton. The promised light cloud BBC forecast  was a bit way off more sunshine and clouds but it worked out fine and I think I got good plentiful bus shots. It would have been easier without the aluminium door repair van right by the entrance but I'm sure if not that it would have been a bus. Possibly one of the poorest places in the UK but no hassles at all. Who remembers the great Atlantean running day, all First Group survivors were there with about 50 in service which is possibly the biggest running day we have seen in these parts.

I'm off with Mandy tonight as the hospital runs go on , the clean cars of Thursday are now very dirty looking cars on Friday. At least the frost seems to be gone, early indications are for a good filming week next week with light cloud over a lot of the country. Anyway lets relish Bolton today, I've downloaded the files and will get them edited for release and clips on Youtube over the weekend.

We have a good lunch meeting today down in Shrewsbury but not before I'd been out and de-iced and washed both our cars. Mucky weather when you have a white car. It won't be long now before the IQ gets it's makeover. Some more shots of buses in Harrogate yesterday.

The weather was ok for filming, good cloud cover at York and plenty of even lighting, a little more challenging at Harrogate as it rained off and on. I'll combine for one DVD. Slide show today from York. Tomorrow its my meeting with Peter Waller down at Shrewsbury and dropping off the scanned films and perhaps collecting the next batch.

A quick blog tonight we are up early tomorrow over to York, we lost the files for last years coverage. I managed to get the latets round of DVD covers made and on the shop, lots of digital downloads to put on shop the slow upload rate hampers better productivity ojn that side of things.

Greetings everyone well it was supposed to be light cloud cover in Birmingham but it was sunny most of the time but I used all the old favourite spots and just about did justice to the buses and before finishing went to have a first glance at the Edgbaston Village section  from  the library, again a lot too much sunshine but I'll return at some stage and get the whole thing covered. Afterwards I called in at Peter Turlands to pick up some models he had ready for me to collect, Yardley Wood model club will be no more after 2023 as Peter is retiring. Anyway I'm home now, have edited the second of the A50 trucks films taken last Friday and also carrying on with the cine scanning. Here are some shots from Birmingham.

A two pronged attack today or perhaps three prongs really as I'm rescanning a few sections of OTA material which were juddering too much to correct and then I've been using the Super8 copier to scan some of John Bishops more modern era cine. At the same time I've made a start on the 3 hours of material recorded on the A50 last Friday. It was still bitterly cold going to church this morning but the temperature has raised a little and much of the snow has thawed other than the road which is packed ice.

Tomorrow we are hopefully going to take advantage of the light cloud cover and film at Birmingham and then in the early afternoon pick up some new models from Peter Turland. I'm gad to say we have secured for OTA the collection of our friend Ken Harris who is alas in a care home with rapidly advancing dementia. We can arrange collection, copying etc of any media collection with transport content and make sure it is safe and can be accessed in the future. At present I'm scanning trams, buses and trolleys in Switzerland, Germany and Austria 1959-61.I don't think Austria has featured in my slide shows for a while so lets dip into the archive.

Isn't it a fad coming to the end of a long job then having to clear up some bit you would rather were already done. Out of nearly 50 400' reels of cine just 4 need to be rescanned at there is to much rolling in a section to be corrected, there are also 6 reels from various collections I own which need to be scanned so I can take them down to the OTA in Shrewsbury for out meeting this coming Thursday. Our schedule for the week ahead may well be film Birmingham Monday and York Thursday. While I was getting two scanning machines going I decided that there may be a few folk new to our site and took a few pictures of the PMP set up.

and for the lorry fans some more shots from the A50 yesterday at Uttoxeter roundabout