We have a lot of news coming out of China about the latest Brilliant Buses new editions and updates on production in 2025. We wishes all our Chinese friends a wonderful Spring Festival and Lunar New Year. Today I filmed on the A50 Uttoxeter roundabout and tomorrow I'm hoping the weather is ok to film buses in Preston. The NWVRT have decided all money raised on the day will be donated to The Elsie Dot Trust, set up by the patents of one of the three children sadly fatally involved in the Southport incident last year.
The incident has touched so many of us and it just seems the right thing to do, for such a worthwhile cause. Hope you can join us. Lots of yellow from Warrington's Own Buses, Bee Network and Metro Merseyside. Still enough of random odds and ends Warrington picked up while they waited for the electric buses. Standard 8 cine with sound takes you straight to the cine enthusiast as it wasn't really sold as sound film. you had to have the stripe added by an agent or do it yourself. So it isn't that surprising that sound projector are a bit thin on the ground. I've been running off the sound from several reels from all over the world, all with real sound. With the films already scanned in advance it is a matter of putting them back together picture and sound and making sure it sits in the correct position to ensure a synchronised result. I did all I had to do from my friend Tim in Croydon, fingers crossed my efforts live up to the finish to the projected images. I also had to do a bit of chasing around for lads I know over in China who need a few details to add to a model they are making and I did a little blurb in English so they can let people know what might be coming. I hear that a couple of models are almost at full production just as soon as Chinese spring festival in over. We have also had quite a few orders the last couple of days, tomorrow I need to do the advert for Buses magazine and if it is hazy or light clouD I'll pop over to Warrington and see their electric fleet. Meanwhile some past shots at Warrington A busy time as ever, the weather looks to be getting worse again but we are off the RNCM for the Festival of Brass, with the Brighouse this afternoon and Cory this evening. I've bashed my way through a heap of digital download films and now battling with Youtube. As soon as I got a clash of copyright I knew it was the mechanics radio in the background. Just a few seconds but re-edit, save, reload etc. Still there are lots of things appearing. I'll try and give you an update on the new model buses coming out of China. To my knowledge Brilliant Buses have three batches going through the system. I'll try to update tomorrow
Creating as many new digitised versions of films gives us the opportunity of putting watermarked versions on our Youtube channel. There are quite a few and I like to give them a dose of our magic 'NEAT' which is so simple to use but sparingly. So we shall have a few different films going on but well up front in the queue is Thamesdown 100th . So to keep that trend going lets have a few shots of a previous trip to Swindon. I've also received the bulbs for the new projector with st8 sound capability. Monday I hope to get the first films processed and match up sound and picture exactly. Tomorrow we are at the RNCM for the annual international brass festival. I certainly need to get in the swing of the digital download service as today we had orders for 18 films all digital. As time goes by and more and more get digitised the whole process will be quicker. At present without super hi speed speeds I'd be lost, mornings are by far the quickest speeds though and loading them on to Drop box is the most time consuming task. As I've done them I'll take the opportunity of adding a water mark and put them on Youtube. Today I was down in Shrewsbury with Peter our OTA sec, pleasant lunch at the Abbey pub. Lots of stuff happening and I've been so very busy. Its only just over a week to our holiday in Dominican Republic, just ready for some heat. I've got two one day trips planned plus a three night stay in capital Santo Domingo. Hoping for plenty of truck action. So staying with hot countries here are some 2024 memories from Senegal There was a good turnout out in South West Birmingham this afternoon for the funeral of preservationist, author , poet and eccentric Roger De Boer. I suppose all of us engaged in our love of transport could be seen as slightly eccentric and what a splendid attribute to an Englishman than to be exactly that with a dash of Dutch to give a little mystery. His cousins from the Netherlands came over as did his English cousin and her family. Enthusiasts were represented by Dave Spencer for the OTA and a volunteer from Wythall where the milk and bakers floats are preserved. Thankfully having been a member of his local parish church they gathered to pay Roger his due as a member of heir church family. Roger eschewed norms of cleanliness and good housekeeping and asked his carers nothing more than a chat and certainly not cleaning. As a diabetic already losing a leg there was nothing to eat but chocolate when we last visited. Found in the hallway several days after passing away another of life characters was gone. He was proud of his dads maritime and Dutch connection and his grand fathers home in Ameland of which he had published one of his pamphlets on its transport. He loved going to Malta in the 1970s and in the 1980's paid several visits to the USSR. We were fortunate in saving his cine collection for posterity with the Online Film Archive and are trying along with Wythall to ensure his collections find safe homes before the RNLI the benefactors in his will send in the house clearance brigade to do their work. Somewhere in the garden are motorcycles and bicycles plus all manner of other objects secreted about the grounds, even the floor boards are between the renewed joists packed with equipment which is ready for reuse at any time.
Well a super day at Liverpool, saw some of our NWVRT regulars and lots of waves from all the drivers, a very friendly morning and a little bit misty but not freezing, no wind and no rain so for January it is hard to beat. Saw a few in the new Metro livery Arriva and Stagecoach. Busy now getting it edited. Roger De Boer's funeral South Birmingham tomorrow, weather permitting at Shrewsbury for monthly meeting with Peter Waller on Friday.
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PMP Sponsors the North West Vehicle Restoration Trust at Kirkby.
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