Greetings to our friends, relations, customers worldwide as we celebrate Easter. Yesterday we were at the Kirkby Stephen event in Cumbria and tomorrow at the much smaller event in Widnes. I've just finished scanning yet another first class film taking us to Malaya, Indonesia and Thailand in 1972. Amazing quality and an asset for the OTA collection. Here are some shots I took yesterday  either end of the main bus routes.

Top secret delivery from China, it may be Chinese and it may not be available here yet but from the very same manufacturer there are two British buses working their way through the pipeline and all their models are superb with ten years of success already under their belts.

Today is Mandy's birthday, we had a fairly quiet day, soaked last night walking round to the pub, we may go out tonight, Mandy's cough is still around, fingers crossed it goes soon. Tomorrow Mandy is going to come up to Cumbria for the day. I'll keep my eyes open for the NWVRT contingent , may around breakfast time. I've scanned another lengthy archive or two with Syria and Turkey, then Malaya and Indonesia. I've just got the covers for the bee network films to make, that shouldn't take long. What did everyone think about Metrobus getting so many portions of the next and last .part of Manchester bus carve up. I've done a lot more on the post war diorama, rapidly coming to the end of that upgrade then I've got a replacement police station to put in, more Z cars era, not sure about the fire station, possibly need to update the appliances outside looks more like a vintage fire day. Anyway a very quick photo parade tonight, I really will get the Malta photo DVD done, hopefully over Easter, I sdon't think we have had an ambulance selection before. After Cumbria it is Widnes on Monday, my NWVRT jacket is ready for two outings.

Its taken a while to get round to editing the latest round of Manchester Bee Network hubs, namely Oldham and Rochdale. Oldham is complete, I just need to do the cover, it won't take long to get Rochdale done as well. I've been scanning more old cine from the Ivor Harding collection, at this stage he just dubbed on the occasional train sound , he took this on a separate tape recorder and striped it on, the music has vanished - thank goodness as it was very loud even on minimum volume. I'm now covering his trip to Syria and Turkey in 1971 or 2 it isn't dated. They all come out really well and a great asset to the OTA collection. I've done a lot more work on the dioramas, I'm getting ready to put it away for a couple of months, it really does drain the time but I enjoy it but best to rest and tonight is pub night.  Did any of you read the Oxford Diecast post on Taff, there's always someone else worse off whatever our own problems. We like all modellers and collectors wish him well as he now has to contend with being blind. The infections and complications from other conditions can be terrible, that's why I've had the pneumonia jab at my annual health check up. I'll try and get a bit of video done of the layouts, but before that I've got the Malta photos ready to make our very first  still photo DVD with hundreds of favourite shots. However as I'm working with Syria lets look at my ill fated trip.

While I was as the health centre for the annual health review of which went fine I also got my pneumonia jab , arms a bit stiff this evening. The marvellous IT guru we now use came and got the disc producer sorted, I was on the right lines but he got it sorted, the repair place lied about putting fresh ink in it and also that they had only cleared the ink jets , they had actually activated a firmware update which we then had to hunt down and get the computer matching it, it dated back to 2019 but had never been disconnected so it triggered it when they plugged in to test it. Anyway its another worry off the list. Mandys birthday got off to an early start today, it is actually on Good Friday but she got a huge bundle of flowers to arrange, we look very swish. I've done more work on the diorama and fixed the electric junction box which came off the wall. I've also been scanning yet more of the Ivor Harding collection, some of the super single film was just too thin for the scanner but I came up with a fix in true Heath Robinson style. Really miserable weather but our flock of Siskins has grown and now number around 10, I guess they'll stay to breed now, yet more exotic colour to the bird feeders.

Mandy is now getting the full impact of the cold I had last week, tomorrow I have my annual health check up at Holmes Chapel, need to call at hardware shop as the power terminal by the dioramas has fallen off, I did give it a knock. Fixed the old guillotine, the new one is discarded as Chinese rubbish, the old one is metal and from Germany. I've finally made a start on the Malta Photo DVDs, also downloaded the Bee Network material ready to edit and made a start on the Indonesian/ Dutch East Indies archive programme I've been gathering material for. I mowed the lawns as it was dry and sunny and I'd been in the shed fixing the old guillotine. The chap from Northwich who is a wizard with tech will hopefully be able to sort the disc producer, no help at all from repairers or Epson, how unusual. Meanwhile photos from Rochdale on the first working day of the Bee network there.

Tech stuff is so ropey, to get something that just works as it should is obviously asking too much. No idea what to do now, Epson zero interest in support, repairers a bit ditto, after all they've had their cash. I was up early and got drenched at Oldham, dried off a bit and then moved on to Rochdale which was probably the more interesting of the duo of new Bee network hubs.

I've had to scan the first part of Ivor Hardings South Africa film a second time as the computer insists that the file is corrupted a nasty trick it pulls every now and then. Tomorrow ( Monday) I'll be covering the first working day services on phase 2 of the bee Network, the remainder goes over in 2025. Meanwhil3e we have a busy weekend coming up at Easter with the Kirby Lonsdale rally , we go there Saturday and the Widnes running day on Monday. So from film central we hope you have enjoyed the films I've put on the OTA Youtube channel and our own. As usual things slip but the Malta photo film even has its tiles ready. Enough rain coming next week to make time to complete more jobs! I did get a little bit more done on the diorama post war period.

Light rain and low winds are the promised weather for Monday when we cover the areas where the second Bee network in Manchester opens up for a full working day. Then next weekend we have Easter with the Widnes day on the Monday by your very own NWVRT and before that the Cumbrian running days. So lots to look forward to. I'm about to start on my next historic archive film covering the Dutch East Indies, all in colour covering at least 100 years of operations of steam traction. Also under way the next volume of Ivor Hardings films . we are in 1971 in South Africa. All looks good. I've caught up ojn a lot of jobs, hoping to have the Malta still images DVD ready this week following the buses volume we'll turn to trucks. Lets dip into the archive now and look at Cyprus a location which will appear soon on the Transport Archive still photo sales shop.

I'm scanning another of the Ivor Harding films this time Kenya and Tanzania back in 1971. I've nearly finished all the editing work on Liverpool buses 2024 and should have that plus Preston ready to go on the shop. We shall be covering the first full day of Bee network in Rochdale and Oldham areas perhaps with a side trip to Bury. The only sector left will be the south east centered on Stockport, I assume they'll want to have the new bus station open by then. I'm going to make an effort to get some clips from our archive on the OTA Youtube site today. Meantime hare is another batch of pictures from Liverpool yesterday..