A damp day in Liverpool, the lowest number of buses I've seen there since mid Covid, away from Paradise St there was an almost blank canvas, surely waiting for someone to get an elbow in before it goes Yellow or is it green. Anyway got done before it hammered down and back home hoping to get some more outstanding tasks cleared including getting the sound off the super single cine collection which has taken me to Austira. Also I've taken down the trolley wiring on the model and will try again with ultra light material that hopefully won't sag that much. I also want to put a couple of items on the OTA youtube channel and my own forthcomimg archive on the Dutch East Indies transport. For the uninitiated I am of course referring to my dioramas. I've been tinkering with the next to oldest part which ends slightly out of sequence and a bit squashed in with trams and trolleybuses befor we head into the 1950-60s which at present is occupied by West Midlands with lots of gorgeous Midland
Reds. I've also made great if slow progress with the first of the sound versions of the Ivor Harding collection. I hope to put something more on the OTA Youtube site this week and do the first still image DVD which will come in two versions, Buses and then trucks. As you can imagine I do have quite a few right back to pre video days when we first visited in the early 1980's. We do have film from the 70's courtesy Roger De Boer and even back further. The Ivor Harding film is in Germany circa 1970 plus Turkey, all steam railways save the odd Diesel. The sound is limited to occasional narration by Ivor and real train sounds but recorded and striped via a tape recorder. Lots of new tech meets old along the way. On the diorama note the much enhanced Matchbox Diddler. The light wasn't very good for photography in the office I'll do some in daylight tomorrow so you can see what a hash I've made with the overhead, still exhausted my patience and stability. A busy day and at last a few things off my to do list if I had one. I'm really getting to grips with redoing the post war diorama which nudges up toward the 1960s but before we leave it was a convenient place to put in tram and trolley traction so we can teach the uninitiated what it was all about. Now with trolleys I thought the best way to keep overhead under control is to have conduit pick up for the tram , this is as prototype I like to see a photo before I get cracking on anything. I still have the old Matchbox Diddle model, I've given it a dose of looking at, there are so many details askew but from the rear it doesn't look too bad or from the front. So just the trolleybus overhead to go in, a job for tomorrow. The bug has still got me with the cough just backing off after the medicine I picked up while filming in Preston and on the mark how about another dollop of bus photos from yesterdays visit. Oh and I managed to send all the Malta bus photos to the Transport Archive. While I've got them sorted I'll put them on a DVD and download plus watermarked on Youtube. I went to Preston and filmed buses there, the light wasn't perfect sunshine and clouds but I'm sure it will work out fine. Here are some shots I did there. Now I'm running the collection of Ivor Hardings material with sound, none of the methods of putting it direct to digital worked so I'm going to play the projector in the editing suite and record the sound in the office, yes it really is that loud. Some narration , then music, then sounds of trains. I'll have to stitch it all back together but in the mean time I think it will come out fine, worth its weight in gold with sound although I think it was via a tape recorded and put on to stripe on film, all encoded to match the pictures. I'm also still messing around with the dioramas. Here are a couple of pics before Preston I couldn't get the post shared on facebook, neither could I access facebook yesterday, if you sent birthday greeting many thanks perhaps they'll pop up today. . I've got more work done on the dioramas and I'm just getting the DVD orders ready to go out and fingers crossed that I can get out filming tomorrow. I was really suffering yesterday evening but at least I'm a bit more alive and just about looking forward to Sunday roast at The Crown.Meanwhile lets look at Brixton from the London trip last weekend. A shame I couldn't get to Guildford but with my health being dodgy perhaps it was for the best. Although it was an irritation not being able to get to the Guildford Safeguard day there is always a mountain of work to be done at home. I'm well into editing the films I took in London last weekend and also mulling over my next archive project and also where I'll be able to film this coming week with dentist Tuesday and annual blood test on Wednesday. Meanwhile thanks to all for your myriad birthday wishes and here are some more shots from the London trip. I don't really think there can be anything like a jinx but several experiences trying to help a particular chap always seems to end up causing me grief. I suppose I should say no in the first place then I wouldn't bring these problems upon myself but I always like to help when I can. Anyway at least I'll be home for my birthday tomorrow as it was going to be impossible to reach Guildford. I couldn't believe it with just 12 hours to go they announce today that they are blocking off the whole section of the M25 around London and getting to Guildford would most likely end in many hours of gridlock. Why not announce these ground breaking decisions in advance, 12 hours is crazy. They say use the train, typical London centric view of the world . So I'm still trying after a day to get the first of the London films edited, all the covers are done and are waiting. After deleting everything that related to my help for a another I've got my fingers crossed and it all seems to be going more as normal. If so I'll have a long session on my birthday getting them cleared. Meanwhile some more shots from the trip. Another taster for films to be completed in the next few days. Today we were at the Polio Fellowship meeting at Ellesmere Port , including hair cut, buy bird food, shopping at M&S, frustration at M&S so had coffee and cake at outlet centre. Not many at the meeting, our tiny membership only needs holidays, hospital appointments to slash the numbers but good company for all that. The Siskins are still on the feeders, no sign of them returning north as yet. Done a bit more work on my earliest diorama which is getting a bit of sparkle happening in a post war austerity landscape. Anyway it is pub night so quickly on to more films coming.
IT was one of those days when you feel like the conjuror in the old days spinning around plates on top of stick, a fruitful day and Mandy got caught up on all the banking and shopping etc, we need to be ahead as its our Polio Fellowship meeting tomorrow at Ellesmere Port, I usually get my hair cut and top up on bird food etc plus do the main weekly shop in M&S. Today I managed to get all the covers for the last 111 DVDs done and printed. Not that any of the London films are actually edited, thats the next big job. I've also been transferring some OTA film files to me external drives in readiness of new releases and trailers for the OTA web site. I've also made a lot of progress with the earliest section of my dioramas, this is the immediate post war period mostly based on and around London buses, Trams and trolleys, well thats another story. So mean while I can show you what is on its way very soon via the DVD covers.
I've cleared all the DVD orders, obviously anyone who ordered downloads got those straight away, another splendid reason to go to download. I helped one of our older customers to convert and he got it up and running on his smart TV first try, you just create a place ( folder) and pop the files sent in the folder. You can do this on a memory stick and plug that straight into the TV and bingo you are watching it, cheaper, HD, less space and instant. Here is the next port of call at Stratford, all the films are on the updated PMP list . |
PMP Sponsors the North West Vehicle Restoration Trust at Kirkby.
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