We are really suffering with the weather, the electric has already gone off and then back on again so a huge job resetting all the tech, clocks,etc. Will blog tomorrow when it has all calmed down.

A long tiring day but weather was fine and no rain just later in the afternoon the wind picked up. Andy Burnham was putting himself about at Bolton, Boyle Street provided some preserved buses to give a bit of continuity. I saw a few drivers with maps on their knees and some very tentative driving. Everyone was very friendly and really it went well and I'm hoping I've got some stills to set the scene and I''m downloading the video right now.

I was very lucky with the weather today for the trip to the Ribble/Fishwick rally at Leyland. The car park where the action was centred was in a sheltered spot and it remained dry. I met so many people I knew or knew me, I did a few selfies with folk and I was proud to see the NWVRT representatives roll in this morning. I think the North West of England is really blessed with so many museums and preservation groups that it really ups the standard of what can be achieved. I've plunged straight into editing and archive scanning this afternoon so I've a clear deck ready for the first full day of the new Manchester Bee network of insipid yellow buses tomorrow at Bolton and Wigan.  So without further ado lets get stuck into a slide show from Leyland. Next Sunday I'll head over to Birkenhead from church at Mobberley and I should be there lunch time onwards.

Only another days work to finish off editing the present round of cine films. I've gone through a lot of Phil Tatt films and those of Colin Lovell. I've digitised and saved them and also prepared for the uploads to the shop. I'm at Leyland tomorrow which should be interesting, the weather could offer challenges. For the first working days of the Manchester Bee network on Monday it looks as if it may remain dry. So fingers crossed on both those days. I'll take a look at the week ahead and see what the weather will enable us to film. I've now got a stack of London material to deposit with OTA on my next visit to Shrewsbury. A lot of this batch of Phil Tatts materials  has been railtours and Benelux region all in the 1960s. My Manchester are film is still going through the colorisation process a couple more days before that is completed. Meanwhile I suppose we should have a look back just a while at Wigan, it will never be the same again but thats always the case isn't it.

Manchester will of course be very much on our minds in the next few days, I'll be at both Wigan and Bolton on Monday whatever the weather may throw at us although the bee network starts on Sunday  but not that many buses to see so I'm waiting for the full Monty on Monday. Mind you we will be enjoying buses past at Leyland on Sunday with two restoration teams pulling together on Fishwicks and Ribble buses but no doubt there will be some friends along to help , so where did I put my NWVRT shirt, getting to be winter woolly time now. The Manchester area ( and a little bit beyond) will cover those glory days of trams past, steam trains and trolleybuses and if that wasn't enough I'm pushing them through the colouriser although not always totally accurate it does give it a more approachable feel. Meanwhile lets let Manchester have the slide show.

After a full day working with archive material we are getting through the excellent material from London which is on S8 film. I've also been carrying on with the Phil Tatt collection which has got as far as 1964. I've also digitised more of my own film this time on the SELNEC 60 anniversary at the football ground car park and Boyle St. I'm about to digitise a visit to Hong Kong. Hoping to raise the Youtube profile and also post on the OTA channel especially on new collections and recently scanned material. I'll get back with pictures tomorrow.
We were at the Halle this evening for Mark Elder start to his last season and had a meal in the restaurant which was spot on, the best food out for quite a while and amazing prices compared with the average Manchester skyrockets.
A piece of good news I found the supplier of the hand rail destroyed by the cleaners Mini, they are getting it made and sending it straight out to us from the fabricator. The replacement  flower trough is already in place.

 It all seems very quiet out there , it usually picks up when Buses magazine appears. We have had some wild weather this week so fingers crossed it picks up after the weekend. It is the Leyland running day on Sunday, light rain expected but if it really is I hope my brolly does the trick. I've been scanning more cine films, both buses and trams, yes two at a time who says men can't multi task. I am also digitising some film I took in Minsk in 2006, I actually remember filming this when they had the rather brutal looking conversion on the Riga built trams. A good mixture and there will be clips on Youtube plus digital downloads on the shop. we are still waiting for the fibre to be connected to give us enough speed to upload to the shop, masses of films now lined up for that. I should have the cover for the latest London archive ready tomorrow. A shorter day then as we are off to Bridgewater hall for dinner before Mark Elder does his bit with the Halle in his last season. Belarus provides tonights slide show

The next London archive feature will have three parts all in colour, trams, trolleys and buses representing the 1950's, 60's, 70's three decades in my life so while in a reflective mood here are some colourised pictures from my family

Backing up data is an essential part of our world but it is always such a pain when dealing with moving images where external drives can take days to back up. I've also downloaded another drive of material with file names in script and these have been added to the archive listing which like the DVD spreadsheet has a link on our shop front page. There is another drive to similarly treat which if the rains continues plus strong winds I'll be processing that as well. There are a few to which we have no copyright at all but can keep them in mind to direct people in the right way . There are thousands of hours released in the 70's and 80's, even 90's which no longer have attribution links alive so it is a good plan to have then conserved.

Another job to do is getting this years still photo files loaded on to our Smugmug shop. I finished the railway film for Unique publications which are distributed by Railscene. I don't think that trains are really my 'thing' but a change is as good as a rest they say but it never felt like it. Anyway I'm scanning two films at a time now so plenty entering the pool of resources. I'm also scanning the work of one of our friends from Essex which will produce a lot of London bus material in the 1970's, RTs galore. I still ant/need to get more clips on Youtube to restore our presence there which has been in decline since the end of the Corona pandemic. So surrounded by little flashing lights the work goes on.

What next then, well the trip to Alexandria draws near and we will be booking the Senegal trip soon. My friend in China has just released some delightful new trolleybus models with a standard of detail that sets new levels of excellence. I can't wait until we can point you in the direction of their UK material coming later this year. Talking of China I can bring you some shots from one of our tours there.