MANCHESTER TOMORROW STAGECOACH FINALE

I suppose the mammoth task of putting all my Manchester bus photos on disc and Youtube comes as the last stage of the Bee Network is about to be launched on Sunday. I hear on the grapevine that Stagecoach are doing the night buses Saturday. I usually give the Sunday launch a miss as I'd rather get the full hit on the first working day which in this case is the start of normality after the Christmas holidays.

I've had to divert a bit of attention to get the full details of the sad news that Roger de Boer has died. His cine work on milk floats and Malta plus West Midlands is safely housed with the OTA. His funeral date is yet to be announced. His father was a Dutch seafarer and Roger could speak Dutch and had a particular affection for Ameland.  His working life was clerical with customs & excise. He got around on his motorcycle which like much else of his past is buried in his home sometimes things are under the floorboards. His will will hopefully be proven in the not too distant future and I understand that his house will go to a charity reflecting his fathers life at sea. The family will work with the enthusiasts and beneficiaries to try and save his electric vehicles documentation and parts together with his other modes of transport from a cycle to milk floats. They good folk at Wythall museum are compiling an obituary for him, you can see several of the electric vehicles at Wythall, milk floats and bakers vans etc. Roger had many interests add self published all sorts of leaflets from Ameland buses to poetry. I knew him from the 1970s and on through the MBF and Buses Worldwide etc. In later years his mobility was challenged when diabetes caused the loss of a leg.  He wasn't very fussed about keeping up with domestic chores after his mother had passed away and the result probably limited the amount of visitors but he kept up his correspondence with a wide circle although as throughout his life working in collaboration was hampered by his illegible handwriting. Mandy and I visited him a couple of years back and still exchanged Christmas cards and arranged for his cine and photos to go to OTA. 

Anyway must go now as a lot going on with trying to finish the Manchester image colection so we'll dip into that for tonight's blog