Rugd1022

Could easily be a crew training run too. Lovely pic by the way!

The Things We Do For Love - 10cc

There are lots of junctions on my route card where you'll be a given green, two flashing yellows, one flashing yellow then one yellow with the appropriate route indicator illuminated, in many cases the junction signal will step up to green just as you approach the AWS ramp if the route you're taking is already clear - a good example of this is Hanslope Junction on the WCML which is 70mph. The flashing yellows tell the driver that he / she is guaranteed to have at least a single yellow and the appropriate route indicator showing at the junction signal. This allows you to keep your momentum up which is easily lost if you're brought down to the junction without the flashing yellows.

30 Century Man - Scott Walker

Going Home - The Stones

Asking prices for Rover P5Bs have been rising steadily for a while now but there's still quite a gap between the mostly solid usable ones needing some work and top notch examples which look almost factory fresh... 1972 P5B Coupe for £9,650, needs work but looks ok : https://www.carandclassic.com/l/C1667719 1972 P5B Coupe for £10,995, needs some work but looks ok : https://www.carandclassic.com/car/C1656627 1969 P5B Coupe for £13,995, has a manual conversion and looks very solid but interior needs a thorough clean : https://www.carandclassic.com/car/C1649623 1969 P5B Coupe for £34.995, top whack for one of these but very nice indeed, and in the same price bracket as a very nice Mk2 3.8 Jag : https://www.carandclassic.com/car/C1670087 With P6s the prices are all over the place but good usable V8s have been rising for a while, the manuals are still top of the tree for some enthusiasts but these two autos are rather nice and are for sale at the same vendor in Northants... 1971 P6B 3500 for £12,450 looking very fresh inside and out, engine bay is lovely : https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/335124385060?hash=item4e06f84d24:g:4EwAAOSwG8FlV9C1 1972 P6B 3500 for £11, 950 looks very nice overall but the engine bay needs some love and the sills and bottoms of the front wings need painting black to match on both sides : https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/335102712436?hash=item4e05ad9a74:g:7e0AAOSwxZRlRWJh The same vendor also has this very tasty looking 1968 P5B Coupe for £21, 950 : https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/335152145767?hash=item4e089fe567:g:PhQAAOSwIaBlb5AS And Morse Classics, also in Northants have this very tidy looking 1972 P5B Saloon for £14, 994 in Arden Green, the roof would need repainting to match for my taste but it looks tempting : https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/166263159929?hash=item26b60e7c79:g:Wb8AAOSwTnNlThSQ Usable examples of P5s and P6s can be had for less than the above, but they seem to be few and far between. EDIT : I meant to add this fabulous looking P6B 3500S which appeared only last week - at £19, 995 it's not cheap but having seen it in the metal at the NEC show last month it's a corker : https://www.carandclassic.com/l/C1671918, I found out the other day that it belongs to a friend of a friend...

Nothing wrong with an SD1 Russ, not at all - there are some good Vitesses about and the chaps in the club will know when a decent one comes up for sale as they're not always advertised.

What a beautiful example it is - the saloons look lovely in the darker colours and I notice yours is nicely finished off with the sill trim in place below the doors, this is often missing from P5Bs that have had work done of them over the years. In good condition with a decent shine on it, Zircon blue reminds me of freshly applied BR blue! Have you ever been tempted to put the hand painted coachline back on it below the body side trim...?

My 2000TC was all the more enjoyable for having power assisted steering from a V8, fitted during the previous owner's custodianship by P6 guru Colin Gould in Farringdon. These were taken the day I went down there to look at it in January 2006, I actually wanted the P5B Coupe next to it but couldn't quite afford it at the time... Colin very kindly let me take the P5B out for a drive and I remember desperately wanting to buy it, alas I was about £2k short so bought the P6 instead. Having bought and sold two P5B Coupes since then I really fancy another one - of all the classic cars I've owned in the past thirty five years, the P5Bs and P6s have managed to get under the skin far more than any others, and that includes the sublime S2 XJ6 I had for a couple of years.

Taken seventeen years ago today on Boxing Day 2006, my '73 Rover 2000TC 'WCW 375M next to the remains of the GC 'birdcage' bridge at Abbey Street in Rugby...

It was done in the Factory at Old Oak as a homage to the last few Hymeks which clung on at 81A into 1975, one of the painters involved was ex-Swindon Works. I drove it a few times in '83 and '84 and it was one of the better examples. Here's the paintjob being applied on 4/4/82...

Yes, they're blue 😉.

Photo by Bob Faulkner : D5374 at Wellingborough Shed on 7th August 1966...

Photo by Jim Freebury : D5675 at Frodingham on 16th February 1969... Photo by Norman Preedy : D5561 at Gloucester Horton Road...

Photo by John Sydney-Han : D6745 at Tibshelf on the up York - Bournemouth express in 1963...

You can never have too many books, it's the law - you are however, allowed to run out of room! My books are all over the place but once Christmas is over I'm determined to re-jig my shelf space and add some more in one of the alcoves in the back parlour. They're all mixed up at the moment just to make them fit the space I've currently got - railways, cars, music, films and TV subjects etc. Happy Christmas all 😉

D6xx at Swindon Works...

Photo by Tim Wright : Crewe Works...

A recent discovery amongst the flotsom and jetsom of life...

Photographer unknown : 37 189 takes the up main through Reading with a Didcot - Padd parcels service on 19th July 1983...

On Days Like These - Matt Monro...

Hugh Dady's colour album 'Heyday Of The Warships' has a cracking photo of D602 in BSYP livery taken by Roy Palmer at Llandrindod Well in September '67 with a freight from Landeilo Yard, which according to the caption it worked just twice. (On the same page is a Terry Nicholls shot of D602 working 1A77 12.00 Penzance - Padd past St.Budeaux on 28th December, two days before being withdrawn).

Oh Calcutta - The Dave Pell Singers...

Your Mother Should Know - Fabs...