Gwiwer

Prize for the first to board at Snerth? That's new.

Oh dear. The inverted image has been reported but I cannot get it to upload correctly on the phone which is the only device I currently have available.

One of those Peaks is definitely overscale! More great pics Peter and I'm having trouble telling which are real and which are model at times. Here's an interesting line-up which hints at my future plans

One of those Peaks is definitely overscale! More great pics Peter and I'm having trouble telling which are real and which are model at times. Here's an interesting line-up which hints at my future plans

Greetings all Just dropping in to record my return to Australia. 27C by 11am, parrots noisily playing among the trees, sun shining relentlessly from a near-clear blue sky and everyone is wearing their legs. Oh. And that's the Thames at the bottom of the road not the Ninety Mile Beach and the swans here are white ......... Still relying on the phone talking to the wifi hub. A few more bits and bobs arriving to make this place a home. Can't be Australia - I placed an Argos order online at 3pm and they promise delivery between 7-10pm. Same day. Within seven hours as well. Two parcels arrived from H@ttons this morning. All "as new" stuff which appears perfectly serviceable for when the new project gets going. And I have a camera card well filled with raw material for what should become a modest image-sales business in the medium-term future. Weekend shall be mostly in Sussex. It's time to bite the bullet and start going through father's things. If the weather holds I can see a late night swim at the beach also occurring.

Just in case any manufacturer is stumped for where to seek information then ask here. RMwebbers know everything. Pretty much. 55013 in blue is just a sloppy error from nil research.

Jane Bunn. She can deliver my weather forecast any time she likes because the outlook is always fine. See what I have to do without by coming home?

Long time Caroline fan here. The transistor radio under the bedclothes at night elightened me musically and socially. Cue the Four Seasons sig tune then .... They've been legal for some time as others have said but this is another step forward. No longer the sinking ship with new 45s ferried out weekly.

No - you definitely got a 71 . Sorry to hear this and of a very few other issues but realistically there is always likely to be a very small number of faulty items in a production run. Even when they are so closely monitored.

Popped into my "local" shop today and collected my 71 in person. From tissue to track it is magnificently presented and looks a real treat. I've had many items delivered with tissue on the box but none where it was neatly folded, sellotaped and looked to be more than cosmetic. Until now. The loco inside - in my case it's the green fye E5010 - is superb but first one has to read the various insert cards which have already been discussed. I shall add crew and a light weathering in due course. It seems almost offensive to consider dirtying her up but tve bogies, underframes and roof will be improved by it. Not being an expert I cannot pass judgement on the minutiae but it looks like a 71 to me and it looks like a precision model where the opposition looks rather less refined. Well done Dave and his Chinese partners for bringing us these and for using crowdfunding. And to Chris and his hard-working team who have one less to mail out (so yours have all moved a step closer ) and whose shop is filled with cartons of these. I'm sure there was smoke coming from the back room where they were being packed for mailing as fast as possible.

Diving off-topic briefly I can corroborate that. I have clocked single 33s at speeds well into the 90s on several occasions. On one memorable trip a pair of them (rostered as a loco-balancing move) with just six Mk1s in tow reached 97mph. Where and when will have to remain known only to me, the driver and perhaps a very few others for a while yet. He might still be driving.

I was looking for a link to the class 74 project to forward but couldn't find one. In addition to the retailer(s) the various enthusiast bodies may generate additional interest if they had a link to do so.

Mrs. Gwiwer discovered this morning that Uber drivers are not immune from traffic congestion and have to watch buses overtaking them in the red lane. Biggish night last night. I was taken out to dinner which included a bottle of rather good wine on the house. Long story short both our alarms were sworn at ignored and Mrs. G. chose to Uber rather than take the usual train option. It wasn't quicker. I had a nice long snooze followed by the necessary wipe-around the house with various cleaning products Dinner tonight is at the Coach & Horses, Kew Green, with most of the senior staff, their partners and some international guests. I daresy there won't be any free frobscottle tonight. Trying to scan through on the phone isn't easy. Rating even less so. I should at least have thanked everyone who posted birthday wishes. The computer seems to be afloat somewhere north of Australia and is still expected here in late July. Best wishes to all

The real problem arrives, so I am told, when the good lady complains that "it only happens the once". Today has continued persistently wet. Notwithstanding that a foray was made to a coffee shop in Richmond before lunch then an hour ducking out from the shelte at intervals to witness events at Acton Main Line. The route out encompassed some very small back-streets on a suitably diminutive bus working route 440. At one point we negotiated a single-lane duck-under railway arch little over ten feet in height. We also found ourselves mingling with 607s on the Uxbridge Road though they didn't have twin poles to collect power. Nowadays the old trolleybus number is used by diesel buses plying much the same route. The GWR has changed. Gone are the copper and brass fittings of their finest . 8-car electric trains now run where until last year a 2-car diesel was considered adequate. And a vertiable procession of empty stone trains heading west which produced no two locomotives in the same livery. Return was by way of two former trolleybus routes just recalled from my early childhood. The 666 and 667 became diesel-bus routes 266 and 267 which they remain over 55 years later.

Sixty What have I done to deserve that??? Many thanks for the birthday greetings. My seventh decade began with heavy rain through the night and more is forecast for later today. Last night my left hand dveloped the sharp pains known by many arthritis sufferers prior to wet weather. It's a little better this morning but recovery is urgently required. I'm a left-hander except for adopting the more normal place settings at table, playing (torturing) the guitar and swinging golf clubs (ball seldom hit). Not a lot occurring. Might treat myself to a ride up to Acton or Willesden to see what comes through. Both a bit unforgiving in rain though. Thai restarant tonight, I'm assured. Best wishes to all from this latest admussion to "the club"

ALL of them?

SYPTE trolleybus 2450 has only ever operated off private roads AFAIK but must still carry a licence plate. The mark show is its original to my knowledge, matching a few other late deliveries in the same batch (diesel-powered) and some annoying and diminutive Dennis Domino saloons. Most of the batch was registered a year or two earlier with matching fleet and reg. numbers. The Dennis Domino, of which few were built and of thosd most went to SYPTE or Greater Manchester (SELNEC) was considered unsuccessful. Its immediate successor however was the Dennis Dart, perhaps the most successful single-deck design of the past 50 years. Still very much with us in later SLF form and as the Enviro200 a decent number of early step-entrance ones have been bought for preservation. Chrisf's pictures recall two memories. I am just old enough to have travelled on London trolleybused (on the 607, a number now re-used aling the Uxbridge Road for a limited-stop service) and remember their performance both up and down Hillingdon Hill. Sprightly even when full pulling away uphill bound for Shepherd's Bush Green and sometimes alarming downhill if running late towards Uxbridge. The "new" Routemasters which took over were just not the same .... And the most uncommon open-top Bristol LDL shown in more recent times at Minehead when it ran a summer Sunday Exmoor tour taking in some very narrow and steep lanes and the wild openness of Dunkery Beacon. Two of this longer-than-usual type came new to Western National at Penzance. Both survive. Penzance used them on the busy 18 up to St. Austell until the FLF became available. They then spent many summers offering topless rides out to Marazion and between St. Ives and Land's End. That is where I first met them. And the latter route remains my favourite bus ride anywhere. It's still an open-top service and this year will carry the number A3 having been the 15, 515, 15 again, 300, 201 then 300 again. Services start on 28th May and run hourly daily.

It is a breezy, sunny and comfortable 20C to mark the final day of my fifties. Nothing special planned for tomorrow that I know of. Thursday sees us attending a dinner for staff, partners and invited guests of Kew Gardens meaning the suit must be inspected and probably pressed. Friday sees me aboard the 09.06 Paddington - Plymouth (connecting for Penzance) to enjoy some liquid refreshment with friends and no doubt a pasty or two. I expect to return with something shiny from a certain shop in Camborne as well.

The South Yorkshire trolleybus was built as proof of concept on a modified Dennis Dominator chassis and with a body similar to those delivered at the time. Numbered 2450 in the SYPTE fleet it took its place in a large batch of Dominators but never entered service alongside its diesel sisters. IIRC it was intended to be the first of a small fleet to be used on a trial route in Sheffield where the hilly terrain has always resulted in high emission levels from diesel buses. History tells us that the project never eventuated and neither did it in Leeds which in some ways came even closer to reintroducing the trolleybus.

DURM? Blackburn Hijack Group? On second thoughts perhaps not for the latter

"Please explain" I'd start with Alf, Madge, Bea and a few other choice soap characters.

And then there were the chohorts of "grant door" coach-body buses which went largely to NBC operators with purchase assisted by the New Bus Grant. Southdown and Western National both took full advantage with the result that wholly unsuitble four-step coaches appeared daily on bus routes. I well remember the driver of a grant-door Bristol LH struggling with the shopping trolleys and prams offered between Constantine Bay and Padstow. The market-day trip had been worked by step-free FLF until the week before.

They certainly were where the Alexander Y-type was concerned. The Bristol RE gains an honourable mention for the many dual-purpose seated examples with bus-shell bodies. Southdown had a unique and stylish batch of Northen Counties bodied Leopards intended as coaches which could be used as buses as opposed to the other way around. They even had a small "destination" blind on the front panel at door height which had just two options - plain green when used as a coach (which blended into the livery) or white-on-black Pay As You Enter for bus work. These beasts were as tall as a lowheight 'decker with a fearsome four steep entry steps making them unpopular with the elderly Sussex population where ever they were used. During my time at WesternNational and for many years beforehand "anything goes" was the rule. Front line coaches were used as buses every day, often with a handheld Setright ticket machine in use because no mounting bracket was provided. Elderly coaches were used as school buses but turned up on some surprisingly quiet and rural infill turns. The 12, a route we acquired with the Grenville business, took the back road between Camborne and Penzance through Townshend. A 49-seat Leopard / Duple was a regular performer offering damp, musty seats to the 2 or 3 passengerd who were the typical loading.

Morning all. The sun is shining upon the Hill of Strawberries in between a few light showers. Must have been some sort of social event on as after midnight there was a large noisy crowd on the station and - judging by the amount of hornage in use by the approaching train - probably on the tracks too. Unusual for here. Time will tell if it was a one-off nuisance. Bacon and eggs prepared and enjoyed. Might take a stroll to Teddington Lock later.

Just dropping in to record a safe arrival in London by all parties. Wednesday morning saw the cat collected by the specialist agency Jetpets. Wednesday afternoon I finally left an empty house, drove the car to a friend's house for storage until its fate us determined, then friend drove me to the airport. I was upgraded at check-in (done online two days previously) so enjoyed the delights of business class including copious serves of alcohol, restaurant-quality meals and a flat bed. It 's so good to not have your fellow passengers waking you on their way to and from the bathroom. It's even better to awake refreshed after eight hours solid sleep to be greeted with a request for your breakfast order. I found a chauffeur awaiting me at Heathrow on Thursday, was quickly home and reunited with Sharon, then it was shower, dinner and back to the airport by Uber to collect the cat. Uber presented itself in the shape of an E-class Mercedes with a driver more than happy to wait and bring the cat back. Aftef a brief exchange of paperwork one cat was returned to our care in great shape dsspite his travels. Since when we have all been settling together and quietly getting on with life. The container with our goods is due in July. Best wishes to all. I shall endeavour to pop in more often in future.