Rugd1022

Bewdley, SVR today...

This view made me smile this morning at the SVR...

With just over 327k P6s made in total you're right Ian, although the survival rate for the V8s (autos and manuals) is quite high, compared to the 2000s and 2200s. The 2200s were only made for just over three years and good ones are scarce now.

Rover MD William Martin-Hurst spotted the Buick V8 block on the floor of the workshop during a meeting over there in 1964 there and very quickly realised that it would fit into the engine bay of the P5 and P6 models, he asked for it to be shipped over to Solihull and within a few weeks it had been fitted into a P6 test mule. It was due to be launched in the P6 shell first but for some reason the 3.5 litre P5B Saloon and Coupe were launched first, in September '67.

Liskeard and St.Erth are safe for a while yet.

Up main dear boy, up main!

I wonder if anyone in Reading has modelled Redruth station...? 😉 Looks fabulous by the way. Quick gratuitous 50 fot... Photo by Andy Hoare from his flickr site : Old Oak on 24th January 1981...

By strange coincidence I posted this one in the song title game over on Pistonheads this morning! Soul Man - Lou Reed and Sam Cook

I rather like that. A chap down the road from me has just bought an early '80s 635 Coupe, it looks very svelte indeed and so much prettier than any modern BMW.

Train Song - Vashti Bunyan

Yep, Type 34, one of my favourite VWs, occasionally driven by baddies in 'The Champions' and 'The Saint'. An old mate of mine came round earlier to help me get the '68 Cooper fired up, for some reason it's been defeating me for the past few weeks but he got it going in minutes, turns out it was the starter motor shorting out and fuel pump misbehaving slightly. We took it out for a good long run and all's well now, he had a go and now wants to buy it! Before coming home in it we went out in a couple of his cars, a '53 Moggy Minor convertible that used yo belong to Ted 'fit the best, fit Everest' Moult and a '66 Hillman Super Minx which had one owner from new until he bought it earlier this year. I'd never driven one before and wasn't sure what to expect, but was impressed with the 1725cc engine and very smooth gear change. Using the brakes needed a little forward planning but I soon got used to them. Next time I go round I'll bag some photos of his small collection. Good news on the Maser front - it seems to get better the more I drive it and although it's advertised for sale, if I end up keeping it I'll be getting some more jobs done. It really needs some new tyres all round so if I do keep it, I may just get some nicer Shamal / Ghibli style alloys and new tyres rather than refurbish the BBS ones it currently wears. They look ok and are the correct period, but I've never really been a fan of this style, they make it look even more like an old BMW!

Baring in mind that the chaps in the Factory at Old Oka would have had experience with re-instating the multiple working gear of some of the Warships a few years before they would have been on top of the job, I'm sure.

I've not built a layout but often have idea's along the lines of this topic... Randall & Hopkirk, Jason King, Ed Straker, Regan and Carter, Steptoe's yard in Oil Drum Lane and Simon Templar (or his alias Sebastian Tombs) all get a look in somewhere. George Spiggot (the 'devil incarnate' from the Peter Cook and Dudley Moore film Bedazzled), Harold Shand (The Long Good Friday) and Vic Dakin (Villain) have cropped in an idea or two and if I ever do get something built, the graffiti that once graced a wall outside Paddington 'far away is close at hand in images of elsewhere' is sure to appear.

''Freddie Star ate my Happy Hippo'' ''Ringo Starr ate my Freddie'' ''Freddie the Happy Hippo ate my Hamster'' ''Ringo the Hamster ate Happy Hippo'' ''Freddie's Happy Hippo now looks like Ringo Starr'' When will this madness end...? 😉 This morning I spent part of my fifty eighth birthday in Melton Mowbray Goods Loop wondering where it all went wrong...!

I'd imagine 47 401 was at Willesden for tyre turning. Cracking topic - I only have to glance at a Hymek photo and I can hear the Maybach idling away to itself furiously! D7001 and D7028 would definitely have been tried out in mult at Old Oak in preparation for the tour, probably the day before when they were both cleaned, this would have been done by the shed turn crew, most likely inside the Pullman Shed where they had a bit of peace and quiet to get on with it under cover.

Melton Mowbray this morning with 6M39 Est Usk - Elstow...

Photo by Andy Hoare from his flickr site : 25 039 at Harbury with a Banbury to Bescot working in March 1978...

Photo by Andy Hoare from his flickr site : 31 141 at Thornaby in 1980, when ABBA were in the charts and the Railway Modeller was just 50p...!

Photo by Andy Hoare from his flickr site : starting up 56 109 at Barrow Hill in 1982...

Photos by Andy Hoare, from his flickr site Old Oak's 47 061 heading south at Fenny Compton with the 1V48 14.38 New St - Padd on 28th February 1981... 47 199 at Bishops Itchington with a Didcot MGR in May 1975... 47 514 at Harbury on a Poole - Newcastle working in 1975... 47 540 at Harbury on another cross country working in 1980...

Photo by Andy Hoare from his flickr site : 56 013 at Barrow Hill on 28th August 1982...

Photo by Andy Hoare from his flickr site : 08 488 inside the half roundhouse at St.Blazey on 25th April 1982, the same that Laira had its open day...

Alas we rarely go west of Acton Mainline at the moment Mike as the Reading mob cover most of the work down that way, but I know what you mean about crawling along the Thames Valley on the relief lines. Things may change though as there's talk of some of us signing down to Theale, which a few of the lads already do.

Everything in those shots is very nice CK but I’m intrigued by that corrugated shed, is it scratchbuilt…?

The Starsky & Hutch Torino and Morse’s Mk2 Jag stand out of course, but is that Jack Regan’s own Mk1 Escort from an episode of The Sweeney…?