'Along with Sweden I rate Belgium, famous for being not famous and infamous for being boring but in reality its Sundays that do it when the country closes down and retreats to a couple of well hidden restaurants for lunch, inevitably they are very crowed with half the population inside each.
Of course they have apartheid there, Walloons are French and have the larger part of the land mass but not much else other than a chip ( or frite)on their shoulder. They have great cities like Liege which I don’t know and Charleroi which I do as I once got so drunk there I wouldn’t come out the toilet on the train and nearly missed the airport and flight home. That was just one bottle of Trappist at lunchtime, foolishly sans food. Charleroi is a rather grim black coal town abandoned by industry and the rest of Europe, a grand design to modernise and put the trams underground was partially completed and many former routes abandoned. The new trams served points suitably distant from any inhabitation to deter most passengers, thus the renewal was abandoned or put on ice which was then used to chill a few more Pastis before lunch. English needless to say isn’t spoken but attempts at French are welcomed and the people are astonished but welcoming of a visitor. The capital Brussels when open, oh Sunday we know is closed, Saturdays almost as bad, when do they shop, Monday to Friday they compete on the roads in a perpetual whacky race for survival forbidden now to park as they once did a la mode across the pavements, middle of roads, crossings, intersections etc.A multi cultural society but apparently living in bresionable harmony, certainly mI’ve never had any bother filming around Gard Du Nord station nwhich is abiouty as ethnic as you can get, once burnt out buildings and shady characters now it loioks set to become a trendy bohemian spot.
Leuvan is a neutral state a bit like the Vatican which lies east of Brussels or Bruxelles or is it like Derry stroke city. In Leuvan they have a university and brew Stella Artois. They also have an Irish pub where against the boom of a live band I asked a fellow drunk what they thought of the Walloons (French speakers), northing he replied, we never think of them.
Another other country is Belgium, which shares common capital with the other Belgium, co existing in a parallel universe bonded through time and space and unreality through the European Union. Here they exist as a model village based on the Netherlands. The chief attraction is Bruges which I have never seen, perhaps its only in the Shearings coach brochure and then Ghent which I can verify as having both beautiful buildings, a chiming clock, trams and if you are lucky trolleybuses, unless you either have no affection for electric traction or you are my friend John in which case they are withdrawn from service the moment he shows his face. The railway station is conveniently placed by the bus station or vice versa and of course probably just vice if that’s your inclination. Ostend stretches with its suburbs along the entire coastal border of Belgium, that’s the model village not the former coal mine country. Here endless rows of cafes vend mussels and frites or meat balls if you are squeamish. The coast is also served by a tramway, a much modernised relic of a former extensive network of countrywide routes called the Vicinal. Near the border there is a city dedicated to shipping and diamonds, Antwerp is actually a spy centre, polluted by Dutch agents so don’t go slagging of the Dutch here. Everyone of course speaks English and it isn’t really that impolite to launch straight into it as asking if they speak English would actually seem an insult to their intelligence and certainly mean they don’t watch television as half that including the adverts is in English anyway.'
Friday, September 29, 2006
SENT PACKING
Another spare bed arrived yesterday, Mandy persuaded the bin men to take all the packing, they agreed in a moment of weakness as she put on the sick and disabled routine. Usually they are heartless in implementing the ‘rules’. The garden really looks a treat with Dahlias, Begonias et al in full swing and still nowhere near a sign of frost.
The family history scene has been dominated by an avalanche of stuff via Genesreunited and yet more from Ancestry, most is computer generated stuff from matches of very distant ancestors through trees. I’m probably going to pull the plug as with a couple of notable exceptions it’s all take and little give.
Work continues to be hectic with a move from one location to another albeit only a mile away but shifting office is bad enough, I haven’t even got an office yet at the next location, that’s with a week to go.
The family history scene has been dominated by an avalanche of stuff via Genesreunited and yet more from Ancestry, most is computer generated stuff from matches of very distant ancestors through trees. I’m probably going to pull the plug as with a couple of notable exceptions it’s all take and little give.
Work continues to be hectic with a move from one location to another albeit only a mile away but shifting office is bad enough, I haven’t even got an office yet at the next location, that’s with a week to go.
Thursday, September 28, 2006
PMP HAVE A PINT TO RELAX, FUNNY THINGS PUBS
After a hectic day at work and at home, a few new shrubs planted in the wind and rain I managed to get the Showbus DVDs finished and also Cambridgeshire. We decided to retreat to the pub for the rest of the evening although as ever multi tasking by downloading a couple of hours of Glasgow archives while we were out. Hoping to have lots of golden oldie Glasgow stuff ready for SVVT at Bridgton. The Crown isn’t a bad local, good beer but it was never the same since old Bert retired and it was refurbished, the dominance of food also ruined a pleasant refuge from the world. It features in real ale guides, has traditional games like dominos and host to the Gooseberry show. The land lady is eclectic in dress sense and attitude as is her Labrador dog which snarls at visitors although without malicious intent. This makes me think of the pub at Great Wilbraham where we stay prior to Showbus, its even haunted but always empty, perhaps the locals are afraid, how does it stay in business, the land lord has the charm of a friendly manic depressive leper but the foods not bad. Funny things pubs as they say.
sorry about mixed captions on photos, they were right when I put them on, funny things blogs as well eh
sorry about mixed captions on photos, they were right when I put them on, funny things blogs as well eh
Wednesday, September 27, 2006
TRANSPORT PHOTO TREATS FROM PMP FILMS
York this May
The Bristol Rally in May
when spring was in the air!
Welcome to the PMP Blog
new releases from PMP
1420. Stokes Bay Bus Rally. UK. Buses. August 2006. The Gosport bus rally with line ups, the afternoon run leaving and returning, mainly in sunshine.
1421. Greater Manchester 2006 . UK. Buses. August 2006. Visits to Bolton, First,Arriva,Stagecoach,Transdev , then Stockport for new Enviros on the 192.
1422. Antwerp. Belgium. Trams. September 2006. Low floor cars onroutes 2 / 15 / 11, sunny weather, reconstruction work in the city centre.
1423. Brussels. Belgium. Trams. September 2006. New Low floor cars on route 23, cloudless sunny weather, masses of locations around the city.
1424. Eastbourne & Brighton. UK. Buses. Sussex. 2005 /2006 Transition from Stagecoach to B&H, new buses and Cavendish with RM in Eastbourne.
1425. Cumbria. UK. Buses. Sept 2006. Starts in Barrow, friendly and sunny, through Whitehave and Workington then to Carlisle ends at Kendal.
1426. Truck It North West. UK. Trucks. July / Sept 2006. Trucks in action at Middlewich plus Truck Fest North West at Haydock Park racecourse.
1427. Greater Manchester. UK. Buses. Sept 2006. Sunny visits to Bury for school traffic, Oldham weekday new buses and Heaton Park rally in the rain.
1428. Showbus Part One. UK. Buses. Cambridgeshire. Sept 2006 The first 75 minutes , the biggest and best bus rally in the world, arrivals up to about 10.20.
1429. Showbus Part Two. UK. Buses. Cambridgeshire. Sept 2006. The remainder of the arrivals through to the Routemaster Gold Run filmed from airside.
1430. Cambridgeshire. UK. Buses. Sept 2006. Visits to Perborough, new buses with Stagecoach plenty of independents then to Cambridge lots of action there.
Low from the North they came and East and.....Showbus what a cracker!
Moles eradictated. Showbus edited Phew
what a day , lots of people will be joining now and not know our background, how do we fit it all in people ask, with difficulty I reply.
A busy day at the 'proper' job, 40 mile drive home, then called in at garden centre for some canes, restaked dahlias which are tumbling over, got some new Cistus and Lavatera to replace woody plants, once tidied I then cleared the remains of last mole hill where trap was placed, mole catcher still to call back to collect trap.
A big pile of detritus for the green bin, which is actually our brown bin, this goes every two weeks, barely adequate, I hate recycling, it's all a joke, costs a fortune to operate, stinking refuge and snotty operators and you still end up going down the tip.Mow the lawns, which had grown a bit too long after the mole problem and trapping period.
Then cleared up, ran off the DVD for first part of Showbus, made the next part ( edit on Adobe Premiere), had dinner whilst running off video, then afterwards make DVD of final part. Somehere along the line tested DVDs, made the covers ( Powerpoint), already got orders although not even advertised, but folks they are ready plus a new one on Manchester ( Oldham, Bury and Heaton Park).
List updated soon see website
www.pmpvideo.com
A bit of telly but not much, computer played up, ground to a halt before bedtime, checked e mails, family research , posted on Genes Reunited recently, now getting about 40 messages a day plus some from Ancestry, thinking of pulling it off the net, personal enquiries are fine but this computer generated mail is over the top, and aren't some of the people rude, most want info and aren't prepared to share anything, no hello how do you do, I'm Fred from Wisconson etc, and worse of all are the Australian family researchers, unlike bus enthusiasts there who are very helpful and friendly, this crew are often a pain. I just repled to one who said if I couldn't tell her how I was related I shouldn't have her family on my tree, with over 30K people on it and many pretty distant relations why should I care, just glad she doesn't live around the corner.
just another evening at PMP headquaters...... yawn
Dave
A busy day at the 'proper' job, 40 mile drive home, then called in at garden centre for some canes, restaked dahlias which are tumbling over, got some new Cistus and Lavatera to replace woody plants, once tidied I then cleared the remains of last mole hill where trap was placed, mole catcher still to call back to collect trap.
A big pile of detritus for the green bin, which is actually our brown bin, this goes every two weeks, barely adequate, I hate recycling, it's all a joke, costs a fortune to operate, stinking refuge and snotty operators and you still end up going down the tip.Mow the lawns, which had grown a bit too long after the mole problem and trapping period.
Then cleared up, ran off the DVD for first part of Showbus, made the next part ( edit on Adobe Premiere), had dinner whilst running off video, then afterwards make DVD of final part. Somehere along the line tested DVDs, made the covers ( Powerpoint), already got orders although not even advertised, but folks they are ready plus a new one on Manchester ( Oldham, Bury and Heaton Park).
List updated soon see website
www.pmpvideo.com
A bit of telly but not much, computer played up, ground to a halt before bedtime, checked e mails, family research , posted on Genes Reunited recently, now getting about 40 messages a day plus some from Ancestry, thinking of pulling it off the net, personal enquiries are fine but this computer generated mail is over the top, and aren't some of the people rude, most want info and aren't prepared to share anything, no hello how do you do, I'm Fred from Wisconson etc, and worse of all are the Australian family researchers, unlike bus enthusiasts there who are very helpful and friendly, this crew are often a pain. I just repled to one who said if I couldn't tell her how I was related I shouldn't have her family on my tree, with over 30K people on it and many pretty distant relations why should I care, just glad she doesn't live around the corner.
just another evening at PMP headquaters...... yawn
Dave
Tuesday, September 26, 2006
Extract from Dave's autobiography
Aged 16 working on SEGAS at Eastbourne, Sussex.......
'Gas actually was remarkably difficult to get ablaze although we did get some success in the summer that year, on one of the roads full of guest houses running parallel to the seafront the mains gang had been digging a trench in search of a reported gas leak. They must have found it ok as the whole road was like a giant burner set on low with a dim blue flame spread across the surface melting what tarmac that hadn’t already succumbed to the searing sunlight. It was quite difficult to see in the bright light, hence the lack of panic amongst the civilian population. Reaction amongst the highly trained SEGAS squad was sanguine as they leant on their shovels contemplating lunchtime. Finally I was despatched to give word to the fire brigade, by bike of course, nothing rushed remember. I arrived at the Fire Station near the Unigate dairy. The brigade of course leapt at the opportunity to produce their immaculate fleet with lights flashing and bells ringing but were somewhat stymied as they had to follow along behind me on my push bike to show them where it was. To be fair the distance wasn’t that great and barring a ripple of explosion through the mains around Eastbourne no one seemed to foresee any particular danger and the brigade stood by as lunch time butties were finished and some denso tape wrapped around the erring joint.
Smaller leaks were often discovered, sometimes as a result of a tiny gas bill, say by a pub like our own Martello Inn in Langney where the only gas was the emergency lighting. Locating this was troublesome as a bill of say 6d would involve a very small volume of gas perhaps not even detected by the keenest nose. The instrument which measured it was a U tube of glass fitted to a white background mounted in a black metal sliding case, a rubber tube lead from one end and was attached to the gas supply, pressure was released which would push the water around the U bend, the supply was then turned off, any drop in pressure through a leak could be detected as the water would gradually equalise. A great theory but as with yet another case, and yet another pub, the Alexander Arms near the Rec on Seaside, it was a near impossible task. An old hotel with fabulous wrought iron balcony’s and original tinted glass and colourer tile work, amongst the many rooms some small gas loss was occurring, joints were plastered with paste willy nilly but amongst acres of tiny old lead tubes it was needle in a haystack work.
I think the teasing of apprentices by fitters is standard and what more nerve jangling subject for young lads than their love lives, there’re wasn’t one of course and that made it even worse! The taunts and teases thought of the fitters weren’t meant in any malevolent way but the troubles with the other lads at tech were much more menacing. My time at the grammar school has resulted in a rather tweaky little posh accent which must have grated amongst the Sussex drawl which ranged from outlandish Germanic Battle to estuarine Brighton. Whatever the cause the result next year saw me flung on the rails at Brighton Station (remember the ones pulsating with mega electric voltage).Lets stay in happier times though, Brighton was full of watering holes, one off Old Steine was popular with youngsters and had built in rodents to boot, sometimes in hot weather we’d drink down near the beach, I think there was a bar under the colonnades. I rode over on my moped, ok in fine weather but a nightmare in the wet, Marion had a small moped but she had a nasty tumble which put paid to her motorcycle career, I remember it had a big basket for shopping on front, she wore a white helmet in fake leather with a peak.
The skills taught at the Gas Board Technological college sound very much like the makings of a comic novel, Blot on the Gas Board perhaps. Wiping joints involved mole skins folded into a pad which neatly fitted into your hand, this you use to wipe molten metal around lead pipes often in ludicrously difficult locations and with skill and luck perform a gas tight joint. Other attributes included all manner of copper pipes bent to order, mangled and wrecked, flux in your hair and jointing paste under your nails this was used with steel pipes . The steel pipes came finished in black in random lengths which would need to be cut to dimension, usually on the pavement outside the customer’s house. In sunshine this was pleasant enough; any inexactness was usually made up for by an even more liberal application of the jointing compound or paste and a good old fashioned heave - together with a mangle with the adjustable wrench or ‘grip’ as it was known.
The main attributes for a gas fitter were not taught at college, the ability to accept offers of unlimited teas and eat copious amounts of biscuits, to balance precariously the fitter’s canvas tool bag with weighty contents on the push bike handlebars and to idle time way between jobs. A motorcycle was I soon realised not considered fair game, called upon to collect a missing fitting or part I would dart off back to the stores just off Terminus Rd and return all too quickly, no a push bike was the more desired rate of progress and allowed the fitter to spend time on customer relations. Water geysers still bubbled and belched, Ascots and the like, over most sinks, central heating boilers a delicate area of expertise in more wealthy properties. '
hope you enjoyed this extract, I'm working on page 400 plus!
Dave
'Gas actually was remarkably difficult to get ablaze although we did get some success in the summer that year, on one of the roads full of guest houses running parallel to the seafront the mains gang had been digging a trench in search of a reported gas leak. They must have found it ok as the whole road was like a giant burner set on low with a dim blue flame spread across the surface melting what tarmac that hadn’t already succumbed to the searing sunlight. It was quite difficult to see in the bright light, hence the lack of panic amongst the civilian population. Reaction amongst the highly trained SEGAS squad was sanguine as they leant on their shovels contemplating lunchtime. Finally I was despatched to give word to the fire brigade, by bike of course, nothing rushed remember. I arrived at the Fire Station near the Unigate dairy. The brigade of course leapt at the opportunity to produce their immaculate fleet with lights flashing and bells ringing but were somewhat stymied as they had to follow along behind me on my push bike to show them where it was. To be fair the distance wasn’t that great and barring a ripple of explosion through the mains around Eastbourne no one seemed to foresee any particular danger and the brigade stood by as lunch time butties were finished and some denso tape wrapped around the erring joint.
Smaller leaks were often discovered, sometimes as a result of a tiny gas bill, say by a pub like our own Martello Inn in Langney where the only gas was the emergency lighting. Locating this was troublesome as a bill of say 6d would involve a very small volume of gas perhaps not even detected by the keenest nose. The instrument which measured it was a U tube of glass fitted to a white background mounted in a black metal sliding case, a rubber tube lead from one end and was attached to the gas supply, pressure was released which would push the water around the U bend, the supply was then turned off, any drop in pressure through a leak could be detected as the water would gradually equalise. A great theory but as with yet another case, and yet another pub, the Alexander Arms near the Rec on Seaside, it was a near impossible task. An old hotel with fabulous wrought iron balcony’s and original tinted glass and colourer tile work, amongst the many rooms some small gas loss was occurring, joints were plastered with paste willy nilly but amongst acres of tiny old lead tubes it was needle in a haystack work.
I think the teasing of apprentices by fitters is standard and what more nerve jangling subject for young lads than their love lives, there’re wasn’t one of course and that made it even worse! The taunts and teases thought of the fitters weren’t meant in any malevolent way but the troubles with the other lads at tech were much more menacing. My time at the grammar school has resulted in a rather tweaky little posh accent which must have grated amongst the Sussex drawl which ranged from outlandish Germanic Battle to estuarine Brighton. Whatever the cause the result next year saw me flung on the rails at Brighton Station (remember the ones pulsating with mega electric voltage).Lets stay in happier times though, Brighton was full of watering holes, one off Old Steine was popular with youngsters and had built in rodents to boot, sometimes in hot weather we’d drink down near the beach, I think there was a bar under the colonnades. I rode over on my moped, ok in fine weather but a nightmare in the wet, Marion had a small moped but she had a nasty tumble which put paid to her motorcycle career, I remember it had a big basket for shopping on front, she wore a white helmet in fake leather with a peak.
The skills taught at the Gas Board Technological college sound very much like the makings of a comic novel, Blot on the Gas Board perhaps. Wiping joints involved mole skins folded into a pad which neatly fitted into your hand, this you use to wipe molten metal around lead pipes often in ludicrously difficult locations and with skill and luck perform a gas tight joint. Other attributes included all manner of copper pipes bent to order, mangled and wrecked, flux in your hair and jointing paste under your nails this was used with steel pipes . The steel pipes came finished in black in random lengths which would need to be cut to dimension, usually on the pavement outside the customer’s house. In sunshine this was pleasant enough; any inexactness was usually made up for by an even more liberal application of the jointing compound or paste and a good old fashioned heave - together with a mangle with the adjustable wrench or ‘grip’ as it was known.
The main attributes for a gas fitter were not taught at college, the ability to accept offers of unlimited teas and eat copious amounts of biscuits, to balance precariously the fitter’s canvas tool bag with weighty contents on the push bike handlebars and to idle time way between jobs. A motorcycle was I soon realised not considered fair game, called upon to collect a missing fitting or part I would dart off back to the stores just off Terminus Rd and return all too quickly, no a push bike was the more desired rate of progress and allowed the fitter to spend time on customer relations. Water geysers still bubbled and belched, Ascots and the like, over most sinks, central heating boilers a delicate area of expertise in more wealthy properties. '
hope you enjoyed this extract, I'm working on page 400 plus!
Dave
GOODIES ARRIVE AT PMP LOADS MORE BOOKS
Great news for transport bargain hunters, over 600 books were obtained from our source yesterday including several coffee table sized and lots of 'new' titles. These will be at Birkenhead on Sunday then Bridgton Glasgow next week, many are very low volume, some only singles. The others will go on our usual e bay shop.
Dave
Dave
Monday, September 25, 2006
SHOWBUS PETERBOROUGH CAMBRIDGE BUS PHOTOS
A reminder of a fantastic weekend in Cambridgeshire
Dave
Showbus, the biggest and the best bus rally in the world
Peterborough well worth a visit
and Cambridge always fun pre Showbus
Showbus Weekend Initial Report
Spoilt only by one of the council bus drivers who said I might get my camera broken, so at odds with everyone else there who were all so friendly, lots of bus enthusiast around, overspill from
The usual band of enthusiasts gathering in even greater numbers bewildering the university freshers arriving that week. Lots of bus activity and
Showbus Sunday 24th Sept.
The best ever, sublime, a short early morning shower, a slight breeze, it got warmer and sunnier as the day went on. We had our best ever days business there, thanks to everyone who came and talked however briefly, we hope that everyone enjoyed the many bargain books and videos as well as all the new DVD stock including golden oldies out on DVD for the first time. Bus wise they just came flooding in, there seemed more than ever, I filmed from 8 onwards through to nearly 12 midday including the Routemaster ‘Gold’ run with airside shots of the parade. We are proud to be the official film and for access granted. Well done to the Showbus team, it all came together. The only gripes were the queues waiting to pass through the entry booths; some waited 45 minutes to get their bus through.
Catching up on the PMP Newsletter
Hi Folks,
as we get to grips with this blogging I thought we should catch up with the month so far.
I'll put some photos on a seperate posting asap
Welcome to this October 2006 news up date, our 72nd to date covering events in September. Welcome to new readers and for regulars it’s good to be with you once again. As usual family and general chit chat first, right through to new DVD releases at the end. Sending the news letter and PMP film list as attachments certainly speeded up the process with far fewer rejections from recipient mailboxes. Just a couple of our regulars pick it up from their TV sets and we are sending a plain text out on request only to those who need it.
ALL Change, we now have a net diary, this is known as a blog. You’ll all have access just sign on for updates or call in as and when you wish. It’s all on our web site
www.pmpvideo.com
The advantage is that you get fresh news and photographs without clogging up your e mail system
LIFE AWAY FROM TRANSPORT.
August finished like a damp squid with continued chilly weather and showers, what a dreary month it was. Dave had his little op for basal cell carcinoma which hopefully has seen the back of that for a while. Dave has been busy writing his autobiography, the first part covering the earlier years is nearly finished but whether we can find a publisher is another question. We still have the mole in the garden, awaiting the mole catcher. The weather continued wet and just got worse as we entered September, even had a Saturday rained off from filming but it gave us a chance to scan some of Dave’s family photos for the autobiography which by the way now stands at approaching 400 pages.
A super weekend in Belgium and a chance to catch up with John and Margaret form Canada who are on a mammoth street car and sightseeing trip around Europe and Scandinavia. The mole is still causing havoc in the garden this month although having at last found a mole catcher whop has set traps, the fight back may have started! Mandy has had a week in Ireland so Dave held the fort...
Belgium
Friday 8th to Monday 11th September considering the Friday afternoon rush hour traffic we had a good trip down to the tunnel and at last they have given back flexibility over departure and return so we set off earlier than planned. It’s now an automatic machine check in with very few staff around, we got pulled for a security check. A straightforward drive to Antwerp and amazingly got straight to the hotel without one wrong turn. Apart from the crummy pillows it was comfortable and after the light finally rose sufficiently I got some filming done while Mandy boosted the Belgium economy in the Diamond centre. The low floor trams were on the 2, 15 and also the 11; I did some filming out of town on the reserved tracks then back to the centre where there were infrastructure works just about everywhere. Mandy did an open top city tour on the bus.
Brussels saw new low floor trams ion just route 23, there are only about a dozen, weekend frequencies are abysmal and apart fro rush hours weekdays aren’t that much better. The weather was very kind to us, hardly a cloud seen all weekend. The Montgomery hotel was superb except its breakfast, bit Fawltey Towers and the tea was rubbish, Brits should take their own. Rooms very comfortable, well appointed and clean, friendly helpful staff, valet parking, weekends deals make it affordable otherwise it’s an expense account job only. We had a really lovely meal on Saturday night next to the Irish pub, mainly as the pub stopped serving at 7pm, worked out well and the trams even got going after a stoppage in time to get us back to Montgomery.
We picked John and Margaret up from Midi station on their way in from Amsterdam, an afternoon chasing trams and decent locations frustrated by the lack of quarry just like Saturday. There is now a new silver and gold livery applied to the hew cars plus a random selection of oldies and buses.
PMP NOW TRADING ON E BAY
As well as all sorts of books, photos ( worldwide), fleet lists etc ( very good on Kent Sussex) in addition to the DVDs books etc on auction we have an ebay shop, go to
http://stores.ebay.co.uk/PMP-TRANSPORT-FILMS
Family History.
Some great work from researcher Gill Blanchard in Norwich on old family wills, confirming and extending known family in the Whinburgh area.
Film Visits
Heaton Park
Sunday 3rd September notable for heavy rain (not forecast), wind and mud, it was so bad that Mandy couldn’t walk on the treacherous surface. Buses well down on normal attendance but despite everything we had a good days business with lots of bargain books cleared.
Bolton Tuesday 5th September
Here you can see First, Stagecoach, Arriva and indeed Transdev and a couple of minor operators. It was a sunny lunchtime and hordes of new saloons about in the First fleet all looking incredibly boring. Quite a lot of hassle, Bolton certainly has its problems but usually I get off lightly here, the children were supposed to be back at school but there were still loads around, perhaps they’ve given up on education here, a waste of money anyway judging by the chavs hanging about
Stockport Thursday 7th Sept
Late afternoon visit in horrendous traffic with the town in grid lock. The Stagecoach / UK North bus war continues with buses on the 192 every couple of minutes. Its tatty old saloons for UK North aka GM Buses against brand new Enviros for Stagecoach. Wandered briefly into the bus station where I got stopped from filming because I was waving the camera around, its ok if you keep it still, all to do with the data protect act, but difficult to understand. Whow that’s the best I’ve heard yet! I can only imagine that he’s got it confused with ‘still’ photography being ok or something of the sort. So remember don’t wave your camera around at Daw Bank bus station.
Bury Friday 8th Sept
Later in the afternoon, a sunny day, plagued by louts aka school children out of control, never had any probs in Bury before, this time I was sick of the place. Not a lot of buses, a few deckers on school workings, very much Rossendale and First territory.
Barrow Sat 9th September
It’s always a pleasure to go filming in Barrow, I never seem to get any hassle and all the crews are very welcoming, I doubt if a driver doesn’t pass without returning my waves. A whole batch of new Solos and deckers on the Kendal route plus some mini buses which seem like survivors from another era. The light is always spot on here by the town hall, very nice flowers as well!
Whitehaven Sat 9th September
Very little to see bus wise, no problems filming, they have a disc parking arrangement which means you get an hour free of charge which was plenty of time, the sun shone but got fed up sand moved on.
Workington Sat10th Sept
I’ve said some not very pleasant things about Workington over the years but with the sun shining and friendly crews the streets seemed relatively free of hassle and at least there were a few deckers about and a bit of movement in and out of the bus station.
Carlisle Sat 10th September .A horrid visit in which I was threatened by Chavs in the street, the police are now absent from the area around the bus station as there station got flooded and they moved away. This was one of the roughest most vile places it has been my misfortune to visit in a long while. Never had so much trouble in such a short time. A batch of Stagecoach saloons replaced the motley collection which replaced flood victims other than that not a lot. The drivers of course are as friendly as ever, confirming my maxim that the rougher the place the more friendly the crews, they need friends!
Kendal Sat 10th September A bit late in the day to get much but a few views anyway, a mix of minibuses , elderly saloons and the odd decker at the bus station plus the occasional independent. Tricky light wise though, indifferent crews.
Truck fest North West Haydock Sunday 11th September
Not up to the standards of the big Truckfest at Peterborough, a local gathering in a sort of hotchpotch of everything from vintage to modern with everything between placed ad hoc around the site with little regard for photography, light direction etc. The parade ring for entrants was scrapped as there wasn’t enough room to move trucks around; this left it to minor TV celebs and motorcycle display teams, very disappointing. The weather was good first thing, rained later.
FEEDBACK
Dear Dave,
Last night I watched the DVD of Newcastle and Wollongong buses which I received from you yesterday. The Wollongong sequences were of particular interest to me as I lived for 36 years not far from where they were taken (and 9 years prior to that at Shellharbour). As I never owned a car, I traveled by bus regularly, mostly Hills and Ruttys and sometimes Dions. John J. Hills was the largest private bus operator in New South Wales and probably Australia. In the late 90s there were rumours going round that either Hills were going to take over Ruttys or Ruttys was going to take over Hills. Then out of the blue Premier of Nowra bought the both of them.
Before that, at Ruttys depot pensioned off buses lined the fence all round the yard. Premier closed Hills Corrimal Street Depot and works and moved everything to Figtree, so all the old buses were removed.
Not all services terminate at Marine Parade. Buses from Kiama/Shellharbour and Oak Flats enter Wollongong via Corrimal Street and Burelli Street and either terminate at Louden Square on the eastern side of Wollongong Railway Station, or run to the University via Crown Street West.
Thanks for the quick service,
B S Australia
WORK IN PROGRESS
We hope to have old Cambridge and London trips ready for Showbus and LOTS.
Web master Fraser is trying to catch up with the web site and also investigating turning news letter over to a ‘blog’ and also putting film snippets on the net.
Developments
The continual decline of video
We now have a stock of thousands of pounds worth of video covers which are unlikely ever to be used up. We have now stopped making covers for the latest releases on video, utilising the DVD covers which when trimmed fit quite well. When stocks of the oldest video covers expire we will resort to black & white photocopied covers.
Whist we have continued to produce new work in video they are only one hour long whilst the DVD versions are often up to neatly 90 minutes on occasions. We can only advise very strongly that you invest at least in a dual DVD / video, it won’t be long before we take a deep breath and say a farewell to the medium which has served us well since we started back in 1989.
WE WELCOME SUGGESTIONS FOR RALLIES / OPEN DAYS etc
2006 Overseas trips
Christmas/New Year 06/07 Australia Darwin,Adelaide,Melbourne,Sydney.booked
2007 Overseas Trips
Southern Poland and Eastern Ukraine
North Switzerland
France Mulhouse / Valencienne etc
Calcutta, India Dhaka, Bangla Desh and possibly Burma.
UK Bus locations - feel free to suggest venues –
2006.
Peterborough Cambridge Showbus weekend
Isle of Wight Oct John Bishop is covering
Cumbria Sept
Sussex John Bishop has covered much of this for us
Yorkshire especially Traction with Stagecoach takeover also Doncaster,Leeds, Huddersfield, Wakefield, Bradford, etc.
2007
Norfolk / Suffolk
Essex
Sussex
Kent
Glasgow
Ayrshire Coast
Edinburgh
South Wales
West Wales
West Midlands
North West
Belfast
2006 - Known Rally Dates are (please double check before going to anything!) PMP Will be at those prefixed PMP Stand.
No mention means we either don’t have details or have forgotten it does not necessarily mean that we aren’t going!
· 1st Oct PMP stand at Wirral Bus & Tram show at Birkenhead.
· 8th Oct PMP stand at SVVT Glasgow. Running day as well as all the museum buses and visiting guests. An increasingly popular venue.
· 22nd October PMP Stand at Gladstone Pottery Museum. Potteries Running day, through to late afternoon, atmospheric evening shots. Up to 20 buses scheduled with many interesting photographic opportunities around Stoke area. Services link various local Pottery museums.
· 26th Nov possible at Aston Manor Museum Birmingham collectors fair.
· 2/3 Dec 2006. PMP stand at Boyle St, Manchester Christmas Cracker.
as we get to grips with this blogging I thought we should catch up with the month so far.
I'll put some photos on a seperate posting asap
Welcome to this October 2006 news up date, our 72nd to date covering events in September. Welcome to new readers and for regulars it’s good to be with you once again. As usual family and general chit chat first, right through to new DVD releases at the end. Sending the news letter and PMP film list as attachments certainly speeded up the process with far fewer rejections from recipient mailboxes. Just a couple of our regulars pick it up from their TV sets and we are sending a plain text out on request only to those who need it.
ALL Change, we now have a net diary, this is known as a blog. You’ll all have access just sign on for updates or call in as and when you wish. It’s all on our web site
www.pmpvideo.com
The advantage is that you get fresh news and photographs without clogging up your e mail system
LIFE AWAY FROM TRANSPORT.
August finished like a damp squid with continued chilly weather and showers, what a dreary month it was. Dave had his little op for basal cell carcinoma which hopefully has seen the back of that for a while. Dave has been busy writing his autobiography, the first part covering the earlier years is nearly finished but whether we can find a publisher is another question. We still have the mole in the garden, awaiting the mole catcher. The weather continued wet and just got worse as we entered September, even had a Saturday rained off from filming but it gave us a chance to scan some of Dave’s family photos for the autobiography which by the way now stands at approaching 400 pages.
A super weekend in Belgium and a chance to catch up with John and Margaret form Canada who are on a mammoth street car and sightseeing trip around Europe and Scandinavia. The mole is still causing havoc in the garden this month although having at last found a mole catcher whop has set traps, the fight back may have started! Mandy has had a week in Ireland so Dave held the fort...
Belgium
Friday 8th to Monday 11th September considering the Friday afternoon rush hour traffic we had a good trip down to the tunnel and at last they have given back flexibility over departure and return so we set off earlier than planned. It’s now an automatic machine check in with very few staff around, we got pulled for a security check. A straightforward drive to Antwerp and amazingly got straight to the hotel without one wrong turn. Apart from the crummy pillows it was comfortable and after the light finally rose sufficiently I got some filming done while Mandy boosted the Belgium economy in the Diamond centre. The low floor trams were on the 2, 15 and also the 11; I did some filming out of town on the reserved tracks then back to the centre where there were infrastructure works just about everywhere. Mandy did an open top city tour on the bus.
Brussels saw new low floor trams ion just route 23, there are only about a dozen, weekend frequencies are abysmal and apart fro rush hours weekdays aren’t that much better. The weather was very kind to us, hardly a cloud seen all weekend. The Montgomery hotel was superb except its breakfast, bit Fawltey Towers and the tea was rubbish, Brits should take their own. Rooms very comfortable, well appointed and clean, friendly helpful staff, valet parking, weekends deals make it affordable otherwise it’s an expense account job only. We had a really lovely meal on Saturday night next to the Irish pub, mainly as the pub stopped serving at 7pm, worked out well and the trams even got going after a stoppage in time to get us back to Montgomery.
We picked John and Margaret up from Midi station on their way in from Amsterdam, an afternoon chasing trams and decent locations frustrated by the lack of quarry just like Saturday. There is now a new silver and gold livery applied to the hew cars plus a random selection of oldies and buses.
PMP NOW TRADING ON E BAY
As well as all sorts of books, photos ( worldwide), fleet lists etc ( very good on Kent Sussex) in addition to the DVDs books etc on auction we have an ebay shop, go to
http://stores.ebay.co.uk/PMP-TRANSPORT-FILMS
Family History.
Some great work from researcher Gill Blanchard in Norwich on old family wills, confirming and extending known family in the Whinburgh area.
Film Visits
Heaton Park
Sunday 3rd September notable for heavy rain (not forecast), wind and mud, it was so bad that Mandy couldn’t walk on the treacherous surface. Buses well down on normal attendance but despite everything we had a good days business with lots of bargain books cleared.
Bolton Tuesday 5th September
Here you can see First, Stagecoach, Arriva and indeed Transdev and a couple of minor operators. It was a sunny lunchtime and hordes of new saloons about in the First fleet all looking incredibly boring. Quite a lot of hassle, Bolton certainly has its problems but usually I get off lightly here, the children were supposed to be back at school but there were still loads around, perhaps they’ve given up on education here, a waste of money anyway judging by the chavs hanging about
Stockport Thursday 7th Sept
Late afternoon visit in horrendous traffic with the town in grid lock. The Stagecoach / UK North bus war continues with buses on the 192 every couple of minutes. Its tatty old saloons for UK North aka GM Buses against brand new Enviros for Stagecoach. Wandered briefly into the bus station where I got stopped from filming because I was waving the camera around, its ok if you keep it still, all to do with the data protect act, but difficult to understand. Whow that’s the best I’ve heard yet! I can only imagine that he’s got it confused with ‘still’ photography being ok or something of the sort. So remember don’t wave your camera around at Daw Bank bus station.
Bury Friday 8th Sept
Later in the afternoon, a sunny day, plagued by louts aka school children out of control, never had any probs in Bury before, this time I was sick of the place. Not a lot of buses, a few deckers on school workings, very much Rossendale and First territory.
Barrow Sat 9th September
It’s always a pleasure to go filming in Barrow, I never seem to get any hassle and all the crews are very welcoming, I doubt if a driver doesn’t pass without returning my waves. A whole batch of new Solos and deckers on the Kendal route plus some mini buses which seem like survivors from another era. The light is always spot on here by the town hall, very nice flowers as well!
Whitehaven Sat 9th September
Very little to see bus wise, no problems filming, they have a disc parking arrangement which means you get an hour free of charge which was plenty of time, the sun shone but got fed up sand moved on.
Workington Sat10th Sept
I’ve said some not very pleasant things about Workington over the years but with the sun shining and friendly crews the streets seemed relatively free of hassle and at least there were a few deckers about and a bit of movement in and out of the bus station.
Carlisle Sat 10th September .A horrid visit in which I was threatened by Chavs in the street, the police are now absent from the area around the bus station as there station got flooded and they moved away. This was one of the roughest most vile places it has been my misfortune to visit in a long while. Never had so much trouble in such a short time. A batch of Stagecoach saloons replaced the motley collection which replaced flood victims other than that not a lot. The drivers of course are as friendly as ever, confirming my maxim that the rougher the place the more friendly the crews, they need friends!
Kendal Sat 10th September A bit late in the day to get much but a few views anyway, a mix of minibuses , elderly saloons and the odd decker at the bus station plus the occasional independent. Tricky light wise though, indifferent crews.
Truck fest North West Haydock Sunday 11th September
Not up to the standards of the big Truckfest at Peterborough, a local gathering in a sort of hotchpotch of everything from vintage to modern with everything between placed ad hoc around the site with little regard for photography, light direction etc. The parade ring for entrants was scrapped as there wasn’t enough room to move trucks around; this left it to minor TV celebs and motorcycle display teams, very disappointing. The weather was good first thing, rained later.
FEEDBACK
Dear Dave,
Last night I watched the DVD of Newcastle and Wollongong buses which I received from you yesterday. The Wollongong sequences were of particular interest to me as I lived for 36 years not far from where they were taken (and 9 years prior to that at Shellharbour). As I never owned a car, I traveled by bus regularly, mostly Hills and Ruttys and sometimes Dions. John J. Hills was the largest private bus operator in New South Wales and probably Australia. In the late 90s there were rumours going round that either Hills were going to take over Ruttys or Ruttys was going to take over Hills. Then out of the blue Premier of Nowra bought the both of them.
Before that, at Ruttys depot pensioned off buses lined the fence all round the yard. Premier closed Hills Corrimal Street Depot and works and moved everything to Figtree, so all the old buses were removed.
Not all services terminate at Marine Parade. Buses from Kiama/Shellharbour and Oak Flats enter Wollongong via Corrimal Street and Burelli Street and either terminate at Louden Square on the eastern side of Wollongong Railway Station, or run to the University via Crown Street West.
Thanks for the quick service,
B S Australia
WORK IN PROGRESS
We hope to have old Cambridge and London trips ready for Showbus and LOTS.
Web master Fraser is trying to catch up with the web site and also investigating turning news letter over to a ‘blog’ and also putting film snippets on the net.
Developments
The continual decline of video
We now have a stock of thousands of pounds worth of video covers which are unlikely ever to be used up. We have now stopped making covers for the latest releases on video, utilising the DVD covers which when trimmed fit quite well. When stocks of the oldest video covers expire we will resort to black & white photocopied covers.
Whist we have continued to produce new work in video they are only one hour long whilst the DVD versions are often up to neatly 90 minutes on occasions. We can only advise very strongly that you invest at least in a dual DVD / video, it won’t be long before we take a deep breath and say a farewell to the medium which has served us well since we started back in 1989.
WE WELCOME SUGGESTIONS FOR RALLIES / OPEN DAYS etc
2006 Overseas trips
Christmas/New Year 06/07 Australia Darwin,Adelaide,Melbourne,Sydney.booked
2007 Overseas Trips
Southern Poland and Eastern Ukraine
North Switzerland
France Mulhouse / Valencienne etc
Calcutta, India Dhaka, Bangla Desh and possibly Burma.
UK Bus locations - feel free to suggest venues –
2006.
Peterborough Cambridge Showbus weekend
Isle of Wight Oct John Bishop is covering
Cumbria Sept
Sussex John Bishop has covered much of this for us
Yorkshire especially Traction with Stagecoach takeover also Doncaster,Leeds, Huddersfield, Wakefield, Bradford, etc.
2007
Norfolk / Suffolk
Essex
Sussex
Kent
Glasgow
Ayrshire Coast
Edinburgh
South Wales
West Wales
West Midlands
North West
Belfast
2006 - Known Rally Dates are (please double check before going to anything!) PMP Will be at those prefixed PMP Stand.
No mention means we either don’t have details or have forgotten it does not necessarily mean that we aren’t going!
· 1st Oct PMP stand at Wirral Bus & Tram show at Birkenhead.
· 8th Oct PMP stand at SVVT Glasgow. Running day as well as all the museum buses and visiting guests. An increasingly popular venue.
· 22nd October PMP Stand at Gladstone Pottery Museum. Potteries Running day, through to late afternoon, atmospheric evening shots. Up to 20 buses scheduled with many interesting photographic opportunities around Stoke area. Services link various local Pottery museums.
· 26th Nov possible at Aston Manor Museum Birmingham collectors fair.
· 2/3 Dec 2006. PMP stand at Boyle St, Manchester Christmas Cracker.
Friday, September 22, 2006
Heres a link to our e bay shop lots of Bus and Tram stuff
http://stores.ebay.co.uk/PMP-TRANSPORT-FILMS
a link to our e bay store
a photo to keep you all happy as well!
Dave aged 4 . Wow wasn't I cute.
ok all those expecting a transport photo here goes
Brussels earlier this month
ok so its my first day, hope you'll join me in this diary again very soon
Dave
Dave's new car on Corney Fell
The new Vauxhall Vectra, at last a
change from grey! Seen on the way to filming in Whitehaven after leaving Barrow, Sat 16th Sept 2006
Coming soon from PMP Transport Films
www.pmpvideo.com
see you soon on this new blog diary
bus, trams and trolleybuses and even snippets from Dave's forthcoming autobiography!
Dave
see you soon on this new blog diary
bus, trams and trolleybuses and even snippets from Dave's forthcoming autobiography!
Dave
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
