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.