T minus and counting - 2015

[grumpyhack]

Can I get a mini whammy for a nice ad on the side?

[Gnomicide]

Some snow for Yog...

[Yoghurt on a Stick]

Some snow for Yog...

Why, that's very kind of you Gnomicide. I'm scratching my head a little though, as I can't recall being in the market for snow.

As an aside, I wonder what the Romford 247 bus is doing in the middle of the countryside?

[salvador wali]

[guypjfreak]

bloody hate snow

[whisty]

Loving those 247's another bus that passes not a mile away from me.

Bit of Samba today, to the left.

Edited October 19, 2014 by whisty

[guypjfreak]

[whisty]

Nice, home for Dr Feelgood, well they did their we're coming home gig there in the Kurzal, sadly most of it gone now, Sarfend on Sea. With Status Quo's family Rossi ice cream advert in the background.

Edited October 19, 2014 by whisty

[mikeb]

Blackpool tram #247: a 1934 English Electric open top balloon car, top covered and converted to a Luxury Dreadnought in 1941

Mmmmmmm, granny's toffees


that was subsequently renumbered 710

which went on to have a starring and somewhat murderous role in a certain ooop North soap

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eWxjrkRL2p4

Clearly got off on a technicality because it's apparently still in service rather than being banged up somewhere serving life !

[Yoghurt on a Stick]

[LondonTom]

[grumpyhack]

I assume coaches are still considered buses

[whisty]

I assume coaches are still considered buses

Well I've been using trams, didn't see one today. Loosen it up a bit and call it people carriers for any deviants.

[Yoghurt on a Stick]

Well I've been using trams, didn't see one today. Loosen it up a bit and call it people carriers for any deviants.

Talking of deviants, I reckon that bloke on the right is a bit suss. I think he may have been a member of Ian Allan's Bus Spotters Club way back in the 50's (see below);

I like the bit that tells you that this already worthless membership will not be valid until the declaration is signed. I wonder how many members (and I mean members) Ian had in his club? Did the ranks swell that much that Ian became despotic with the power? Did he sometimes not allow certain members to watch buses just to see the anguish on their faces? Or, was Ian actually the only member of The Ian Allan's Bus-Spotters' Club? Questions, questions, and no answers.

[Gnomicide]

Double whammy.

[mikeb]

I like the bit that tells you that this already worthless membership will not be valid until the declaration is signed. I wonder how many members (and I mean members) Ian had in his club? Did the ranks swell that much that Ian became despotic with the power? Did he sometimes not allow certain members to watch buses just to see the anguish on their faces? Or, was Ian actually the only member of The Ian Allan's Bus-Spotters' Club? Questions, questions, and no answers.

Ian Allan built an entire Company, or should I say massive group of Companies (if not an empire) on the back of anoraks various ! If you're old enough to remember kids spending seemingly endless amounts of time watching trains and crossing off engine and rolling stock numbers various in little books (or were perhaps even sad enough to have been one of them yourself of course ) those were Ian Allan books and how he kicked it all off. Also similar thing for buses. I travel lots on trains and it never fails to make me snigger whenever I see someone hanging around on the end of a platform somewhere who is CLEARLY a 'spotter' whether they're with or without anorak and/or flask of milky tea ! Yes, it apparently still goes on even today, albeit in very limited numbers mind you as I don't see them very often TBH. Rarely spotted in the wild and all that these days - with pun defo intended needless to say

Even as a kid I could never think of anything quite so bl**dy pointless TBH but no end of my mates at school were into 'spotting' and were fully signed up members of the Ian Allen Loco Spotters Club and had all the relevant books to cross off the numbers as they saw them ! School outings were a complete nightmare: So little time spent misbehaving and generally doing all kinda stupid stuff on the train to London or wherever that you shouldn't be doing ... but so much time totally wasted looking out for f***ing numbers Always amusing to claim to have seen something 'unusual' and generally entirely fictitious mind you and then watching the saddos furiously trying to find it their well thumbed little books

My only real knowledge of Ian Allen is of them being a publisher of so-called specialist books ... no, not THAT sort of 'specialist' books you dirty boy ! But there was (and still is) so much more to them. All of it built on the back of train spotters, a craze which he basically started. See details on website HERE for everything you didn't want to know about Ian Allan

Edited October 20, 2014 by mikeb

[guypjfreak]

not to night Josephine

[Yoghurt on a Stick]

Hello mikeb

Although I wasn't really being serious in my quest for information on Ian Allan, I must say your input has been very interesting to read. I was on a train from Fort William to Mallaig once and the train carriage I was in was full of train locomotive 'bashers'. I really hadn't a clue what these people were doing. They had set up video cameras lashed externally so that they could see the locomotive and carriages as the journey proceeded. They were all, to a person, also exceedingly drunk. I asked one person what they were up to and he responded that they were train bashers. I explained to him that I still hadn't got a fucking clue what they were doing. He then told me. Bashers are people who follow certain train locomotives and take trips on them throughout the country. It turns out the locomotive pulling the carriages on this journey was to be it's last journey before being taken out of service. The bloke then said that if I give him my address he'd send me a cd with a copy of the train journey (taken from outside the carriage) on it. I politely declined rather than tell him that I thought he and his mates were in no way connected to consensus reality.

Oh, one more thing - I was arriving at Digbeth coach station in Birmingham once and there skulking in the corner was a bloke in a train spotting type anorak taking down the details of the coaches that arrived. So, there are coach anoraks too. It's all a bit autistic / ocd for my liking. And why are they all blokes? I suspect their wives are at home looking at their own Capodimonte figurine collections. If you ask me, these people need mind bending drugs applied to them - forcibly, if necessary.

PS - I did have an I-Spy book once. I didn't realise it at the time but, wow, was I sailing close to the edge.

[carlosj]

http://www.efestivals.co.uk/forums/gallery/image/4695-whisty39s-bus-spotter-club/

Membership is on the increase!

246 on arrival at the LTT Depot in 2004

[Yoghurt on a Stick]

Membership is on the increase!

246 on arrival at the LTT Depot in 2004

It looks a little Mad Max.

[mikeb]

PS - I did have an I-Spy book once.

Noooooooooooooo !!! The shame of it [insert uncontrollable snigger and/or point 'n' laugh smile here] Boy, you're so right though. That WAS way too close to the edge for comfort. I hope you've learnt from that close encounter of the spotting kind. Now go sign your card because as it clearly says, the card isn't valid until you do. No more spotting bus pics until you're a valid member and all that

[Yoghurt on a Stick]

Noooooooooooooo !!! The shame of it [insert uncontrollable snigger and/or point 'n' laugh smile here] Boy, you're so right though. That WAS way too close to the edge for comfort. I hope you've learnt from that close encounter of the spotting kind. Now go sign your card because as it clearly says, the card isn't valid until you do. No more spotting bus pics until you're a valid member and all that

I've had to give you another up vote for that one. I really hadn't realised the hypocrisy in my words and actions until you just pointed it out. Oh no, I'm a spotter. I don't suppose you know if there's a self help group out there, like the AA or something? In the mean time I'd better fashion myself one of them Ian Allan booklets. Oh the shame of it all.

[Yoghurt on a Stick]

I live in one of those destinations mentioned on this bus. However, that pales into insignificance when I look at the beauty of the bus itself.

[oneeye]

Location: Basildon Bus Garage
Bus Type: Bristol KSW5G
Bus Operator: Eastern National
Fleet Number: 2365
Registration Number: VNO 860
Route Service Number: 245
Year of photo: March 1968
Comments: New in 1953 with ECW L27/28R body. Originally numbered 1408 & withdrawn in 1969. One of only 3 Bristol K's that had rear doors fitted

And a pair of beauties

Edited October 21, 2014 by oneeye

[LondonTom]

As a child I flew dangerously close to the edge of becoming a spotter, I never noted anything down, but my mum would quite often take to the various London airports to watch the planes and she tells me I was quite content being able to watch them come and go