Thursday 14 May was just like any other day...Paul was loitering with intent in Newcastle on National Express while your blogmaster was attending his place of employment and being harassed telephonically when I made a call that changed the focus of everything. Now I can only wish I had sat down when Paul had advised me it would be a good idea, as it was with great sadness that Paul informed me that our good friend Tony Challons had collapsed and died from a suspected heart attack on Bank Holiday Monday 4 May. Paul himself had only found out moments before by making a chance call to query the purchase of some parts to aid 2599's restoration.
As some of you may recall, Tony was most influencial in getting us the brake shoes for the RE and having the throttle plate rebuilt, and on a personal note I had known Tony since childhood and we would often catch up in passing, stop for a quick natter in the street while the traffic lights were red as he drove an E-Coaches minibus full of schoolkids, and would end up popping in 'for a quick chat' only to spend hours sat talking, enjoying a brew and a laugh and often coming away with at least one item of bus-related memorabilia, so it came of something of a shock to learn of his passing from this life into the next. Tony was certainly one of life's characters, he always called a spade a spade and would tell you how it was (often in no uncertain terms!). He himself had once owned an Ulsterbus RE, 2438 now preseved at Lathalmond in Scotland, and was in the process of restoring ex-Midland General dual-door RE NNU449J at the time of his death. We were most saddened to hear that his life had ended so abruptly and in such a cruel manner, and on behalf of the Ulsterbus 2599 Group and its followers I offer my thoughts and condolences to his wife Rita, daughter Louisa and family. I include here a photograph of Tony's former Ulsterbus RE 2438, seen here back in August 2013 while working an internal shuttle at Lathalmond. I only wish you could've had the opportunity to sample 2599 for yourself once she's done...
With our Irish adventure having concluded and normality seemingly restored (well, as normal as it gets for us), we were now moving into the month of May, with several developments of note that all took place during the first week of May and that I include in no particular order (as I recall they all took place upto the date of this post). Prior to our trip across the Irish sea, Gary had kindly repaired some minor panel damage to 1321 around the front nearside wheel after a minor bump on a previous outing. The panel was removed, heated up and beaten back into shape before being refitted to the bus, all in all around an hour's work.
Our attention now turns to 2599, where developments were coming in thick and fast in relation to the hub situation. In a series of visits during the timeframe covered in this post, Gary had managed to reassemble the hub, refit the drum and adjust the brakes, while the emergency door handle was also fitted thanks to the assistance of our good friend Jonathan Johansson. Gary also took the liberty of painting the hub area and the wheels in a fresh coat of Ulsterbus blue, for which they look a lot better. The foglights were also wired up and tested thanks to Gary's efforts, and a bit of work was undertaken to ensure that the saloon lighting and destination lights work in preparation for MOT, which by this stage was beginning to loom ever closer. The bus was also started for the first time in almost a year and the air built up, another proud moment.
Paul also set
about removing some former advertising inside 1321, including a garish
advert for apprenticeships to make way for some forthcoming group
literature to promote the vehicles, as well as some smaller internal
adverts that were becoming shabby and starting to peel away from the
roof. There were also other developments taking place during this
period, both positive and less than positive, and we were starting to
get a rally calendar together now, but that as they say loyal readers is
safe for another chapter...
Day 4/4, and as Paul and I sat tucking into another round of Ulster Frys, we could not help but feel a sense of disappointment that the holiday was almost over for another year. Joined by Mark and Colin, we decided to venture into Central Belfast and look at the modern bus scene in the City Centre for the morning before we had to return to the airport and head home.
With a mix of heavy rain and short bursts of sunshine, much of the photography around City Hall was done bursting out from bus shelters in a bid to protect oneself from becoming too moist (hence the lack of photos in this section). With the rain halting play on the photography front yet again Colin decided to stay in the centre of Belfast while Mark, Paul and myself took a bus ride along Shore Road to Duncrue Street and Translink HQ, where after a chat with a lovely lady on the reception desk we ended up in an upstairs office in conference with the director of enginnering, where we discussed both 2599 and 1321, and exchanged contact details.
After our unexpected meeting and a quick photograph under the entrance to 'HQ' we returned to City Hall, with just enough time to pick up our cases and board a Metro Optare Versa (no escaping the cheap nasty plastic Optare crap, even on this side of the Irish Sea) to return to Belfast City Airport for our flight home aboard the same aircraft on which we had flown just days before. The flight was somewhat turbulent to say the least, and your blogmaster was certainly glad to touch down safely on solid ground! We collected our bags and boarded our shuttle bus from the terminal to the car park (you guessed it, another bloody Versa!) From here, we made the short drive to Glossop to return Mark safely home before taking the long drive back to Nottinghamshire, made even longer by a major accident on the Snake Pass resulting in a long diversion through the Peaks via Tideswell and Baslow. Your blogmaster bailed out at the home of his young 3yr old Godson bearing gifts (I am in the process of slowly corrupting young George into transport, not that its taking much corruption haha!)
And so our Irish adventure was over once again. I would now like to take a moment to extend my thanks to old friends including Robert Nogues, Ben Simpson, Phillip McAlinney, Richard Shannon, Andy Lawless and James Ferrin, and in my case new friends including Edward Miller, Michael Burgess, Richard Davis, William Young, Ken Menagh and Glenn Shaw to name but a few for making our 2015 Northern Ireland weekender one to remember. My apologies if I've forgotten anyone, but there are so many of you who made our holiday I cannot physically include all those names here, so thank you to you all! Same time next year??...
Day 3 of our Irish adventure, and for the first time since arriving our group actually got to enjoy a lie-in and breakfast! Not rising until around 0830hrs, Paul and I sauntered down for breakfast where we were pleased to be reunited with James Ferrin, son of the owner of The Gregory Guesthouse. Talking over breakfast, we updated James on the progress of the project, while he informed us he had now finished his studies and was now fully qualified in the world of law. Sadly we were not to meet James' parents and hotel owners Jim and Alison during our visit this time, but we were well looked after by hotel porter Eric and the rest of the team at The Gregory, and we were most pleased to see how much the guesthouse had progressed since our previous visit. But I digress once again...
We were eventually joined by Mark and Colin, and as we supped coffee and enjoyed an Ulster Fry, plans were afoot to meet up with the Ards lads once again. Colin this time decided to leave us and head off into Central Belfast to point his camera at the modern bus scene, leaving myself, Paul and Mark to find the nearest train in the direction of Bangor, where we met up with Robert once again and were very soon sat in one of the sheds supping another brew and swapping stories about bus preservation and proper buses in surroundings of such proper buses and parts.
While Richard, Phil and Geoff waded through the many parts bins sorting their collection of parts, Robert and Michael kindly offered us the chance to have a ride around the coast on Ulsterbus Leopard 280, an opportunity which we could not refuse! And we were certainly not disappointed, as Michael and Paul took it in turns to share the driving as we enjoyed a good two or three hours of quality thrash around Bangor, Donaghadee, Millisle and Greyabbey, with plenty of photo opportunities along the way. We returned to 'Ards HQ' where we said our goodbyes to the rest of the gang before Michael very kindly dropped us back at Bangor Buscentre in 280. From here, we rejoined the train for the journey back to Belfast.
Safely back in Belfast, we returned to The Gregory for what is now becoming an annual ritual...Dominos pizza night! Eric very kindly set us out a couple of tables in the dining area, and while Paul ordered the pizzas in, I took a wander down to the local off-licence to stock up on suitable alcoholic refreshments for the evening. As Paul, Mark and your blogmaster tucked into our pizzas we were joined by Colin, who had enjoyed a successful 12hrs of photography in Central Belfast, and we sat there late into the night swapping stories, eating pizza, supping cider (well, I was at least) and often roaring with laughter at our tales. Colin and Mark retired to their room, while Paul and I ventured into the lounge where the alcohol flow (in my case) and humourous tales of a transport nature continued into the wee small hours of Monday morning.
Before retiring to bed around 0200hrs, Paul and I took the opportunity to enjoy some fresh air in the late night breeze while talking with hotel porter Eric, reflecting on our journey since December 2013 and what the future had to hold...
We woke offensively early, with Paul in an unusually positive mood. For around a fortnight before, all he had talked about was this day, and I knew he had got an ace up his sleeve, but would not disclose what this was. He told us to be ready and after a short taxi ride into Central Belfast Paul, Colin, Mark and I found ourselves in the Europa waiting to board the 07:02 train, destination unknown. All I knew is we would eventually end up at the ITH rally at Cultra, but I digress...
I sat there watching the world go by as we sped along, eventually finding myself being deposited in Bangor around an hour after leaving the Europa. As we walked down the platform, we were met by our good friend Robert Nogues from the Ards Bus Preservation Group, where we were ushered to a car and driven up to 'Ards HQ' to be met by the rest of the group. We were once again made to feel most welcome and shown around by the lads before Paul dragged down to look at a bright orange Plaxton Paramount DAF, E645DAU, formerly owned by Barton Transport back home in Nottingham and one of their last batch of buses while still in family ownership. At this point, his smile became wider than usual, when he revealed his surprise...645 was to be our chariot to Cultra, and Paul was driving.
We set off, with Edward acting as our navigator, being one of the first buses to arrive at Cultra. As I stood near the entrance photographing the arrivals to the rally site and wandering around catching up with old friends I've not seen since the previous rally a year before, I heard a loud cry of "DAN!" from across the car park, to turn round and see Paul beckoning me over (we all know how loud Paul can be!) I was told to book a taxi from Cultra to Falls, and we took a spirited ride along the motorway to Metro's depot at Falls Road. Ushered inside, we briefly met Ken Menagh and William Young before being introduced to Ulsterbus 111, their 1978 Leyland Leopard formerly used as Downpatrick depot's towcar which Paul had been entrusted to drive to Cultra so that Ken and William could bring the rest of their collection. We set off, and enjoyed a spirited (and bouncy) run along the motorway. And the noise...wow, it was something else, and is up there as one of the best Leopards I have ever sampled!
So we arrived at Cultra for a second time, to a few bemused faces - why were these two strange Englishmen in an Irish towcar that wasn't theirs?! We continued to wander around photographing and catching up with old friends, Andy Lawless, Glenn Shaw, the list goes on. It was then time to join our vehicles of choice for the 40 mile road run around the Antrim coast, our first vehicle being Richard Davis' Ulsterbus Leopard 285, which we sampled from Cultra to the the Donaghadee checkpoint, before bailing to sample Ulsterbus Tiger 343 as far as Millisle. From here, we joined Ulsterbus Leopard 339 back round to Donaghadee, where there was just enough time to hurl some abuse and have a few laughs with Andy Lawless in his big pink plastic decker before boarding Ken Menagh's Citybus Bristol RE 2547 for some quality RE thrassh back to Cultra.
The rest of the day consisted of more photos, catching up with old friends and meeting new ones, before a couple of trips to Holywood Exchange on Stewart Graham's Citybus Q-type 'Cityliner' Tiger 2644 and the Ards lads' Ulsterbus Bristol LH 1629 (on board which we found the purveyour of fine omnibuses himself Mr Mike Nash), both of which turned heads and certainly did not disappoint! Before too long, the rally was drawing to a close for another year, with the trophies being dished out once again, and we were pleased to hear our good friend Mr Lawless and his colleague John had won the Werner Heubeck memorial trophy for best timekeeping on the roadrun earlier in the day.
Awards dispensed, we were again tasked with taking 111 back to Falls for Ken and William, where there was time for a proper chat and a few photographs before we were very kindly taken back to Cultra to regroup with the Ards lads. We boarded Robert's Citybus Bristol RE 2446 for the trip back to Ards HQ, where we regrouped with Phil, Richard, Edward, Michael and the rest of the gang, with just enough time for a group photograph before heading off to the local cafe just down the road for an evening meal. We then enjoyed a trip around the local region as night began to fall, before being dropped off at City Hall. And there was even enough time to meet up with Mr Lawless for a beverage or two before we returned to The Gregory to reflect on the day's events, our second night in Belfast having drawn to a close...
