Getting our hands dirty 20/06/15

Now it is a well known fact that your blogmaster is somewhat allergic to manual labour (hence why I now work in an office), but for Saturday 20 June I set aside my allergy of such tasks to prepare 1321 for her forthcoming visit to the 10th Peak Park Bus and Rail event at Peak Rail (Rowsley) the following day. The working party - consisting of Gary, Michael Evans and myself - assembled early on in the 2 Sams Cafe at Hill Top near Eastwood for a suitably large fry-up and copious amounts of coffee before venturing to the farm to begin work.

Our first task was to set about moving all unnecessary items out of 1321 (most of it being the crap we had cleaned out of 2599 for MOT!) So while Gary set to work doing some odd jobs on 2599, Michael and I shunted 1321 round the back of the barn, and your blogmaster set to work doing some gardening - yes, you heard, gardening! The path to our storage container had become somewhat overgrown with nettles in recent weeks, so your blogmaster set to with rudimentary equipment such as wood and bus handrails beating a path through the nettles and crushing these down so we had a walkway wide enough to move all of the stuff out of 1321 and into the container. This task in itself took around 1 1/2hrs, and Michael and I were tired out once we'd finished!

After a rest and a drink, Michael and I jumped in 1321 and we set off in the direction of Shell at Awsworth to top up the tank, before visiting Ripley to fetch cleaning supplies for our next task. It was also as good an excuse as any to let Michael have a play, seeing as the last Tiger he had driven was a training bus when he had started out at Arriva some years ago! Upon our return, we set to giving the exterior a deep clean, before turning our attention to sweeping and mopping the interior to get rid of some of the muck and grime that had accumulated inside from being used as a temporary store (something we do not make a habit of).

Having started out around 10am, the time was getting on for around 6pm, and it had been a long day. But nevertheless it had been rewarding, and 1321 was now ready for the rally field and the day ahead...