what's an accountant doing fixing up an old coach?
Or to put it another way, whose fault is it?
Up to 2012, if I had a hobby or enthusiasm at all, I suppose it was all things railways...current, heritage and model.
Traditional (NOT trad!) jazz is in my soul but that had been my profession up to the 1990's so I regard the playing I do now as part-time professional, not a hobby - I still get paid to do it.
But there isn't much in my personal history to make me a bus or coach enthusiast; sure, I went to school in the 1970's on two buses each way every day - Eastern Counties Bristol models mostly in the transition years from conductor to one-man working - and in the 1980's my elder brother Bob took up bus driving for a living, on which I occasionally cadged a ride. But none of these followed through into anorak-dom: girls, beer and jazz were much further up the order of priority.
No, dear reader, it wasn't until 2012 that my amazingly extended family - remarriage does funny things to family trees - and others clubbed together to get me a bus and coach driver experience for my birthday. This is advertised as 'Midland Red' and can be found at http://www.wheels.co.uk/coach/experiences.htm.
Even this was not a revelation and to be honest by the end of the day I didn't feel particularly competent but a comment made by one of the instructors during the lunch break was the catalyst. I had suggested that this was all a bit of a rich man's hobby and availed me of two key pieces of information:
1. You can drive a coach over 30 years old on a car licence as long as no more than eight passengers are carried (see elsewhere on this site).
2. Such vehicles are reasonably readily available on eBay for a couple or three thousand quid.
Neither fact made me an enthusiast, preservationist or restorer but it immediately made me think "huge family car for high days and holidays". It had always struck me that the grandchildren can only get together if one or both sets are first squashed into their family car for a long journey to meet the others...how cool would it be if they could travel together? Fun on the way there and back as well as when they are there - and loads of room.
But I knew nothing much about chassis, bodywork, engines, manufacturers etc., let alone fleet histories or any idea of what would be involved in keeping an old bus on the road. My parameters were - no, my parameter was - 30+ years old, a runner. My preference was for a manual but beggars can't be choosers.
As for picking up a noteworthy coach, researching its history and restoring it to original condition (hopefully...) - not even on the radar.
When I got home from the driving experience, there were two vehicles in the frame on eBay. Both were Plaxton Supremes: one an older manual Bedford on auction, the other was Mary-to-be on a straight sale, advertised beguilingly as 'priced for scrap value or low-cost preservation'. But the Bedford was the cheaper, so I started bidding. I didn't know how these things worked; the bidding ran away from me and I chickened out.
To cut a long story short, six weeks later I took delivery of my Tiger paid for outright and delivered under her own power at just under £2,500 including VAT. Had fate been telling me something? The Bedford came back on eBay a bit later because the winning bidder had been a time-waster but information received subsequently confirms I got the better deal, let alone a minor classic - even though at that stage I was only expecting to spend a few hundred more to get her into adequate running condition!
So this is where the story of Mary's renaissance begins - and if you are still awake, you can follow that story as this website grows...
Up to 2012, if I had a hobby or enthusiasm at all, I suppose it was all things railways...current, heritage and model.
Traditional (NOT trad!) jazz is in my soul but that had been my profession up to the 1990's so I regard the playing I do now as part-time professional, not a hobby - I still get paid to do it.
But there isn't much in my personal history to make me a bus or coach enthusiast; sure, I went to school in the 1970's on two buses each way every day - Eastern Counties Bristol models mostly in the transition years from conductor to one-man working - and in the 1980's my elder brother Bob took up bus driving for a living, on which I occasionally cadged a ride. But none of these followed through into anorak-dom: girls, beer and jazz were much further up the order of priority.
No, dear reader, it wasn't until 2012 that my amazingly extended family - remarriage does funny things to family trees - and others clubbed together to get me a bus and coach driver experience for my birthday. This is advertised as 'Midland Red' and can be found at http://www.wheels.co.uk/coach/experiences.htm.
Even this was not a revelation and to be honest by the end of the day I didn't feel particularly competent but a comment made by one of the instructors during the lunch break was the catalyst. I had suggested that this was all a bit of a rich man's hobby and availed me of two key pieces of information:
1. You can drive a coach over 30 years old on a car licence as long as no more than eight passengers are carried (see elsewhere on this site).
2. Such vehicles are reasonably readily available on eBay for a couple or three thousand quid.
Neither fact made me an enthusiast, preservationist or restorer but it immediately made me think "huge family car for high days and holidays". It had always struck me that the grandchildren can only get together if one or both sets are first squashed into their family car for a long journey to meet the others...how cool would it be if they could travel together? Fun on the way there and back as well as when they are there - and loads of room.
But I knew nothing much about chassis, bodywork, engines, manufacturers etc., let alone fleet histories or any idea of what would be involved in keeping an old bus on the road. My parameters were - no, my parameter was - 30+ years old, a runner. My preference was for a manual but beggars can't be choosers.
As for picking up a noteworthy coach, researching its history and restoring it to original condition (hopefully...) - not even on the radar.
When I got home from the driving experience, there were two vehicles in the frame on eBay. Both were Plaxton Supremes: one an older manual Bedford on auction, the other was Mary-to-be on a straight sale, advertised beguilingly as 'priced for scrap value or low-cost preservation'. But the Bedford was the cheaper, so I started bidding. I didn't know how these things worked; the bidding ran away from me and I chickened out.
To cut a long story short, six weeks later I took delivery of my Tiger paid for outright and delivered under her own power at just under £2,500 including VAT. Had fate been telling me something? The Bedford came back on eBay a bit later because the winning bidder had been a time-waster but information received subsequently confirms I got the better deal, let alone a minor classic - even though at that stage I was only expecting to spend a few hundred more to get her into adequate running condition!
So this is where the story of Mary's renaissance begins - and if you are still awake, you can follow that story as this website grows...