Thoughts from Southwestbus

Long before I listened to radio 1 there was a feature on the roadshow (long before I listened to that as well) called Smiley Miley's Mileage Game. People had to guess the mileage travelled by the roadshow truck to the current location.   The final 2023 event, the 2nd Model Bus Scotland show at Bridgeton Bus Garage in Glasgow. Much less thrilling than the Radio 1 Roadshow is my annual adventures to a number of model bus events each year. The (t)rusty southwestbus support van has visited 10 events in 2023, which is some kind of record for me. We've visited far fewer events in the past sometimes doing just one or two.  The fleet lives in two wooden shelving units in my home, with 8/9 shelves in each.  I bought these as 5 shelf units in 2012, and added in extras. In these shelf units sit a number of layouts with workshop buildings and portacabins. So it's possible to choose one of those layouts for an event. To double up my parking space for vehicles there are two backboards...

Have you ever set out with some grand plans and then discovered 'life' completely stuffing them up? That's been the story of this summer and this autumn so far.  So, very little about the models this time. These days, I eke out a living driving MK7 Ford Transit jumbo minibuses for a small operator on WY Metro SEN Schools contracts. Since September 2020 I was working for a firm in South Kirkby, where I spent two and a half years until I no longer enjoyed it. There was the small matter of some people I hope never to meet stealing the bus from outside the house around 18 months ago. End of keeping a vehicle 'home' during a week, and an 18 mile round trip 39 weeks a year and cost to me of c£1500.... useful.  Nice, until it went one night... I was then put on a 'new' contract in September of last year, I no longer enjoyed working on that run, or there and so in January I made contact with B&J Goulding who were based in Knottingley 3 miles from where I now res...