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LightBulbFun's Invacar & general ramble thread, index on page 1, survivors lists on Pages 24/134 & AdgeCutler's Invacar Mk12 Restoration from Page 186 onwards, still harping on...


LightBulbFun

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34 minutes ago, LightBulbFun said:

ah yeah, would need to figure out the buying bit, i have never used facebook market place before (its usually all collection only which I cant do hence never using it)

and B not sure how id arrange it with the seller given id not be the one picking it up "yeah heres 5 quid and some random* bloke from the internet should be picking them up soon"

im sure I could figure something out (obviously worded better then that!)

but I am sort of hoping I could lob a bit of money at a fellow shitter for their troubles and ask if they could do the whole transaction for me (otherwise I fear it may get a bit complicated)

I appreciate the offer tho and good to know its an option if I cant find a simpler solution :) 

How about you just message the seller via Facebook and say you'd like them and that you can get them collected on Sunday afternoon. If that's OK for him and he'd happy to sell them to you on that basis, get his Paypal details and pay him for them that way. Then Skizzer could collect them. Don't think it needs to be any more complicated than that.

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25 minutes ago, Skizzer said:

Ah. I don’t do Facebook unfortunately, for various reasons.

I dont blame you! 

(I mostly use it as an instant messaging platform, and to harvest memes LOL)

12 minutes ago, Mrs6C said:

How about you just message the seller via Facebook and say you'd like them and that you can get them collected on Sunday afternoon. If that's OK for him and he'd happy to sell them to you on that basis, get his Paypal details and pay him for them that way. Then Skizzer could collect them. Don't think it needs to be any more complicated than that.

yeah, then once paid for I guess I would get the sellers address/contact details and would just pass them on to skizzer :)

ill make contact with the seller and see how things go from there :) 

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so yesterday had my 20th lesson :) 

this one was a little bit different to normal as mum was suffering from a bad back, and as her shift was ending mid lesson, I went and picked her up from work to save her the commute home

I think the lesson itself went well, it was raining quite a bit etc which is good practice for bad weather driving, and when picking mum up, I got to practice using a side road to turn around :)  

(as a side note what is it with people crossing the road when my light is green or just flat out crossing the road somewhere completely inappropriate! had to pull up pretty sharpish when someone ran out across the road in front of me! and there was of course your usual idiots in cars not indicating or just pulling stupid manoeuvers etc etc ah the fun of driving in London!) 

anywho next lesson is on friday :) 

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Sounds like you're still progressing.

After you have dealt with the traffic (and pedestrians) where you live, anywhere else will seem almost a doddle!

Around here, there was a consensus that you had to have your lessons/test in Herne Bay rather than Canterbury because the latter is a 'big city' - now Canterbury is a pig to drive about in, but nothing like London! So it's all relative. 

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48 minutes ago, egg said:

Sounds like you're still progressing.

After you have dealt with the traffic (and pedestrians) where you live, anywhere else will seem almost a doddle!

Around here, there was a consensus that you had to have your lessons/test in Herne Bay rather than Canterbury because the latter is a 'big city' - now Canterbury is a pig to drive about in, but nothing like London! So it's all relative. 

indeed anytime I feel like im not doing as well as I should in something or such

I have to remind myself, that there are people with 20+ years of driving experience who refuse/don't want to drive into London! so I should cut myself some slack! LOL

I will say actually driving on the road, really opens your eyes to just how many bad drivers there are on the road, you see some truly awful/bad things, that you dont see as a pedestrian normally

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I'm the same, it's a challenging high concentration environment for me, invariably done at a time of high family stress and either with very young babies or elderly relatives in the car, which itself is something unsuitable (n/a Impreza, Ls400 etc.)

 

Something to be wary of @LightBulbFun, you might not have much experience of traffic free open roads when you pass. This sounds like the easiest driving environment ever, but nearly everyone I know who learnt in a city subsequently crashed or had a mental breakdown when they tried covering distance cross country e.g. via Alston, because it's so different.

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11 hours ago, overrun said:

I always enjoy driving in London. The ones who think they can push out in front of you and what not often meet their match with me. It can be entertaining.

I tend to just let the idiots go in front of me 

if they want to do something stupid I just let them go, rather watch the accident happen in front of me then be involved in it! LOL

6 hours ago, loserone said:

I'm the same, it's a challenging high concentration environment for me, invariably done at a time of high family stress and either with very young babies or elderly relatives in the car, which itself is something unsuitable (n/a Impreza, Ls400 etc.)

 

Something to be wary of @LightBulbFun, you might not have much experience of traffic free open roads when you pass. This sounds like the easiest driving environment ever, but nearly everyone I know who learnt in a city subsequently crashed or had a mental breakdown when they tried covering distance cross country e.g. via Alston, because it's so different.

interesting, I wonder why that is exactly?

well unless mum gets a car or I get some other driving experience somehow

I think my first time driving on such roads/in such environments will be when I drive REV home from the FoD! so thats going to be interesting! (although I dont know if from the FoD to London counts as "free open roads" LOL)

but thats another thing I was thinking about while driving on some A roads during my lessons, at speed ,small steering movements make a bigger difference then when your going slowly

and knowing how quick the Model 70 steering is even at slow speeds, it will quite interesting to see how that is at 50Mph+ LOL :) 

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59 minutes ago, LightBulbFun said:

I tend to just let the idiots go in front of me 

if they want to do something stupid I just let them go, rather watch the accident happen in front of me then be involved in it! LOL

It depends how assertive you are on the roads and how long you have been driving, that influence your confidence levels and ability to predict certain scenarios in advance etc.
I've been driving 19 years, experience is invaluable.

You'll see when you start to drive, but only as you gain experience. An hour or two under instruction and control in a learning school car is a world away from 'driving'.

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  • LightBulbFun changed the title to Invacar Model 70 Acquired! and general ramble thread, index on page 1, Phase 2: finding a suitable driving school/instructor getting lessons and a licence! 20th lesson had! & mum wants a car...

Having been looking again at photos of trains of invalid carriages, it got me wondering exactly how they were delivered. We know most of the journey was done by rail, but the Invacar factory seems to be nowhere near a railway line so did they own or contract road transporters to take batches of carriages to the nearest station or were they driven (but that doesn't seem very efficient)? Similarly at the other end, did the DHSS depot at Heywood have its own rail terminal, and once issued how did they get from Heywood to the user's local hospital (which could be hundreds of miles away) for collection? There must have been quite a lot of business in transporting invalid carriages around the country for the government!

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1 hour ago, quicksilver said:

Having been looking again at photos of trains of invalid carriages, it got me wondering exactly how they were delivered. We know most of the journey was done by rail, but the Invacar factory seems to be nowhere near a railway line so did they own or contract road transporters to take batches of carriages to the nearest station or were they driven (but that doesn't seem very efficient)? Similarly at the other end, did the DHSS depot at Heywood have its own rail terminal, and once issued how did they get from Heywood to the user's local hospital (which could be hundreds of miles away) for collection? There must have been quite a lot of business in transporting invalid carriages around the country for the government!

thats also something I have been thinking about

im not actually 100% sure if all Invalid vehicles went through heywood before being distributed to the local ALAC's

or if once the vehicles passed inspection by the DHSS inspector stationed at the factory (assuming he is not being arrested for furious driving of an Invacar he wasn't driving LOL) if they were just sent directly by rail or other means directly to the ALAC that needs them

that would be the more logical route, but then again this is the government so who knows!

ill have to check with stuart if he knows anything on this particular subject :) 

I do know Invacar at least had some sort of lorry for delivering Invacars going by bits from the Virtual Gaz website and what Stuart said beforehand

(as a side note Don't forget that not only where Invacars transported by Rail but so where AC's :) )

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I will say if they did go directly from the factory to the ALAC, then it would help explain the NI Model 70's somewhat, since I imagine in that case the DHSS/IVS at warbreck Hill blackpool,  would have viewed Musgrave Park as just another ALAC, that so happens to be in belfast

(its worth mentioning Heywood at manchester was just the center store for the IVS for it all its spare parts and vehicles not issued to ALACs, but the IVS itself was based at Warbreck hill in blackpool, so thinking about it, the question should be was Warbreck hill involved with the NI Model 70's?, rather then "was Heywood involved with them" to which I still think that the IVS was involved with them despite the DHSS in NI being its own entity, again I wonder if the direct rule stuff played a part here)

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had my 21st driving lesson today :) 

got caught in quite a bit of traffic so got to practice my stop start some more, although not so good for the actual lesson plan!

I did see a relatively bright green 2CV coming the other way too which was a pleasant surprise, MPB458P im pretty sure :) (surry reg caught my eye!)

also I think im finally getting the hang of hill starting using the handbrake, (normally I can hill start alright with a quick transition from foot on brake to throttle and appropriate clutch work,  but I understand and driving instructor says its better to hill start with the hand brake, as it reduces the risk of rolling backwards)

although around here its relatively flat so not something I have to do/have practiced much, hence only just getting the hang of it now! (and I was also a bit reluctant to practice it, as if you fluff it up, you stall and are a sitting duck in the middle of the road/junction)

next lesson is on wednesday this time, as my theory test is on tuesday!

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  • LightBulbFun changed the title to Invacar Model 70 Acquired! and general ramble thread, index on page 1, Phase 2: finding a suitable driving school/instructor getting lessons and a licence! 21st lesson had! & mum wants a car...

heres something pretty neat a Running/working electric Stanley Argson :) 

you can see a video of it in action the comments of the post

https://www.facebook.com/groups/950689934973969/permalink/2719059311470347/

(video should be viewable even without a FB account :) )

83384390_2420782318252104_6935232277244805120_n.thumb.jpg.fde680957799b8bd8190d5f49412b749.jpg

and you can see me get all excited by it LOL, there are very few invalid carriages from this period that I know run/drive so it was very cool to see a working one!, in fact I think its the first modern video I have seen of an electric invalid carriage in operation, amusingly over the bumps etc it sounds like a train :) 

just a shame its not on the DVLA currently, would be fun to take onto the open road, be a bit like a scaled up Sinclair C5 I imagine!

going by how it goes Clunk and sets off like it does I wonder if speed control is done by uniselector/relays?

its also not one I have documented anywhere I dont think, although the reg does look a little familiar ill have to check the old photo archives and see if I have unknowingly an old photo of it somewhere

(as a side note for @Zelandeth guy says he has an aixam for sale...)

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Just now, egg said:

How much is it Dez?

not sure he just mentioned it in a comment when I asked if he had any other invalid vehicles :) 

you can see it in the link above so im sure your welcome to ask him, I can also ask him for you if you cant ask directly for some reason :) 

(I assume your referring to the aixam?)

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5 minutes ago, egg said:

Ah no, that's fine Dez. I'll just get myself in more trouble as nowhere to keep it!

Yeah I was thinking about, that an invalid carriage like this really would want some undercover/garage storage!

weather proof it is not!

(but i can imagine it would be quite fun to run around in on a cool/warm summers day/evening or such!)

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7 hours ago, 3VOM said:

Heywood would likely have had a railway line very close by. You would have to look at older layouts as lots of lines will have been lost over the years.

AFAIK Warbreck Hill would be Civil Service offices only, there were a number of Civil Service offices around Blackpool over the years.

aye yeah, heywood is where all the physical stuff happened/was kept (all the spare parts and spare invalid vehicles)

and Warbreck hill is where all the paperwork would of happened if that makes sense :) 

like this letter for example :) 

image.thumb.png.aa23f633946aafaba0daa01ab2a6649c.png

so heywood would have been following orders issued from Warbreck hill

 

on the rail front, I cant find the source for it right now but I do recall for a while AC built its invalid vehicles in an old disused train yard before moving production to thames ditton

so given that I have a feeling AC may have rail connections nearby as well

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8 hours ago, LightBulbFun said:

so given that I have a feeling AC may have rail connections nearby as well

(dons railway anorak)  AC were at Thames Ditton since about 1913 and close to the Southern Railway's Hampton Court branch.  AFAIK there were never any freight facilities at Thames Ditton station itself. The nearest would have been at Hampton Court but these would have been very limited by the 1960s.  It seems more likely that cars would have been loaded at Surbiton which is the nearest point on the main line - an easy driving distance but surely they would have gone there on transporters.  AC's Taggs Island factory (which I can  just about remember) certainly had no rail connections.  It was reached by a hump-backed bridge.  But that didn't stop AC building railcars there!

Thinking a bit more about  the transport links in that area, the main railway goods depot was at Feltham, further from AC but that would probably be the loading point.  Incidentally the Taggs Island factory was formerly an ice rink belonging to the nearby Casino Hotel - the whole area has an interesting history if you want to delve into a slightly dodgy parallel universe of houseboats, showbiz, and property speculation.    The factory photo is from 1958.

 

Edited by Mr Pastry
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Happy to say with many thanks to @Skizzer for collecting them for me

the 2 vintage Philips ultraviolet Black light blue tubes have been secured :) 

4BEAE77B-CE3E-4D8D-A44A-4A3394EEC3BB.jpeg

these tubes predate the now commonplace alphanumeric date code of LetterNumber or NumberLetter that Philips lamps have used since January 1964

if im reading the date code correctly (my first time dating such an old Philips tube so I might be wrong!) it looks like March 1963 :) 

only thing left is to get them down to my place, but im not to worried about that, im sure something will work itself out in time, even if I have to drive up and collect them in person :) 

the main thing is they are secured and and in a safe location

as mentioned previously im quite excited by these, they are a combination of a bunch of rare features all rolled up into one very rare tube!

(I really should look at getting my green netaline working again so I can light them up together at the same time :)

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21 hours ago, Mr Pastry said:

(dons railway anorak)  AC were at Thames Ditton since about 1913 and close to the Southern Railway's Hampton Court branch.  AFAIK there were never any freight facilities at Thames Ditton station itself. The nearest would have been at Hampton Court but these would have been very limited by the 1960s.  It seems more likely that cars would have been loaded at Surbiton which is the nearest point on the main line - an easy driving distance but surely they would have gone there on transporters.  AC's Taggs Island factory (which I can  just about remember) certainly had no rail connections.  It was reached by a hump-backed bridge.  But that didn't stop AC building railcars there!

Thinking a bit more about  the transport links in that area, the main railway goods depot was at Feltham, further from AC but that would probably be the loading point.  Incidentally the Taggs Island factory was formerly an ice rink belonging to the nearby Casino Hotel - the whole area has an interesting history if you want to delve into a slightly dodgy parallel universe of houseboats, showbiz, and property speculation.    The factory photo is from 1958.

 

I am informed by reliable sources that Invacars were loaded at Surbiton onto Wembley to Feltham trains, also that was an Invacar maintenance depot at Guildford where vehicles were sent/collected by rail...

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22 hours ago, Mr Pastry said:

(dons railway anorak)  AC were at Thames Ditton since about 1913 and close to the Southern Railway's Hampton Court branch.  AFAIK there were never any freight facilities at Thames Ditton station itself. The nearest would have been at Hampton Court but these would have been very limited by the 1960s.  It seems more likely that cars would have been loaded at Surbiton which is the nearest point on the main line - an easy driving distance but surely they would have gone there on transporters.  AC's Taggs Island factory (which I can  just about remember) certainly had no rail connections.  It was reached by a hump-backed bridge.  But that didn't stop AC building railcars there!

Thinking a bit more about  the transport links in that area, the main railway goods depot was at Feltham, further from AC but that would probably be the loading point.  Incidentally the Taggs Island factory was formerly an ice rink belonging to the nearby Casino Hotel - the whole area has an interesting history if you want to delve into a slightly dodgy parallel universe of houseboats, showbiz, and property speculation.    The factory photo is from 1958.

 

 

20 minutes ago, Mrs6C said:

I am informed by reliable sources that Invacars were loaded at Surbiton onto Wembley to Feltham trains, also that was an Invacar maintenance depot at Guildford where vehicles were sent/collected by rail...

 

interesting stuff :) 

when you say Invacar do you mean Invacar literally, or as a colloquial term for an invalid vehicle? (going by the locations mentioned I would otherwise think the source was talking about AC's rather the Invacars? but there's not really any info out there about the rail operations of the DHSS, its all very interesting stuff :) )

and when you say maintenance depot, do you mean one run by the DHSS/an approved repairer or one run/owned by AC/Invacar? its not one I have heard about before

AFAIK, you had Heywood, then you just had approved repairers, which where local car garages given a contract by the DHSS to look after all the invalid vehicles in a given area (and you also had Artificial limb and appliance centers, which is where vehicles were given to the end user from)

I don't THINK there was anything in between the 2 like a smaller version of heywood, but again sadly there's not much info out there! 

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14 minutes ago, LightBulbFun said:

interesting stuff :) 

when you say Invacar do you mean Invacar literally, or as a colloquial term for an invalid vehicle? (going by the locations mentioned I would otherwise think the source was talking about AC's rather the Invacars? but there's not really any info out there about the rail operations of the DHSS, its all very interesting stuff :) )

'Invacar' is used as a colloquial term in this instance, so quite likely to involve ACs as well as or instead of Invacars

14 minutes ago, LightBulbFun said:

and when you say maintenance depot, do you mean one run by the DHSS/an approved repairer or one run/owned by AC/Invacar? its not one I have heard about before

Sadly no further information was provided on this front, only that there was one (or some kind) there.

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