invacar 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...

[Yoss]

1 hour ago, somewhatfoolish said:

It's a long haul but Helensburgh Central has customer parking level with and right next to platform 1, separated only by bollards. 😁 

Shame you can't do it at Glasgow Central anymore, with retrospect I probably used it shortly before it closed to the unwashed and became taxis only and since then they've banished vehicles completely and replaced the carpark with new platforms.

If we are doing time travel both Waterloo and St Pancras had service roads for taxis or mail vans which was a lot closer than Glasgow. It's why the mail trains always left from platform 11 at Waterloo. 

But if you fancy a road trip, I can recommend Hungary. These were all taken in the last year or so. 

 

This was taken from the window of the train, being hauled by a class 418 diesel loco. This is station parking, Hungarian style. 

They don't have lineside fencing (as is the case in most of Europe, not just Hungary), if you're stupid enough to wander on to a working railway that is your problem. 

[quicksilver]

52 minutes ago, LightBulbFun said:

oh sweet! a picture of it finally showed up after all this time! I always bemused me that there were seemingly no pictures of it, after all I think bus spotting has been a thing since the 1950's? and was certainly quite well established by the 70's! 

there is a further mystery in that, apart from the fact of how did the company the bought that coach new, managed to pinch a registration mark already allocated to a block of Invacars, but the fact that the Model 70 it displaced, is well, Missing in action!

after the MHJ11P-MHJ110P block,  is the MWC710P-MWC809P block, however the MHJ block ends with a chassis number ending 0 but the MWC block starts with a chassis number ending in 2, so the Model 70 of that series with a chassis number ending is  1! is missing I have never been able to find any surviving record of it!

so it could well be MHJ111P and just never survived long enough to survive the DVLA data cull (that registration mark brings no record, so we have no way of knowing what it was allocated too if at all) after all we know the REV block is 101 cars big because of the displacement caused by REV451R being a private example, but obviously without a found record for that registration mark or chassis number its hard to say for sure

 

What I suspect happened is that Sampsons, knowing their new coach was going to be fleet number 54, reserved the matching reg before anything else in the MHJ-P block had been issued, and then Chelmsford  LVLO gave the rest to Invacar at a later date. It's also odd that the batch doesn't start at 1 and MHJ 1-10P were all Austins.

As for why it hasn't been photographed much, things like this often weren't deemed worthy of using expensive film on as they were everywhere and not particularly interesting, and as they got older they tended not to venture so far from home so only locals would have seen them. It was 18 years old and nearing the end of its life in that shot, pretty elderly for a Blackpool trip.

[wesacosa]

On 17/12/2024 at 09:53, quicksilver said:

@LightBulbFun look what's just been uploaded to Flickr! I knew there had to be a photo of the elusive MHJ54P out there somewhere.

For those who haven't followed the full thread, this is the only known example of a non-Invacar registered in the middle of a block of Invacars (MHJ11-110P). That colour even looks a bit like Invacar blue!

I used to go to school on a Bluebird coach with that colour scheme but J don't recognise that bus so maybe it was a different company with the same name . 

EDIT: That photo goes to a link on Flickr which also assumed that it was Blue Bird of Hull but then confirms its not !

 

[wesacosa]

another picture of it

 

[LightBulbFun]

9 hours ago, Yoss said:

If we are doing time travel

if thats allowed then  http://www.disused-stations.org.uk/l/liverpool_central_hl/

[New POD]

10 minutes ago, LightBulbFun said:

if thats allowed then  http://www.disused-stations.org.uk/l/liverpool_central_hl/

What an interesting link.  The new Central Station built in 1977 is one of the busiest in the country.  Who knew.  I moved to Merseyside in 1978 as a child and we used central Station if we went into the city centre. Never realised how new it was.  

[CaptainBoom]

13 hours ago, New POD said:

What an interesting link.  The new Central Station built in 1977 is one of the busiest in the country.  Who knew.  I moved to Merseyside in 1978 as a child and we used central Station if we went into the city centre. Never realised how new it was.  

Disused Stations is a rabbit warren, you have been warned!

[New POD]

3 hours ago, CaptainBoom said:

Disused Stations is a rabbit warren, you have been warned!

I don't think I've seen a worse laid out website, containing such amazing information.  I've been looking up Birkdale Palace and Southport Lord Street Stations. 

Who knew that my commute to work goes down a disused railway line. And Morrisons is pretty much on the site of the old station. 

[somewhatfoolish]

I built a website that looked a little like that once; it was the early noughties and I knew fuck all about making websites, what's their excuse? A great resource, terrible interface.

[LightBulbFun]

its really handy having a set of wheels and being to relatively spontaneously go places on a whim  

today started with me sizing REV up, can a 5ft fluorescent tube fit? indeed it can without issue  

so with that sussed out, at about 1:15PM I packed me things and headed out to east Finchley! but first of all, got some more petrol for REV to be on the safe side, brimmed the tank more or less and got 15 litres in there of Shell V Power, because you know with a compression ratio of 6.7:1 she needs* it (more seriously because its E5)

not sure what the MPG is, but if someone wants to figure it out that would be appreciated  I last put 17.88L EDIT: 12.44L (read the wrong figure initially) in at 23152 miles and filled up today 15.65L at 23221 and a nominal tank capacity of 20L, with that out the way I eventually got to my destination 

and got the goods

yeah probably no surprise to anyone with me previously seeing if a 5ft tube would fit this is my first lightbulb collection caper in REV , these vintage Thorn T12 fluorescent tubes I have actually had my eye on for a good few years now, but its only with REV I have been able to get them!

with the tubes stashed in REV, I then headed home, turns out the A1 was buggered traffic wise, so it took longer then initally anticipated, but REV handled it without issue and I did eventually get home at 4:30PM!  

and these are the tubes in question! as you can see these are coloured flourcent tubes, pretty special at the best of time, let alone as Vintage Thorn T12 examples  so I am pretty chuffed to have these! (the seller did also have listed a green example, but sadly it was nowhere to be found when I came to purchase it, despite calling ahead to see if they had it which they said they did!)

all in a good day out and as at the start, its great to be able to just do these things, the weather looked good, I was not feeling *too* broken, so I thought time to finally grab them after all these years and I did so  

 

[busmansholiday]

18 hours ago, LightBulbFun said:

if thats allowed then  http://www.disused-stations.org.uk/l/liverpool_central_hl/

 

18 hours ago, New POD said:

What an interesting link.  The new Central Station built in 1977 is one of the busiest in the country.  Who knew.  I moved to Merseyside in 1978 as a child and we used central Station if we went into the city centre. Never realised how new it was.  

I think somebody is taking the piss, try about a century earlier for the build date 

[lesapandre]

6 minutes ago, busmansholiday said:

 

I think somebody is taking the piss, try about a century earlier for the build date 

Yes the building pictured has gone replaced by a modern station.

[Heidel_Kakao]

That's assuming you brimmed the tank both times you filled up. Not exactly great but could be worse and probably to be expected with a carburetted engine in winter and stop start London traffic.

[richardmorris]

15.65 litres x 0,22 = 3.44 gallons.

69 miles / 3.44 = 20.04 mpg

[High Jetter]

5 hours ago, CaptainBoom said:

Disused Stations is a rabbit warren, you have been warned!

You're not wrong! Some very interesting snippets though - I mean, did you know that England's first natural gas deposits were found at the entrance to a tunnel to the north of a station in East Sussex in 1895?

[LightBulbFun]

2 hours ago, Heidel_Kakao said:

That's assuming you brimmed the tank both times you filled up. Not exactly great but could be worse and probably to be expected with a carburetted engine in winter and stop start London traffic.

2 hours ago, richardmorris said:

15.65 litres x 0,22 = 3.44 gallons.

69 miles / 3.44 = 20.04 mpg

its like the Anti-Christ to @Kiltox's MPG thread https://autoshite.com/topic/50522-“my-diesel-shitbox-does-70mpg”  

 

but given today it took about 3 hours to do 14 miles so an average speed of about 4.5Mph, but more like 3 hours of sitting idling with the very occasional squirt up to 20Mph (tho very briefly along the A1 I did find myself in a 30mph zone LOL) I suppose as you say, could be worse! I wont have a DPF to clog up at least LOL

[Pieman]

On 18/12/2024 at 13:10, somewhatfoolish said:

It's a long haul but Helensburgh Central has customer parking level with and right next to platform 1, separated only by bollards. 😁 

 

Let's hope nobody ever has an "oh dear I'm old and can't tell my pedals apart" incident there!

[richardmorris]

15 minutes ago, Pieman said:

Let's hope nobody ever has an "oh dear I'm old and can't tell my pedals apart" incident there!

One for the @worldbollard on social media.

[danthecapriman]

I dread to think what any of my cars would have achieved in London traffic. The Mercury would be frighteningly bad! Good to see your feeding REV on premium gas though!👍

[wuvvum]

On 19/12/2024 at 16:53, somewhatfoolish said:

I built a website that looked a little like that once; it was the early noughties and I knew fuck all about making websites, what's their excuse?

It's the mid 2020s and they know fuck all about making websites?

[lesapandre]

Works alright on my smartphone. It's very simple but quite well laid out - easy to navigate. Seems OK. Fascinating stuff.

[cms206]

[LightBulbFun]

7 hours ago, cms206 said:

Oh wow! thats a very significant find! do you have a link to the source? I would love to try and find the original version of that thats not full of compression artificacts  the big significance of that is that its a Model 70 from the GPD781J-GPD830J block which was *theee* first block of production Model 70's  and one block of the only 2 J suffix Model 70's blocks the other being GPE121J-GPE170J which then follows onto GPG711K-GPG910K the first full block of Model 70's 

 

if your curious here is when I first found proof of the GPD-J block's existence, this was before I had the tools I did now, and had to manually bash through registration marks with the DVLA checker! 

https://autoshite.com/topic/32723-lightbulbfuns-invacar-general-ramble-thread-index-on-page-1-survivors-lists-on-pages-24134-adgecutlers-invacar-mk12-restoration-from-page-186-onwards-still-harping-on/page/71/#comment-1865714

and then the GPE-J block

https://autoshite.com/topic/32723-lightbulbfuns-invacar-general-ramble-thread-index-on-page-1-survivors-lists-on-pages-24134-adgecutlers-invacar-mk12-restoration-from-page-186-onwards-still-harping-on/page/73/#findComment-1870427

and then really excitingly I found a picture of one of the said GPE-J cars  (by this point I was able to get the chassis numbers of the GPD/GPE cars and see that they where indeed the first Model 70's, but to have photographic proof too!)

https://autoshite.com/topic/32723-lightbulbfuns-invacar-general-ramble-thread-index-on-page-1-survivors-lists-on-pages-24134-adgecutlers-invacar-mk12-restoration-from-page-186-onwards-still-harping-on/page/192/#findComment-2268670

 

so to also have a picture of a GPD-J car now is super Awesome! the stastical chances of that, given that both of these blocks are only 50 cars large! so once again thank you for sharing/finding that  GPD823J is the 43rd Production Model 70

 

[cms206]

1 hour ago, LightBulbFun said:

Oh wow! thats a very significant find! do you have a link to the source? I would love to try and find the original version of that thats not full of compression artificacts  the big significance of that is that its a Model 70 from the GPD781J-GPD830J block which was *theee* first block of production Model 70's  and one block of 2 of J suffix Model 70's the other being GPE121J-GPE170J which then follows onto GPG711K-GPG910K the first full block of Model 70's 

 

if your curious here is when I first found proof of the GPD-J block's existence, this was before I had the tools I did now, and had to manually bash through registration marks with the DVLA checker! 

https://autoshite.com/topic/32723-lightbulbfuns-invacar-general-ramble-thread-index-on-page-1-survivors-lists-on-pages-24134-adgecutlers-invacar-mk12-restoration-from-page-186-onwards-still-harping-on/page/71/#comment-1865714

and then the GPE-J block

https://autoshite.com/topic/32723-lightbulbfuns-invacar-general-ramble-thread-index-on-page-1-survivors-lists-on-pages-24134-adgecutlers-invacar-mk12-restoration-from-page-186-onwards-still-harping-on/page/73/#findComment-1870427

and then really excitingly I found a picture of one of the said GPE-J cars  (by this point I was able to get the chassis numbers of the GPD/GPE cars and see that they where indeed the first Model 70's, but to have photographic proof too!)

https://autoshite.com/topic/32723-lightbulbfuns-invacar-general-ramble-thread-index-on-page-1-survivors-lists-on-pages-24134-adgecutlers-invacar-mk12-restoration-from-page-186-onwards-still-harping-on/page/192/#findComment-2268670

 

so to also have a picture of a GPD-J car now is super Awesome! the stastical chances of that, given that both of these blocks are only 50 cars large! so once again thank you for sharing/finding that  GPD823J is the 43rd Production Model 70

 

Sadly it was on facebook; posted yesterday, I managed a screengrab earlier but my phone is no longer acting the arse; the photo was a then & now of Kilbowie Road in Clydebank and was on the public page "Call Yersel a BANKIE!" - posted about 5pm last night.

I've included both the "original" shots from that page again as an interesting historical comparison.

 

[LightBulbFun]

1 hour ago, cms206 said:

Sadly it was on facebook; posted yesterday, I managed a screengrab earlier but my phone is no longer acting the arse; the photo was a then & now of Kilbowie Road in Clydebank and was on the public page "Call Yersel a BANKIE!" - posted about 5pm last night.

I've included both the "original" shots from that page again as an interesting historical comparison.

sweet! thanks for that, I was able to fish up the post it came from, sadly still fairly small/poor quality, but it does look like the original-original would of been of good quality, so I might leave a comment to see if the original poster might have something better or point me to where they found it themselves  

https://www.facebook.com/groups/clydebank/posts/9118946428162615/

[LightBulbFun]

today was the usual Pre-Christmas last minute shopping at the big Tescos to just re-assure things are stocked up and my mum wanting to get some nice Christmas foodstuffs as well (I mean I also nabbed a chocolate pudding or 2 ) so we split the tasks, I went ahead in REV to the bakery then Tescos while mum handled some other things then made her way to Tescos and then likewise on the way back I ran the shopping back home in REV and mum came home separately, 

first stop was the bakery again, hopefully this parking was satisfactory for everyone this time! (REV certainly is smooth...)

there was a fair old line!

but I got the bread in the end!

and then onwards bound to Tesco's

where I admit this time was not my finest bit of parking!, but there where pedestrians everywhere, so I was not going to piss about trying to straighten her out while everyone else was crawling about!

eventually had the shopping loaded up

and then home!

again its nice to have REV to be able to do things like this, not only did this save us a lot of phyiscal effort, but also meant things could be done much quicker efficiency as tasks where able to be done in parallel  

 

[Dobloseven]

I'm going to nominate this for the most heartwarming thread of the year.Really shows what can be achieved when good people help each other out.

[Six-cylinder]

Mrs6C choose herself a little present for Christmas, a Plasma ball. She is very amused by it and has taken it into the garage with a jump pack to power it to see it it will light a fluorescent tube, it does!

[LightBulbFun]

31 minutes ago, Six-cylinder said:

Mrs6C choose herself a little present for Christmas, a Plasma ball. She is very amused by it and has taken it into the garage with a jump pack to power it to see it it will light a fluorescent tube, it does!

Awesome! Plasma balls are always *lots* of fun to play, (it will surprise no one I have had several myself over the years!) as a fun party trick/quick-fix it will even jump *start* a fluorescent tube, if you take the starter out, turn on the fitting you will see the tube does not strike, but if the conditions are right, if you bring the plasma ball near it, (and drag it down the length of the tube) it will suddenly ping on  with the old T12 fluorescent tubes you could even do it by hand! 

 

and with some of the old transistorised low voltage 12V-24V DC ballasts you found on old buses, you could similar fun with those

 

 

[LightBulbFun]

speaking of pretty lights/colours  I opened this today for Christmas (well It was sent to me back in Feburary but when I realised what was inside I explicitly did not unwrap it to save it for Christmas ) this is a set of vintage Soviet/Lithuanian Christmas lights from the 1980's  

here are the pictures but run through google translate for those curious what they say  

what I find quite amusing in a "thats very soviet" way is the bulbs these use are just regular 13.5V E10 Automotive panel lamp type bulbs, so the actual voltage of the set would be about 270V! but at least it means I can plug em directly into 240V (via a suitably fused plug adapter of course!) without fear of over-driving the bulbs  

and they are of course very pretty! cant beat the warm glow/colours of a good good old traditional Tungsten set of Christmas lights