The Bluebird Project

With regard to that gorgeous Longines stopwatch, I wonder if it was used to measure engine hours? As you say, it'd be almost impossible to do anything useful with it at speed on water, but starting the watch just before prodding the engine start button would probably be feasible. There's also the po...

Well, I've wanted a Constructor with a crew cab ever since buying a few Corgi ones about twenty years ago (still got them, managed to replace the one suffering from zincpest). But I know they're massive and rare.

A Unimog is also appealing, with a few useful attachments like the front loader...

Believe it or not "something with tracks" is fairly high on my list of things to buy if I suddenly came into significant money... :lol: Oh, and a big Scammell. And a vintage JCB. This is one major reason why it'd be a really bad idea to let me anywhere near a farm sale. The risk of coming ...

There is but one answer, and that is 80 Series Toyota Land Cruiser. I knew a chap who used to kill Land Rovers on a regular basis (due to that age-old combination of no common sense and a heavy foot), last I heard he'd owned an 80 Series for almost seven years and it was still working. All he did wa...

It does smack of a plan which has been rumbling in the background for some time being suddenly pushed into action. It's also very unlike the CAA - I can understand grounding Hunters until the investigation has determined whether the aircraft suffered a mechanical failure, but leaping to "no aer...

Police are reporting (somewhat astonishingly) that the pilot was pulled out alive but in critical condition and is now in hospital. Seven people on the ground weren't so lucky, the Police also say that they may find further bodies. What a truly horrible end to what looks to have been a great day's f...

You only need to worry when the thing growing in one of the mugs walks over and asks if you can teach it to weld/rivet/panel beat...

The '86 one looks the most likely, that's certainly the right time as we moved back up to Wales in 1987. On an unrelated note the old Millbay grain silo is in the background of the first shot, that was demolished a few years ago to the annoyance of the ferry crews. Apparently it made an excellent wi...

I have a dim recollection of seeing a Catalina make a heavy/crash landing in Plymouth harbour in the '80s while we're talking air displays gone horribly wrong, there may be a slide or two of it upstairs but I've yet to come across them while sorting and scanning about twenty years of pre-digital-cam...

I think that goes for a lot of restored machinery. The "easy" projects have been done, so people are now looking at what would have been considered beyond restoration a few years ago. Railway preservationists have moved from "restore from Barry scrapyard condition with all the big par...