February 2004

Philip Tordoff
Vintage Buses
Report - Unknown

Although held on Friday l3, it was not the gremlins but rather a technical fault which prevented our guest speaker from screening the visual accompaniment to his talk on Vintage Buses — mostly in Yorkshire but with other areas — plus the odd trolley or two! Philip Tordoff was most apologetic after numerous attempts to get the projector going.

However, all was not lost as Phillip painted a picture in words as he gave an account of his interest in buses. He discussed the various tones emanating from different vehicles when changing gear and compared the sounds to music (which he was studying). During his student days, he worked as a conductor for Yorkshire Woollen District and recalled using ticket racks and the Bell Punch — plus Setright machines. He also recalled seeing and riding on single-decker trolleybuses; Frank Long informed him of own days as a trolleybus driver and other aspects of his job. The two compared notes and it turned out to be an interesting evening.

David Oyston has been selling off a collection of transport-related books — dividing the proceeds between the BTA Funds and David’s favourite charities, Fred Karno’s raffle went well as usual — our thanks to both of them for their efforts and also, thank you for the donated prizes.

Phillip has since written to me saying he has managed to obtain a back-up projector and he will be back next year!