Snap on Sunday - The Farewell

Purely a self indulgent photo for the final Snap on Sunday for now, this being of a batch of vehicles that have been so close to me since I first started taking an interest in the hobby. I'll never forget looking out the railings at Fourlanesend, my old primary school, and seeing not a Bristol VR struggling to reach the summit of the hill, but a gleaming bright pink bus, storming up the hill from Cawsand, how exciting! This was during the time they were being used for type training, before they had even entered service, and so this made it particularly special. This also spelled the beginning of the service going via Maker, rather than via Anderton, because it was felt that the Tridents were too large to negotiate this road, so to see them for the first time thrashing past the school up to Maker was also quite special. Of the 5, WA54 OLT 'Egret', has always been my favorite, and however much I have hated travelling aboard Tridents over the years, I think I may well end up missing Swan, Heron, Egret, Cormorant and Spoonbill; they're certainly the best Tridents I've ever been on!  

So, after 5 1/2 years, and some 800 posts, today is the day PTOTPA finishes in its current form. As you may have gathered, I commence my university life tomorrow, at the University of Huddersfield, ready to embark on a 4 year course studying Transport and Logistics Management. As I've said to many people, there aren't many hobbies in which you can gain a potential career from, and hence I class myself as someone very lucky. So of course, no longer living in the South West means I personally can't keep you up to date on the day to day goings on within the Plymouth area. 

This isn't the end of PTOTPA though, with the help of anyone who would like to contribute stories and photos within the area, I am very willing to process them, and write them into a full post. I will also be returning to the South West during key holidays i.e. Christmas and Easter, so there may be some opportunity for blogging at these times, and my summer lasts from the end of May to the middle of September, so again, during this 4 month period PTOTPA will be able to function hopefully near enough as it does at the moment. So its worth checking back here periodically for updates! Of course, Graham Richardson at Plymothian Transit will without a doubt continue to capably inform you of the goings on in Plymouth, with some very interesting times ahead; a shame I'm going to miss out on it all! 

I will also more than likely begin a blog within my new area somewhere along the line, although as I have mentioned before, this may not be to everyone's interests. I will however post on PTOTPA any stories or photos taken up here, with a link back to the South West, for instance, in Huddersfield the local First subsidiary operates native Dennis Dart R460 CCV, and no doubt over the course of the next few years more vehicles will surface with some local connection. 

One last thing, during my third year I will be on what is described as the 'Placement Year', effectively going into industry and working as I would be doing after I have graduated, with any company willing to take me on for the year. This could therefore mean that from 2014 til 2015 I will be back in the South West, and ideally right now, this would be desirable, but this is a long way into the future, so who knows what may actually happen! 

So all I have left to say is, thank you all so much for your kind readership and support over the last 5 years. Its been a pleasure bringing you the local news, and I will dearly miss many aspects of the South West. So for now, farewell and thanks to all of you have have built up my 102'916 views to this little corner of the internet.