P2 Locomotive Company and related matters

Oh dear, the memories keep being prodded ( and nowt to do with The P2!).
My first company car was a Marina (Lincoln Green - yuk!). It got through the thin-section tyres very rapidly! One day on the M6 there was a "clunk" from underneath but all seemed well, so I continued to my customer (Cummins Engines at Daventry). On returning to the car park there was no response from the starter motor, which wasn't surprising as the retaining bolts had disappeared and it was dangling down by its cable. Fortunately the sloping car park allowed a rolling jump start to get home.
Next up, a brand new Morris Ital which developed a strange vibration on the Warwick bypass on the way to (of all places) BL Cars Oxford. One of the rear wheels was loose and on opening the shiny new jack bag I found that BL had left out the wheel wrench (but had left about a dozen bumper bolts in the boot). I managed to flag down a Marina owner to borrow his wheel wrench.
Modern cars are by comparison rather soulless, but at least they are screwed together a bit better.
And yes, to my shame I also used a jerry can of "company fuel" - particularly when going to the likes of TR, FR and W&LLR!

 

Ha! If only!

But worse than Minis were Fiats (and Alphas - and Lancias). But worst of all were Citroens. Book time to change the fan belt on a Pallas - 19 hours!

 

Apologies to all for continuing the off-topic, but this was just too apropos: the Colin Chapman warranty story.

Noel

 

Don't worry, many of us who enjoy the P2 build also are into cars...including Alfas (ooops LMS2968!)

 

Actually another method on the Minor 100 was to remove the water pump to fit a 'proper' by-pass hose.

Got through four MM1000s over the years, two vans and two travellers - bloody good reliable motors.

 

It's called Built In Obsolescence and applies to everything we use; it's how a manufacturer sells new products to existing customers. Make it last forever and you don't sell replacements. With modern cars it's the electronics which will so for them rather than body corrosion or mechanical failure. Fifteen year old cars continue to be the property of the impoverished, and run on a shoe string.

In an effort to return to somewhere near the thread title. steam locos became obsolete too, and required a lot of replacement components in the meantime.

 

..........what sort of Pallas ?

i'd have either of my two CXs back like a shot . brilliant motors . reliable too

 

I think it was the GS - air cooled flat four. You had to take the entire front off the car to reach the belt.

 

I've known a couple of Dental Surgeons who prefer 'Dr.' .... no clue why.

 

Considerations such as continually tightening emission controls (largely absent back when Moggy Minors etc. were being built) also play their part. In the case of Japanese manufacturers (possibly elsewhere), the equivalent of the MOT in that country becomes rapidly more demanding, with the specific aim of driving older vehicles off the road. AIUI, this was originally as much to provide stimulus for domestic vehicle producers as for environmental reasons.

On a drive around Hants and Dorset last week, my other half and I were discussing older vehicles, after spotting a remarkably well presented twelve year old Range Rover in a New Forest car park. Thinking back to the rust heaps of my youth (which idiot decided positive earth auto electrics were a good idea, in a country which uses salt grits every winter?), stuff lasts a hell of a lot better these days.

The point's been made that modern cars are a lot more reliable than their forebears (on my old Ford Pubic, the V4 lump knew it's own way in and out of the car!). The generation of EVs hitting the roads are massively more reliable than any ICE vehicle. There's just less to go wrong in the first place.

 

Interesting model, never come across one of those yet!

Richard.

 

Was it a hairy ride....!!!!

 

I think it's a model based on the Ford Capri, all out front but no real performance.
(I speak from experience having owned a Mk1 and Mk3 Capri)

 

The Limo (my Jaguar), 16 years old and still on it's original exhaust system. (stainless steel, it's like new)

 

Ford Corsair, mebbe.
Pat

 

Perhaps this thread should be retitled the P2 and other means of transport, being as the last 20 or so posts have been more to do with cars than the locomotive itself, and I don't see what relevance changing a bypass hose, alternator on a car, or aLotus warranty has to do with the thread either.

Dave B

 

Nature - and followers of this thread!- abhor a vacuum!

 

But I thought the P2 was going to be air braked?

 

Essentially yes, but can operate with both kinds. ?

 

Another Mikado Messenger was published on Friday https://mailchi.mp/a1steam/mm-772533?e=190d18a9ef