2009 Mile of Triumphs - Sunday

Sunday was the Mile of triumphs convoy run from Fleggburgh to Great Yarmouth sea front, 198 Triumphs followed the route through Filby and Caister to the seafront at Yarmouth, the cars measuring out at around 3/4 mile nose to tail along the front, I think this was the best ever attendance.

Cars lining up for the convoy.

Nice blue saloon.

Some Norfolk Club Triumph cars in line.

Overall view of the convoy start.

More Norfolk members.
Triumphs at the seaside.
Line up along the sea front.

After the Mile convoy there was an option of a scenic run along the Norfolk coast, into the broads, then back to the showground for a Funkana. Norfolk area took the run, with an excellent tulip diagram route, stopping at Waxham Barns for coffee and snacks.

Blue sky at Waxham Barns.

Waxham Barns.

2009 Mile of Triumphs - Saturday

This weekend was the 12th running of the TSSC Mile of Triumphs event and what a fantastic weekend it was, Saturday was the car show, 193 cars, mainly Triumphs, sun all day long, no wind so nice and hot, great to meet old friends and make new ones.

This event is excellent, whilst it is run by the TSSC Norfolk Area, cars from all the major Triumph clubs where in evidence supporting East Anglia Childrens Hospice.

Nice colour on this TR6 Ex Chatterton saloon, Winner best 2000/2500.

All gathered around for prize giving.

Nice Spit, Doolyroo fresh from 10CR in the backfround.

Ted, Norfolk Club Triumph winner of best TR catergory.
Vitesse with Rover V8.

Unusual Hillman Imp police car. Jim, Norfolk Club Triumph winner of best GT6 Catergory.

My Seven.

A couple of small saloons.

Neil Bishops TR7 V8 and Stag.

More Norfolk Club Triumph Cars.

Henham Steam Rally

With the show season drawing to a close, today I took a trip to the Henham Steam Rally near Southwold. Nothing was organised with Club Triumph so as I have never been to this before I thought I would give it a try. Usually we get free entry if showing the cars, but today I had to fork out £8-00 and park the TR7 with the public.

The weather was very good, hot and sunny, and there was a lot to see, with 2 or 3 marquees of crafts, a selection of boys toys, eg: Radio controlled planes and boats, small scale live steam locos and tractions engines, some marvellous Meccano Models.

The bigger stuff included Steam engine demonstrations such as log sawing, threshing, and stone crushing. Surprisingly there was not a large amount of the big Traction Engines and Showmans engines, it was mainly the smaller road engines, however what was there was interesting, I do like the smell of steam and hot oil. There was a couple of sections for cars, one for vintage pre 1960 cars, a lot of Wolselys, Rileys, Humbers, a couple of Jowetts, and an area for post 1960 cars with a fair few Triumphs on show belonging to East Anglia Practical Classics Club.

I have never seen as many classic tractors as at this event, lines and lines of them, they dont do anything for me, but there was a lot of old farmers swarming over them, all saying "thats right boy"

Also on show where a large amount of hit and miss engines, early static semi diesel engines, all powering pumps, generators, etc.

I also looked around a selection of military, classic bus and commercial vehicles.

Heres a few pics.

Ransome and Jefferies Road Tractor.

Vintage Section.

Mk1 2000, Big Rover, and Yank Tank.

Steam Lorry.

Aveling Steam Tractor.

Southend Albion Bus.

GTR4 Dove

Early Case tractor

Sawing Demonstration.

Nice Triumph 1500.

Another Tax Exempt 2000.

Fluid on rear wheel

I thought a couple of thousand miles of trouble free motoring was too good to be true! Today I discovered a fair amount of brake fluid inside the rear offside wheel and on the tyre today, and a slight drop in level on master cylinder reservoir.

Fluid around tyre and inside rim.

Was hoping it was a leaking pipe, but after removing the wheel and brake drum discovered it was the slave cylinder leaking badly from the seals.So again I had to remove brake shoes and springs to replace with a spare cylinder picked up at autojumble.

There was a fair amount of fluid thrown around in the drum and on the brake shoes, quite messy cleaning it up.

Fluid and dust collected on shoes.

Dismantling the cylinder I found a fair amount of bad pitting in the bore, as previous experience on honing out has always involved changing it again a few months later, therefore I wont be fitting a repair kit.
Also managed a couple of pre-mot jobs on Gills FHC, namely fitted a new bush to the steering column at bulkhead, I had to dimantle the steering column to do this, and also swapped a worn steering UV joint for a slightly less worn one. Checked all lights, gaiters, etc, so hopefully should be OK.

Welsh Weekend

Took a trip to Wales at the weekend for the first time since the HCR, actually North Wales for a family wedding. Nothing to report on the car which performed faultlessly on the Journey, fuel consumption was around 28 miles per gallon for the mainly motorway journey of 501 miles.

Only spotted one Triumph classic all weekend and that was a TR4 or 4A coming of the M6 toll, and he did not wave back at the wife.

Had to say we had a few hangovers as the reception was in a working mans club with the cheapest prices I have seen, for example a typical round of double Vodka and coke, Double Bacardi and coke, double Gin and Tonic, 2 Becks, all for £5.54 how cheap is that!!

We missed the Norfolk Gala Day which was the same weekend but we are told there was an 11 car turnout, we had organised 16 places! so with our 2 cars missing and Fizzy breaking down there was still 2 cars missing.

Wedding car and TR7 at Mold Registry Office.

Our next event will be the Mile of Triumphs at Fleggburgh near Great Yarmouth on the weekend of 26th and 27th of September.

Bank Holiday - Day Three

Monday we returned to Southwold for the first time since the HCR. We spent some time in the time in the town, browsing the shops, we looked in the local museum then had a walk along the pier before driving down to the Harbour to look in the small Lifeboat museum containing one of the first Southwold sailing lifeboats.

Southwold Pier

Only other classic we saw in Southwold.

Southwold Lighthouse

Looking towards Sizewell B Nuclear Power station

Bank Hol - Day Two

The second Day we visited Flixton Air Museum near Bungay, Suffolk, spending a few hours looking at the static plane exhibits and the various WW2 bomber displays, both British and American. I never realised that places such as Norwich, Yarmouth, Lowestoft and Ipswich had been heavily bombed in the war, the so called Baedecker raids in retaliation for the British raids on Dresden. The hangars had been removed from Norwich and Ipswich airfields and re-erected as the museum.

There was interesting information on Framlingham/Parham airfield, home of B17's in the war, the company I work for owns a old Hangar there which was pictured in 1944 used for maintenance of American B17's. The American and British displays showed the tremendous losses of Aircrew in bomber raids over Germany. Inside the museum where a Lightning and a Harrier Jump jet, along with helicopters, and other small aircraft.

Jet Fighter

Captured Pukara from the Falklands War

Bloodhound Missile

The Air museum is well worth a visit, especially with free entry.

We then drove to the Mid Suffolk Light Railway at Brockford Street, near Stowmarket, the railway was built under a light railway order from Haughley Junction on the Ipswich/Norwich main line to Laxfield, Suffolk, original intention was to reach Halesworth, however they ran out of money. The line is being restored at Brockford street with about half mile of track, and original buildings moved from other stations, it is very quaint, with one steam engine, a couple of coaches, and restored goods wagons.

Industrial steam engine at Brockford Street.

Short train at Mid Suffolk Light Railway

There was a real ale festival on along with a barbeque, so we sampled some local ales in the sun, before a ride on the train.

Bank Hol - Day One

Had my Dad down from Yorkshire for 4 days over the Bank Holiday, so we had to keep him entertained with a bit of a transport festival, we visited both air, land, and sea transport related places over the weekend, even subjecting him to open top motoring in the seven to get there.

The first place we visited was the East Anglia Transport Museum at Carlton Colville near Lowestoft, bringing back very distant memories for me of trolley buses in the Bradford/Leeds area and for him memories of trams which where gone before I was born.

Trams and Trolley bus.
Maidstone Trolley Bus

Blackpool Tram

Narrow Gauge Lister Diesel Engine

Early Electric Car, Enfield Automotive Company, built 1975, max speed 35mph, one of a hundred produced on the Isle of White.

The museum is quite interesting, very cheap entry, and with unlimited rides on the trams, buses, and railway would suit family groups.

Following this we took a trip into Lowestoft, we had the usual sea side mussels and prawns on the seafront, then watched some shipping supplying the many tankers moored off the Suffolk Coast, apparently these are avoiding port fees and taxes by transhipping oil into smaller coastal tankers, surely an environmental disaster in the making if a hose was to break or collision occur, I counted around 18 tankers. We then visited Oulton Broad on the way back.

Supply Vessel at Lowestoft, 3 tankers at anchor in background.

Oulton Broad Lock