Update to Albert Website

 Albert's website  has undergone some updating of itinerary and travel details. http://www.highroadforoz.info/index.html

Click on You! to find out how to join in this adventure of a lifetime, traversing Europe, travelling the Silk Road through Central Asia, exploring the mysteries of Western China,  and crossing the whole Australian continent from Perth to Sydney

 On the map above, a blue dot indicates the start of a separate stage of the trip: you might want to do  just one section.  Being a shareholder allows you to choose which stage you want.

Experience what it the trip will hold first hand !

If you are going to be in Sydney on Australia Day, 26th January 2012, you can come and ride on not just one but two of Albert's "relations".
Two identical Albion buses (and many other double deckers) will be giving free rides around Sydney CBD, from 10.30 a.m.  Meet up at Wynyard Station, Queen Victoria Building, Circular Quay or Hyde Park (St James' Station).  Watch for two green and cream double deckers with "Albion" on the radiator top.

Follow Albert's Facebook page at   http://www.facebook.com/#!/pages/Albert-the-Bus/165894403485479

Intermission

The Scottish winter is closing in. A hellish time to be outside working with metal.
Trust me, I've been there, under cover, with five layers of clothing and still shivering!

The only thing that made a difference  was a heater like this: essentially a jet engine on wheels, burning diesel fuel. I found if you stood too close to warm your front or your back, your overalls would start to smoke. They really work, but there is a bit of a burning oil smell ......
None of which has much to do with this blog, just that I remember the device fondly from being in Scotland in the 2005 winter working on another Sydney Albion, no. 1877.  http://www.albioncx19project.org.uk/

Undercover spaces for a double decker are impossible to come by or just horrendously expensive (try £50 per week!)
A break in the feverish pace of restoration has been called, and work will resume in February.
For now the new roof is weatherproof, the bus is fully mobile, the interior is clear and freshly painted and awaiting installation of galley (units already built but removed to allow freer access to mechanicals).
New steel-framed double bunks are being made for upstairs: 6 units to sleep 12.

Also nothing to do with this blog, this old photo sent to me by an old friend, also an Albion nut:

Taken in the 1960s, over the paling fence at the back of Brookvale Bus Depot on the Northern Beaches, it shows a row of pre-WWII Albions put out to pasture, awaiting the odd school run or emergency peak-hour job. Nearest the camera is no. 1611. This photo and its accompanying article appears in a recent issue (no. 48) of Australian Bus and Commercial Vehicle Heritage published by the Sydney bus museum.
 When no. 1613 was brand new in 1939, it looked like this, before the ravages of 20 years' hard work.

More news as it comes to hand.