Hirstのブログ一覧

I don't think I ever spent much time explaining about my usual life... I live in a city called Wakefield in the county of Yorkshire. It's in the north of England and about 330km from London.



The district population is about 320,000. However, the West Yorkshire area is a close group of cities with an overall population of about 2,200,000, so it's like living in one part of a bigger city.



The overall county region of Yorkshire is very big and goes up to the east coast, but most of the north of the county is empty countryside and farmland.


(Wakefield picture from Wikipedia)

My city isn't very famous, so outside of my region most people don't know about it. In the past it was more of an industrial city with factories and coal mining, but it is still popular for transporting goods. The main North/South and West/East highways connect through our city and we have the main links for trains too. But most people work in service jobs, offices and shops. I work in an office, you can see it in the distance here. I like to see my car from the building!



The biggest city is the region is Leeds, population about 800,000. I go there about once a month, but everything is more expensive there so I try to avoid it... car parking costs a lot!


(Leeds picture from Wikipedia)

The most famous town in our region is York, the county is named after it, but it's in North Yorkshire so I don't visit it often. If you live outside the UK, it's probably the only town you could have heard about. There's a lot of tourists there.





Most tourists visit since it's a traditional old town with old buildings, castles, churches. You can hear the different languages of tourists, even a few Japanese. Last time I visited, I heard a man shout "あぶない!!" because his wife caught the heel of her shoe on the rough street surface. She didn't fall over, though.

There's a lot of rural countryside areas in the region. This is a village I visit quite often, Holmfirth. It's only about 30 minutes to drive here and the roads are great!





It's temperate climate here, with four seasons. The weather can be unexpected, though.

Spring:


Summer:


Autumn:


Winter:


OK! I'm going out to work on some cars...

I had the day off from work yesterday, I went to York. It's a traditional old town, probably the main tourism town in my region. It's the only place you'll regularly see tourists from outside the UK. It's also where the National Railway Museum is, a place I haven't been since about... 1993!



I left the 156 in my work car park and took the train. I'd usually prefer to drive, but the parking is very expensive in York and the roads aren't very interesting, just narrow roads and busy traffic. I took the train.



This isn't my picture, but it was this sort. Bombardier Voyager, a diesel. One of the most modern trains you can get around here, but they're too small. I've taken this type of train about 50 times and only been able to sit down about 3-4 times. This time I had to stand near the door. Anyway, the museum is right outside the station so I went over.



I thought this may be the most interesting thing to put here. Shinkansen 0 Series, 22-141. JR West gave it to our museum in 2001, I remember it on the news. It's the only one outside of Japan. Shinkansen track gauge is the same size as British standard track gauge, so it was easy for them to move it into the museum. If we had the rest of the train, we could probably run it as a regular service.



The interior reminded me of our own big intercity services, though I was surprised at the 2-3 seating layout. The TV screen at the front was showing videos about the service and the history. I could look into the drivers cab, but it was hard to see or get any good photos. Especially since at the moment I'm only using my compact camera (my good camera is broken).



Here is our equivalent, British Rail "Mark 3" carriage. They had this in the museum, but it's the standard type you'll still get today. They don't usually have this many tables, though.

I've got some photos, I'll show them later.

I was driving the 156 yesterday and unexpectedly hit a big hole in the road.

There didn't seem to be any damage, but I checked the wheel alignment at the garage today.

It needed adjustment of 3mm on the front, but the rear was OK.

It's annoying, but at least there was no suspension damage...

My friend with the recovery truck said he heard about a Toyota Celica for sale and asked if I wanted to take a look. Of course, I told him "No, I have too many cars" "I'm very interested, I'll go with you". We went in his Mitsubishi truck. The only thing he knew about the car is that the engine isn't running and the owner wanted to keep the wheels. The owner only wanted £50 for it (¥9,500), so I didn't expect a good car.

When we got there, it wasn't a Celica, it was an SW20 MR2! For me, that would be even more interesting, I've never had an MR-type car before. However, I looked at it and the condition was too bad for me to consider saving it. The engine didn't run, the windscreen was broken, there was some rust, bad paint, bad interior. The wheels were still on the car, so we pulled it onto the truck with the winch, then helped the guy remove the wheels (some 17-inch wheels, not the original Toyota type).



We took the car back to my friend's workplace. If we put some wheels on the car, we could still take it off the truck. The car was a 1990 model, a special European specification called "Coupe" which had a 3S-FE engine with about 130ps. It was the base grade, most people want the "GT Coupe" model with 3S-GE. We didn't get the Turbo model with 3S-GTE, but it's a very popular imported car.

I had to make a decision as to whether I could save this car. The engine had Head Gasket failure which is quite expensive to repair. It also usually means there is some problem with the cooling system, like a leaking radiator. The windscreen needed to be replaced. Since I can't drive the car, I don't know if it has any other problems like a broken gearbox. The car had 16 previous owners, which means it must have many problems as nobody keeps it for a long time. This is the kind of car we would call a "money pit" (I'm not sure if there is a saying in Japanese, it means like a hole you try to fill with money, but you don't know deep the hole is).

Since the SW20 is not extremely rare, I decided I couldn't save it, so I allowed my friend to scrap it. However, we took a lot of parts off. I got the lights and mirrors too.



After 25 years, 17 owners and over 138,000 miles of running it has reached the end. It's a shame. But these parts should help other people... it will also help me to pay for more cars.

It's a public holiday on Monday, so it's a long weekend.

Usually on the weekend I'll do some work on the cars, but this weekend all I've done is clean the 156 and spend some time relaxing.

Sometimes it's nice just to look at the cars...