Practically Classics Forum

Hi all

I was asked to start a thread on one of my hobbies- timepieces, I've been collecting watches for over thirty five years and have acquired a large-ish collection thanks to carboot sales, antiques centres and not to forget- Fleabay

I'm mostly interested in mechanical watches but have loads of Quartz ones too..

I used to love to get watches that didn't work and have a go at repairing them, my grandad was a watchmaker so I got interested, he used to make a clock and raffle it off on their estate (just after WW2) to get some cash together for Christmas

Here are some of my watches...

A Broadarrow PRS3 designed and built by Eddie Platts of Timefactors here in Sheffield, the parts were actually made in Switzerland, it's rated at 300m and has a Sapphire crystal..


Seiko auto divers watches..










Russian watches..






Some Chrono's..




Ecozilla dive watch..


Altanus Flieger manual wind..


1965 Britling Navitimer chronograph manual wind..


Well there are just too many pics to post individually so here's about a half of my collection, the rest being very cheap and cheerful Qtz jobbies..


Anyone else got any to show?? (I love ogling through other peoples pics )



Cheers, John

ive got a few old clocks, but i spend any free time renovating this place...

Cycling and steam engines (Full size ones) are my main other interests. I have lots of books/videos/DVDs on classic cars, steam engines and some on motorbikes or even old buses. Reading about cycling or watching it doesn't interest me at all; I just enjoy riding myself and it helps to keep me reasonably fit (I cycle to and from work). Whether you would say working on cars is a hobby or a means to and end, I can't really say. The same goes for the lathe and milling machine.

I am intersted in historical things and I have also done a bit of hill walking (Up to about 10000 feet in Austria) but I suppose these are things I need more time to pursue; you might say they rank below cars, bikes and steam engines. I'm not into diesel locos and I don't collect numbers, though if I see a steam engine, I usually know if I've ridden behind it before. I've only driven one steam engine, so that's easily recognised



I enjoy the countryside and combine this with some of my other hobbies. Many steam railways are in nice places and I prefer to go for a drive in the country than in town.

It's got to be rock'n'roll musicI...(or any other music....I ain't choosy as long as it's something I can play) I have a small collection of guitars, some old and some new, I find it hard to walk into a guitar shop and not come out with something...
The oldest one I have is an acoustic Antoria archtop with F holes which as far as it's possible to date these things when they've had decades of modification comes from between 1956 and 59..the year I was born, you never know, Eddie Cochrane might have touched it-unlikely I know but it does have a sweet tone Two of my babies-



These two are top quality Japanese instruments, very well made and both from the Matsumoku factory. On the left is a Westone Spectrum SX, around 1986, and on the right an Aria pro II YS500 from 1980-81. The Aria is a beautiful thing with endless sustain because it has a straight through neck with laminate strips- those laminates you can see running up the body and under the bridge and pick-ups continue all the way up the neck to the headstock: really expensive to make these days as it was then but well worth it. It has a very Gibsonesque feel with jumbo frets and a Gibson scale fingerboard. Mine has the wrong bridge, because one of the fragile offset thread saddles broke and replacements are non existent.....so if anyone has one please tell me!!!!!!!! The Aria name went the way of MG/Rover when Matsumoku went under, being stuck on cheap Chinese instruments but these early Japanese ones are well worth hunting down............and no the pic isn't back to front, I'm a leftie which makes these two very rare indeed.

I also have a 5 string banjo which one day I'll get the hang of- I can hack my way through 'Foggy mountain breakdown' but Earl Scruggs needn't worry Apart from the axes I also have a nice vintage Korg synth, a DW8000, which I used to use live along with the guitars in my pub'n'club rockin' days. The DW is a peculiar mix of digital waveform generation and oscillators and analogue editing, a bit strange but some great sounds are possible, very Depeche Mode'ish..

There's also the various amplifiers and fx units I've acquired over the years....I have some old Colorsound pedals which are apparently sought after now along with more modern digital boxes.

It's great to plug in and rockout...sometimes when everyones gone to bed I'll line a cd into an amp, Sandman or something similar or some Chuck Berry, put the headphones on, crank it up to 11, and I'm away into a different world....and as any old muso will tell you, there's nothing better than when other muso's come round and the jamming start, gawd help everyone if it's a week night I have to say it's pretty much trashed my hearing over the years but it's been worth it!

COR!!!


They look gorgeous!!

I have a few geetars too though I prefer acoustic as my mistakes are less apparent















John

My hobbies include tractor restoration and model railways. The former was due to the latter being in our attic and it was far too hot in summer. I'm just coming to winter season - ie railways - having spent the summer "tractoring". However, this year hasn't seen the work rate on the tractors for some reason (partly because of the time taken caring for mother), so nothing has got completed yet! The two main jobs were to refurbish the smaller tractor's safety frame (it needs the tin work and light refitting) and fit a new fibreglass roof skin on the bigger machine - it needs fitting but the wind has got up over the last few days and trying to work a 4' x 5'6" panel eight or nine feet in the air doesn't appeal!

The new toy is a David Brown digger - it needs much work and I had hoped to start that last month, so that's another delayed project!



Frame sprayed and refitted



New digger - note cab roof!



New cab roof sprayed as per advice from forum members (Thanks). The old inner skin has been cobbled to fit the new outer and awaits refitting!



I can't remember the next stage, but I will carry on laying the new track in a month or so - I hope!

Silly question, do you have a Fergusson, with the Standard Vanguard engine

Not a silly question Martin - you must have remembered me mentioning the thing!

However, the answer is no - I sold it in May (or April?) after doing it up. I have to admit, it was bought more as a feasibility study to see if I had the space to do such a project. The answer was not really! I had to park one tractor in a friend's barn six miles away, so it took ages to swap tractors when I wanted to do something with the other one. I then bought a third tractor, which lives on the lawn beside the house as it's too big for the friend's barn: not ideal by anyone's standards! Luckily, the neighbour wants some work done with the digger, so he's easy-going at the moment!

The digger was bought with "blood money" from selling the Fergy - as was the cab roof and various tins of paint etc for this year's jobs. People kept asking if I was going to buy another tractor, but I reckon finishing two and having a third to do is enough of that; the digger should be quicker and different (especially if I ever get into showing the machines). There again, I reckoned I had nearly finished the Fergy and small tractor when I bought the big one four years ago, so there could be a "scrap" digger in the garden for some time!

Pics of Fergy, more of railway, dog etc on my Flickr page:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/cumbriantractorfan

I'm sure that one of the local famers, near where I grew up (There was a road running between two farms and each of the farmers had sold plots along the road) had one; it was that grey colour. He didn't have a car and you would see him going out on the tractor. The farm in question is now gone, the whole lot has now been turned into housing estates. For a while the farmyard and buildings remained but I just looked on Google Earth and that too has now gone. The only field left is the one that had (And still has) the TV transmitter, though which a public footpath ran. I remember about 40 years ago, one of the barns went up in flames, when it was full of hay (Only the stone shell remained afterwards and it was never repaired). The only other time I saw flames that high was when a petrol tanker blew up about 3/4 mile away. In each case, I could see the flames from our garden

I heard recently that the other farm is now up for sale, so who knows, that too may become a load of houses.

Motor racing is my main other interest and I have a 250cc superkart I race. Other than that its watersports, and pre war passenger liners. I also finished a 6 year build of this last month