127 Club AGM 2023

It was fantastic to meet up with the 127 Ambulance club once again in person and what an excellent opportunity this was to compare solutions to the same problems we all have (space, cooking shelter etc)

It's was a great weekend with 2 Marshalls, 2 Locomotors and 4 Pulses and a look around a Land Rover graveyard 

Our hosts Tony and Ruth were fantastic company as usual and we had a great time despite running from awning to awning at times as the showers hit 

First in terms of age were the 2 Marshalls - Katy and in orange Dreamcatcher

Next in terms of age were the Logomotors 

And the youngest were the Pulses 

We're in discussion about a club Morocco trip .. hopefully a lot more to folllow 

127 club meeting

Last weekend was a wonderful meeting for the 127 130 Owners Group in Shropshire at the Farm of Tony and Ruth

There was so much fun to be had looking at the other vehicles and sharing build ideas and adventure stories that we did not leave the campsite on Saturday

Here we are parked next to Ash and Gill's excellent Locomotors - they have wonderful adventures in it as can be read on their travel blog http://loonytoone.co.uk/

When it comes to vehicles we were a bit outclassed by the Ex Military "going to the pub" vehicle which the owner found out did 4 gallons to the mile and has sat in the field since

it was a good job we spent the day on site because there was a constant stream of extra's turning up such as Heim and Mel's excellent Pulse conversion with the additional roof height - the second one of these I have seen and it's an excellent idea on a flat roofed 127

Joe's Paella was another highlight of the weekend - Yum... I went back for thirds :)

The next day we went about 9 miles to a cafe... about 1 of that on Tarmac which is excellent. Tony and Ruths "Cambulance" in the lead, Les and Jane's "Dreamcatcher" and us bringing up the rear.

Here is a selection of the pictures

Proud as Punch - Kelmarsh 2017

You have to arrive before 8pm said the instructions for the Kelmarsh show and despite that being a real challenge to get there after work, we made it in time for the last of the sunshine, so here we are in the evening golden glow of the last hour of light 

The next day the dawn broke not so sunny but it was still a fine day as long as you avoided PC's Rhys and Huw who would give you any number of tickets as they buzzed around in their 'Mini Me'

The organisers tried hard to avoid fact that the the weather was getting windier, and even had a go at launching the Land Rover balloon. I'm sure it made it at least a foot off the ground, but was fun to watch all the same

Later on the sun did come out and the SWLRC stand looked excellent even if our awning was a little sad (it did cost £35.00 after all). We had quite a few visitors and it was really nice to meet Les and Jane from the 127 club and listen to all the excellent work they have done on their vehicle.

Events in the main ring tended to feature either mud, or shiny things like below and were vaiously watchable depending on the weather, but given the level of interest we had in Katy it was not that easy to get to watch things on the weekend days (Friday there were not so many people there)

Out of the arena one of our members was saved from disappointment by the Challenge South West team.  Thanks guys if you ever need a jump start in South Wales I am sure we will do our best to return the favour!

In my area of interest there were some lovely ambulance vehicles. 

Too many to show here, but in highlight 2 absolutely top notch camper conversions based on Pulse Land Rovers in the North Wales Land Rover club, and this pristine looking one (on the outside at least, it is also a camper)  

And in the stand next to us this cracking Locomotors - also a camper conversion with LPG conversion to feed the original V8 which is still in place

Finally we had a team photo at the front of Kelmarsh Hall

And then one just of Katy

Finally, finally we were incredibly honoured to be singled out by Frank Elson of the Land Rover Monthly Magazine for this wonderful certificate

As she is a work in progress I came home armed with a load of spares and even more ideas on how we should improve her so my To Do list is even longer

All in all a fun weekend was had by all of us and I am sure that we will make a return journey at some time future

Chatsworth

With a few days off after the SWLRC 2014 road run we headed north to Derbyshire for a few days to wind down from a period of very hard work for us both 

The first nice thing that happened to us was when we pulled in to the car park of our first stop and found this Locomotors 127 parked in the car park. if you look carefully you can just see Katy on the left hand side of the picture with the back door open. 

It was according to the sticker on it's back door sold/converted by foley, but from the brief chat with the current owner it's had a series of ongoing changes and has just had a wood-burner removed to make it a bit more child friendly. This one also has a 300Tdi replacing the original V8 petrol engine

I left that note on the windscreen and the owner called me when we were wandering around the gardens .. so you are wondering where we were... This famous fountain was one of the reasons for going.

The fountain is powered by the pressure of the water dropping 122 metres, through a 40 centimetre iron pipe made from a man-made lake. The fountain can reach a height of 90 metres although it is usually to half that height to conserve water (as in the picture)

So for those who don't know it's the Emperor fountain in the grounds of Chatsworth House

And just to prove we were really there in Katy

The interior is just as wonderful as the gardens with many works of art. One of my favourites is the Crouching Lion (by Francesco Benaglia) in the Sculpture Gallery. It is a copy of the one by Canova, which forms part of the Rezzonico Monument in St. Peter's, Rome. It weighs 3.5 tons which is just a bit more than Katy fully laden and probably just as tough if you run into it.

Eastnor 2012

We had our first outing to a Land Rover Show this weekend - it coincided with my 50th birthday which makes me twice as old as Katy this year.

Arriving on Friday Night we set-up the camp-site. The weather was not good so there were loads of the members of the SWLRC running around putting tents in the rain up whilst we put the kettle on which was great for us (we did feel quite a bit guilty)

The stand was left until the Saturday morning because of the rain, and even then it was further delayed by the complexities of fetching "lost" and late members of the club onto site. Luckily the team sprang into action and with extensive use of mobile phones and a lot of arm waving we managed to get everyone together

Given the rain of the day it wasn't much of an event to wander around and take pictures, but we did have a pleasant surprise when Ian from the 127 Ambulance club popped over with his recently rebuilt pulse ambulance which was quite a treat for those who managed to get out to see it despite the rain (which you can see on these pictures)

Compared to Katy the  Pulse is quite a beast. it looks quite a lot more aggressive and it is a whopping 20cm (8 inches) wider across the body which does have the possible advantage of putting beds across the body instead of along it if you were to do a camper conversion, but according to Ian is a problem on some narrower roads

Sunday was quite a bit nicer and the club stand started to resemble a nicer place to be (apart from the mud underfoot)

On a walk around I was pleased to bum pinto some more 127 owners (well they called themseleves the
Land Rover Special Vehicles and Defender 130 Club) and they sold very nice jam indeed.

They had another of the 127 variants on show  and in this picture you can see a Locormotors (left) nest to a Pulse). The Locormotors like the Marshalls has a sloping front, but it also has the flat roof.

From what I have been told they were made by simply taking a pickup and adding a new body behind, and if you dril into the corners behing the seats you can hit the curved windows which are still in place 

We had quite a line-up on the SWLRC stand as you can see from the pictures below. From the nice 90 next to Katy, then a Freelander and closest is Nick's old Land Rover Special Vehicles radio truck now in a fetching red colour

Katy being the largest on the stand proved to be a useful flagpole

OK, the place was a complete mud bath, but it was still a lot of fun and we learned a lot

Shropshire Serendipity

We headed South and made our way to Shropshire which is a wonderful place with lots of rolling hills and superb villages and towns.

As we'd left Preston late we'd phoned ahead and made bookings at the Smallbatch Campsite in Little Stretton which was a wonderful village with a thatched roofed church, 1 shop and 2 pubs

That night we really only had time for a meal and then to bed, but even with that we had decided to come back again in the future. The ford to enter and exit the campsite wasn't much of a problem - I think I could have done it on a bike ever mind a Land Rover, but it looks nice  as you can see.

Before we headed home we knew we had to go into Church Stretton to the antiques market so we headed north into the town. As we went up we came to a junction looking for somewhere to park and to our right was a very familiar looking shape on the road.so I decided to turn down that road and give chase. .As it turned right into a side street my suspicions were confirmed, and it was indeed a 127 ambulance. The first we have seen on the road since we have had Katy.

 A moment later we pulled up alongside said vehicle and the initially puzzled look on the face of the driver turned to a beaming smile as he realised what we were driving.

It turned out to be Tony (longmynd127 from the 127 Ambulance Owners Forum) with his Locomotors Ambulance and we had about 1/2 an hour of wonderful chat and a good look around each other's vehicles before the practicalities of the day meant we both had to get on with it

One of the highlights of Tony's 127 has to be his wood burning stove hmmm. ideas are already forming

For those who have not met Tony I can say he's a really nice guy to talk to and knows a lot about Land Rovers (an awful lot more than me.), and he's done a really good paint job. 


From then it was a fairly straightforward run home. Katy had run all the way, no issues, but a few more jobs identified as we went. I think Tony said it in the best possible way "The nicest thing about these 127's is the people and sharing of ideas. I've never met one of these that was not still a work in progress"

It was a wonderful highlight to a really nice day - thanks Tony