There is a rumour around that Spring has arrived and hopefully we will have some weather where we can work outside. As usual we have many plans.

One of the effects of the rather unusual winter seems to have been the deposit on our vehicles of green slime. So we have started a plan where every bus will be washed and polished to make them look like new. We will start with the Ulsterbus Tigers, followed by the Leopards and then the rest of the fleet will follow. We do have a new high speed steam washer and this should be a great help.

Next, we have to finish the tarmacadam of the drive. The entrance drive is 1.2 miles long and we have put on a solid surface over it all and tarmacadam over one third. We will tar the remainder as soon as we can. As one can imagine this is a major project and a costly one.

Our maintenance shed should start erection and this is desperately needed. It will hold 24 buses.

We have been debating what to do about exhibiting the buses and in particular the Tiger Fleet. Owing to the sheer size - over 100 Tigers - it seems impossible to have them all lined up together. We think the best way is to take a totally new area and to put the Ulsterbus Tigers in there lined up as they would in an Ulsterbus Garage with sufficent distance between them so that people can see them individually but also so that they can be taken for a drive easily. The big problem which is developing is the length of time taken to crank the Volvo Tigers which requires external power to start. This means leaving a space between them of some ten feet so that we can drive in our external start vehicle but that eats up a lot of space. We do not know yet if the slow Volvo start problem is due to the cold winter or if it will persist in normal summer conditions. We will see and welcome advice.

Next we have to consider our fire engine division which has grown to ten or twelve vehicles and will probably be about twenty by the end of 2010. We are going to set up a separate exhibit area for these in the new section of the depot.

Lastly to our surprise, no doubt due to the appalling weather, we have to resurface a major section of the main yard which in places resembles a mudheap at times. We estimate we will need about 5,000 tons of hardcore here. This will be done in the next month as a matter of priority.

In short a museum our size has a never ending set of demands and it is matter of priority - not to mention money! By the end of 2010 we should have between 500 and 600 vehicles. We are planning for a maximum size of about 1,000 vehicles when we just might stop collecting!

ULSTERBUS 2648 ARRIVES

February 16, 2010. Tiger 2648 arrived at the depot today and was delivered by our Barney Yourell as usual. She is our first Volvo Q Tiger and we are delighted to have her and are very proud of her. She is currently the queen of the fleet.