The MG Year - 1999

In our second year of ownership, we took the MGB GT to the Ffestiniog Railway Gala at the beginning of May. This included a roundabout route, via York and Birmingham. 1999's Headline Picture was taken on the "Welsh Highland Run" at Caernarfon, whilst NGG16 Beyer Garrett #143 enters the current Caernarfon station. Stewart attend a meeting of the Bristol MGOC in March (without the MGB), whilst Sarah took Elvis to Buckinghamshire and Hertfordshire for several events whilst in the area on a course in July. Late August saw Elvis heading for England again, this time for the Wigton Car Club events at the August Bank Holiday.

Sunday 25 April 1999 On our roundabout trip to North Wales, we first went to "The Sidings" at Shipton-by-Benningborough, near York. Being our wedding anniversary, this was a return trip to the base for our Honeymoon.

Once we had unloaded the car, we visited a local National Trust property - Benningborough Hall.

Before our evening meal, we posed the MGB next to the East Coast Main Line to take a photgraph of a train next to the car. Considering the line speed is 125 mph at this point, this proved difficult, however a picture with a Southbound Virgin Cross Country HST was obtained.

Monday 26 April 1999 On 27 & 28 April 1999, stewart had a meeting at Harwell. We drove to Birmingham International (the furthest south that Elvis had reached under our ownership) where Stewart got a Virgin Cross Country train to Didcot. Meanwhile, Sarah drove to Minffordd in North Wales.

Sunday 2 May 1999 The Ffestiniog Railway's Railffest '99 Gala incorporated a Classic Car Show and Run. Our FR volunteering meant that we only participated fully in the Classic Car element on the Sunday. The run started in the Safeway Car Park, which is on the site of the former L&NWR station, which was closed in 1967.

The route of the Welsh Highland Run followed the L&NWR route through the recently opened (to cars) Caernarfon Tunnel the the Welsh Highland Railway (Caernarfon) Station. The Welsh Highland Railway at this point utilises the former L&NWR trackbed, which was closed in 1964. The route then roughly followed the route of the former 1' 11½" Welsh Highland Railway from Dinas junction, through Rydd Dhu and Beddgellert to Porthmadog. The run then went to Tan-y-Bwlch Station, following the route of the Ffestiniog Railway, where the car show took place. On the Monday 3 May 1999, Stewart was rostered as Tan-y-Bwlch signalman so "Elvis" managed to be shown on two successive days. We returned home on 5 May 1999, the total round trip mileage was just over 1,200 miles.

Sunday 13 June 1999
Over the previous few months, Stewart had been organising the 1999 Scottish Lowlands Run. This was the next outing for Elvis. Sarah drove and navigated on her own. Why! Simple - Stewart having organised the event, and was driving his car from checkpoint to checkpoint, and even stopped to summon help from the support van for a strickened car - Hamish's Wolsey Hornet!

Sunday 4 July 1999
A event that we had been unable to attend in 1998 was the Chrysler Car Show are Moffat. 1999 saw this rectified. A damp day and damp feild made conditions underfoot rather soggy, however the rain held off for most of the day.

Mid July 1999
At the beginning of July Sarah had to attend a course in Buckinghamshire, so for the second time in 10 weeks, Elvis embarked on a long trip. Attending the several club meetings, she had to for-go a chance to attend the British Grand Prix at Silverstone, having booked to attend the MG event at Bletchley Park.

Wednesday 14 July 1999
Without formal publicity, Classics on the Common has expanded from only a few cars to over one thousand. We joined St. Alban's and District and Watford clubs for this event. Stewart managed to travel across from Gloucester - where he was working that week - for the event.

Sunday 1 August 1999
Once again, we attended the Culzean Classic Car Show. A duller day than in 1998, however, as before it was a fantastic day.

Saturday 28 August 1999
As part of the Wigton Car Club Cumbria Classic Weekend, we took part in the Pennine Run. The weather was ideal, and the route was challenging.

Sunday 29 August 1999
Having travelled back to Eaglesham overnight, we returned to Dalemain House for the Wigton Car Club show in the Sunday. A bright start got dull towards the afternoon, with the rain coming on at around 4pm.

Sunday 19 September 1999
The 7th Veteran, Vintage & Classic Vehcile Show saw our return to Selkirk. The location of the club stand adjancent to the river towards the bottom of the site gave us a different from last year.

Sunday 26 September 1999
One of the members of the Ayrshire MGOC is connected with the Malcolm Sargant Hospice in Prestwick. The club provided a display, and a chance for people to ride in an MG for a donation to the hospice.

October/November 1999
We took advantage of our holiday to Southern Oregon and Western Canada to send Elvis to McFadden Classic Car for repairs (to boot floor pan and around passenger door and windscreen), service and MOT. Unfortunately, the floorpan in the boot area was far worse than we expected, so Paul waited till our return to consult us as to what to do. We decided to get the complete boot floor pan replaced. As with any MG repair there were unexpected items to be dealt with. At the beginning of November, Cameron started to get fustrated matching the colour for the paint spraying. A week later, and a large bill, the car was collected from Paul. Hopefully not requiring any more repairs in 1999.

Sunday 5 December 1999
The last event we took the to in 1999 was the Wigton Car Club Christmas Cracker. Unfortunately, the first part of the route had to be abandoned due to the route being blocked.

Saturday 18 December 1999
We failed to reach the end of the year without any more repairs. The nearside front wheel bearing started to fail, and a quick visit to Paul, complete with his new heating system, dealt with the problem.