Public Transport Christmas (3)

 We Could Be Going Here ...

... which is famous for this ...

... and used to look like this!

Or, Alternatively ...

In fact, we will going here ...

... which used to have trains (and scenery) like this ...

... but more recently had trains like this.

... and now looks like this!

But Which?

The German Bakery shop (headline picture) is in a building ...

... which was a pub and once looked like this.

So well known was this establishment that it has given its name to the station and, in general, to the area which surrounds it - viz part of Islington in London.

Do you know where it is yet?

It is also one of the mid-blue ones on the Monopoly Board!

The link is Angel, with our two locations; one being The Angel Islington with its Underground station ...

... which has the longest rise/descent of any escalator in London and, until relatively recently, retained its original island platform. It how has a new station tunnel with the old island platform bit being used for just one direction and having a very wide platform where the other line once ran.

The second location is Angel Road station.

... which stood on ...

... a thoroughfare named "Angel Road". Clever name, eh?

There will be more from Angel Road after Christmas.

But Now, Angels For Real (?)

You can understand how scared Mary was when she met the angel ...

... especially if he looked like the one above. Or even more scared if the emissary from God looked like this!

Or even this!

Would this be more believable?

Or even this?

In Biblical accounts Angels on earth are never female, always male and they never have wings. The most ethereal characteristic occasionally described is "white clothed" or "shining! 

Angels only have wings in heaven and, according to Ezekiel at least, there they have six wings.

Now that is very scarily scary!

But an angel on earth might look more like this!

The one in the hat is Clarence an angel sent to help George Bailey (James Stewart).

However we might understand Mary's encounter with an angel, she was told firstly not to be afraid; then, scarily, that she would be pregnant by Divine insemination; then,  even mere scarily, that she would give birth to The Messiah, Immanuel, God on Earth.

Mary accepted the words of "the angel", praised God (The Magnificat) and readied herself for the birth.

But it was far from straightforward. There was a problem.

The problem was 90 miles long!

A 90 mile journey for a heavily pregnant teenager? CHRIST-mas is not pretty!

 Next Public Transport Christmas blog : Mon 22 Dec 

Public Transport Christmas (2)

 Where Am I?

I had two stations, the above looking very different today!

It is a Tesco Extra innit?

The other station ...

.. was closed but re-opened in 1993.

It had trams and a canal ...

... and a tram depot ...

... which became a bus depot (now closed).

Until privatisation it was served by two very different bus operators ...

... with very different liveries.

It was the setting of a famous TV show ...

... but much more importantly, the first home of Mrs fbb, aged 0 to 2! 

Hew Hill, the Laird, of Gairbraid, had no male heir and so he left his estate to his daughter, Mary Hill (1730–1809). She married Robert Graham of Dawsholm in 1763, but they had no income from trade or commerce and had to make what they could from the estate. They founded coal mines on the estate but they proved to be wet and unprofitable.

Yes. Maryhill, Glasgow.

And So To London

And we are looking at the school above which has growed quite a bit!

There are bus stops nearby ...

There are four daytime bus routes that pass along Beulah Hill in West Norwood. For the record, they are:-

!96

249

468

But by far the most unusual is:-

SL6 ...

Or you could have it in brown!

... which used to be:- 

X68

The X68 and SL6 are unique in that they are "Express" with a long non-stop leg as shown in the current Robert Munster timetable ...

... non-stop between West Norwood and Waterloo.

Last journeys are 0850 from West Croydon and 1850 from Russell Square. It is therefore unique (???) in London Buses being a peak flow service with no running in the opposite direction.

It is also restricted in that passengers may not be set down until the second half of the journey.

The SL6 blind makes it Crystal (Place) clear!

Oh, yes! The School on Beulah Hill is St Josephs.

Mary and Joseph - gettit?

Mary and Joseph

Matthew's Gospel tells us, almost as an aside, that Joe was a carpenter. The Greek word, apparently, means a bit more than just a bit of carp; Joseph was the jobbing builder at Nazareth. in fact, Matthew's passing remark is the very last we hear of Joseph but tradition suggests that he had died before the crucifixion; which is why Mary is left alone to be cared for by John the Disciple.

It is utterly reasonable to speculate the Jesus (Yeshua Ben Yusuf) would have shared the work with 'dad'.

The significant things about Joe, however, was that he was related to King David.

There is no Biblical evidence that Mary was particularly beautiful She was most likely a teenager, as her role in the society of the day was to produce children to carry on the family line. Infant mortality was high so the wife needed to start early.

But NOT before marriage. Pre-marital sex would, usually, mean the woman was expelled from normal societal acceptance and would end up begging for her survival.

Very few pictures show Mary heavily pregnant, as she would have been for the tortuous journey to Bethlehem.

But things were really tough for Joe. 

A long journey to comply with yet another Roman burst of disruptive administration; the shame of having a pregnant wife-o-be and, to cap it all, those angels.

She was scared witless!

And who wouldn't be?

And his decision to stay with his betrothed?

That's another angel story.

 Next Public Transport Christmas blog : Sun 21 Dec 

Public Transport Christmas (1)

 We're Sending You To Coventry ...

... where we shall make partial acquaintance with this man. We shall also explore this bus route ...

... National Express West Midlands route 8. It is operated by very smart and very expensive electric buses which you and fbb have partially p[aid for. Aren't we generous? 

Here is the route map.

It runs cross city but only a chunk of the northern half concerns us this time.

It starts from the mega Tesco ...

... on Cross Point Business Park but there is no stop where the terminus star appears on the route map. fbb thinks it terminates here ...

... where the usual walk route via the huge car part provides an equally usual disadvantageous trek for the humble pedestrian customer plus hefty shopping bags. Other stops are available.

The traditional terminus pre retail expansion is at Potters Green ...

... where once a service 32 ran.

In inquisitive mode, fbb wondered how frequent this rather splendid looking bus service was in 2025. West Midlands PTE did not want to tell him!

There were lots of 8s. but none for Coventry. Maybe the Sky Blues have declared UDI and there is a secret PTE information casket known only to the residents of Coventry? fbb did not bother to look, but went instead to the National Travel bus site.

Here he found a timetable.

Looks like a twenty minute frequency. But fbb also found an 8B and an 8S. He was confused, until he read that the 8S has been renumbered 8B!

... Cardinal Wiseman's School! Mr Roman Catholic Red-hat is the rather scary bloke in the headline picture above. He was something very important in the Church.  He lived from 1802 to 1865 and one of his jobs was to be big cheese of the 'Central" region of The Church, which included the West Midlands.  

Other Cardinal Wiseman schools are available!

There is the main road stop for the school on route 8 ...

... but in a side road, served only by school buses, where be a diddy little turning circle for the 8B formerly 8S. (Thinks : isn't an 'S' suffix more sensible for Schools services?).

The 8B runs from school to City Centre only; whereas the 8 runs cross city to Allesley.

Here are some of the kiddies enjoying (?) a homily from a Church VIP!

 The Wise Men

We met the Magi with letter "N" for Nazarene Nonentity, a controversial title but one which recognised that Jesus ministry lasted for a paltry three years starting at age 30. The Wise Men did not visit the stable/cattle shed/cave but, as Matthew's Gospel explains ...

Jesus was born in the town of Bethlehem in Judea, during the time when Herod was king. Soon afterward, some men who studied the stars came from the East to Jerusalem and asked, “Where is the baby born to be the king of the Jews? We saw his star when it came up in the east, and we have come to worship him.”

There is no mention of how many there were and no mention of camels. In the picture above we see the Magi on horses with a train of camels and their handlers (on foot) carrying their luggage.

And so they left King Herod, and on their way they saw the same star they had seen in the East. When they saw it, how happy they were, what joy was theirs! It went ahead of them until it stopped over the place where the child was. They went into the house ...

... and when they saw the child with his mother Mary, they knelt down and worshiped him. They brought out their gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh, and presented them to him.

There is no mention that the star or planet or comet or supernova was particularly outstanding; only that it was the light which guided the Magi to the toddler.  They were more like astrologers than astronomers and they would use the stars for all sorts of predictions. This astronomical happening fulfilled prophecies in the Old Testament, whatever it was and however it moved.

Remember that everything in the sky "moves" as the earth turns on its axis. 

We (that is carol writers, nativity play producers, illustrators of kiddies stories and proponents of Artificial Inaccuracy)) have made the whole thing so pretty that it becomes unreal.

Does anyone think that these NOT-three NOT-Kings travelled from Persia on NOT-camels to the NOT-stable with gold crowns on their heads?

But the journey was very real!

Poet T S Eliot seemed to understand the reality (extracts from "The Journey of the Magi") ...

 ... it's that Myrrh for a death again!

Tomorrow we go to Glasgow and London.

 Next Public Transport Christmas blog : Sat 20 Dec