Post Festive Snippets [3]

 to provide a break from the rigours of 

 daily blogging, fbb will be looking at 

 some of his old, decayed colour slides.

 The selection will be presented in the 

 form of a post-festive quiz.           

                                        

 Answers and other information will be  

 posted on the following day's blog     

           yesterday's answer           

This bus is being operated by United Counties in Northampton.

Weston Favell District Centre was opened in 1974. It took the name of a nearby village which had been progressively swallowed up by the town. The centre included two supermarkets (later merged into one mega-Tesco), a parade of indoor shops, a library and the Emmanuel multi-denominational church.

Bus services were extended or diverted to serve the complex. fbb's memory is a little unreliable here as by now he had left the family home nearby and was resident in Sheffield and married with one small child!

Corporation [NCT] service 1 was extended from Weston Favell Trumpet Inn. United Counties [UC] had routes 304 and 305 exclusively but the 300 and 301 circular routes were jointly operated. Both operators struggled to find sufficient vehicles. NCT bought a couple of ex Wolverhampton single decks ...

... whilst two ex Trent buses appeared on UC Eastern District routes and elsewhere on their network. Here is sister vehicle trundling through Kettering.

Both were part of a batch of dual-purpose ("coach" seated buses) vehicles for longer distance services, although they often found their way onto local bus routes.

The dreaded internet suggests that YRC 189 ended up preserved at Quantock Moor Services but it is no longer listed there. Another source offers this sad view.

Perhaps one of our blog readers can elucidate?

One of these iconic "country" buses (YRC 191) is, however, preserved.

It is seen here performing at Trent's 100th Birthday earlier this year.

The consequence of these changes was that NCT vehicles would, for the first time ever,  use departure stands in Derngate bus station as here with a single deck Fleetline on the 301.

         today's puzzle picture         

What is this Sheffield Transport bus doing? The picture was taken at about 0500 with Mrs fbb on board; and neither the route nor the destination remain.

            answer tomorrow             

----------------------------------------------------

 fbb's Christmas Calendar for 2013 
Saturday 28th December

 30 years pass by 

So that's it, then. Christmas is over for another year!

In he traditional Church calendar, Christmas starts on December 25th and finishes on 12th night. Our consumerist society starts Christmas in late August and finishes it with the Boxing Day sales! From a bible point of view, Christmas is, in itself, not supremely important; only two of the four Gospel writers mention it; each having a particular purpose in nailing the origins of Jesus firmly in the realm of the God-given supernatural.

Next arrival on the scene is another religious weirdo.

John's clothes were made of camel's hair; he wore a leather belt around his waist, and his food was locusts and wild honey.

Yep! A weirdo! And his preaching was controversial as well.

The one who comes after me has his winnowing shovel with him to thresh out all the grain. He will gather his wheat into his barn, but he will burn the chaff in a fire that never goes out.

Simeon in the Temple warned that Jesus would bring both good news and bad news.

You snakes; who told you that you could escape from the punishment God is about to send?

The "serious" message of Christmas is coming back after thirty years of absence

People confessed their sins, and he baptized them in the Jordan.

The promised Messiah is here.

Or is he?

----------------------------------------------------

 Next bus blog : Sunday 29th December