At last, an academic (he is Professor of Urban Transport somewhere in America) admitting that driverless vehicles is almost certainly NOT the future!
And a still from a video entitled by the cameraman "some old bird avoids paying her fare".
It shows a very much alive pigeon cadging a lift on a fast moving 319! And not wearing a hard hat or dayglo yellow vest!
Rails of Sheffield sends fbb regular (and tedious) emails with various wonderful offers. The following rather passed him by.
HO is scaled at 1:87 whereas UK OO is 1:76, but because US rolling stock is built to a bigger size overall, you don't really notice the difference if you have one on a UK layout as a "visiting exhibit".
The price?
A modest £459.50!
Or, how about a complete model of the Great Central Railway station. Based on Rothley (on the preserved Great Central Railway near Leicester) Bachmann Branchline's model comes as a collection of separate pieces.
GC stations tended to be on an island platform; so here you would buy two single track bridges plus the staircase and road level entrance ...
... plus booking office, waiting room and gents toilet at platform level. All these bits would cost you a smidgen over £240. The "bundle" does not include the platforms themselves or, of course, any trackwork. But if you want an accurate model of a typical GC station complete - go buy!
Board Room Bust-up
Regular readers will remember that a shareholder group of investors wants to take control of First's Board. To achieve this they have called an Extraordinary General Meeting which happens later this month. Needless to say, the present Board members are opposed to the plan and all UK shareholders are being asked to vote against it.
Here is James Freeman in his Bristol Staff newsletter.
In passing, congrats to James in winning a prestigious West Country business award.
Sorry the text above is a bit woolly but fbb's computer does not like big slabs of magenta.
And News of a New Newsletter
Andrew Sherrington, the boss of First Cymru, based in Swansea, has started his own newsletter.
The very first issue has just appeared.
He even explains why it is called "The Magnet".
fbb visited Ravenhill on several occasions when First Cymru adopted an early version of xephos for their enquiry service, pre Traveline.
The "back end" is clearly a working bus depot and the front end ...
... certainly lacks architectural quality. fbb's duties took him to the brick built bit at the far right. He was never attracted to The Magnet.
More assorted bits tomorrow.
Next mixed bag blog : Sunday 16th June
Presumably "The Magnet" is a reference to the logo (not that they were called that in those days) of The British Electric Traction Company which was the erstwhile proprietor of SWT.
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