Just Over A Week To Go
Hulleys courageous two hourly cross Pennine service starts on Sunday 25th with the full caboodle available from Monday 26th. Facebook shows a picture of a branded mini bus stop flag.
This is the Ashopton Viaduct stop ...
... on the Sheffield side of what looks, from afar, like a very ordinary multi-arch bridge.
That is until you realise what used to lie below it! The village of Ashopton was depopulated and destroyed to make way for the waters of the Ladybower reservoir.
The bus stop is now up there to the right of the right-hand arch.
But all parties concerned now have timetables in place. Hulley's have, a last, got one on their own web site ...
... which shows us that an extra stop has been added at Mottram. fbb guesses the stop is here ...
... just on the Manchester side of the evil Mottram traffic lights and just before the X57 joins the M67. Previously the service was advertised as non-stop from Hollingworth Gun Inn to Manchester.
There is also some lack of clarity on the route taken out of Sheffield.
The little hook on roads in the city suggests that the X57 and its associated 257 follow the same route (via Moorhead), but Travel South Yorkshire does not agree.
There is insufficient space in today's blog to go into the detail but you would be well-stuffed if you were waiting at the wrong place!
Of course, all parties choose to show the timetables in a different form. Travel South Yorkshire (TSY) makes no attempt to give you the astounding hourly coordinated service between Sheffield and Ladybower by showing X57 ...
... and 257 separately ...
... whereas Derbyshire County, ever helpful as always.. shows the co-oirdinated times as Hulley's do on the X57 table but also includes the X57 journeys on the 257.
Actually, not all parties have a timetable available; Traveline has not heard of it ...
... and Travel South Yorkshire's search facility is, yet again. sadly lacking ...
... although the timetables are there as screenshotted by fbb.
The first daftness is that the route as listed is for the Sunday service ...
... via Bamford and Derwent Visitor Centre (Fairholmes on the map) rather than straight along the A57.
So all these "destinations" are only served on a Sunday
Ashopton Road
Yorkshire Bridge
Bamford
Main Road
Station Road
Bus Turnaround
Station Road
Main Road
Ashopton Road
Yorkshire Bridge
Ashopton
Derwent Lane
Derwent Dams
Derwent
Derwent Lane
Access Road
Derwent Lane
Ashopton
Derwent Dams
Derwent Lane
You have to hope that the Sunday X57 enjoys visiting Derwent Dams twice ...
... and, more impressively, passing through Ashopton twice - a village, as we have seen above, was demolished prior to the flooding in 1940-ish. Four times via Derwent Lane is a bit much for those enjoying the ride!
The CORRECT Sunday route should be shown as:-
Ladybower Inn
Yorkshire Bridge Inn
Bamford Village
Bamford Station
Bamford Village
Yorkshire Bridge Inn
Ashopton Viaduct
Derwent Failrholmes
former Snake Inn
Monday to Saturday is somewhat less as it passes through the same area:-
Ladybower Inn
Ashopton Viaduct
former Snake Inn
Beyond the Snake Pass there are further mysteries.
Hadfield is not served by the X57
fbb has never heard of Woodnesborough Green; and neither, thinks fbb, has anyone else. The stop is, and always has been, known as Hollingworth Gun Inn.
But let nothing detract from the commercial bravery of this new service. It is nearly 60 years since there was a bus service via the Snake Pass and, back then, it was a couple pf journeys a day during the summer months. Two hourly, seven days a week, all year round is a bit special.
Let us hope it (a) survives the winter and (b) survives the Covid restrictions and (c) carries enough passengers to ensure its future.
On all three counts, it must be risky.
Raconteur Reveals Riddle of Wrenn (1)
When fbb was nobbut a lad, there were three big names in the "toy train" side of model railways. Trix was on the way out, Triang was on the way in and Hornby Dublo was superior and intended to stay so.
If you are old as fbb, however, you may remember some fringe businesses that were aimed at the more "serious" enthusiast. One was the eternal Peco and the other G and R Wrenn. In the 60s, the company made a fibre based track in two and three rail.
Most notably, it was the first company to offer genuinely flexible track such that you were no longer bound by the geometry of straights and curves dictated by the main manufacturers.
Triang was developing Scalextric slot racing (often mispronounced as Scalectrix) ...
... which became the market leader.
Wrenn followed with Formula 152 ...
... which many thought was better than Triang.
You could have more than one car in each slot - although what use that might be was never clear to fbb as there was no way one car could overtake another!
But then, in a surprise move, Wrenn started selling the actual trains; locomotives, goods wagons and coaches. So, of course, fbb needed a tank wagon for his collection - but there is a problem.
Wrenn tank wagons are much more expensive, even second hand, than anybody else's.
So, what's going on.
More tomorrow!
Next Saturday Variety blog : Saturday 17th Oct
Wedneshough Green (TSY spelled it right, unlike FBB!)is an obscure cul-de-sac down the side of the Gun Inn at Hollingworth. The sign is facing you if you're in the front of th queue at Hollingworth lights, which is the only reason I recognised it. Certainly a weird way to describe the location!
ReplyDeleteYour statement about 'the first bus over the Snake for 60 years' isn't correct. The 39/X39 actually last ran in 1966, but from c1977 to c2010 there were various Summer Sunday and Bank Hol routes, such as the 244 Sheffield-Glossop, and the 395 from Manchester, originally GMPTE and ultimately Maynes. The 39/X39, until 1966, was also a seasonal operation. The Sunday afternoon trip on 244 arrived in Glossop at the same time as West Yorkshire PTE's 901 from Huddersfield and various more 'normal' GMPTE services, providing the unique spectacle of 3 PTEs' buses in the same place.