News For This Weekend
It's BIG
What is billed (modestly) as Britain's Biggest Model Railway (www.britiansbiggestmodelrailway.com) opens today in Wakefield where it has been built. Here is a shot of the "monster" under construction.
Details (and booking) from the website above. Payment on he door is also acceptable. Seems good value at £5.
The model is "O" gauge (7mm to the foot) and shows the magnificent ready-to-run locos from manufacturer Heljan plus scale length trains set is a piece of decaying industry at Heaton Junction.
It's Not That Big
It is the extension to the Eclipse Busway which nearly links Gosport and Fareham. From Sunday it will be a short stretch more "nearly".
Outline plans exist to take the Busway even further into Gosport and even closer to Fareham Station. First Bus, which operates the Eclipse services hasn't managed to update their map ...
... but the new bit runs parallel to Tichborne Way. Both E1 and E2 will be diverted onto the new section. There is still quite a way to go to get closer to Gosport!
Phase One has taken about 12 years to complete, plus years of planning and political hoo-hah.
So we can expect the next phase by _____________________. Readers are invited to fill in their best guess!
For the record, the Busway is built on the former railway branch from Fareham to Gosport.
Enjoy a short video about Gosport Station.
They're Small But Taste of Liquorice!
Rails of Sheffield has produced yet another fake "private owner" wagon, purportedly conveying goodies favoured in the real world "oop noorth". Simkin's "Nipits" are similar to (identical to?) "Mighty Imps". 
Rails has created a ventilated goods van so labelled.
Sunderland Puzzle Picture
This item is postponed to Monday next, 6th December
Why Can't Our Buses Be As Good As ...
... In Hamburg, Germany.
Smart articulated buses ...
Really comfortable seats ...
... they are hard plastic! And they are so easy to get into ...
... and no trip hazards at all!
Maybe things are not SO bad here in the UK?
Heritage Potteries
Such a pity it is spoiled by that intrusive advert on the side. Back then ...
... advert panels were kept firmly in their rightful place.
Advent Calendar
Advent Calendar
Received yesterday from No 1 son and family ...
Each window contains a lovely lump of cheese. And as the prezzy arrived on 3rd, there were three cheeses to gobble before yesterday's beddy-byes time.
Yum, yummity yum!
fbb is uncertain as to where a selection of British cheese fits in the festival of Advent, which looks to the birth of the Saviour of the World and further to His coming again to end it all.
At least fbb's blogged Advent Calendar is based around the "official" concept of the Season.
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Mediaeval artists were anxious to warn their largely illiterate congregations of the danger of sin, of disobedience of the Laws of God; so they created grotesque and frightening images of "the Devil".
None of these gruesome guys appears in the Bible! There, the devil (usually called Satan, pronounced Sat-an) is often portrayed as the antithesis of good and the oh-so-very subtle antagoniser of God and man.
Just as believers tend to give God human characteristics (sat on a throne; walked in the Garden of Eden etc), so Sat-an is understood with a human-like personality. These anthropomorphisms (technical term, used by the clever people!) are designed to help folk understand something of things beyond complete human experience and understanding!
Now the snake was the most cunning animal that the Lord God had made. The snake asked the woman, “Did God really tell you not to eat fruit from any tree in the garden?”
“We may eat the fruit of any tree in the garden,” the woman answered, “except the tree in the middle of it. God told us not to eat the fruit of that tree or even touch it; if we do, we will die.”
The "tree" is defined as the tree "of the knowledge of good and evil".
So the temptation is to try evil and see how sweet it tastes. Risky or what?
Disaster!
Thus it is unwise to treat "The Devil", whoever or whatever he/it might be, as a joke!
By the way, it was never specified as an apple - the word is simply and generically "fruit".
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Tailpiece
If this picture of this white van are genuine, its awfulness is astounding. Just full and overflowing with grammatical mistakes. Surely it should say "welding's" and "repair's" for consistency?
Or maybe it is a clever marketing ploy to get the business talked up around the local intelligentsia in the pub?
The Eclipse busway is good, but it could have been so much better. As part of John Prescott's plan for 25 tram systems across the country, a modern tramway was planned from Fareham town all the way to Portsmouth, via Gosport.
ReplyDeleteDespite having a positive business case, the plan was sunk by Alastair Darling. The partial busway on the former railway line is the next best thing.
Not entirely Alistair Darling's fault. The costs shot up when the Navy insisted on a deeper tunnel than had originally been agreed.
DeleteOh the irony of fbb criticising someone else's grammar!
ReplyDeleteI don't know what FBB has got against the excellent public transport network provided by HVV, but perhaps in the interest of balance he could also publish photos of an E200 rattlebox with Urban 90 or equivalent seating operated by (insert name of any number of sub-standard operators..).
ReplyDelete