Off To The Curry Mile?
There are many in the bus industry, outsiders looking in, and amongst the public of Manchester, who wonder quite what the benefit of the City-owned Network might Bee. Apart from lots of yellow buses and a few fares tweaks, post take-over, Manchester looks very much like pre take-over Manchester.
That is certainly true for the now demised Magic Bus operation along the Wilmslow Road.
Post deregulation, the corridor became attractive to competitive operation, some of which had a good bit of longevity.
Finglands, later bought by East Yorkshire, then rebought by First, ran the 41 to Sale ...
... but also ran competitively on the core East Didsbury rat race.
Under First's ownership the route became the "Cross Connect" brand ...
... which then became "Cross City" under GoAhead ...
... and is now Bee for boring yellow!
But, within the hive of the Burnham's apiary, it hasn't really changed.
Bullocks were also an encroacher on to the Wilmslow Road ...
... but their novelty was to run buses from Piccadilly station (actually Fairfield Street, the side entrance).
The 147 joined the Wilmslow Road fray.
Bullocks was taken over by Stagecoach who ran a branded 147 ...
... and a Magic Bus 147.
The route is now boringly "corporate" although here Bee by sticker only and not yellow paint!.jpg)
The 147 now has BeeCome a minor Monday to Friday only offering; although fbb cannot discover when the reduction from a real service took place. Is it a Bee for Burnham "improvement" or was it BeeLittled by an outgoing Stagecoach.
Whatever the detail may Bee, the 147 is now a very minor part of the Wilmslow Road omnibological experience.
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Another competitor of some notoriety was U K North ...
... with a variety of skirmishes along the Curry Mile. (and elsewhere)..jpg)
The company adopted the name and logo of the privatised version of the PTE operation as "GMBuses".
The operation and its management were "put off the road" by the Traffic Commissioner after a series of "unfortunate" incidents including problems with maintenance and a lack of adherence to drivers' hours rules.
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That was one less along the Wilmslow Road.
fbb will take a look at the timetables of the two core Magic Bus services, and compare them with Bee Network versions, in tomorrow's blog.
Meanwhile Modelling Memories
fbb's first model railway was bought second hand by his kind parents; kind but largely inexperienced in matters miniature. The approx 12 year old fbb knew that what they had bought was poor value and not what he really wanted, but accepted the gift graciously, gratefully and in no way grudgingly.
One loco was this ...
... part of the Triang"Transcontinental" range. The lad did wonder whether he could build a more UK looking body for it but was so new to the game that he didn't know where to start.
He tried and failed abysmally.
Its motor bogie had large wheels with gnurled treads to "aid adhesion". 
Way back then (late 1950s) Triang was very good at using the basic structure of a loco and plonking a differnt body on top as here with a double ended diesel.
Then, when the company introduced their overhead catenary stuff and EM2 loco ...
They didn't. But the track noise was horrible.
... for a UK loco working between Manchester and Sheffield, the two nosed "USA" loco gained pantographs to match!
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Modellers were quick to modify these little lovelies ...
... either very simply with plenty of industrial grime; or, more expensively today ...
... with new wheels, DCC control, a sound chip, more detailng and a tasteful green paint job.
One modellet has gone further, using two nose ends from the big diesels ...
... OR ... two dock shunters joined back to back on a new chassis.
fbb doesn't remember the two-tone green coaches but their rarity is reflected in their EBay price!
That's £53 quid for each "cheap and nasty" Triang coach.
Yikes!
Leaving aside the price of the green vehicles, there is a different sort of delight in "free lance" modelling. Create you own virtual geographical area (e.g. Island of Sodor; South Riding of Yorkshire) and invent your own consistent inconsistency of modelling.
Then you do not have to be ashamed of your eclectic livery, detailing or choice of model.
Did fbb Readily Read Red?
If it is brown, the above shows the difference between bus brown and line diagram brown!
Final Magic Bus Finale blog : Fri 7 Feb
I have to say the first time I saw the Bakerloopy bus I thought it was red. Only on closer inspection did I see that it was a shade of brown, or reddish brown.
ReplyDeleteThe double-ended diesel is quite a good representation of the Victorian Railways B Class - except that had 6-wheel bogies. But who's counting?
ReplyDelete