Beautiful Bus Stops ... BUT ...(2)

Pressing The Button (mini blog)

Routes 270, 271, 272 and 273 stride northbound across the downs from Brighton. The 271 and 272 combine to give an hourly headway between the seaside and Haywards Heath ...

... after which the routes separate.

Our particular interest is the 271 which uses "our" stop at The Wheatsheaf, Cuckfield. But we should keep the 270 and 272 at the back of our blog-reading mind.

On Sundays only a limited service on the 271 operates ...

.. and this is the sum total of the omnibological offering potentially available at that stop on the Sabbath, as No 3 son excitedly ...

... pressed the magic button on the pole outside the pub. So excited was he that he commanded his ambulatory associate to make a lavish video of his experience. Please note that the video is on a loop so you can enjoy it for repeated viewings. Deep joy!

Did you, as all good evangelists are wont to say, get the message? fbb has listened to it several times and has gleaned the following. 

Revised timetable in operation on routes 270, 271 amd 272 from 10th matwothosand and twenty infoitmetrodotceeohdotuk. fbb can split the gibberish into its constituent parts and hazard a translation.

matwothosand translates to may two thousand

infoitmetrodotceeohdotuk is more challenging but might be

info@metrobus.co.uk

A close look at one side of the the timetable flag ...

... reveals the original source of the garbled "information".

It is the same as displayed in a grey liquid crystal display on a light grey background, barely legible in sunlight but interpreted (for want of a better word!) by some poor electronics at the stop. The service is provided proudly by West Sussex council for those with "visual impairment" and those who may have "difficulty in reading".

But what about "reading" the timetable?

fbb suspects that the idea of those three panels, high up on the bus stop flag, is to display the next three buses due at the stop. fbb is confident of this because the garbled message we have found so helpful (?) is displayed scrolling in just one of the three panels.

The others remained resolutely blank with nary a mention of any of the sparse 271 journeys soon (or later!) to appear at The Wheatsheaf.

It was useless "information" from the magic button!!

At least most of the few Sunday passengers could read the departure list in the frame ..,

... and, hooray for Metrobus, it shows timings correctly two minutes before the main High Street stop and time point in Cuckfield. So, although not real time, Metrobus' attempt to inform passengers was good, was working effectively, and would have been gazillions of pounds cheaper than the information NOT supplied by West Sussex.

No 3 son and chum continued their exploratory amble through some of the posher parts of Haywards Heath and came across a railway line, a very expensive posh "hice" and yet another bus stop with crackpot information provided by the electronics.

Concluding tomorrow.

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Windows 25 - Part 2 : Let Us Spray!

fbb was well aware that painting his laser-cut card window frames would be tricky. Too much paint an they would go out of shape very easily. 

Mrs fbb made a suggestion.

Use spray paint, she urged; and a can was duly ordered from the South American River Basin. It came the very next day.

fbb set up a bodged paint booth on the bench outside the front door of fbb mansions and set to work. But, obviously (well, obvious now!),  the force of the spray tended to blow the flimsy fenestration far away where it should not have been blowed.

"Spray directly above," came the thought. OK until the drying windows stuck to the newspaper protecting the bench.

Railway modelling is such stress-free fun!!

Eventually rescued.

But a much bigger problem then materialised.

=========================

Offers a celebration of VE day by taking orders for some of its iconic models painted in a plain unlined wartime black.

fbb cannot confirm whether these locos actually ever appeared in the unadorned black livery. But one (or even all four!) would make an interesting, albeit expensive, adjunct to a model representing those dark days.

fbb was a little over two months old on VE day!

 Next bus stop blog : Friday 9 May