Sunday Varliety

Groveling to GoAhead

Above is what fbb may have to eat! In three recent blogs, the old man has complained that GoAhead had failed to answer his request for a 477 (Dartford to Orpington) timetable. It is Humble Pie, more correctly a pie filled with umbles, being the grotty bits that are only fit for the boot licking snivelling 'lower orders'.

fbb is grovelling with apologies - because ...

... the visually challenged octogenarian had not sent the email. The staff at the internet are, sadly, incapable of guessing what you want to say; they can only process what you actually say.

fbb typed kemt instead of kent!!!

So the request never reached GoAhead!

It has been resent recently. fbb awaits a reply.

Again.

Rotherham's Planned Gateway

But not like that - and certainly not like this.

Rotherham is not, and never will be, akin to heaven!

But, talking of heaven, fbb came across this picture of a cat, presumably very well deceased, arriving at the throne of the Omnipotent.

Faced with such generous benevolence, the cat replies ...

Those amongst our readers who are employed by their feline masters will appreciate the thought!

Back to Rotherham's Gateway.

It's a new station, innit?

It is north of the town centre which is lower left on the map below ...

... and near the Parkgate shopping centre, upper right. The yellow dots are tram stops on the tram (mostly) train (just a bit) from Sheffield; the one red blob is the current "central" train station.

Advance publicity for the £110 million project (funding not yet arranged) has an easy to follow diagram (NOT) ...

... a pretty picture as above and a plan of the whole development including the housing.

fbb has twisted the site plan to match geography! And this is what it looks like now.

The station will be on Forge Way (near the McDonalds sign above) but there is a lot of work to do. The tram stop will be on the left of Forge Way ...

... and the new railway station will appear on the far side of the biggest car sales lot in the western arm of the galaxy.

Why does Rotherham need another station?

The dreamers seem to think that inter city trains will stop there; a massive step up from its local services from Northern.

fbb doesn't think anyone has asked CrossCountry or East Midland Railway if they want to serve Rotherham Gateway; neither has anyone been brave enough to ask Rachel for the money.

What are the chances of either or both?

Tanker Taxonomy Troubles (cont'd)

This tank wagon was produced by Lina ..

... before Hornby bought the company in a "fire sale'. So the box shows Lima's base in Italy ...

Lima had taken the UK market by storm, but the storm became self-destructive. Early Lima models were simply an Italian Job decorated to look like a UK wagon.

Even the box was strange!

The steam loco could be a LMS "Crab" which Lima never made; and the other train bears no relationship to anything in the UK.

So is the tanker authentic?

Set against a Bachnmann TEA vehicle (above, top) the Lima models is obviously inferior. It was also cheap! Bachmans TEA is about four to five times a cup tank.

So is it an Italian tank wagon masquerading as a UK version carrying Total fuels?

To be continued!

Axminster Activity

Yesterday the ffbs set off for their short brbreak leaving fbb mansion -  in the watchful paws of Mr Tubbles ...

... ably assisted by next door neighbours and their huge man-eating Husky ...

... both with every muscle tensed to defend property and personel.

The journey was via South Western and CrossCountry. SW is running a dramatically reduced service because, shock horror, the sun had been shining during the summer. That would be an amazing revelation in the Devon holidaymakers' territory! Apparently, for the first time in 200 years of railway history, this sunshine made the track go a bit wobbly.

The upshot is a train to Exeter every TWO hours ...

... but connections westwards are now much better. The fbb's had allowed  plenty of time to do battle with the Axminster car park ticket buying routine. Battle successfully joined the gruesome twosome relaxed on the platform.

It was then that fbb gazed at the canopy. It was looking very tired indeed! This was the view looking towards Crewkerne ...

Yep! Very tatty. But, turning towards Exeter ...

... there was a small portion in the far corner that had been refurbished, at least undercoated.

And right in front of the old bloke was another generous few feet of new paint.

Exciting, eh?

Being wise to the corporate world, fbb thinks that the canopy painting evaluation team had been along doing a few test bits. Their report will go back for further evaluation by the focus group. Management will even further evaluate a policy, then specifications will be put out to tender. If funding is available, the whole canopy will be repainted in the next tranche of funding. Ideally work should be completed by late 2030 or early 2031.

Tomorrow - in a variety blog - Cross Country can't count!

Time for bed (Saturday night) at the Penzance Premier Inn ...

... formerly Branwells Mill ...

... and just across the road from train and bus stations.

 Next Variety blog : Monday 22nd Sept