Saturday Variety

Cardiff Colour Competence Questioned

fbb wrote that Cardiff Buses changed from an all-over maroon to a very different orange. The orange, fbb wrote, has now become blue.

OK, another fbb bludner! The blue has long since been replaced by a fair dose of route branding, but the common Cardiff colour is back to orange ....

... within a variety of colored wedges.

Sometimes the route colour dominates ...

... with the orange becoming the smaller splodge.

At least one bus wears a version of the ancient maroon ...

... albeit brightened by a broad band of buttermilk! 

Here is the original with poles and wires!

Thanks to correspondent Andrew for his gentle admonition and the photos.

BBC Bus Boost Part 2

It was the BBC's south west regional programme "Spotlight" that provided its May Day Bank Holiday viewers with a very incomplete report on the forthcoming re-appearance of Stagecoach route 54 from Plymouth to Bovisand.

The item then moved on to "another bus that serves the coast" namely City Bus 70.

This tine, at least, we were provided with an actual bus trundling along some narrow roads.

There was a 'talking heads' from a GoAhead boss ...

Behind him was St Michaels Mount near Penzance and a Cornwall minibus. 

The 70 bus looked very empty - in fact completely empty apart from driver.

Pictures of 'the beaches', which formed the raison d'etre of the report, were totally lacking.

One shot showed a 'passenger' boarding ...

... with the only picture of the coast being a screening of that behind the TV presenter. it is unlikely that the Beeb had hired a drone camera to enhance a weak news item.

Maybe it is best never to trust ANY TV 'news' items?

May Day Mouth Misery

This is a view across the big flowerbed at Seaton sea front. In the background is the former bus stop for services to Beer, Sidmouth and Exeter.

To the left of the 'thing' in the flowerbed can be glimpsed the Carpetright store. In a brief life, this company occupied the former Woollies premises.

On the far side of the Woolies building was once a side entrance ...

... latterly very closed down. This part of the block was redeveloped into flats and business premises.

The former side entrance to Woollies ...

... now leads to a very posh private dentist.

It was here that fbb found himself reclining after a very horrid few days of dental pain. There is no longer an NHS dental service in the area, so, faced with something of an emergency, the old bloke had to pay.

Initial consultation

£50

Antibiotic prescription

£9.90

Delayed extraction (May 19)

£250

Ouch for the tooth! Ouch to the bill! Whatever happened to the NHS dental service, which, in fbb's youth was "free", paid for by our taxes.

Emma Chizzit?

How much would you have to pay (excluding p&p) for this model. Warning, it is NOT OO scale. The track gauge is about 45mm.

Answer tomorrow.

Quiz Answers 31 to 40

City Line was the pre-privatisation brand of Bristol buses operating city services.

These weird buses operated sightseeing tours in Paris.

The future's orange for South Yorkshire's franchised network.

Rev Wilbert Awdry creator of the Thomas the Tank engine series.

Sheffield, known then as Midland station.

Cumbernauld town centre - short sightedly built well away from the railway line.

Steve Rotheram's franchised network in Merseyside.

The building was The Angel Islington pub, giving its name to the road junction and its Underground station.

Nottingham Victoria station.

At London Bridge station, the launch of Great British Railways.

 Next Variety blog : Sunday 10th May