Transport On The Edge (2)

Consistency, What Consistency?

A quick glance at today's buses to Nether Edge may help us understand the changes that came after the withdrawal of the trams. The tram track ended in Moncrieffe Road indicated by the up arrow, far right.

Buses performed a turning loop via Montgomery Road and Moncrieffe Road. With the development of Nether Edge Hospital on Union Road an extra loop was added to confuse new recruits to the routes.

The purple line is for the inner circle service, originally numbered 8 and 9. The present 10/10a is barely recognisable from the original for most of its very mangled 'circle". The section via Nether Edge is, however part of the good old set of served roads.

The 8/9 even attracted competition in the chaos of post deregulation.

And a star artefact (?) from the archives; a leaflet cover designed by fbb!

Consistency : 61, 97, 98, 22, 56, 3, 56

Route 61 on Wolstenholm (?) Road was the first bus service replacing the trams.

The first change was a through route from Nether Edge via City to Southey Green, then on the northern boundary of Sheffield. fbb could find no pictures of a 97 or its variant 98, but from his own resources excavated this very fuzzy ex slide.

This was from a time of bus shortages (faulty track rods - they tended to snap when going round corners) when the route was in the hands of Huddersfield buses.

fbb is not 100% sure of the continuation of consistency and did not have time to unearth his copious Sheffield route records, but there followed a 22 ...

... a 56 ...

... a 3 ...

... and presently back to  56 again, just for fun!

Needless to say, these services ran to different cross-city destinations and served different stops in the city centre - all designed to provide fun and jollity to regular passengers and utter bafflement to occasional users.

Revised 97 and 98?

 

A more resent challenge to the citizens of the Steel City was spotted by a certain Mr Giles Fearnley (retired First Bus supremo) on a recent visit oop noorth.

As First no longer prints timetables to help passengers, the company has been using its electronic blinds to provide useful (?) information.

Sometimes fares info.

Intermediate locations appear ...

... sometimes legibly.

So Mr F saw, but failed to photograph (slacker) a 97 to Totley via Nether Edge!

Young Giles immediately e-mailed fbb asking "What's  going on?" He thought that the 97 and 98 (which used to run to Nether Edge remember?) had been diverted via their old route and the inner circle 10 rejoining the main drag to Totley.

fbb thought not. He consulted the Travel South Yorkshire (TSY) route nap ...

... which showed the 97/98 passing innocently by on their usual routes via the Abbeydale Road to Totley (97) and Totley Rise (98), indubitably NOT via Nether Edge.

Assuming the map is up to date (not always a given), fbb checked the timetable on the TSY web site.

No mention of Nether Edge on the front cover of TSY's non-leaflet.

But the timetable shows ...

.... Nether Edge Abbeydale Road Empire Road, a designation repeated on the computer created route map.

The full route description also complies.

As the politicians oft intone, fbb says "Let me be absolutely clear on this." The old man is quite certain tha not one of the 600,000 residents of Sheffield would ever consider these stops as being in Nether Edge.

This is an utter daftness residing only in the incompetent minds of TSY, and absorbed by equal ignorance at First Bus HQ.

And both these outputters of omnibological obfuscation wonder why they are losing passengers, year by year.

   Next Variety blog : Saturday 2nd May 

Transport On The Edge (1)

Several Edges!

Sheffield residents and ex residents will recognise the name 'Nether Edge' as a well known suburb to the south west of the city centre. The 1758 map extract above shows a few farms dotted around fields and what we would now call market gardens. The names do suggest a hilly area, but then so is most of Sheffield.

Keep in mind that wiggly road, above, bottom left.

Note Upper Edge, Machin Bank and Cheery Tree Hill.

The latter two settlements are remembered in today's road names ...

... both of which are now classed as being in the Sheffield suburb of Nether Edge.

So the city (it wasn't a city until 1948!) grows and top executives and the wealthier middle classes need homes. Thus by the late 1800s Nether Edge is built up with substantial dwellings for some and terraces for those who would provide them with their physical needs.

The agricultural character of the area is gone for ever.

The orange block labelled 'Union Workhouse' became Nether Edge Hospital and Osborne Road appears on the older map. But the built up area seems to end quite abruptly at a slightly wobbly line running from lower left diagonally towards bottom right.

That line is Brincliffe Edge!

Here is a current map of the same area.

That slightly wobbly line has become Brincliffe Edge Road and the wiggle joining it from the bottom is the wiggle from the 1758 map at the top of this posting. It is called Archer Lane.

Brincliffe Edge Road is literally on the edge of the Edge. This Google Earth view is from above the Nether Edge suburb.

Brincliffe Edge Road runs between the wodge of trees and the houses bottom right. Below we see today's Archer Lane snaking down the hill ...

... and from the bottom looking back up the significant slope to the level of The Edge.

The Google Earth view shows Bannerdale Road, the woods obscuring Brincliffe Edge Road ...

... with a better drone view looking across and up to the summit of The Edge ...

... and allotment gardens on the lower more gentle slopes. This housing was developed progressively from 1935 with some fill-in building awaiting completion post WW2 in the 1950s.

In view of the geography, it us not surprising that public transport never got any further than Nether Edge. 

Horse drawn trams arrived in 1878.

This view is looking west on Montgomery Road, now named Moncrieffe Road. The little hut behind the tram was probably a waiting room. The view today hasn't changed much allowing for the removal of the trams ...

... and a few more cars!

And a bus stops there today.

In 1899 the tram route was electrified and operated by open top cars ...

... later upgraded to a 'proper' double deck service.

The above view is from alongside the shops, looking back towards the city centre. The hut is clearly visible.

Trams were withdrawn in 1934 as the Council deemed that a necessary upgrade would not be cost-effective.

Welcome the noisy diesel motor omnibus!

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

Irish Orange - A P.S.

Should you wish to own an Irish Railways Mark 2d coach, various prices are on offer on EBay

The basic coach, as fbb's model.

The composite, the coach with the extra central door.

The most unusual vehicle, a generator coach.

Here is a generator car for real.

Irish Mark 2 generator vans (often designated as Brake Generator Vans or BGV) are specialized railway coaches used by Iarnród Éireann (IE) and Northern Ireland Railways (NIR) to provide 220/380V AC power to train sets. Modeled in OO gauge by Murphy Models, these carriages typically feature detailed underframes, vented windows, and orange livery.. 

Murphy Models also supply locomotives!

Lima also produced Orange Irish Rail coaches in the alternative livery. Advertisers tell us that these packs of three ...

... are rare. The above is on offer for ...

At £66 a coach, they are priced roughly in line with the Mark 2bs - if you really want three.

Although the real vehicles have a gauge of 5 feet 3 inches the models are built to run on standard OO and HO 16.5mm track.

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

 

  Next Edgy blog : Friday 1st May 

It Seemed A Good Idea ...

 ... At The Time!

When fbb bought his Irish Railways Mark 2d coach, he knew slightly less than nothing about railways in the Republic. Now he is overwhelmed with information.

The Mark 2d (as fbb's model) were ordered in 1972 and in service quickly as they were to a British Railways design and built in the UK.

At much the same time a complementary fleet of Mark 2a/2b coaches was created using gash vehicles from British Rail.

There were livery variations ...

... on the Mark 2d coaches with one notable variant being grey roofs or orange roofs.

fbb decided to compare his putchase with reality and would have liked to compare the Irish model with a Mark 2d model from the UK. But your tight-fisted blogger has never bought a Mark 2d because such coaches are long and look ridiculous lurching round sharp No 2 radius corners.

But he did have a Hornby R896 Mark 3 Scotrail coach ...

... a wrongly labelled sale item. It might make an interesting comparison with the proviso that Hornby has subsequently upgraded this model. 

Oxford Rail also makes a Mark 3 ...

... better than Hornby's, both old and new; more like reality.

So we begin a comparison. 

fbb's Hornby model has clear plastic body sides with the livery painted on.

The Irish Mark 2d has more detail in the fenestration and around the doors.

Although 'flush', there is realistic depth and a proper moulded frame.

There is a nod to realism in bogies and doors from Hornby ...

... much better on the Orange with added handrails.

We don't have comparable underparts from Hornby, but the mix of bits and pieces on the Irish model matches the major differences between the two full sized side views, one ...

... with large  circular fan ...

... and the other with four boxes of mystery ...

... correctly modelled on fbb's acquisition.

Both manufacturers have provided an interior. Hornby's  is what you might call basic ...

... but so is that from Ireland.

The designer has, perhaps, gone a bit OTT with the orange plastic, but the seats are roughly the right shape if not colour!

And where are the OO scale curtains?

You might suppose that fbb could get in there and paint his interiors more accurately?

Sorry, folks, not with his shaky left hand!!

Anyway, with those shallow windows, you can hardly see any seats and tables. fbb found the innards very hard to photograph!

The Hornby bogies just clip into the body ...

... and clip out unpredictably!

From Ireland we have neater couplings and screws for the bogies.

The Mark 2d is marketed by Murphy Models.

Murphy Models has been involved in the model railway business since the 1970s, originally retailing Hornby, Lima, Arnold-N and Jouef amongst others from a shop in Dublin, Ireland. Although the shop is long gone, our interest continues and we now manufacture models and supply to retail stockists. We do not supply directly to the public.

Due to the lack of detailed ready to run models of actual Irish locomotives and rolling stock up to the late 1990's, Murphy Models commenced production of the highest quality and most detailed Irish railway prototypes in OO scale. Thus far we have produced ready to run models of the GM Class 121, 141, 181, 071 & 201 locomotives as well as Craven Coaches & Mark IID Coaches.

The intention is to have a locomotive and coach portfolio that spans from the late 1950s to present. 

Of course Murphy does not actually manufacture its models. But then neither does anyone else!

P.S. A Mystery

What is that centre door on a version of an Irish Mark 2d?

And it is on one of Mr Murphy's models as well!

Suely that will damage the integrity of the structural bodywork 'tube'. Is it because the coach is a 'composite' with both First and Standard seating areas?

  Next ''On The Edge" blog : Thur 30th April