Sunday Variety

It's All On-Line No 494

Fake Picture. Surely Not?

The above monstrosity is a "headline" picture on a YouTube post about "giant commercial vehicles" As usual, this particular vehicle does not feature in the video - because it does not exist. It could never exist because the funnel needs to be at the front end of the boiler to create the draught in the boiler tubes to draw the heat from the fire to turn water into steam.

Then you would have to wonder how those six giant wheels might respond to the one set at the front which might be steerable. Although, as they would appear to be fixed to the chassis ...

... we have a not steerable, non steamable very unbalanced non vehicle.

Tunnels Under The Sea

Erm, haven't you forgotten the tunnel? 

Or maybe all passengers are equipped with wet suits and SCUBA breathing apparatus for their journey between continents?

There has been a little spate of these items on-line. (Can you have a little spate? Surely a little spate is a dribble?)

This time it is waterproofed cars with their own oxygen supply, needed in large quantities to ensure the engine will run. Or maybe each car has huge batteries reliably insulated for sub-aqua use? Perhaps there will be fast charging stations on the ocean floor, complete with air supply?

One on-line article is almost poetic in its explanation of the possibilities that such a tunnel will offer.

There is even a section of FAQs!

And a key question ...

In yet another version of the article, we do now have a tunnel, set very shallow and lit from outside. But it appears to be suspended from who-knows-what with pieces of string.

So now you know!

If you are planning to drive from the UK to New York, don't hold your breath!

To make it work, according to some illustrations, you would have to hold your breath for a very long time.

Yet again, one of the benefits of the interwebnet, namely to inform and educate,

More Tunnels

It's not entirely clear who might want to drive from the UK to Iceland, a distance of 2,760 miles taking an estimated 90 hours ...

... OR who would pay to build it!

This picture is, indeed, of a roundabout in a tunnel ...

... but it is on the Faroe Islands, NOT Iceland. These remote Islands are part of Denmark, as yet not sought by a certain American leader!

But there is a YouTube video or "the only roundabout in a tunnel".

Yep, it's in Norway - which isn't Iceland OR The Faroes OR Denmark.

So it isn't unique.

More success for on-line learning!

And A Train Tunnel in London

In a Trump-like move, Mr Khan is always ready to annex new territory. This time he is after the Northern City Line, running  (historically) between Finsbury Park and Moorgate.

It once looked like this ...

... then looked like this!

The line was taken over by British Rail and looked like this ...

... and was later more fully incorporated into the national rail network. It now looks like this.

Currently, the core service is every 30 minutes on each of two routes ...

... to Stevenage via Hatfield and via Hertford.

Apparently Mr Khan will take over the existing trains and give the line a new name and a new colour. He also wants to run trains every 20 minutes on each leg but, on the line via Hatfield, they won't quite fit with the other services, so there frequency will be uneven.

On Line Sales Pitch?

Back To Sanity : Possibly? (1)

Readers may recall that Oliver Bulleid (of the pre-nationalisation Southern Railway) built two four car sets of "double deck" trains.

They were not a success.

K R Models has created an OO version of the set ...

 ... also available in blue as were the prototypes in their declining years.

Now, in a rush for crackpot unrealism, the company has announced a 4DD set in ...

... Network SouthEast colours - which, of course, they never wore! Sadly (even ludicrously) the blue does not match the lower lower deck window height so the whole thing is not only inaccurate but just looks wrong.

How about a set in Great British Railways livery?

No, that would be silly!

And A Peterville Puzzle

What might the above be? Here it is folded ready for adhesive.

More tomorrow.

And this?

Now what could you possibly do with a 4 x 2 Lego brick?

Seems sort of "basic" to fbb.

Again, more tomorrow.

 Next Variety Blog : Mon 12th Jan 

Overground Subway Depot : A P.S.

From This ...

... To This ...

... So How?

The Glasgow and Paisley Joint Railway ran, surprisingly, between Glasgow and Paisley. It was "joint" because it brought together lines between Glasgow and Ayr "joint" with services between Glasgow and Greenock. A branch was opened from Ibrox (originally called Bellahouston) to Govan. 

From a passenger point of view the branch was not a success as these dates show.

You would guess that such a short journey was quicker by tram or Glasgow Underground, despite efforts to drum up passengers with reduced fares.

On this 1922 map, the passenger station is correctly shown as closed!

The unlabelled map from Rail Scot shows that a number of goods links were also part of the line, but the map does not reveal when goods services were withdrawn. (It was in 1960)

Confusingly it shows branches in green and in a lighter green trams running east to west (ish) via Govan (above, top) and ditto along the Paisley Road (above, bottom). 

The link with the main Paisley line is via a   triangular junction.

Note a mid green line curving off to the right on the map above. 

This ran to  the Princes Dock complex ...

... which was the site of the Glasgow Garden Festival of 1988.

The junction is, perhaps, shown more clearly below.

Ibrox station was at the eastern apex of the triangle and is pictured here ...

... and again near the end of its life when DMUs called. It closed for normal service in 1967

Footy fans will know that Ibrox is the home to a well known Glasgow footy team and the Subway (Underground) station bears that name.

It has changed a bit!

It used to be called Copland Road and was much grander than the average Subway station.

The picture belowmshows a football crowd at the "main line" Ibrox station.

It is parked on one of the triangle's curved junction lines, So fbb guesses that it is an excursion bringing "away" passengers to enjoy the footy tussle.

A modern map still shows the shape of those Ibrox station curves.

But it also shows buildings on a track at the southernmost point of the Subway depot. Yes, the depot and a test track were constructed on the solum of the former Glasgow and Paisley Joint Railway branch to Govan.

The above ground Underground d3pots are located roughly on the site of the Govan passenger station, closed in 1921. Here is a Google Earth shot showing the former branch in its entirety ...

... again with the various curves still apparent.

fbb could find no pictures on-line of the original Govan station but a couple of rail tours are pictured at a rather spartan single platform. This is one such.

Herewith the fully detailed Carto plan of depot and its tail.

Apart from the Subway "tail" there is little left of these lines in 2026. 

This line of trees is the western curve of the triangle ...

The site of Ibrox station is just over this bridge parapet ...

... and next right is the western curve of the triangle, not accessible to Streetview.

The curve of a bit of industrial access road, near Ibrox Stadium, is where the siding to Princes dock curved away from the triangle ...

... not much to show for many, many years of Glasgow's transport history!

But at least the Govan branch has happily espoused its on-going role in serving the much loved "Subway".

 Next Variety blog |: Sunday 11th Jan 

Underground, Overground Glasgow Version

It Began With This

It was an fbb puzzle picture showing the crane hoist once used to lift stock off the rails and into the depot of the Glasgow Underground, now usually referred to as "The Subway". When fbb went a courting the future Mrs fbb, whose home was Glasgow, trains did indeed look like this.

Originally, they looked like this, ...

... seen below being admired by Glasgow glitterati, possibly as the service was launched. 

Later the cars had power doors, but, when fbb first started visiting, everything was tired and very gloomy ...

... and smelly!

The depot was on Broomloan Road, just round the corner from Govan Subway station which once looked like this.

In fact, Mrs fbb-to-be was amazed that anyone would willingly want to take a ride! But a youthful fbb was made of sterner stuff and plunged happily into the unwelcoming and toil-worn depths on several occasions.

The depot itself had no rail connection with the gloomy tracks and below we see a car arriving at shed level.

There was a shunting loco to move the stock around the depot ...

... but, as far as fbb knows, no depot tracks were electrified.

Here is the exterior of the depot.

Then along came Stratclyde PTE and a massive upgrade. The most obvious feature of the upgrade was shiny new trains ...

... in an orange livery which the PTE called "Strathclyde Red". Stations were progressively rebuilt and improved with lifts and escalators, brighter lighting, ticket gates and ticket machines, all the paraphernalia of a modern high capacity Metro system - but still built small. There was no upgrade to the diminutive size of the system which remained just a "circle" of double narrow gauge track.

Here, for example, is the present Govan Station.

Some dramatic change, not immediately obvious to the typical passenger were those that happened to the Broomloan depot.

It was rebuilt and connected by rail to the circular below ground tracks!

The connection can be seen curving in a cutting from the top right of the above aerial view.

Today's new trains...

... are longer!

So a new new depot was needed. Here it is with the blue/grey roof next to the old new depot.

The old old depot has been demolished (shame!) although it still materialises c/o Google Streetview.

Here is a simple track plan which explains the principle of the rail connected train park and maintenance shed.

But how, we hear you cry, have the PTE builders and engineers been able to squeeze a new depot with a "tail" into the close packed streets of Govan?

For that fascinating tale, and theo reason for its tail, you will have to "tune in" to tomorrow's blog.

Here is a clue!

More tomorrow.

Meanwhile At Peterville  ...

... something is happening!

But what? It is certainly overground not underrground; but why yellow?

Also more tomorrow - possibly!

Big Numbers 

YouTube creators always seem anxious to get you to "like" their videos and to "subscribe". This is because the author of the video makes money from advertising on their often substantial productions. The more who "like" and "subscribe", the more they will watch and thus the advertisers will record more viewers and pay more money.

The same principle applies to "followers" on a blog.

fbb has never been desirous of corrupting his blogging muse; so will not taint his "art" with commercial considerations. He is also very well aware that the concept of "page reads" can also be corrupted by "bots", voracious electronic gobblers that suck in stuff from the interwebnet and use it to feed the even more voracious data warehouses essential for current non-AI craze.

But, at some time yesterday, fbb's all-time page reads clicked through ..

6,000,000

... six million!

Not at all bad for an old bloke with a strange sense of humour and a collection of OO tank wagons!

 Next Underground Overground blog : Sat 10 Jan