Saturday Variety

 Busy Bees!

For the record, fbb was speaking today at his Church mens' breakfast (full English plus toast and beverages!!) or will be speaking if you read this blog early, UK time. The old man was a late stand-in to replace a cancellation. The boss of the breakfast club does not publish titles for the attached talks. If he did, fbb was thinking of "The Bible's Buzzin' With Bs"!

Above is one of the headings, to introduce a section of some of the "revelations" your blogger has been "God given" over the years; ideas which have helped him understand and respect the whole of the Bible.

The original Blonde Bombshell was, of course, film actress Jean Harlow ...

.. who has litle to offer in Biblical study or understanding.

But in looking at the reliability and usefulness of a good up-to-date Bible "version",  fbb was reminded of this:-

It was given to fbb's great grandmother as thanks for the use of her room for a Women's Christian Meeting.

There must be something in the genes (not Miss Harlow's Jeans!) as, nearly 140 years later, the fbbs are still using their home for Christian meetings.

Cambridge To Aberdeen By Stagecoach?

Or, it's rubbish on the internet!

Back at the beginning of May (2025) a new bus service commenced between Edinburgh Airport and St Andrews. It was numbered 787 and ran every hour.

And it still does.

Some on-line hack has only just noticed!

You are two and a half months late with your up-to-date news item,  pal!

That's bad enough, but the article tells is that the operator is Stagecoach East.

About Stagecoach East

We're Stagecoach East and we provide local bus services in Bedford, Cambridge, Huntingdon and Peterborough.

You probably know us as the local bus company but, fun fact, we're one of the largest bus operators in the UK. Since 1980, we're run express and local bus services across the country and we continue to play an important role in helping people access work, education, health, shopping and leisure.

But not, fbb suspects, as far as St Andrews.

The Hack in question actually meant Stagecoach East Scotland. That's an easy mistake to make, especially if you don't quite know where St Andrews is!

Eine Neue Spielzeugeisenbahn

Above is a Siemens Vectron class 193 of DB, Deutsche Bahn. It is one of DBs top notch freight locos powered by overhead electricity.

Does it have a driver?

Maybe not in the future.

This is what the article says.

So a very large Spielzeugeisenbahn! (Toy train!)

Presumably somebody will have to do a good chunk of clever computer stuff to make its driverless journey safe; A big freight train could do a lot of damage if it goes ape.

The article suggests that the loco is for "testing purposes". Lets hope they get the tests right. If they don't ...

Scantily Clad?

It it does go ape, there could be a lot more of these.

Or, it's rubbish on the internet!

Collections of videos showing trains mowing down other motor vehicles are two-a-penny on YouTube. The odd thing is that the "teaser" heading pictures all show at least one young lady in revealing and/or tempting scanty attire.

Here's another one.

So we assume that the lady in the pelmet has just leapt from the car. Or maybe she was just passing?

It is odd that such "beauties" are always around in time to experience the forthcoming altercation.

But it is on-line so it must be right!

In case you are concerned that fbb is some sort of "dirty old man", please note that he has no interest in scantily clad young ladies other than observing their ludicrous presence as harbingers of railway accidents.

Monetary Modelling Madness

Another misleading piece of publicity ...

...which suggests new coaches are available from Accurascale.

Not quite right. The vehicles concerned are a second manufacturing run of British Rail Mark 2b and Mark 2c OO scale passenger carriages.

They are the ones with the Mark 2 bodyshell but witho

without aircon, hence, opening top bits in the windows.

But, YIKES, a coach will cost £80. OUCHest!

But for a small amount more, you could move up to O gauge, neary four times bigger in volume than OO. 

Here is a special offer from Rails ...

... just £20 more than their diminutive newly produced "brothers". And, yes, fbb knows that the special offer is for selelcted Mark 1 vehicles; but who cares at that price?

 Next Variety blog : Sunday 20 July 

fbb, The Magenta Presenter! (4)

 They Foresee Extra For C ...

But where, actually?

... and where's that?

... Clever You See!

It all started with the branch from St Lazare to Auteuil (GREEN on the map extract above). This was eventually incorporated into the Petit Ceinture railway. 

In order to serve the big 1900 exhibition at Champ de Mars (where sits M Eiffel's famous thingy), a branch was built from Passy to cross the Seine on the Pont de Rouelle.

Here we see the bridge under construction next to an older wooden crossing.

The crossing is magnificent, built in two main sections viewed from the banks of the river on the narrow Isle de Cygnes.

The southern section curves to join the tracks on the southern bank.

This branch off a branch carried huge numbers to the exhibition ...

... but by 1924 better Metro and the roundabout route from St Lazare  meant the line was closed.

Then along comes the RER lune C with a master plan.

1. Reinstate the line from Tour Eiffel to near Passy

2. Use a chunk of the old PC line as far as Periere Levallois

3. Build a tunnel from Periere Levallois ...

... (above bottom left; YELLOW line), waving goodbye to the PC route ...

... and continuing to St Ouen (below upper right).

4. Take over the former branch to Ermont Eaubonne.

5. Extend the service to Pontoise.

And, hey presto, yet another line to join RER C which opened in 1988!

Just In Case 

You may be wondering how a Parisian or a Tourist might unravel the complexities of the RER. Each train carries a four letter headcode, some of which spell real words.

Above is NORA and below is MICK.

Confused.com? But the helpful news is that the codes appear on departure screens ...

... and in printed timetables.

Once you get used to it, it is a helpful system -  IF you can read the letters!

For a visitor it is probably better than wrestling with French spelling and some ludicrously long station names. Some are so long they would never be legible on the front of a train!

PLEASE NOTE

Yesterday's lengthy eye test revealed no real change since Januaty 2025. Next check in six months. Praise God for the stability.

   Next Variety blog : Sat 19 July 

fbb, The Magenta Presenter! (3)

Yellow, Red, Green, Magenta

We need, perhaps, to create some context as we continue to explore Porte Maillot and the extension of RER line E. So it was that the second chunk of rail infrastructure reached Porte Maillot in 1900 in the fom of YELLOW Metro Line 1.

Maybe we should do a bit better at orientating ourselves. 

If you look East from Potte Maillot, you can espy the Arc de Triomphe at Etoile station.

Tuning through 180 degrees you are looking towards La Defense.

Just about visible behind a tree is the Grande Arche ...

... offering a "reflection" of archways, new and old.

Porte Maillot was the terminus of Metro 1 with trains turning via a loop with arrival and departure platforms on said loop. The Carto map explains.

The new station, all underground, built with sidings and loops for terminating trains, was to be opene9d in connection with the extension of the line to Pont de Neuilly, a bridge over the Seine.

Note that RER line C is also YELLOW, but a slightly lighter shade, more primrose than buttercup!

But there was a snag. The existing Metro line 1 was not deep enough to pass under RER line C, a feat it needed to achieve to get to its new station at Pont de Neuilly. 

Massive excavation was needed ...

... which significantly delayed the opening. The banks of the river were eventually reached in 1937, four years after the extension was mooted.

The aim was ultimately to reach La Defense, developed as the "Docklands" of Paris, a huge new business centre. 

This involved widening the Pont de Neuilly ...

... to fit line 1 down the middle!

Both views look east towards the Arc de Triomph.

Back to our chosen interchange.

The next arrival wasn't! In 1970 one of the RED bits that became R E R line A passed by. It doesn't stop at Porte Maillot; note no white blob in the red line in the above diagram extract.

The next arrival was GREEN tram, T3b.

The T3b meets up woth the T3a at Porte de Vincennes, but there is no through running. The trams replaces the celebrated Petit Ceinture (PC) bus route which, in turn replaced the train service of the same name.

The PC bus has been around for a long time ...

... although latterly it, like the tram, was split into more manageable chunks. The present PC, which fills the gap in the trams ...

... carries the route number PC1 although there is now no PC2 or PC3 It terminates at Porte Maillot providing an overlap with tran T3b.

These geographically accurate maps can be a challenge - they certainly were for whoever had to draw them - but they do give the whole picture.

The PC terminates sort of where the gates to the Bois de Boulogne once were!

And the trams stop close to the new "Palais de Congres" building.

Everything Is Underground ...

... and always has been.

Once with Hector Guimard entrances, the various stairs and escalators are now more mundanely signposted ...

... but memories of the old still persist.

The final arrival at Porte Maillot is RER line E (coloured a darkish version of magenta). Its platforms are just magnificent ... 

... as are those at La Defense. Sadly there is no wow-factor building at ground level. Access is, however, still available via the historic RER line C building.

Now here's a question. How many entrances to trains at Porte Maillot might there be? 

There is a published map here reduced to a level of unreadability.

A closer search reveals TEN (but that includes the tram which isn't underground). Here are FOUR ...

,,, then FOUR inc the tram ...

... and TWO more!

And the buses all have Stop specific labels.

Is anywhere in the UK so well informed?

Please Note

Today fbb has a routine six month eye inspection to chart the progress of his Macular Degeneration (so far degeneration is paused!). A brief infill blog may be posted tomorrow too allow the eyeballs to recover from the eye drops! plus the weirdness of the other various tests which involve bright lights, mensuration by prodding and loads more.

 Next (possible) infill blog : Fri 18 July