Having a Break ...

 ... but Not a Kit-Kat ...

... even though Nestlé have come up with a revolutionary new outer wrapper made of ...

... paper! Maybe they have forgotten the rain forests?

Anyway, after a ridiculously busy few days, fbb is "taking it easy" and relaxing in his comfy armchair complete with pipe and slippers with bobbles! 

Actually fbb has never smoked a pipe, never smokes anything, and rarely wears slippers, but you get the idea. But he has cobbled together a less than homogeneous blog!

The Way We Were

Can you identify these old photographs?

1. A former terminus

2. A former now-rebuilt through station 

3. A former bus station

4. And electrified terminus

5. A London terminus with through platforms

6. A quiet corner of the East Midlands

 

7. A 'kit bashed' model, but whose kit of what

8. A trolleybus, but where

Answers to follow.

Let Us Now Praise Famous Men

A blue plaque for the creator of Thomas the Tank Engine and fbb's favourite character ...

... The Fat Controller.

P.S. More for Wilbert

A smaller model company, Buggleskelly Station, has produced a tribute wagon, in N gauge ...

... and OO gauge ...

... with TT120 to follow next year. fbb thinks the Rev would be embarrassed to be lauded in all these ways, but quietly pleased at the same time.

 And The Spectator Agrees

If the text is too small, please be assured that The Spectator feels the same way about the new livery as fbb does.The author ends with an hilarious joke (well, hilarious for The Spectator}. "It would have been better if it was not so much on time as cancelled altogether"!

Chortle, chortle?

It Pays To Shop Around ...

... for an O gauge tank wagon on EBay.

That's  almost £19 ...

... or just over £68 for what appears to be an identical model.

fbb does not collect O gauge; too big and usually too expensive!

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 K aleidoscope of  K ings

Quirky Answer : keep reading and you will find it.

God's people were ruled by Kings from 1025 BC to 586 BC and it was horrendously complicated. 

Don't try to understand it - it takes years of academic effort to even begin to follow it!

The Kingdom split apart, the Northern bit was obliterated by the Assyrians and, later, the Southern bit was destroyed by the Babylonians. The concept of Kings never worked for long, mostly it was a disaster. That much had been prophesied by a pre-king, the "Judge" Samuel.

The very first King, Saul started off well but bodged it.

He couldn't bothered to wait for the official celebrant at a festival so, arrogantly, offered the sacrifice himself. This was blasphemy back in the day and for his rejection off God, he was deposed. He never was a fully paid-up King for the whole nation.

Next came David, something of a hero in the Bible. He was appointed by big cheese Samuel as inspired by God's Guidance.

But the LORD said to Samuel, “Pay no attention to how tall and handsome he is. I have rejected him, because I do not judge as people judge. They look at the outward appearance, but I look at the heart.”

Each of Jesse's sons failed the Samuel test.

Then Samuel asked him, “Have you any more sons?”

Jesse answered, “There is still the youngest, but he is out taking care of the sheep.”

So Jesse sent for him. He was a handsome, healthy young man (as they all were), BUT ...

Quirky Answer coming up!

... his eyes sparkled. 

The LORD said to Samuel, “This is the one — anoint him!”

But even the hero David blotted his copy book big time with Bathsehba ...

... and by engineering the death of her husband. Their son was Solomon who succeeded him as king, famous for his three Ws; his Wisdom, his Wealth and his Worship at his new temple.

But it seems that his wealth went to his head, he married foreign wives and instituted pagan worship at their behest.

Morality declined, his son was weak and thus it was that the Kingdom split in two and decline was inevitable thereafter. There were a handful of good and God-fearing Kings thus things were settled and stable - but not many and not for long.

We see God's chosen people, warts and all - and there were plenty of warts.

But, without God, without the Jesus of CHRISTmas, a fractured society seems inevitable.

How many of our present political leaders acknowledge the authority of God in any way?

Q E D

Quirky Question : which English poet reports on the obliteration of the biblical  Northern Kingdom?

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 Next Book Review blog : Fri 12th December 

Happiness of Heritage

A chum from the  isle of Wight occasionally sends fbb a couple of back issues of the above magazine.

The magazine specialises in stunning photography, of course of the UKs preserved heritage lines. The best way to appreciate the beauty of the pictures is to buy the magazine for yourself!

Below, we have just a selection of pictures from the two editions of which the above are the front covers.

Here we have Locomotion plus train trundling along a bit of the Stockton and Darlington Railway (S & D R), as part if the 200th shindig; and recreating something of its noble historic importance,

But there is another S & D R!

Above is a USA class shunter operating on a short section of the much loved and much missed Somerset and Dorset Railway which ran from Bath to Bournemouth.

Some long distance shots are very evocative if the original British Railways. as here with a blue loco with its train of "blood and custard" coaches.

Blue was not a colour which survived very long; everything BR was eventually green for express locos and black for everything else,

The magzine seems to specialise in "atmospheric" shots at dusk or at night as here in the glow of sunset.

The "shot in the dark" pictures can be particularly stunning ...

... where, for example, a simple sign becomes the highlight of a gloomy night time view.

Because fbb's model railway is small and based on a fictitious Heritage line, the old man enjoys pictures of industrial tank engines. Most of these ended up in a dirt mud colour as no one was unduly concerned about good looks in a busy coal or steel yard!

But some are now kept cleaner than they once were ...

... and in some rich and joyous colours!

fbb is looking our for a cheapo red or bright yellow tank engine for Peterville.

Often the magazine features unusual artifacts from the distant past, astoundingly before the internet!

How did they manage without their laptops? Probably things were done a lot better than they are today but requiring far more staff!

Ir is not just engines that feature in this magazine; there are often items about those who do the maintenance and refurbishing. Many heritage vehicles need the skills of a "proper" sign writer ...

... with fbb's somewhat shaky elderly hands precluding him from any likely success. Straight lines in paint were never fbb's forte even in his more youthful modelling days.

Another feature of this magazine, albeit second place to trains, is pictures of buildings restored to their formal glory. This, for example, is Richmond (upon Thames) station as was ...

... and as now with its Art Deco frontage sympathetically refettled and lit to enhance its architectural qualities.

fbb does wonder what Great British Railways (GBR) corporate identity will do to some of these heritage structures.

This blog was assembled on the very day that GBR revealed its new livery to an unsuspecting public.

Yesterday, fbb and Mrs were enjoying a pre-Christmas nosh with Isle of Wight Alan and his Mrs. Discussion turned briefly to the new livery announcement and fbb was in a minority of one. The tripartite majority thought the paint scheme was anything from OK to very good. 

fbb thought it was poor. In the above picture it looked dark and dreary, but other views were brighter. You might guess that below was computer generated .,..

... whilst other shots were an inferior reality? Possibly!

One article also showed a mock-up of footage on the fone ...

... although its wasn't at all clear exactly what we were actually looking at.

The above zappy full train scheme might work on a sleek and swish 800 class, but how will it look on multi door suburban stock?

Messy?

fbb was once told by a livery designer that more than three colours is simply too much. Including the yellow front end, fbb counts SIX plus a black underbelly.

Compare this will one of the pictures above.

THREE!

Q.E.D.

P.S. Thanks, Vic, f9r sending the magazines!

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 J ericho and  J eopardy

Quirky Answer : keep reading and you will find it.

The Hebrews (or should be now call them Israelites?) have staggered, literally, morally and politically from Goshen to Cannan under Divine instruction to occupy The Promised Land. After a journey of 40 years and with the death of Moses, it was ever unlikely that they could just walk in and take over.

Remember, in passing, that "Cannan" was not a "nation" as we would know it today, but a higgledy piggledy collection of small fortified towns (called 'cities' in the Bible) and desert dwellers with no unifying administrative structure.

The green bit is where the Egypt escapees settled with some resistance from the locals.

Modern thinking might picture this as an invasion akin to that of a certain Mr Putin but this is to misunderstand the diffuse situation in Canaan.

But there was some resistance to the arrival of this amorphous band of former Egyptian slaves. 

Jericho was a problem. It was a small walled town set on a mound that hid the remnants of earlier settlements.

Quirky Answer : Joshua's gang marched round the settlement once a day for six days and seven times on the seventh day. They marched round 13 times. And they made a lot of noise, with shouting and trumpet blast.

And the walls fell down. To understand what this means, here is a short video.

The message of Jericho is stark. When the Israelites were obeying God, spiritually and morally, God was gracious enough to help them - even if the odds ere very much against them.

The Jesus of CHRISTmas said, "trust me, do things my way and I will be with you always" .

Seems simple enough?

Health Warning!

Most drawings of the Biblical Jericho are hopelessly inaccurate.

The Biblical Jericho was probably not much bigger that Caernarfon Castle ...

... without the car p[ark but less well built and packed tight with residences. Its collapse was still a miracle because the "marching band" was quite a small gang and had no weapons.

And the walls fell down!

Quirky Question : Accord8ng to the Bible, what particular qualities guided Samuel when he appointed David as King of the emerging nation?

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 Next bus/train blog : Thurs 11th December