Tuesday Variety

 William Morris ...

... a k a Lord Nuffield, was the founder of Morris Motors and the creator of the iconic Morris Minor car. He secured a contract to supply the van version to the Post Office, which bought hundreds; either in Royal Mail red ...

... or the more sombre Post Office Telephones dark green.

For parcels work and bulkier transport, he supplied the equally distinctive 'J' series vans.

This was a popular buy for many businesses, small and large.

Now, a start up company has launched a 2026 version of the Morris J, due to go into production next year.

And what a beauty it is!

There are lots of pictures of the product on-line, most of which are likely to be 'renders' ...

... like these two alternative body styles.

Was this one really parked outside the Sennedd, Cardiff.

Google reckons the price will be £60,000, which suggests that mass sales to BT Openreach are unlikely!

A niche market beckons, but the new 'J' is electric!

Of course, Dinky made the original in a scale close to 'O' gauge.

The Capstan version is on offer at EBay for ...

... £165!

For the less financially well-blessed, Oxford Diecast does an 'OO' version at about £9.

Sweet!

On The Set Of Dr Who?

U.N.I.T. Headquarters?

A Dalek breeding ground?

A T.A.R.D.I.S. docking station?

A Laser Missile Launch Pad?

Actually we are in Riyadh ...

... the capital city of Saudi Arabia.

fbb is most definitely NOT going to undertake a detailed blog. His brain us still recovering from Wuhan!

But the 'Dr Who' pictures are all infrastructure on the Riyadh Metro.

Rolling stock is colour coded to match; as below with a Line 3 train.

Or you could have blue for Line 1.

The route map (extract only shown) ...

... also shows "Community" bus services as narrow lines. fbb guesses "community" is akin to "municipal".

This is captioned "Western" station.

It consists of a huge cathedral-like booking hall ...

... a selection of wide-arched roof structures ...

... and a tiny-looking two track metro line running through the middle!

Eat you heart out, Elizabeth Line line!

All Our Yesterdays?

This map popped into fbb's ambit. It is of the railways of East Anglia in "The Good Old Days"

How much is left today?

Wasn't Technology Wonderful?

Two pieces if old technology side by side.

We see the Newport (Wales) Transporter Bridge ...

... and P. S. Waverley ....

... sharing the murky waters of the River Usk.

Both are relics of a bygone age; but both still available to remind us of the quality and survivability of the engineering.

Glorious!

Remember This?

Above is a computer modified picture of a class 800 in Great British Railways livery, a unit which does not exist.

What did exist at the launch at London Bridge station was a Hornby model.

Now Hornby has announced a five car set for modellers to buy.

The set us in the "Railroad" range and is a basic model with no interior detail. But it looks the part whizzing around a tail-chaser layout.

By today's terrifying price standards, that has to be good value at £150.

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

The squeamish or hospital phobic may now read this diary with impunity! 

EIGHT DAYS INSIDE 

(Wednesday 3rd/Thursday 4th June)

Blood numbers were going in the right direction with no signs of further leaks, so fbb was allowed to escape on the Thursday.

The ordeal was over and, full of praise for the NHS, fbb was handed over to the inestimable care of his wonderful wife.

Bur the astounding care in the Everlasting Arms if an Almighty God, plus the Peace of God which is truly beyond human understanding, sits like a comfort blanket surrounding the work and commitment if the medical professionals.

Look to the mountains;

where will your help come from?

Your help will come from the Lord,

who made heaven and earth.

He will not let you fall;

your protector is always awake.

The protector of Israel

never dozes or sleeps.

The Lord will guard you;

he is by your side to protect you.

The sun will not hurt you during the day

nor the moon during the night.

The Lord will protect you from all danger;

he will keep you safe.

He will protect you as you come and go

now and for ever.

PSALM 121

Monday Variety

Expected Expedition Expunged!

Saturday 13th June was planned as a big "lads day out". Nos 1 and 3 sons were due to meet their beloved papa 'up Lunnun Town' and enjoy some ferroequinological exploration.

There would be a ride on the genuinely new tunnel bits of the Elizabeth Line line (above); a trip to Barking Riverside ...

... a quick look at the new bits of Bank station ...

... and the Northern Line to Battersea Power Station station.

The trip would be enhanced by a lavish lunch in a "greasy spoon" caff at somewhere like Ilford!

This "star" trek would doubtless have furnished material for several stunningly stimulating (yawn?) blog posts.

Alas the dark deeds of dusky Melena have promoted a postponement!

Blame her (!) for any inadequacies in this week's pertinent and patronising prognostications.

Irrelevant Internet Idiocy

fbb is always fascinated by the garbage that appears on-line purporting to be genuine "information".

Consider this ...

... a picture with everything wrong that could be wrong. In a post about 'unusual loads' the above does not appear anywhere in the video!

Or this ...

... which is a fine example of a very non natural fabricated non wonder of the world with no access for people or vehicles and no source of liquid to water the falls.

And in China?

It is hard to understand why even a Chinese dictator should want to build his road bridge access through a tower block.

It is not entirely clear how traffic in the opposite direction crosses the unspecified abyss. Perhaps the Dictatorship deems that traffic runs in opposite directions on successive days. 

Yes that makes sense!

It is somewhat less likely that the State authorities would wish to add a floating monorail to the infrastructure.

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

Brennan Monorail Badly Misleading

It actually looked like this.

Passengers were loaded in the open 'truck' at the rear. The front 'cab' accommodated a driver and two gurt big gyroscopes which, spookily, kept the thing upright. 

Needless to say, in the fake coloured picture above, there is no room for the even more gurt big gyroscopes needed to prevent it from crashing into the valley below with 100% fatalities!

A practical consideration for series production might have been some seats ...

... and, possibly, side walls to stop customers falling off.

A young fbb had a gyroscope.

Despite his dad's determined efforts, the toy spinned wildly, erratically and briefly before whirling dejectedly on to its side. It never scoped any gyros.

Presumably Brennan did not have that problem!

Here We Go Again ...

It was going to be an Underground ...

BARTON HILL TO BE CHOSEN

BY BRISTOL CITY COUNCIL FOR

NEW UNDERGROUND RAILWAY

Bristol City Council have just published a consultative report that the Barton Hill area will be the first part of the city to have the new high speed underground railway.

There will be a northern line running from Lawrence Hill station to Marsh Lane Bridge and a circular line from Temple Meads Station to the Netham.

.... ot maybe light rail ...

... but more likely purple trams!

In the end, Bristol got a rather pathetic guided busway ...

... which can't guide the buses round the corners!

So, are trams back on the agenda?

Possibly?

But probably not?

The big unanswered question is, as ever, who's got the money?

Rachel's chums at H M Treasury (exemplar pictured above) never seem to have much to spare!

Talking Of Money ...

The Guardian thinks PM-to-be (possibly) Andy will be ready to spend lots!

He has certainly had some practice in Manchester at spending other people's money (that's yours and mine kindly given via our generous tax payments) to make very few changes to Public Transport.

Perhaps he will paint his Electricity and Gas vans yellow?

Same Problem In Herts

Vast?

One route with some diversiinary options!

This is not the first time we have heard of these plans.

Hertfordshire County council has unveiled its vision for a trackless tram network that would through the county and into Essex and drastically cut the travel time to less than an hour. A trackless tram is essentially an electric bus that has the appearance of a tram. It has been dubbed the Hertfordshire Essex Rapid Transit (HERT) and officials say it’s the ‘transport system of the future’. 

And the route(s) ...

... which looks suspiciously like a chunk of the current Arriva/Green Line 724.

So what is proposed?

Like London’s tube network, councillors want to create a system where services are frequent enough that passengers can ‘just turn up’ and don’t have to worry about a schedule. The ambition would be for services to run along the main spine of the HERT every 10 minutes. 

Traditionally the 724 ran every 30 minutes, so to increase it to every 10 is, indeed, something of an "aspiration".

It is not clear how the system would dramatically improve the running time, "drastically reducing it to ine hour". There would be huge infrastructure costs.

Will it ever happen?

Answers in a postcard, please, to the usual address.

Coming tomorrow ...

Who remembers one of those?

More Variety tomorrow.

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

The squeamish or hospital phobic may now read this diary with caution! Especially if they don't see eye to eye with blood.

EIGHT DAYS INSIDE 

(Monday 1st/Tuesday 2nd June)

With Melena almost defeated, the task was now to get fbb's discombobulated bodily functions to make some addition blood cells, several billion were needed.

The body seemed to be making a good effort but, to provide a medical "jump start", a pouch if blood was duly transfused on Monday ...

... and "iron" on Tuesday.

The fluids looked much the same!

Then it was more "wait and see".

Wikipedia suggests that there are "between 20 and 30 trilliion red blood cells" in the human body at any one time!