Surprised At Stourbridge (1)

 I've Been Everywhere, Man ...

... to Dudley bus station when it was partly on a steep slope. And yes, buses did occasionally run away down the hill. 

fbb has also been to Merry Hell shopping centre but long after the Monorail had been exported to Australia. 

Y

The Retail Therapy Temple has had numerous owners who have bought the business out of bankruptcy!

Slightly more delightful was a brief pop in to Stourbridge Interchange ...

... but not just for the buses. It was that building over the wall which was special.

Thence the joy was a ride from Stourbridge Town railway station ...

... up the hill to Stourbridge Junction station on the main line.

It was, and still is, home to the unique Parry People Mover driven by energy stored in a huge underfloor flywheel boosted by a bit of electric at the terminus.

Another destination in the area that is etched painfully into fbb's psyche. Himself and Mrs fbb booked in to the Travelodge at Halesowen.

It was in the central reservation of a dual carriageway!

Nuff said!

So why have these locations in the western reaches of the West Midlands excited the omnibological juices that dribble through the old man's persona?

Because of two "new" bus services, that's why!

National Express West Midlands made the stunning (?) Announcement on-line a few days ago.

West Bromwich Corporation used to run a service 25 ...

... as did Birmingham City Transport.

Midland Red once ran a route 142 to Redditch ...

... seen here with the most awful National Bus Company local branding ever invented!

None of these examples helps us with the National Express "new" services as revealed above.

Because the 25, 142 and 142A are not, in the slightest, new!

More tomorrow.

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

Another Tank Wagon?

After buying two "special edition" Hornby 100 ton tankers recently, fbb realised that he did not have the basic "un-special" model in his collection.

This version (one of many over the years) was unboxed and thus cheap! The walkway across the top if the tank was black plastic and the eagle-eyed can just spot the access ladder at the right hand end. There would be a ladder at the other end.

But when fbb's model arrived, the walkway was grey ...

 

... and of ladders there were none.

Another on-line EBay offer also has a grey walkway and black ladders.

Had fbb bought a pig in a poke? [poke - a Scottish word for a paper bag].

As the model was otherwise in excellent condition, and was a lot cheaper than several portions of chips, fbb decided to buy two replacement ladders.

As this blog is published, these are speeding through the EBay delivery system.

As fbb often says ..

It's All On-Line!

A Collectors' P S

According to the Hornby Collectors web site, this particular wagon was manufactured by Hornby in the UK for just two years,

So fbb's recent purchase is actually at least 43 years old.

But it was home made!

 Next Stourbridge Surprise blog : Thurs 16th July 

158 / 159. Northern P.S.

Ex Northern!

Some Northern Trains Sprinters found their way into the fleets of other operators who crudely bodged a new livery. Above, First managed to afford some sticky-backed plastic below the windows, leaving an obvious 'N' above.

East Midland created a similar mess ...

... but with purples that almost matched. The 'N' is gold rather than white, BUT, is that a Central Trains nested 'C' logo? If so, why?

Very Variety!

With apologies for fraying memory, fraying more than usual in the hot weather, fbb is sure (hesitantly sure!) that the first Northern Livery was blue plus gold star ...

... which was impressively unimoressive. Then along came purple plus 'N' in gold ...

... followed by red with 'N' in grey.

The black squiggles are not an arty livery nicety, but shadows of the girder roof!

fbb can find no documentation for this variant ...

... which obviously did not find favour!

Then a very cluttered and messy squadge appeared ...

... with some units appearing to show a darker purple.

OK, it may haven been a "photographer's variation" as a result of lighting conditions. Or maybe the purple fades quickly in the blistering Northern sun? Or maybe it dissolves in the well documented Mancunian meteorological monsoons.

But now we are simplified blue and white ...

... including the aged sprinters.

Of course, Northern could go retro with dark chocolate and white for North Western routes ...

... as made available to QV! Over the Pennines, it would have to be North Eastern polished teak, simulated of course because of restrictions on the sale of real teak.

Oh, fbb forgot. He hoped retro livery was a very bad dream.

Soon we will all be Great British Railways and all with the same unattractive and cluttered livery.

Hmmm?

Maybe better on a class 700 (above)? But definitely cluttered in the 'artists impression' 800s.

We have whitevletterung, two blues, two reds, one white and a yellow nose. How about a majroty of bright blue, white window surround with a string red border?

Best forgotten on a Northern sprinter was this paint job.

As you can see clearly (?), it celebrated the visit of the "Tour de France" to Northern England. There was also a special livery for Rail 200.

Great Western celebrated Ginsters pasties ...

... a much more worthy cause.

Sprinters P P S!

fbb forgot! Network SouthEast began with a slightly washed-out mid blue around the windows ...

... but soon changed to a richer, darker blue that looked much better.

Narrow & Not Northern

But where?

 Next West Midlands blog : Weds 15th July 

Monday Variety

An fbb Crisis!

Absolutely not; fbb has not flipped his lid and become an avid viewer of 'The Teletubbies". If it had been Balamory or The Magic Roundabout, maybe the old man would be watching.

But that grinning sun was simply too scary for your aged blogger.

This snippet of variety has little to do with public transport, but a lot to do with elderly incompetence.

On Tuesday last, fbb set about setting up the set, ready for sets, so Mrs fbb would not miss something stunning while she was at a Zoom meeting. The keypad ...

... was full of liquid! 

One thing fbb has learned in the 60 or so years he has espoused modern technology is that wet keypads don't work.

And it didn't.

So there was an urgent need for a replacement. One for £2.99 seemed a bargain ...

... but it had differently coloured buttons. So did an "official" Samsung version at £11.95.

Well, three of the buttons looked similar. In the end, fbb went for one at £6.99 (but with £4.50 postage) with all the buttons the same. To get it as quickly as possible fbb arranged for delivery to the Post Office just down the road.

He then set up laptop and spare tv so Mrs could watch her giff-gaff heroes with no interruption of service.

On checking the laptop, fbb noticed a message thus, "do you still want your Samsung keypad?"

In an abject panic and fearful of Mrs fbb's disappointment if he failed, fbb clicked on the equivalent of "Yes, absolutely" to confirm his order. But which order?

Just on the off-chance, he also checked the engulphed electronic equipment which he had laid in the sun on the back fence.

It worked perfectly!

So, by the end of Wednesday, you guessed of course, fbb had THREE keypads for the one telly; and had spent (wasted?) over £20.

Then he splashed neat bleach on a brand new T shirt!

Puzzle Picture

The buses are from Todmorden, a small Pennine community ...

... nestling near the border between Yorkshire and Lancashire.

Todmorden buses were run by a "Joint Omnibus Committee" (JOC), a cunning plan by the municipality to prevent railway bus companies from sucking away the proud Council's passengers.

And their money. 

Decisions were taken jointly by the Council and the train companies, later British Railways. Part of the fleet was owned by BR!

There were THREE other JOCs, namely Sheffield ...

.... Huddersfield ... 

... and Halifax. 

In those three cases the JOC ran country and inter-urbam services.

Exterior Excellence

The original Peterville Quarry line was developed on a baseboard just outside the fbb's back door. But it was always an indoor layout which happened to be 'en plein air'! It survived some 'interesting' meteorological manifestations.

In the August edition of Railway Modeller (RM) we have a "proper" outdoor layout. Such a scheme is often nominally at ground level and using real plants as its scenery.

Here is part of the RM track plan.

It cals itself a "Junction"  but it isn't. It is a large set of loops!

Usually, such layouts eschew huge quantities of detailed and scale scenery merely providing their owners with the delight of watching long trains running through genuine countryside. Visitors can easily ignore the fact that the vegetation is like John Wyndham's triffids!

It's the trains they have come to see!

What intrigues fbb, however, is how many outdoor layout builders use adapted proprietary models - because they are weather proof.

The Airfix/Dapol footbridge often appears. Here is a collage of THREE kits at Daws Heath.

Purists might be picky at the switchback journey required by a 4mm passenger making his way over the construction's full width.

You don't often see one of these on any layout, indoor or out ...

... it is just too big!

The railway gardener has raised his Triang/Hornby suspension bridge on taller pillars ...

... to take the single track over a water feature.

There is no pointwork on the layout, so trains just loop their allocated loop. The only siding is at the main "junction" station.

 Next Sprinter blog (plus?) : Tues 14th July