fbb's Summer Advebtures

No 1A : Potter On To Otterton

Like Julian, Ann, Dick, their cousin George(ina) and Timmy (the dog), fbb has been on a summer adventure. As adventures go, it was rather feeble, but appropriate as your aged blogger has suffered from a touch of the feebles as he recovers from his gastric event of many weeks ago.

As an aside, a first edition of the above book could cost you £500!

So, accompanied by Mrs fbb, you recuperating reporter is off to Otterton Mill.

It was a top deck seat on Stagecoach's finest ...

... which left Seaton Underfleet on time at 1004.

The route skirts the town centre ...

... before making its way via Harepath Road to join the main A3052 on the western edge of Colyford.

There is very little intermediate traffic until Sidford is reached. This community grew up around a ford across the River Sid (surprise!). It is now a large residential area contiguous with Sidmouth ...

... but does retain something of its ancient character if you keep your architectural eyes open.

You would guess that the pub is old, standing guard at the village crossroads.

We turn left at the pub and traffic lights to drop down to Sidmouth.

Sidmouth spread inland in Victorian times which leaves the remains of a small 'suburban' shopping centre now reduced to a very few trading premises and a lot converted into residential use.

We approach the town centre passing the splendid independent Radway Cinema ...

... before turning right just short of the main shopping street ...

... still with a smattering of independent traders including a bookshop and an excellent green grocer's. The White Horse chippy (sit in or take away) is down there, occasional suppliers of a pensioners' nosh to the fbbs.

Once again, there are plenty of examples of old Sidmouth and posh Sidmouth to observe.

Woodlands is appropriately ancient!

We will meet Walt again soon.

The fbbs alighted at the Sidmouth Triangle 'terminus' where much was happening.

A Stagecoach bus was busted ...

... with man and van in attendance. The engine turned over happily on the starter motor but without that essential roar of combustion. It sounded like a lack of fuel. The van man (was he called Dan?) got it started - eventually -  and its driver took her sickly steed back to Exeter. fbb hopes she got there!

It was Sidmouth Folk Fortnight so everywhere was very busy. fbb's 9A was jam packed with standing pax and only a couple of seats free upstairs. 

They had alighted pre Sidford at the Donkey Sanctuary.

There was a wait for the 157 due at 1212 ...

... which was late and busy. It is depressing when pesky passengers, wanting to get on or even get off are so inconsiderate as to impede accurate time keeping.

This gave fbb a chance to observe players on the Putting Brown ...

... to spot the arboreal dinosaur in the little oasis opposite ...

... listen to an instrumental combo performing for "folk" folk nearby - and watch the special Park'n'Ride Festival buses come (busy) and go (usually empty).

The 157 arrived ten late and left even later as Ms driver availed herself of the adjacent 'facilities'.

The eagle-eyed amongst our readers may have spotted that fbb's action shots of the journey were all taken fron top deck, near the front. This is because it was practicable for the arthritic one to heave his ancient bulk upstairs at Seaton and gently negotiate the the ancient bulk's descent at Sidmouth without delaying the journey.

Such temporal excess would not be available at Otterton, so fbb and Mrs remained on the bottom shelf of a Stagecoach decker in the now abandoned motorway maintenance livery..

The new town on the pebble ford ...

... offers a pleasant main street, preceded by where the railway station isn't.

Diesel units ...

... replaced steam on the quiet run to Exmouth.

Notably, south of the A3052 was the Newton Poppleford Camping Coach.

As a child, your author tried to persuade mum and dad to book the camping coach for a subsequent Devon holiday. They didn't.

The line closed in 1967 and fbb well remembers the camping coach from passing by in approx 1955.

The village has plenty of memories of its bucolic past including these properties near the turn off for Budleigh Salterton.

And so to Colaton Raleigh. 

It's that Walt again; although the sainted Wikipedia has nothing to say about any genuine links between the village and its globe-trotting namesake. 

Our bus passes the driveway of Bicton House ...

... grand home of an Agricultural College; and Bicton Park ...

... home to Botanical Gardens and a splendid miniature railway.

Sadly, it is powered by an internal combustion engine, not steam, but offers a pleasant trundle amongst terraces and trees.

And so to Otterton Mill ...

... where fbb has a cautionary tale to tell!

More tomorrow.

 Next Otter blog : Tuesday 11th August  

Sunday Variety

More Queen Marys

As you might imagine, the Southdown ‘Queen Marys’ were large machines for their day. Seating sixty-nine people in thirty feet of bus, they were substantially larger than anything Brighton (or most of Sussex) had seen on their roads before. In particular, they contrasted with the much smaller red and cream rear-entrance double-deckers run in the Brighton area by Brighton Corporation Transport, and the Brighton Hove and District Omnibus Company. While nowadays all three operators have been absorbed into the Brighton and Hove Bus and Coach Company, then they operated as separate entities – largely coordinated rather than competing!

"All three operators" is slightly misleading. Most of Southdown passed to Stagecoach, NOT Brighton and Hove although there was some rationalisation over the years,

But here are two more of the Sussex Giants.

OK Motor Services was a much respected independent operator based in Bishop Aucklamd, County Durham.

The company was taken over by GoAhead and the OK brand was discontinued. It re-appeared briefly in 2012 for an experimental service ...

... which was not particularly successful.

Model 'Queen Marys" have been produced for OO scale in the Corgi Original Omnibus range ...

... and for N scale by Oxford Diecast.

Oxford's own picture is poor, but a collector has posted hus assemblage of models in various guises ...

... including a non-fuzzy close-up of the OK bus.

Below is Boroline's version full size.

A Good Idea Fot Andy?

Here is more from the Metro sound bite department.

It is not clear how thus will be "policed". Surely there will be a temptation to get the car out if needs must?

A Big Challenge

This item appeared on line.

Here is a bit more.

A man has travelled from Cornwall to the Isle of Lewis to make 52 calls from a rural telephone box in order to keep it in service.

William Arnold, who works as an artist and photographer, took the 1700-mile (2,735km) round trip to visit the rare phone box in Einacleit as part of a project to preserve phone lines in rural communities.

Ofcom guidelines state a minimum of 52 calls have to be made from a phone box each year in order for it to remain operational.

"The project is slightly ridiculous and comedic," said William. "But there is also a serious point about how we communicate with each other and how these phone boxes are often vital rural lifelines."

The 43-year-old has been working to save phone boxes since 2022.

"It all started on the Isle of Lewis when I was working on a photographic project and I wanted to call my partner who was staying back at the house to say I was going to be back late," he said.

"My mobile phone battery was nearly dead and I came across this pristine looking phone box that had the old yellow British Telecom branding from the 1980s.

"There was a phone in there and I was really excited because I hadn't used a phone box for years. But when I picked up the receiver, the line was dead and I was so disappointed."

And here is the phone box!

It certainly looks "different".

Whilst fbb would not contemplate a trip to Lewis just to use a phone box (the collector of over 100 OO gauge tank wagons would never do anything so eclectic and plain potty) the challenge to do it in theory is irresistible.

The complexities of such a project are beyond the scope of a Sunday Variety blog, but some time next week, the thrown-down gauntlet will be picked up.

Mr Arnold's web site has plenty of examples of his arty snapshots, but he does seem quite keen on phone boxes!

Keep Your Legs Crossed

A Lumo spokesperson said: "We have been experiencing some issues with the reliability of some of our toilet facilities onboard our West Coast services."

They added that they were working closely with rail company Alstom, which refurbished the carriages used by Lumo, to "rectify the issue".

An Alstom spokesperson said: "We recognise that this falls short of the standard fare-paying passengers should expect, particularly on long-distance services.

"Working closely with Lumo, we are reviewing the entire fleet position to reduce the risk of repeat failures, improve overnight servicing checks, and ensure toilet availability is restored and maintained wherever possible on the operator's West Coast route."

The 06:11 departure from London Euston on Friday, which was affected, ran with a 58-minute delay and terminated at Motherwell, North Lanarkshire.

Passengers were told their tickets would be accepted on ScotRail services.

The trains are refurbished Voyagers which are famous for smelly toilets. The tanks are not big enough to hold the effluent where the affluent are making long journeys. When the tanks are full the doors lock but bladder and bowels do not!

Lumo's loo lunacy seems more basic, with a total inability to cater for some basic needs.

Reports suggest that trains have been stopping for extra time at stations to allow desperate passengers to evacuate to evacuate; Or, in the words of the song, "skip to the loo, my darlin'".

Lumo train, can't use the loo

Lumo train, can't use the loo

Lumo train, can't use the loo

Rush to the loo my darlin'

Off to Stirling,

What'll I do?

Insides whirling,

What'll I do?

Angry words hurling

What'll I do?

Skip to the loo at Preston!

Lumo train, can't use the loo

Lumo train, can't use the loo

Lumo train, can't use the loo

Rush to the loo my darlin'

Here's another one

Busier too

Here's another one

Busier too

Heres another one

Busier too

Skip to the loo in Carlisle!

Lumo train, can't use the loo

Lumo train, can't use the loo

Lumo train, can't use the loo

Rush to the loo my darlin'

Got to Stirling

Where's the loo?

Got to Stirling

Where's the loo?

Got to Stirling

Where's the loo?

Loos are closed my darlin'

Lumo train, can't use the loo,

Lumo service, 'load of poo';

We will tell you what to do -

Don't use Lumo darlin'

Thanks to this blog's "Poet In Residence" for his veritable visionary versification!

A Really Good Idea

But not new, just re new!

Well done Ipswich.

Just Not fbb's Colour

But it is yet another useful (?) set of instructions on-line. 

When fbb was nobbut a lad, at infant/junior school (there were only two classes) he had a go at cotton reel knitting a k a French knitting.

It's a sort of crochet for ham-fisted beginners. You then sew the knitted length into useful (?) things like table mats. fbb only manged a short worm "to continue at home". He didn't.

Maybe he should take it up again and start "knitting" foliage for the model railway?

The worm could become OO gauge topiary.

 A Simple Adventure blog : Monday 10 Aug