... Which Puzzled fbb!
Pinterest often throws up transport paintings but with no captions whatsoever. But fbb likes to know!
There will be some readers of this blog who will be aghast at fbb's gross incompetence at not identifying a very obvious picture.
But stick with it. The process is fascinating.
So the investigation starts with the loco on the bridge. It looks very Great Western but where are the curved splashers so typical of a 'Western' loco? fbb thinks this is GWR but a slightly unusual GWR. It is not, for example, a Castle ...
... but it may be a County with straight splashers ...
... ... so, assuming that the artist had done his/her art accurately, fbb will draw that conclusion.
The bus destination blind might help. It says "Pier Head via Monument" and is route 14. Monument is a feature of Newcastle upon Tyne, but a maroon bus isn't.
the most famous Pier Head destination is at Liverpool, but the buses there were green.
And it is a trolley bus.
But the internet is truly wonderful and a search revealed a real 14 on that route.
fbb did not recognise the above location. Fortunately the article accompanying the above picture told fbb that he was in Cardiff.
Of course he was, but he never knew (or just forgot?) that Cardiff had single deck trolleys.
The rusty cogwheels of the aged brain began to creak into action.
The Pier Head Building is distinctive ...
... and just peeps in far left of a 14 at the terminus.
This is how it looks now ...
... but it was very different then!
If we can work out how the 14 gets to the Pier Head, we should be able to find the railway bridge.
The only trolley bus map on-line is decidedly unhelpful ...
... so your intrepid blogger has to try one of these.
A likeily route from "Monument" (which monument?) to Pier Head is via Bute Street ...
... which intersects ...
... with a railway at right angles; and not just any railway ...
And here is the bridge today, looking north.
Note that there is a section of the bridge structure that is lower than the near girders ...
... and passing under both sections, we see a pub ...
... with Bute Street wiggling to continue north. Below, a trolleybus on route 16 turns right into Bute Street at that iconic pub.
The pub is The Golden Cross, dating from 1903 when the present building replaced an earlier hostelry.
Bute Street is to the right.
But if we look south from the pub, the bridge looks different.
Because of the angle of view we only see one level of bridgeness.
And that, dear reader, is where our painting places the No 14. The bus is travelling north on its way back to Monument.
QED!
For the record, the current Cardiff Bus service via Bute Street is the 1/2 City Circular.
On Cardiff's excellent bus map we see part of the 1/2 in a pale blue/grey shade.
Plus, for nostalgia freaks, a single deck tram ...
... is pictured trundling north towards the city centre.
But where and what is 'Monument'?
Next Airport blog : Tuesday 21st April
