Mini-Swirzerland - Part 3

So What's The Plan?

As with so many of these reports, it's aims are far reaching, noble, and, of course, absolutely superb for the environment. Surely they will also be a contributor to increased social mobility and the revitalisation of the countryside.

fbb once worked for a boss whose opinion was that any proposal that filled more than one side of an A4 sheet of paper was a waste of time as no one would ever read it. fbb thinks those strictures did not apply to reports that the boss himself wrote!

The mini-Switzerland proposal for bus services in the Hope Valley is packed full with noble aims ...

... ideas which are hardly revolutionary.

But the "concepts" flow thick and fast. (click on the panels for an enlargement).

Brilliant.

Odd that nobody has thought of those ideas before!

If more people use the buses, the cost to the public purse will be lower.

It's Mao's red book all over again; but this time, blue with swans! Here are some happy immigrant agriculture workers from the Hope Valley, rejoicing over the Abelman report and the improvement it will bring to their journeys to and from the fields of waving corn.

The picture on the report itseilf is based in a view of Ashopton Viaduct from the road leading to Derwent ...

... but the "Northern" DMU in the contrived picture is on a non-existent track which, in reality, runs about six miles south at Bamford.

Unless, of course, someone has built a railway line across the Snake Pass since fbb lived that way

But we can postpone the excitement no longer. 

fbb can now reveal the details of the mini-Switzerland bus plan. What he cannot reveal is any actual timetables or details of how and where connections will be made.

Such information is not given.

On the following diagrams, routes are colour coded by frequency as follows.

Here are the routes from Sheffield, now ...

... with the 65 from Sheffield and 66 from Chesterfield continuing via Eyam to Buxton and thus not technically "Swiss'! 

Here is the Abelman plan.

The 272 from Sheffield has become hourly rather than an incorrect every 90 minutes. It has been hourly, roughy, for ages!.

The only real change is that the 257 adds a double run to Eyam. The pink shading claims to be a bus every 20 mins - but it isn't!

Next comes the 173, now ...

... and new.

It doubles in frequency to a bus every hour. The 256 between Bradwell and Castleton is from a past timetable. fbb is not sure what it is doing there now. The grand plan appears to withdraw the 272 from Bradwell, a route variant that dates back to an age so old that it predates fbb.

And so to Castleton, now ...

... and proposed.

Today's 62 from Buxton to Castleton is curtailed at Edale station, so a frustrating and retrograde change would be necessary according to the Red Book (whoops, the blue report).

Completely new is an hourly 73/64 link shown on the diagram as running between Hope station, Edale and Castleton via Mam Tor or via Castleton, Mam Tor and Edale.

Sadly the road via Mam Tor was closed permanently in 1977 for reasons which are fairly obvious if you take a stroll that away. Perhaps Mr Ableman is expecting Derbyshire to rebuild it!

The proposed 63 and 64 are almost circulars, as shown by the yellow roads on this map.

The route is via Barber Booth and not Mam Tor!

There is one bit of white road for the 63/64 to use and that is the super smashing and utterly glorious Winnats Pass, shown cartographically above "Peveril Castle".

Wow! That almost looks like a mini-Switzerland!

Is the plan viable?

fbb will offer his modest opinion in tomorrow's  blog.

Spoiler alert : it isn't!

  Next mini-Switzerlabd blog : Weds 25 Feb 

Mini Switzerland - Part 2

It could be that the cheery chappie above is the one has chosen to link Derbyshire's Hope Valley ...

... with Switzerland.

With every milligram of goodwill, fbb finds it hard to justify the comparison, even with the added "mini".

Scanning through the report, it becomes clear that the mini label does not refer to geography, but does refer to public transport. Even then, as we saw in last Friday's blog, there is no comparison!

What Mr Abelman is suggesting is that the Hope Valley should have public transport which could be a microcosm of that in Switzerland.

We all know how excellent public transport is in the land if cheese, cuckoo clocks and lederhosen! Everything runs on time and everything connects!

Both are generally true, but there is a price to pay. Switzerland is an expensive country in which to dwell, an expensive country to visit and a hugely expensive country in which to eat and drink. It's the taxes, innit!

Whilst transport does connect well with itself, that is often at the expense of speed as trains linger longer at interchange stations than, for example, in the UK.

But let us review train services on the Hope Valley line.

Transpennine runs hourly between Liverpool, Manchester, Sheffield and Cleethorpes.

Apart from some peak hour stops for commuters between Dore and Sheffield, trains ignore the Hope Valley local stops, as does ...

... East Midlands Railway also running every hour.

It's a long straggly table which fbb has curtailed at Nottingham. Again there are some local calls at peak times.

If this were Switzerland, you would expect the fast services to make at least one call in the Valley itself for the tourist trade.

But all the study area gets is ...

... with an hourly stopping service between Manchester and Sheffield.

It's presentation is a right mess, as is the "printable" timetable.

The layout is made even more complicated because timings are slightly different Mondays to Fridays versus Saturdays,

Such a nonsense would NOT be tolerated in Switzerland.

Wisely, the report is not proposing changes in any rail timetable. The aim is to improve bus services and offer full integration with the Northern stopping service.

In passing, it is worth noting that within living memory (well, fbb's  memory) the ONLY stopping passenger train service via the Hope Valley was an irregular timetable between Sheffield and New Mills with connections (often inadequate) on to Manchester.

Mr Ableman is more interested in the bus services.

Currently these are on offer, in order of "significance".

One bus was branded by First! The 272 was historically joint with North Western Road Car, but more recently with the doomed Hulleys of Baslow.

It runs approx hourly and offers double deck vehicles. 

The replacement for Hulleys is High Peak Buses ...

... which used to be Trent. Former Trent "Skyline" branded single deckers have often appeared. The route is main road all the way to Castleton ...

... with buses diverting via Bradwell either on the outward journey or the return.

Next is the 257. This runs due west from the City as far as the reservoirs, then drops south to Bamford, Hathersage and Bakewell.

Once a very infrequent 44 (later 244) by Sheffield Transport, it was often worked by this vehicle ...

... with conductor, of course. As a nostalgia snippet, the lunchtime departure from Sheffield was STD's first ever one man bus! It carried more staff (inspectors, observers and trainees) than genuine passengers.

The route was developed massively by Hulleys and is now hourly ...

... but with much diversion on Schooldays!

The operator is now Andrews if Tideswell ...

... having taken over from Hulleys.

In a sense, the 257 merely crosses the Hope Valley at Bamford and Hathersage ...

... but, as we shall see, does feature in the Switzerland report.

The 173 ...

... Andrews, formerly Hulleys ...

... is a delightful country route.

Then there is High Peak 62 ...

... not renowned for its frequency.

These two are best examined in conjunction with the Ableman report as, if the plan were implemented, they would see the most change.

So how would Mini Switzerland seek to improve these services?

Tomorrow's  blog will reveal all.

  Next Mini-Switzerland blog : Tues 24th Feb 

Sunday Variety

Yellow Submarine??? Obviously.

In 1968 a popular music entertainment group called "The Beatles" created a cartoon film, aimed at children. Then in 1969 a long playing gramophone record appeared with a similar title. The eponymous song was hugely successful.

The singer of this particular ditty was one Richard (now Sir Richard) Starkey, a member of said group of entertainers. fbb understands that he used a different stage name taken from his tendency to consume a noted brand of torus shaped potato based snacks.

Such is fbb's encyclopedic knowledge of popular music culture from the late 1960s.

Indeed, a later gramophone record of the same song was on sale with, it would appear, a large letter "A" incised on both sides.

The submarine in question, probably ficticious ...

... included cartoon style pictures of the celebrated foursome gazing into the blackness of the ocean via foot adjacent portholes.

Oddly, the cartoon faces on the tank wagon are different!

Identifying which cartoon set is a correct replica of the original is way beyond fbb's  pay grade, but the question posed in yesterday's  blog remains

Would blog readers want such a wagon on their model railway, be the model real, speculative of philosophical.

It is a well-known and much loathed loved vlogger who thinks the model is "tat". 

Strangely, Mart Runes (pictured above), who earns a living producing his videos, is often willing to denigrate similar Hornby models ...

... but is perversely happy in his reviews of other ficticious railway rolling stock. He was notably "excited" by the N gauge Toby ...

... by Bachmann, despite the fact that no such loco ever existed in reality.

Mart doesn't often review wagons, but the Hornby tanker ...

... from the Thomas stories, although no longer available, is not quite so "tat-full" as the Bachmann version.

Would Mart agree that these Rapido utterly false models of a fireless tank engine plus wagon ...

... we're "tat". Or Maybe these six wheel milk tankers purporting a brand of artisan gin?

And you have to pay for three wagons enticing you and your modelling chums to pay for expensive gin.

This craze for paying for advertising wagons is on the increase. Would you want to pay Rails of Sheffield for the dubious privilege of advertising ...

... erm, Rails of Sheffield? And there is £4 post'n'packing to add!

fbb is more sanguine about this vitally important debate. Hornby suffered some horrific losses in their most recent published accounts.

Hornby's losses are measured in ££ Millions.

If the company is to continue in business, it needs to find more ways of making money. If that can be achieved by selling "tat", such sales may protect the company and ensure its survival.

Various bits if the UK model industry have disappeared before (Trix, Hornby Dublo, Triang - twice, Airfix, Beatties retail, Hattons retail, to name but a few.) Even Bachmann posted a loss recently.

Maybe fbb should buy a Beatles Yellow Submarine tank wagon to help out?

Cheap as chips!

Back To The Real World ...

... Cornwall Consequences

Thanks to a report from Roger French (Bus and Train User blog), fbb can summarise events in Cornwall.

One consequence of GoAhead's assumption of First's Cornwall's network has been an increase in wrongly liveried buses. Some bus watchers have complained that Plymouth City  (also GoAhead) is short of buses because many have gone to Cornwall ...

... even posh new motors.

One very obvious change is the improvements at Camborne bus station. Under First's  ownership, it had become very dowdy with shop, waiting room and enquiry office ...

... all closed. It now has GoAhead and/or Kernow branding and looks a lot better.

New timetable books and a larger separate map have all appeared.

Roger also took a trip on the route 6 to not-quite Mousehole, experiencing the turn at the new turn-short terminus. fbb is surprised that neither the Council not the Police have objected.

The safest (least dangerous) turn, as modelled by another Plymouth City bus, is to pull forward from the alighting stop, blocking the whole road ...

... then reverse round a blind corner into a side road ...

... avoiding contact with the stone wall on the left. 

Then it is quite steeply up a hill ...

It is not the safest of turns. Ex bus driver fbb would be terrified!

It makes manoeuvering at Mousehole harbour side ...

... seem a minor matter ...

... compared with manipulating a mighty motor bus at the new and disappointing terminus.

Bring back the LHS.

 

Who Is This Man?

He seems to turn up at all sorts of train "happenings" ...

... in wide-ranging locations. fbb hopes this is not a real live female type woman with very stiff legs ...

... and no knickers!

She would be a real dummy to get herself photographed in that embarrassing position!

How clever of Mr Hardhat to stand so still and hold that bewildered expression every time for the camera!

Is she real ...

... or plastic? Is she appropriately dressed for a visit to an industrial area? He is as surprised as we are!

Back to sanity near Sheffield tomorrow.

P.S. More Tat ...

... also from Rapido?

Chortle, chortle.

  Next Mini-Switzerland blog : Mon 23rd Feb