A Tale Of Three Bridges (1)

Please note : fbb is still "fragile" and recovering far too slowly from a really heavy cold and other associated nasties. Helpful Seaton chums report that there is a lot of it about.

Three Bridges, Where?

But not the above trio. What about Three Bridges station?

There is even this junction in Southall, London.

The "Three Bridges" of this blog is not an official name of an area in Sheffield which has three obvious bridges and quite a few more nearby.

Well that's one bridge seen in a before and after montage. Neither of these pictures is dated, but Sheffield's last tram route ran under this bridge and was withdrawn in 1960. fbb suspects that the trams are older than that.

Courtesy of Google Earth we can see the junction in its recent guise.

The white building with the rounded end is a useful clue to aid matching the pictures with the view from fbb's helicopter!

So, let is take a drive from the city centre to the photographed bridge. There is, however, a health warning. It is no longer possible to follow fbb's route exactly due to road "improvements".

We would start by travelling along Wicker, erroneously called The Wicker by many.

The arches mark the point where Great Central trains crossed on their way via the Woodhead route to Manchester.

The bridge is a lot cleaner now, a testament to the decline of heavy industry in the city. 

The left fork under the bridge leads up Spital Hill which ultimately becomes Barnsley Road. Guess where that leads!

But we fork right along Savile Street. The land on the left used to be the Wicker Goods Yard of the Midland Railway.

It was huge!

Savile Street is on the right. 

Just past the yard, the road splits..

This point (once a tram junction) was known as the Twelve o Clock junction after a pub which stood in the apex

A modern block ...

... is called Twelve o'Clock Court.

The left hand fork leads to the inappropriately named Brightside, location of some of the city's heaviest and smokiest industry.

The smoke has all gone as has much of the heavy industry.

Soon afterwards we come to our bridge ....

... or maybe bridges. 

Just under the bridge on our left ...

... we see the former Midland Railway main line on its merry way to Barnsley and Rotherham. The road is names Princess Street and plays a very small part in a Sheffield bus route.

Part 2 will look at the railway and its bridges in more detail.

  Next three bridges blog : Weds 27th May 

Bank Holiday Monday Variety

Puzzle Pictures

This was, perhaps a little unfair. The picture is a ' colourised' postcard with colours being chosen by the printer without any public transport knowledge.

The tram is too fuzzy to be identified but the bus can only be from Liverpool city transport. It should be green. fbb pointed out the unique destination blind layout in a recent blog.

Latterly all city trams were similarly endowed.

Picture 3 was The Fat Controller from the Thomas books.

But even childrens' stories have to be politically correct. You cannot cause deep offence to fat people by calling them fat. So the bodily badly inflated controller became Sir Topham Hatt.

Incidentally, thanks to Google's clever (?) search routines, fbb can reveal that you can buy a Fat Controller.

Yep: it controls fat!

Picture 2 was of Seaton Junction station on the South Western main line.

The train to Colyton, Colyford and Seaton will depart from the curved platform far right. The very long footbridge is part of a public footpath and provides no access to station remnants. It does, however, allow visitors to view the remnants of a once busy junction.

Correspondent Andrew wondered whether fbb had asked the same question in a previous blog.

If he did, fbb cannot find it! But there are over 5600 blogs to consider. How quickly we forget?

How Quickly We Forget! (1)

The Councillor is very excited!

The local press has been equally thrilled.

But it looks like just three trips on arbitrary days.

Surely an occasional round trip is hardly a "trial"?

But from 1966 to 1968 Hovertravel ran a proper service between Ryde and Lee on the Solent.

This followed a trial by an SRN3 vessel in 1964 ...

... with the SRN6 being the standard for passengers once the real service began.

There were not enough passengers to make it viable.

Has anything changed?

How Quickly We Forget! (2)

The Duchess of Hamilton was a 'streamlined' loco of the LMS.

The loco achieved notoriety by being part of a promotional train despatched to the USA, where it was equipped with regulatory headlight and bell.

But the UK railway authorities told porky pies. Because it was thought nobody would have ever heard of the noble Duchess, the loco was renamed Coronation for the visit!

The real "Coronation" was blue ...

... and the special Coronation Scot trainsets were also blue.

The good news us that the Royal Mint has just produced a commemorative £2 coin showing 6229  ...

... in its maroon guise. You could get a "plain" £2 coin for ...

... a modest £17.50. Or coloured for ...

... a modest £27.50. But for the real oficionados ...

... a Silver Proof at £115! Not quite good enough? How about ...

... a Piedfort version for £190?

Piedfort? 

It is thicker, so won't work in slot machines. It is also struck "with extra care" and a brand new mallet!

Or maybe you prefer the lure of Gold!

What cost of living crisis?

How Quickly We Forget? (3)

fbb is well narked with himself! Yesterday was Whitsunday (White Clothing Sunday) which is the third most important "festival" in the Christian calendar.

It marks the occasion, 50 days after Christ's resurrection. And very much, yes he did!

A gang of frightened, mostly uneducated blokes were behind locked doors expecting they would be next for the Cross.

And fbb forgot the day! Blame it on the Rangoon Nadgers of the past week or so. The fbbs were not fit to go to Church on 17th when they would have been reminded, and not fit yesterday either.

But Pentecost is so powerful that the thousands of artists impressions of the event can tend to put people off, especially if they try to paint the scene literally or as some sort of "religious" event.

Maybe better to sit quietly and let the words paint the picture for real.

When the day of Pentecost came, all the believers were gathered together in one place. Suddenly there was a noise from the sky which sounded like a strong wind blowing, and it filled the whole house where they were sitting. Then they saw what looked like tongues of fire which spread out and touched each person there. They were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to talk in other languages, as the Spirit enabled them to speak.

What matters is less the picture and more the event. Those humble blokes took the Gospel of Jesus the Messiah and began the exponential spread of Christianity.

Every committed Christian feels the power of God's Holy Spirit from time to time.

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

And fbb has struggled to remember ...

 Next Three Bridges blog : Tuesday 26th May 

Sunday Variety

And Two Come Along At Once

At the "big" launch of Great British Railways a while back, the cathedral to rail travel that is London Bridge station was thronged with a few people anxious to enjoy (?) the new livery. It was shown on a Hornby class 800 four car set (above) and an electronically contrived video of a similar train.

How excited the crowds were!

But we had yet to see the magnificence of the new livery (?) on a real train.

But that was resolved a few days ago when a Southern train, resplendent in a slightly different version of the new livery ...

... pulled gracefully into Brighton station. But, don't tell anyone, this was not originally a 'Southern' train. It used to be with Great Western operating out of Paddington.

Later in life it lost its GWR labels and moved south ...

.. pictured still in dark green at Ore.

A picture taken at Brighton shows the livery variation.

The red "flash" disappears more quickly into the bodywork tumblehome.

Heidi was there, remarkably still Transport Minister, to bathe in the adulation of the small crowd admiring the design.

She revealed four significant news bites.

Firstly; the livery was "designed" in-house by DaFT DepArtment For Transport). So that explains everything.

Two : there would be no mass repainting, stock would get its new paint job as vehicles were due for major refurbishment. So fbb will certainly not live long enough to see the job finished! By that time a different set of politicians will probably have come up with a whole new idea for reforming the ailing rail network.

Three : Existing company names will be part of the new scheme ...

... thus ensuring that GBR will be a weak and confusing brand.

Four : Two stations would be decked in GBR livery very soon. Get ready for the excitement, Cambridge South!

But DaFT don't just want to give you that ...

... as, a day or two later, a class 701 rolled into Waterloo station. Despite Heidi's announced livery policy of "festina lente", Waterloo saw a nearly new class 701 bedecked in the new paint job.

Train 701 006 would have looked like this until very recently.

fbb does concede that GBR livery looks better than First's!

Of course the 701s are nearly new but much delayed in their introduction.

The fleet name is, as expected, long!

Heidi tells us that these names are the brands we all know (and love??) so they need to be shown on the trains.

To fbb, that sounds very much like nothing changes except the paint job!

Surely we want something better from GBR?

The Return Of An Old Friend?

Open top buses along the Exmoor coast of the Bristol Channel have had a variety of manifestations. Here is long gone Quantock ...

... and a rather fine Bristol, showing route 301.

First Bus operated a route 300, but usually as a normal bus route.

And here is 'Sir Humphrey Davy' ...

Yes, it is YDV 753 again!

In more recent years, First Bus arrived with high class publicity ...

... fully branded vehicles ...

... but not always fully branded reliability. fbb remembers a Roger French review of the Exmoor Coaster in which he bemoans the fact that one of the scheduled open toppers was a very closed top single decker, chosen for its inability to fully reveal the gorgeous views!

And we all know what happened to First' open top services.

Correspondent David, who dwells at Minehead, tells fbb of the return if the 300, now in the hands of Stagecoach and operated from their Barnstaple depot.

Publicity is plentiful and printed ...

... clearly reflecting the contribution being made by Devon county (and Somerset, joint sponsor).

The timetable is somewhat reduced from the heady over-optimistic days of First's Coaster ...

Two buses are required for the service which now runs until the end of August.

There was a smattering if eager passengers from Minehead Butlins, even on the first day.

Now we need some visionary entrepreneur to reinstate some if the glorious Cornwall topless rides, notably those running the mega circular from Penzance.

Definitely missing views, exciting narrow roads and an opportunity to make a bob or two.

Puzzle Pictures

No 1, Where?

And No 2, Where?

And No 3, Who?

To win the non existent prize, we need his original nomenclature and his later rebranding

Answers tomorrow.

  Next Bank Holiday variety : Mon 25th May