Sunday Variety

 A Trip To The Holiday Island

It was in 1958 that a 13 year old fbb first had a holiday on the Isle of Wight. Later the fbb family moved there and ultimately retired from there to Seaton in 2013. Most years since they have continued to visit.

Postcards of the Island's "Wonders" were common, usually with six groan-worthy claims! Some cards inflated to seven and the above was typical of eight!

But fbb's biggest excitement was to see open top buses for the first time. Sadly, he was not allowed off-site to try them out until he became one of the leadership team.

Southern Vectis made much of route 42 from Yarmouth to Alum Bay ..

... but the sea views were quite limited until you got to Alum Bay itself when the bus climbed up from the Tourist grot to the Needles Battery.

For far more sea views, the best ride was from Sandown Zoo on route 47 ...

.... through Sandown and Shanklin ...

... then over the hill to Ventnor.

The ride concluded at the Botanic Gardens.

It is many a long year since the 47 (or renumbered clones) ran, although a modified 42 still does the Alum Bay run.

Ventnor was always fbb's favourite Island town. Its narrow streets tumbled down steep hills to pier and esplanade. Sadly, due to inherent geological instability, many Ventnor properties really did tumble down those hills!

And they still do!

But it was an on-line article about one building in the town centre that has remained stable.

The article refers to the possible demolition of Ventnor bus station!

This is Ventnor bus station ...

... or it was! 

Buses pulled in off the eastern end of Albert Street ...

... and performed a tricky reverse to extricate themselves from the head-in stands.

The bus station is no more.

Here is Open Street Map.

The demolition possibility concerns Ventnor Coach Station opposite the western end of Albert Street.

The premises were the depot for Nash's coaches ...

... with the older picture below showing the edifice with the blue bay windows from the more recent picture.

Southern Vectis absorbed the Nash business and rebuilt the property to provide a Ventnor garage, an enquiry office (remember them?) and a departure point for tours and long distance coach services.

It has been disused and closed up for years.

It would appear that the property's new owners have successfully applied for Planning Permission to board up the frontage. ..

... while decisions on future plans are made.

So another on-line news "maybe" is on offer here.

There is now only one part of Southern Vectis historic infrastructure that is recognisably much the same. The depot ...

... and palatial offices at Nelson Road, Newport are still in use.

Just!

A Trip To The Theatre

Readers may remember the mindless vandalism of a model railway exhibition on the eve of its opening.

Trade stands ...

... and precious layouts ...

... were cruelly destroyed.

This was seven years ago.

Currently a play is being presented telling the whole story.

The show is at Nottingham Playhouse until 25th July.

Might be worth a trip?

Antipodean Anschluss?

Perhaps not the most appropriate alliteration in view of History?

But here is a new bus recently ordered by Diamond.

It presages the news that an Australian bus builder is invading the UK.

Here are some of its products which you may see at a bus stop near you very soon (?).

fbb does not think that Andy has ordered any. His successor might!

The single deck is the basis for the Diamond order.

fbb doesn't think Diamond will be having the huge luggage cage and the offside (?) door.

Puzzle Picture

Name the operator.

It was one of four, so for a bonus, name the other three!

  Next Variety blog : Monday 13th July 

Express Sprinter : 158/159 (2)

First Great Western

An early FGW Sprinter livery seemed to lack quality in favour of a mix of stripes and First Group squiggles; it was later replaced by a similar scheme adopted for the HSTs. Enthusiasts called it "neon".

Train watchers were surprised when management moved away from Group colours and even downplayed the 'First' name and logo in favour of ...

... a rather muted dark green with very little relief and the GWR name. Dull, just like South Western Railway.

Meanwhile in the Midlands ...

The very attractive livery of Central Trains disappeared when the company's business was hacked apart.

Stagecoach's East Midlands livery was NOT exactly the same as that for South Western ...

... having a bulge in the lighter blue body side stripe.

An out of favour Stagecoach was replaced by Abellio, from Netherlands State Railways. Abellio sold itself and all its British transport interests to a Management buyout styled Transport UK.

The overall maroon livery was distinguished and seemed to be kept shiny and smart although some interim versions were, to coin a phrase, unfortunate.

Once the full repaint was complete, however, things settled down nicely ...

... although the company name was somewhat lost in a vast area of purple. This has been corrected with the latest refurb of the 158 units.

The revised logo is bigger, although drop shadow lettering tends to look a bit dated.

And So To Scotland ...

... where a variety of brands and liveries were designed to confuse Glaswegians. GG was 'Greater Glasgow' and 'Trans Clyde' hinted at the linking of North Glasgow electrics the with the South via the Argyle line.

GG became SPT (with various interpretations) and trains became orange (a k a Strathclyde Red).

But units began appearing in maroon and cream.

Non PTE Scotrail's 158 units were given their own livery for a while ...

... to be supplanted by First in privatisation.

Now Scotrail is back with the Scottish Government, we have the spotty but distinguished blue of the Scotland Saltire ...

....  which leaves us with Northern.

Oh dear, what a mess!

Northern Trains' collection of liveries will follow later.

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Peterville Quarry Railway

After a sore tooth, eight days in hospital, four week's recovery and hot weather, fbb has returned to the top floor to play catch-up on his sadly neglected model railway.

After a significant re-jig of the track, it was time to begin the process of putting the scenery back. Readers may remember that all fbb's scenery is removable except the quarry rock face.

Meet sticky fixers.

All you do is peel off the backing film; peel off the fronting film then these squares stick anything to anything. Peeling the films takes huge amounts of patience and of finger tip dexterity. It takes about 15 minutes each square which then welds itself to elderly fingers.

But these patches do fix the hillsides to the wall. Here we see a bit more basic hillside; so sticky fixers have stuck.

The light coloured bit is the frame of the door providing access to storage under the eaves. It will become a low relief 'Castle Halt' forming the far end of the layout.

It also works with the original hardboard hills which came in from the cold of the previous outdoor layout.

The big question is whether the sticky fixers can be removed without removing lumps of plaster.

Note that the retaining wall has been lightened with a wash of thin white paint. The pale green guacamole is in preparation for adding darker green scatter 'grass' to hide the gaps. 

Trees are useful for disguising the joins!

A 'hack' ensures that the track will be glued to a thick card base so that trains will not crash into the bridge where clearances are tight.

The Noch proprietary castle has also had a wash of thin white to match it better with the heavily butchered Metcalf cardboard outer defences.

A couple of sweaty mornings and progress is made!

 Next Variety blog : Sunday 12th July 

Express Sprinter : 158/159 (1)

It all started with this comparison ...

... in a previous blog. Two sprinters, both produced by Bachmann but offered at widely differing prices. The upper model was "pre owned"; the lower was a reduced price offer from Rails of Sheffield but still farcically expensive.

Both were in West Yorkshire PTE Metro livery.

Which started the old blogger thinking - always a risky and unreliable process.

So the challenge was to work out how many different liveries have been used in the classic 158/159 stock?

A lot!

We can start with the "as delivered" paint job - rather uninspiring ...

... as branded for the Regional Railways "business unit".  Units were delivered between 1989 and 1992 built at BR's Litchurch Lane works in Derby.

But the paint job was refreshingly different from the good old diesel units that formed BR's standard DMU fleets. All over rail blue was dull in the extreme.

The decision to adopt the blue and grey "inter city" version was wise ...

... but, somehow, the colours always looked dull. Many train watchers preferred the lined green of yore.

As a teenage schoolboy, fbb felt he was travelling in luxury on such a train compared with steam hauled 12 seat compartment suburban stock.

And you could see where you were going - unless the driver unsportingly pulled the blinds down!

Back to the "super sprinters"

Sone trains actually operated InterCity services between Liverpool and Glasgow but only received the livery ...

... in train simulation programs. Likewise when they were transferred to Virgin trains.

In the early days of privatisation, sticky labels attempted to provide identity as with Wales and West's Alphaline brand.

The fully fettled Alphaline branding was messy ...

... with the 'alpha' logo too big and lacking in contrast with the silver grey body sides.

For many travellers, this gave way to Wessex Trains silver grey with puce doors.

Arriva Trains Wales simply stuck an 'Arriva' on the side ...

... before adopting the group standard blue tones.

Of course, now we are nationalised Transport for Wales and it is back to the future for boring grey but now with red doors ...

... and a stripe of red at cantrail level. When fbb was very much younger, a red stripe up there signified buffet or dining facilities - even appearing on this ...

... a venerable ex LNER buffet car! The red line (and the yellow similar for first class) were meant to be a European standard. Here a Belgian Railways double decker offers 1st Class above and 2nd below.

The idea did not really catch on!

By comparison with Wales, fbb's local sprinters have only had three liveries; South West Trains version one ...

... followed by easily the best livery of the privatized era.

This scheme was also adopted by Stagecoach for its East Midlands business.

Or was it?

Sadly, Stagecoach lost its contracts because it dared to object to the bidding system.

So First took over and brought miserable livery mediocrity.

Yawn!

Before fbb explores other 158/159 liveries, he must add a caveat. Your elderly enthusiastic compiler of fascinating factoids (?) may not have covered every change of colour scheme, or logged the changes in the correct order.

His motive has been to share his wonder at the wide variety of liveries that privatisation has brought. But also to consider the expense of brand changes, some of them within the length of the franchisee's tenure.

Does changing the colour if the trains attract more passengers?

Unlikely!

YouTube Useless?

Yet another farcical phtoshop type headline picture.

Apart from the ludicrous concept of a load that is as wide as the carriageway and a on very long trailer that has no articulation, so would never go round any corner. The rig is too big for the drivers; or, the drivers are aged about 5.

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Coming soon:-

The Telly : Tubby's Technological Trauma!

Surely not?

  Next Sprinter Tinter blog : Sat 11th July