Cafe Opens at Peterville
Last week two grandsons came to stay at fbb mansions. Faced with the need to entertain the beasts, (whatever happened to catching minnows and idly whittling a stick?) fbb began the process of building a small caff for his model railway.
Bearing in mind fbb's stubby and slightly shaky digits and 12 year old's inexperience, the results are acceptable. The furniture comes from a Busch "kit", the building was cobbled together from odd bits and pieces and the awnings were had assembled and hand painted. The people were from a bag of poor quality personages bought second-hand.
But from a distance (say from outside Tesco) its a good effort. Thanks for your help, grandson.
Busway Bludner?
Busway Bludner?
Passenger injured after collision
on Leigh guided busway
The local press was quick to hype an unfortunate accident on the newly opened busway. It would appeasr from the picture, circulated widely, that the bus missed the tapered guides which draw the wheels into the high kerb that forms the guideway itself.
The picture reminds fbb of a nursery rhyme, suitably amended. "Diddle diddle dumpling my bus John, one wheel off and on wheel on." The nearside wheel should be up against the high kerb to the right, so the offside wheel is on (or almost on) the guideway for the opposite direction.
Whoops!
A passenger was injured after a bus collided with the new guideway between Manchester and Leigh . Just five days after the launch of the controversial new route, disaster struck when a metal arm used to help the bus ‘click in’ to the guided channel, hit the guideway.
An injured woman was taken by the driver to the Astley Street stop, where an ambulance arrived.
An injured woman was taken by the driver to the Astley Street stop, where an ambulance arrived.
First has now imposed an immediate speed limit reduction and launched an investigation.
The article does not say for how long services were disrupted. Less of a "disaster" than a recent mishap on the Cambridge busway.
The Re-Assembler
Yesterday, fbb's young guest, Archie Fearnley, came to visit fbb towers with the express view of seeing Toby and Henrietta in motion. In part, the day was a disaster because the electric would not work. Despite gargantuan efforts with scredriver and WD40, fbb ...
... (aka The Fat Controller) failed to overcome the loss of power.
Toby and Henrietta became push-along toys.
The re-assembling of the coach had been fraught with difficulty.
Bought off the shelf, the former push-pull equipped four wheel German coach model would have been equipped with working head and tail lamps plus internal lights (£60). The latter had been removed before the vehicle was offered for second-hand sale (£11). The LEDs and complex electronics were hidden under the drivers cabin.
Light was conveyed to the external lamps by "light guides" made of cleverly shaped pieces of clear plastic. Try as he might, fbb could not get these back in place. Defeated by stubby fingers yet again, fbb removed the lamp housings ...
... and resolved to fit UK style dummy oil lamps instead.
Sweet.
As a compensation for the ferroequinological failure at fbb mansions, the Fearnley family joined Mrs and Mrs fbb at Pecorama; where there were plenty of working layouts (with electricity) and a ride on the Beer Heights Light Railway ...
The trip ended just before the hailstorm!
GoTimetable Seaton
... the GoTimetable app for Seaton will be available
FREE at the Google Play Store from tomorrow, 11th April. Initially the app is only available for Android devices but iPhone and Laptop versions will follow soon.
If you have any comments please use the links in the app's menu and not this blog's comment section. This ensures that your thoughts and advice get to the right member of the team.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Next European blog : Monday 11th April
AS it happens, the wife and I were in your neck of the woods last week. We didn't go to Pecorama but did enjoy a ride on the tram (expensive but a delight).
ReplyDeleteI'm afraid to say that our form of transport was petrol-engine, four-wheeled and personal (although we did pass a "Jurassic Coaster" bus at one point). Our biggest problem was arriving in Seaton from the Axmouth direction, following the signs to the tram and then seeing the Car Park symbol crossed out - it seems that the parking area has been replaced by Tesco and/or Seaton Jurassic. We managed to find a (free!) space on the seafront quite easily but felt that this will be a real disincentive to the town, come the summer. The signage needs rapid improvement.
Thanks Andrew. You are not the first to mention this! Free sea front parking becomes opay at meter from 1st April!
ReplyDeleteI do find it interesting the hypocrisy of the (lack of) proper safety on guided busways, which after all are another form of railway. These things seem to just be put down to being road accidents, while if it were a railway there would have been a proper investigation.
ReplyDelete