Ha ha - NOT. fbb should get a copy of Photoshop!
So where's Rushden?
It is one of a gaggle of small towns sort of east of Wellingborough. The A6 now runs to their east and they are split by the dual carriageway A45.
Rushden and Higham Ferrers had, until 1959, its own branch from Wellingborough ...
... whilst Irthlingborough was a stop on the Northampton, Wellingborough London Road and Peterborough line.
In the absence of trains, many bus services have been provided by the United Counties Omnibus Company and its successors, the mighty Stagecoach. The mainline routes ran from Northampton via Wellingborough and, incidentally, passed by the end on fbb's childhood and teenage road.
The 402s, 403s and 404s that oft carried you author into Northampton and back became an even more complicated collection of numbers.
The change to 292/3/4/5 was prompted by the need for a bigger set of 400 numbers for the growing new City of Milton Keynes.
But Rushden's real claim to omnibological fame is as the HQ of Birch Brothers.
Birch succumbed eventually to a United Counties takeover and their service devolved into a more mundane route 250.
But the highlight of any Birch Bros journey has to be the outstandingly wonderful bus station at Rushden.
And it was the frontage to a real covered-in bus station and garage from which Birch's intriguing fleet emerged in a dramatic way!
The bus station was almost next door the Rushden railway station.
Recent photos show the Art Deco building with the entrance/exit blocked up and turned into shops.
If it is not a listed building, it should be!
And Rushden Lakes?
These tracts of the wet stuff exist as the remnants of gravel extraction along the Nene Valley, all the way from Northampton to Thorpe Waterville near Oundle.
So tomorrow we discover what Stagecoach is doing serving an old gravel pit!
Next Rushden Lakes blog : Thursday 8th June
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