Sunday 19 April 2020

Something For The Weekend (2)

Modelling Skills With Window Cills
Staying at home means there is much more time to fiddle with the model railway. So the pub has had a repaint, the join between the two bits of the building is properly joined and Peterville people can now enjoy a drink  and a plastic chat in the evening glow of fbb's table lamp!
fbb well remembers the arrival of Airfix kits on the scene in the late 50s; and many of them are still produced by Dapol and available at your local model shop, hence the botching together of the inn and a chunk of the bungalow!

Some aspects of the kits were crude, a compromise to make them easy for kids to glue together. The windows were far too "heavy" and had oversized cills moulded integrally. Originally they were designed to be stuck in from the front.
But savvy kit bashers soon worked out that you could glue them in "backwards" from the inside of the building revealing a much more delicate frame when viewed from the outside. Airfix picked this up, rewrote the instructions and added a window cill to the outside of their mouldings as in the pub above.
When Hornby introduced a range of plastic kits manufactured, fbb thinks, by Faller of Germany, the method was even more sophisticated.
The windows came complete with brick arch or stone lintel moulded on, as is the window cill (nail scissors to show the actual size). Even shaky handed fbb could make an adequate job of painting; and when glued in (from the back) ...
... they look neat and tidy. A very clever design that makes up into a splendid model.

Sadly. fbb's skills (for want of a better word) will always fall short of those of the modellers at Pendon museum and model railway ...
... but progress is being made.

Branding's Suspended 'Til The Crisis Is Ended
Whilst public transport has declined to barely 10% of passenger normality, at least one area has seen a dramatic increase in the number of buses needed. The Hinkley Point power station construction site has adjusted its bus services to allow for "social distancing", thus needing lots more buses.

The transport operation, in the hands of Somerset Passenger Solutions (part owned by First) already needs a huge fleet.
But the present crisis demands even more.

fbb has already reported a batch of "Tinner" double deckers from First Kernow and these are joined by a heap of branded buses from Bristol.
This combined with the need for a more intensive interior cleaning regime has meant that buses of all sorts are appearing on all routes. Here is a Bristol East branded bus on a "foreign" service 4 ...
... and a South Gloucestershire Lynx  motor on Bristol city route 2.

Meanwhile, Buses magazine for May includes a graphic as in use for DeLijn routes serving the Flemish speaking areas of Belgium.
Opstappen through the front door is no longer allowed.

Less Helpfully ...
Powells Bus, now part of the Hackney Community transport empire, took over T M Travel's Sheffield route 6 from Friday 17th. Their web site included the new timetable with a diversion via Endcliffe Vale Road - a new facility for the 6.
According to the PTE, this diversion replaces a similar routeing for most "inner circle" service 10/10a journeys from the same date.

As of yesterday at 1815, the PTE was showing the "old" timetable via Endcliffe Vale road ...
... as were Powells!
So, is it, or isn't it?

Who knows?

Claps, Cheers And Now Trains ...
... supporting the wonderful NHS.
Thameslink, Southern and Gatwick Express (all GoAhead services) are so adorned.
According to transport guru Roger French, at least two of these have very appropriate unit numbers, namely 700111 and 377111.

And not just trains - but next door.

Neighbours of the fbbs are doing their bit as well.
Well done everybody!

Less Happily ...
... and also from the RF blog.
fbb suspects that it is the Grand Central deep throat confuser system that creates all these friendly "personal" chat lines, allowing a real human being to add something useful IF there is something useful to say. That would be the same system that was happily extolling the company's special offers long after Government Advice was to stay at home.

Moral : don't trust ANYTHING you read on Social Media - there is always a good chance it is not real!!

 Next electric blog : Monday 20th April 
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Short Final Thought
for the time being!

If there is righteousness in the heart,
there will be beauty in the character.
If there is beauty in the character,
there will be harmony in the home.
If there is harmony in the home,
there will be order in the nations.
When there is order in the nations,
there will peace in the world.
So be it.

The fbbs came across this yesterday morning as part of their daily Bible Reading. The writer of the helpful notes said it was a Scottish Blessing.

Wikipedia suggests that the words are of Eastern origin.

Either way it does explain how just one person accepting God's Covenant of forgiveness through repentance can be part of a big change in the complex fabric of Life.

Below is one of your author's favourite passages in the Bible. (From Paul's letter to the Romans, Chapter 8).

For I am certain that nothing can separate me from God's love: neither death nor life, neither angels nor other heavenly rulers or powers, neither the present nor the future, neither the world above nor the world below (not even the coronavirus?) - there is nothing in all creation that will ever be able to separate me from the love of God which is mine through Christ Jesus our Lord.

The ultimate Covenant between God and humanity!
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