Sunday Varierty

CHURCH LINK

SERVICE STARTS AT 1030

Today's service is live and ON-LINE.
with no congregation attending.
 Click on this link (here),

which will take you to the YouTube page.

Then click on the page for today's date.

-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o

 fbb - The Dis-Assembler

It was James May, a year or so ago, who made some TV programmes in which you watched him put back together some mechanical device. One was a model railway locomotive. When fbb was nobbut a lad, he enjoyed dismantling stuff, especially electrical switches, plugs and broken clockwork models. It would be fair to say that there wasn't too much re-assembling but the lad did enjoy funding out how things were made and how they should work.

So, today, fbb dis-assembles an old Trix tank wagon. There is no need to "switch off" as it is genuinely fascinating to see how toys were put together before the all-conquering march of moulded plastic. Models like this ...

... were sold from 1936 to the late 1950s. Made of printed "tinplate" they were mostly assembled by hand using simple tools. The first job for fbb wass to remove the wheels by easing the axleboxes gentleyapart.

fbb had also prized off the cast filler cap to use it to replace oner missing from one of his EBayed collection. Then we see that the upper parts are fixed to the chassis by little metal tabs, pretty much the standard way of assembling a tinplate model.

The "anchor"  supports for the tank ...

... are tabbed inside the tube; the end caps are just a push fit. Many an inquisitive child will have pulled them off and lost therm! See the fixing tabs below.

Likewise the ladder was held on with tabs, top and bottom. You can see that the tabs were pushed over from the open end - which must have been very fiddly but achieved speedily with more practice and less stubby fingering than fbb.

The coupling units (pre-assembled with lace-hole type rivets) ...

... we likewise held on by more substantial tabs.

The buffers (and the filler cap) were castings in a softish alloy allowing both to be reamed out using a prodding tool (excuse the technical term).

It would be difficult to get an axle to run reliably in a crude tin-printed pressed-out axlebox, so Trix arranged for flat metal axle bearings (well, metal with a hole!) to be tabbed inside the cosmetic bits on the visible side.

You can see four tabs gripping the simple axlebox very tightly - again fiddly to assemble.

Looking back, it is amazing what Trix could do with a few bits of folded printed tinplate. Often derided by "serious" modellers, these toys were a great delight for any savvy boy in the first years after the deprivation of WW2.

fbb never owned anything by Trix. His first layout was cheap and nasty Triang and he then moved on to a mixed collection of Hornby Dublo 2-Rail and the better Triang models before putting it all away to go the Uni in Sheffield. The stock was donated to a school model railway and the baseboards were slung out when parents moved.

Ricicles Are Twicicles As Nicicles ...

... or so Noddy told us. There was even a Noddy song on the same theme. But for Notwork Rail, Icicles are very much not  Nicicles - they are Twicicles as nasticles!

Here is Blea Moor Tunnel on the Settle and Carlisle line.

The not nicicles icicles are as big as the Notwork Rail man in orange suit.

You would think even a whopper of an icicle would be no match for a speeding train; but, apparently they have been known to shatter windscreens and terrify passengers. So, how do you get rid of them.

Seemples.

Drive a thundering great snow plough through the tunnel and ping them off.

Now that would be a fun job.

The road authorities in Newcastle upon Tyne have had a similar problem.

Right Hand Drive?

Correspondent, chum and former colleague Peter is researching toy bus ticket machines and in so doing is gathering a small collection of Bus Conductor sets. fbb craved such a joyous toy in his childhood, but Santa repeatedly failed to deliver! Here is one from 1949 made by Betal.

Note particularly the toy version of a Bell Punch ticket machine. For those younger than ancient, you peeled an appropriate ticket off the rack and punched a hole in its edge showing, for example, stage boarded. The machine collected the "holes"  The real thing also recorded total number of passengers carried.

The machine uttered a strident "ping" to confirm that the punch had completed its work. Peter also sent a 1950s poster for a similar set.

Note the bus!

And with platform doors, too.

And  Betal?

A 1921 London street directory shows Joseph Glasman, toy dealer, in Salmon Lane, Limehouse, and Joseph & Hyman Glasman, toy makers, at 644 Commercial Road east, Limehouse.

The name Betal Works, chosen by Joseph Glasman, appears in 1938, with the move to Plaistow Road, Plaistow E15. This was the address until 1973; the last address was 10 Burford Road, Stratford. It has been suggested by Robert Newson that "Betal" represents "Beat All".

At the 1947 British Industries Fair, J & H Glasman (of Betal Works, Plaistow Road, London) exhibited again, "Manufacturers of Carpenters Tool Sets; Metal Toys Mechanical and Non-Mechanical; Carded and Boxed Tool Sets; Conductor Sets; Cowboy Sets; A large Variety of Outdoor and Indoor Games; Forts, Table Tennis, Needlework and Dressmaking Sets. Trains on lines. A large range of Kindergarten Games and Toys.

Ah, those WERE the days.

Another Day, Another Brand

Lancashire United Transport (LUT) was a tram, bus and trolleybus operator based at Howe Bridge in Atherton, 10 miles north west of Manchester. It was the largest independent bus operator in the United Kingdom until its acquisition by the Greater Manchester Passenger Transport Executive in 1976.

In April 2001, Stagecoach sold its East Lancashire operations to Fearnley's Blazefield Holdings. Soon after, these operations were split in two. The Blackburn, Bolton, Clitheroe and Hyndburn reintroduced the name Lancashire United and the remainder became Burnley & Pendle.

Route 152 ran from Preston to Burnley ...

... with various liveries and vehicles.

It gained a brand, The Lancashire Way, and new owners, Transdev; but remained the 152.

From today ...

... and after the now obligatory Twitter tease ...

... it becomes The Hot Line. Lets hope the heaters are working. Currently it runs every 30 minutes Monday to Friday and every hour at weekends.

But pleasingly, it will still be the 152!

A Sneaky Peak

The First Bus Dartmoor Explorer was registered to start later this week and run all year round. But, unsurprisingly, the start has been officially postponed.

Assuming good progress with vaccination etc. etc., and if Boris lets us out of house arrest, it could be that the service starts at Easter.

And this is its predecessor, the Transmoor Link.

More stuff tomorrow including this postponed person!

 Next Variety blog : Monday 15th February