Saturday Variety

Trydan yng Nghaerdydd

Not only has Cardiff unveiled its fleet of single deck electric buses, but one of them is painted in a version of the old Cardiff Corporation brown livery. When teenage fbb passed through the Welsh capital on an all-line Rail Rover he and chum Alan caught a Trolleybus possibly (age dims the memory!) to Roath Park.

The trolleybus ride was a lovely experience, but the teenage traveller though the brown livery was truly dismal. The change to orange was long overdue!

And after a period of dark green it looks as if orange is back!

Talking Of Livery?

This oddity appeared from a twit recently.

It is standing on Commercial Street in Sheffield in pre-tram days. Is it meant to be in "Mainline" livery?

Well, the yellow os a bit too bright as is the red, and there are silver and lack bands missing, as is the "Mainline" name.

It is very fake! Someone has been playing with his computer.

Venerable vehicles like 959 FWJ never made it into Mainline livery, but some did gain South Yorkshire PTE brown and cream. And, lo, there is 959 so adorned.

Look closely at the yellow and red version and you can see the original "SY" logo at the front between the decks and the original South Yorkshire lettering, as shown above, the brown skirt in the real thing.

Not Fake Pictures

In his piece on the closure of the Northern Line City Branch, fbb was forced to publish some very fake pictures of buses on the rail replacement route 733.

Thankfully, Roger French has been to have a look and, tada, he has taken pictures of the real buses on the 733.

Got to "Bus and Train User" to read his fascinating full report.

Confession Time!

On Thursday, fbb was invited to give a talk to a group of "mature folk" at Seaton Methodist Church.

The talk was illustrated with about 100 computer slides, to be projected on the white painted wall of one of the church's meeting rooms. It took fbb about two days to create the visuals. They were, to be modest, of very high quality!

fbb set up his equipment and pre-focussed the first slide before The Chair started the meeting with hymn, reading and prayer. To hide the slide while the formalities were in progress, fbb placed a hymn book over the lens of the projector; the aim being to remove it when his talk commenced. Here is just a sample if the stunning (?) visuals:-

The talk was a rip-roaring success, although nobody threw money. Sadly. near the end of "the show" fbb realised he had talked with boundless skill and enthusiasm (as usual) with much audience back-chat, BUT ...

... he had not removed the hymn book and no pictures could be seen by the congregation!

Collapse of stout party! Very stout party!

P.S. The group confessed that they had enjoyed the talk and were looking forward to his next visit on 10th March - with or without pictures.

Hornby Catalogue Review

Way back when, Triang introduced a model of Stephenson's Rocket.

It appeared in various packages ...

... some with only one coach.

Coaches were also available separately.

There was much excitement when the "new" Hornby announced that it would be making a completely new Rocket set for its 100th anniversary. The much improved new set would appear in two forms; as a "heritage" Triang pack, matching the original ...

... and a not-quite heritage pack, branded simply "Hornby".

There was speculation that extra rolling stock might appear to allow modellers to create a complete model of the Liverpool and Manchester Railway with a full selection of wagons and coaches.

And indeed two more "wagons" appeared, followed by a new train pack.

Of which more tomorrow.

Next Variety blog : Sunday 23rd January