Monday 12 September 2022

Monday Variety

 HMQ RIP

Translations of the foreign language in the above headline can be had via Google Translate, fbb presumes. He uses Mrs fbb who is very familar with the vernacular, Glasgow-style!

Mayhem in Manhester - Oh Yes They Are ...
... and again!

Oh, No, They're Not!

Well, some might be.

Because the Government, namely the DaFT, did not make its announcement in a timely manner, the cuts were announced before the extension of funding for a further six months was announced.

It is still not entirely clear what will happen. The changes will come just one month after the previous lot! Below, just an extract from NINE pages of revised information introduced at the beginning of September.

How to encourage passenger to return to the bus and, even more significant, how to encourage new customers to try the bus.

NOT NOT NOT NOT

Meanwhile, Just Across The Pennines

Then now-departed boss of First South Yorkshire, Nigel Eggleton, promised a 25% cut in bus services from October. Local rumour suggests that ony traditional cross-city routes will remain after about 1900 Monday to Saturday and all day Sunday. Many of the remaining services will get a frequency cut.

This scything of buses in South Yorkshire is due to happen in just three weeks.

People will be MASSIVELY affected.

The reasons are the same as those that presaged the massive Manchester cuts which now appear to be (mostly?) uncut!

South Yorkshire PTE has sprung into inaction to keep the passengers informed. This is what they tell us, as viewed by fbb yesterday evening.

October changes : Bus operators in South Yorkshire will be making changes to some services from Sunday 2 October 2022. An overview of the service changes and new timetables will be available on this page when confirmed.

So that's all right then!

Another New Model Railway Manufacturer

Planet Industrials (they do not say which planet, we assume it is Earth) was hithertofore a manufacturer of kits for OO gauge industrial locomotives. Back in the day this used to be a "niche" market for those relatively few modellers who recreated versions of industrial railways, e.g. colliery layouts, brewery layouts and the like.
But, in recent years, the mainstream manufacturers have begin to produce models which never worked on BR metals, merely shunted their wagons around the private sidings.

This is Hornby's 6 wheel "Sentinel" ...

... and they do a four wheel sentinel as well. The detail is excellent and a far cry from the original Triang Dock Shunter dating from the late 1950s.
Planet Industrials have announced their first ready-to-run industrial loco. It is a Kerr-Steward "Victory" tank engine.
Don't be silly! Planet Industrials do not "manufacture" this loco model. They are as much a manufacturer as fbb is a closet international Olympic gymnast! The company has "commissioned" the model from China (surprise surprise) and will market it under their own name.

Here is a picture of part of the assembly line, with the finished loco below.

Rails of Sheffield will sell it to you in one of five different liveries for a modest (ha, jolly ha!) £130.

The Triang Dock Shunter has probably the widest price range on EBay of any loco.

The £120 version does have a snowplough!

Talking Of Expensive 

You may have spotted an item in the naiyonal press about "three toy trains" selling at auction for £25,000. They were produced by ...
... who created small batches of mainly "O" gauge locos from his "factory" at Hangersley Hill near Poulner near Ringwood.
The houses are mostly super-posh, so fbb suspects that  Mr Beeson had a shed in the back garden!
There is still a house in the area called Wentworth.

He also made castings and other useful "things" to enable you to make your own models.
James Stanley Beeson (1907-1990) set up in business in 1924 and one of his commissions was for the manufacture of Pickfords' removal vans for publicity purposes. This led on to railways and at one time he was making locomotives and rolling stock for members of the leading North London, model railway club. By 1929 Beeson was supplying model trains for Hollywood films, unfortunately with them ending up being smashed to pieces. He went on to make locomotive models for British films, "The Rome Express" made in 1932, and Alfred Hitchcock's 1938 classic, "The Lady Vanishes".

Yup. That'sa model and it is a scene from the film!
But back when Mr Beeson was doing his stuff, men were men, railway modellers made models of railways and didn't send to China to obtain their requirements.

Nowadays the likes of fbb can just about manage without a rivet embossing tool!

 Uncertain content blog : Tuesday 13th September 

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