Saturday Variety

Unhappily At Mapperley

And there it is, sandwiched between The A60 (GREEN) and the B684 (ORANGE) in Nottingham. Mapperley came to fbb's notice via correspondent Michael who sent this picture:-

The bus is at Mepperley Plains and stands at a South Yorkshire PTE "dolly stop". SYPTE does not serve Mapperley, obviously!

This (or maybe these) portable stops have turned up in many strange places and bus watchers assume they have been "assimilated" by road mending contractors.

Which reminds fbb of a song which comes from a long forgotten version of the Gilbert and Sullivan operetta "The Mikado". In this version Nanki-Poo adopts the persona of a long lost bus stop sign.

A wand'ring bus stop I

A thing of dents and scratches.

Installed at roadway's patches,

You spot me by and by!

My itiner'ry is long,

Through many counties ranging

And at locations changing

I sing my "stops here" song!

I sing my "stops here" song!

Michael reminds fbb that the route to Woodborough was for a long time in the hands of Barton ...

... until deregulation created its undesirable instability. The route was, for a time, operated by Premiere ...

... a company that expanded rapidly by accumulating a lot of tendered work, plus competing with existing operators - then went spectacularly phut in 2013.

Other contenders on the Woodborough run have included Notts & Derby and Dunn-Line ...

... and, for a time, Veolia!

Now, as you see above, Nottingham City Transport holds the baton with a "lollipop" route 46 and 47.

The routes offer a generous 15 minute headway over the "lolly stick" and every half hour each way round the loop.

The service does seem to have an element of stability under NCT "ownership".

But who knows where the errant SYPTE dolly stop will appear next?

But Michael has given fbb a little tease. He wrote that some shelters at Huddersfield YMCA Rugby League Club grounds were originally at Sheffield Central bus Station/Interchange/Pond Street.

But fbb can remember nothing like this at ANY bus terminal in South Yorkshire. Could Michael be wrong? Could fbb be wrong? (Surely not!). Can anyone "out there|" tell fbb where these shelters came from. They are in Sheffield Transport blue and they do look like bus station sized shelters.

A mystery to solve/

Red Sky Thinking (Not Blue)

Much on-line chat is being generated by the Sky Class buses now working Transfev's route X98 and X99 between Leeds and Wetherby. The route is not new ...

... this is just a vehicle upgrade for an existing service.

But Transdev's "Sky" class is super-duper posh. Passengers have been posting pictures with effusive praise for the luxurious comfort.

Posh comfy seats ...

... wood (effect) tables ...

... with slopy edges so your "stuff" can slide gently on to the floor/

They also have holes ...

... which might accommodate a cup of coffee if only one was available!

There is a view of the sky (hence the name - gettit?) ...

... and one passenger even reported the dregs of a basket of apples!

But (Shhh) don't tell the resident of Wethereby, Collingham, Linton and East Keswick; these are not new buses.

Here is SK70 BWO resplendent in its X98/X99 branding ...

... and here is SK70 BWO in its former garb as a City Zap bus zapping between the cities of York and Leeds.

The lads at Transdev have been extra canny with their sticky-backed plastic!

But the motors are still very swish indeed and a good upgrade for the Wetherby-ites! (Wetherbeings?)

1902 To 2022 ...

... with a swish commemorative brochure.

Happy Birthday Cardiff Bus

Penblwydd Hapus Bws Caerdydd

1860 To 2022 Contrast And Compare

A horse bus in Glasgow awaiting its passengers at the junction of  Kelvingrove Street (straight ahead) and Sauchiehall Street..

At this stage the land on the west of Kelvingrove Street was undeveloped.

Here is a similar view today.

Kelvingrove Park and the Art Gallery are straight ahead.

Get A MOOve On!

An extra passenger was found awaiting a train from Milngavie into central Glasgow. But, sadly for the potential bovine passenger, services were suspended whilst the errant ruminant was persuaded to wait elsewhere. Twits accompanying this picture were full of awful puns, but fbb suspects that MacDaisy was en route to Castlemilk or Cowcaddens. GROAN!

.Have A Break: Have a Bridge

Just delivered for fbb's now indoor model railway is one of these. It is an ancient Triang model (dating originally from the early 1960s) of a red brick road overbridge. 

It will form a scenic break on the extended double track "main" (???) line of fbb's layout.

For an ancient plastic model, the detail is remarkably good; note the modelling of the underside of the arches.

Some mortar grey rubbed into the brickwork and a proper road surface plus a few bits of invasive undergrowth ...

... will make it look good.

And so much better than anything fbb could build from scratch.

It is a joy to up-cycle these 60 year old models!

 Next Variety blog : Sunday 9th October