The Budapest Children's Railway is correct with one minor "Poisson". The train driver is an adult, trained and employed by Hungarian State Railways.
Deutsche Bahn is in a mess, but the sale of Arriva UK is a "Poisson", although the company is available to purchase if you have the money.
Unless, under some form of inspiration, fbb is being unusually prophetic.
There is a pier at Wigan out of use on a canal. But, sadly, no ferry. If there were a ferry, you can be sure that Andy Burnham would want to gobble it up.
The Largs town service has been running since the happy days of Western Scottish. But there are no plans for Viking branding. Pity!
The new departure list format is "a thing" but no "high powered" review is planned - YET!
Hot News From The MafiaDom Juliano sent "the boys" around "for a little chat" and, yet again, fbb escaped with no injury. It appears that the Middlewich Mafioso Motorbussa will be "taking over" in Macclesfield once the Arriva mob back down later this month.
More details to follow soon.
First Bus Spends More On ElectricFollowing on from planned full sparks at their one remaining site in Manchester, First are going
to build in Portsmouth. Their new depot will be here on the site of a former local newspaper building.
In a weird twist of fate, the new depot will be right next door to the former Southdown garage at Hilsea.
Spot the lovely Portsmouth Corporation trolleybus wires.
Sigh.
The bus depot is now a block of flats ...
... but First Bus still uses the adjacent mini bus station for staff changeovers and to park a few buses.
What goes around comes around = yet again!
First's current depot, at Hoeford (Gosport), was the HQ of the former Provincial bus company.
Before that it was a tram depot. Remember when bus and tram garages had a proper canteen?
Very cosy at Hoeford in the 1940s.
A Book With Links To fbbIt has a cover price of £14.99 but plenty of on-line sellers have discounted deals. Indeed some are offering a "pre-owned" volume at about £2. Cheap as Chips!
The meat of the book is a collection of "then and now" (or then and later than then) pictures of locations on the Island. For a former resident or a reasonably frequent visitor these are a great delight.
The public transport content is limited in the bulk of the book, but there is a good selection of pages of snaps at the rear.
There is plenty of explanatory text throughout.
Here are just a few samples - and apologies for the poor quality. The day was dull and the reflection were intrusive. But if you want better, you can buy the book!
Here, for example, are three shots of Cowes "Pontoon" once the main entry point to the Island from Southampton via Red Funnel, but now only the High Speed terminal.
Next is a nice shot of a ferry at Lymington, back when boats tied up at the station platform - and, indeed, when there was a proper station. Today interchanging rail passengers are rare beasts.
There are some highly nostalgic coaches from the days when everybody took a Round the Island tour and dozens of vehicles would congregate at Blackgang like flies round a pot of jam.
There is a nice memory of Newport's bus station which, in the summer, was always busy with tourists not really knowing where they were going, all helped on their way by cheery inspectors.
Inspectors? What are they?
One of the railway pictures brings a tear to fbb's;s throat and a lump to his eye. Here is a line of the ubiquitous Isle of Wight tank engines (class O2) awaiting its fate at Newport after closure of most of the system.
There are two direct connections with fbb. Bus 628 was, for a while, owned by fbb's Westbrook Travel company ...
... and there's a map!
It started as a map on the bi-annual timetable booklet and fbb took it over, improved an updated it. After the old man's redundancy and reversion to teaching, "the lads" at Nelson Road took it back home and used it for a few more years. If was always in full colour, often on the back cover of the booklet.
One picture fbb has never seen before is of the depot and offices at Ventnor.
The depot came with the business of Nash's Coaches.
In 1962 the depot was rebuilt and a far less attractive frontage was still there when Streetview and fbb last visited. fbb has no memory of its older self.
For those who have a love and memories of the Island, a cheapo copy of this book is well worth the small amount you would have to pay for it - but NOT recommended at £14.99.
fbb's copy was a gift from a friend still resident at East Cowes.
Something A Little Different
Advertised by Hornby
yesterday!
Daft But A Genuine Product?
The above company is producing a model the iconic Titfield Thunderbolt train.
The company is offering a lavish "pack" at a modest £400.
The Titfield Thunderbolt Deluxe Pack
Limited edition with certificate of authenticity
Containing:
Thunderbolt, aka Liverpool & Manchester Railway 0-4-2 Lion (DCC Sound Fitted)
No. W68740, GWR Diagram AA20 ‘Toad’ brake van
‘Dan’s House’, aka GWR ‘Loriot Y’ No. 41989 with fictitious Victorian coach body
Commemorative booklet
Special Presentation box
Rapido Trains UK is delighted to reveal a range of models inspired by The Titfield Thunderbolt that will be available in time to celebrate the 70th anniversary of the film’s release in 2023. These will be the most accurate The Titfield Thunderbolt models ever produced and are being developed with full co-operation of STUDIOCANAL, which owns the rights to this seminal railway film.
Rails of Sheffield are discounting the "pack" to £350 (e & o e) - so a real bargain! The models are not yet available.
Meanwhile Hornby were due to produce their version; but have cancelled it!
Whilst Rapido's "set' is a model of something that did exist, albeit for a fictional film, their latest offerings never did.
Pearce and Crump were the operators of the local Titfield bus service which sought to profit from the line's closure. Its staff's attempts to thwart the reopening provides much of the narrative for the film. Rapido is also producing the bus from the film.
Only £45!
PLEASE NOTE
The next blog - more on Sadiq Khan's loopy Superloop idea, will be split into two chunks - one tomorrow and one on Tuesday - to allow time for our duplicate (today and tomorrow) monthly Fellowship meetings. (With lavish afternoon tea; egg'n'cress sandwiches, ham sandwiches, game chips, lemon drizzle cake and apple and cinnamon scones; the latter created by Mrs fbb, our resident head Patisserie Chef!). SUPER YUMMY.
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Before Power Point we used to call them "Visual Aids", a means of showing a class, a group of students or a church congregation what was gong on using pictures as well as words. After the "vision of Divinity" on the mountain, Palm Sunday said something special about Jesus.
Yes, he was super-human (above and beyond everyday humanity) but his coming was, in many ways, different.
He entered Jerusalem riding on a donkey. - a visual aid of a conqueror coming to conquer with peace.
Many people wanted their Messiah to be an anti-Roman freedom fighter, literally. But the Divine Yeshua ben Yusuf would not be like that.
Many people spread their cloaks on the road, while others cut branches in the field and spread them on the road. The people who were in front and those who followed behind began to shout, “Praise God! God bless him who comes in the name of the Lord! God bless the coming kingdom of King David, our father! Praise be to God!”
Over five centuries previously a Prophet called Zechariah wrote these words.Crazy coincidence ... or God's plan!
As they used to say back in the psychedelic sixties ...
But Yeshua (Jesus) was no wimp!
He was good at the Crazy visual aids and a really crazy one was soon to come.
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Next Superloop blog : Monday 3rd April
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ReplyDeleteFirst still use Southdown's Hilsea West depot and has used The News for overspill parking for some years.
ReplyDeleteTheir former depot at Empress Road, Southampton has been purchased by Go South Coast for use by Bluestar and GSC has been granted an authorisation for 154 vehicles. It must be about 12 years old.