Sunday Variety

Luccombe Rhymes With Bowcombe**

Travel south from Shanklin town centre along Church Road and you might espy the above sign. You would need to be a local or have a good map to know that the side road leads to Luccombe Village. High up on the cliffs above the town, the "village" is a strange collection of properties, many being extended holiday homes.

But turning left for the Cheshire Home and proceeding to the cliff top you would soon join Luccombe Road itself. It has a varied collection of properties from fettled up Victorian mansions ...

... to strange-looking new-builds.

But soon posh properties end and you are on a narrow road going nowhere much. The views are gorgeous.

The road eventually peters out and becomes a slightly overgrown footpath.

A few yards before the bitter end are no through road signs (the whole of Luccombe Road is a no through road!).

Here Google Streetview gives up. But once there was a bus stop sign complete with timetable frame.

Yes, Southern Vectis ran a bus service to Luccombe; at least to the border of Luccombe, but no further. The route was via Shanklin  Old Village ...

... and then as described above. At the border it was a reverse before returning, usually with less than a handful of passengers.

There was even a street lamp at the junction!

fbb thinks he remembers that, for a brief while, a blue minibus (part of the Ryde Wanderer fleet) wandered up to Luccombe, but, as you would expect, nothing runs up the hill any more.

Alas, fbb never rode a bus to Luccombe, and, of course, never will.

** Although many Island residents pronounce the village Bowcombe as BOW (as in attire or hair decoration) CUM, old stage Vectensians will use the original Island pronunciation of BUCK-UM.

Puzzle Picture

As all blog readers will know (unlikely as fbb has never written about it!) Peterville Quarry Railway station has an extra platform.

This allows visitors to look round some of the more unusual carriages for which the railway is internationally famed. These include Pullman cars, a travelling post office and a sleeping car; heritage 6 wheel coached will soon be joining the display.

fbb bought a kit ...

... and added fencing from oddments left over from other builds.. The platform sat outside on the back yard layout for many years. But polystyrene (kit plastic) soon goes brittle in sunlight and some of the fence had not just gone brittle but had just gone!

Once the fence had failed the platform itself became unstable (long and thus flappy) and it, too fell to bits. So it was patched back together underneath in three places where no one would ever see it.

To support the replacement fence some form of strengthening was needed and that was the square section plastic rod shown on the puzzle picture. The fence was added and the viewing platform now awaits a repaint and, possibly, some lights.

There Be Dragons

It is not long ago that a retail butcher in Wales was told by the Trading Standards people that he must not continue to sell one of his speciality products ...

... namely Dragon Burgers, as they did not contain Dragons. Sadly he complied.

Likewise Irn Bru dropped its famous catch phrase ...

... because the advertising agency felt customers would baulk at drinking the girders! (Correct tag is "Made in Scotland frae Girders")

So it gladdened fbb's heart to receive a package of good things Welsh as an anniversary gift; a package which contained ...

... an appropriately named cheese.

fbb can confirm that the added soupcon of dragon meat in the mix made all the difference.

Blasus iaen!

Launched Today

It is a new lavishly illustrated book of London Transport nostalgia from the stable of Classic Bus Magazine.

The design in unmistakeably from the Bus Beautifier from the Bush (a k a Ray Stenning). It has plenty of pictures ...

... with plenty of informative text as well. Ray has provided advance notice via Twitter but (cunningly) not advance notice of the price.

But it will be all on line; well, the information at least. You will have to buy the book!

Sadly, fbb does not seem to be on Ray's mailing list for freebie review copies of his excellent publications. Hint, hint!

Bank Holiday Quiz Part Two

New trains for Docklands Light Railway.

Gunpowder. A tiny printed notice on the model says "This door is NOT to be opened without authorisation".

Roundabout was a brand for London Transport services in the Orpington area. The "R" prefix letter is also used for some routes in Richmond.

Birmingham New Street. Or is it really an ICBM silo?

First Bus operates in Didcot.

Transport for Greater Manchester bike hire service.

Children's Railway Budapest.

Newport station, Isle of Wight after the closure of most lines, just leaving Ryde to Shanklin to be electrified.

Superloop. Great name - it doesn't loop.

Repro of the traffic light tower installed in Potsdamer Platz (Berlin) in the 1930s.

Arriva Where?

Thanks to the ever observant Roger French who was amused by this bus.

In which part of Staffordshire was Roger travelling when he photographed the above Arriva bus?

Answer, Waltham Cross (just outside Leek?)

Presumably nobody at Arriva had the nous to simply peel off the wrong lettering. All you need is a hair dryer.

Aunty Frances Shows The Way

Frances May Searle, proprietrix of fbb's local bus service Axe Valley Mini Travel (long since using "proper" buses not minibuses) is keen on good publicity. As well as full bus stop timetables ...

... (no cop-out departure lists for her) a route map for the 885 has appeared.

Maybe make your place names a bit bigger when you reprint, Aunty?

But, unusually for today's bus operators, you can clearly see where the bus goes. 

It will never catch on.

 Next Livingston blog : Monday 17th April