"Golden" Holiday Memories
Above: the beach at Combe Martin; below a couple of coastal scenes snapped by sons on their local walks, locations not known. (Immediately below, Valley of the Rocks??)
It was wonderful countryside.
Dateline Tuesday 26th April
Arlington Court
Given by its spinster owner Rosalie Chichester ...
... to the National Trust in 1949, the house is more eclectic, more personal than many similar posh pads.
Miss commissioned models to commemorate the Dunkirk evacuations and these are displayed along a small back corridor.
fbb is fairly sure that she did not acquire the Great Western Railway nameplate on displayed in her "museum".
It was accompanied by pictures of the actual loco, from the Saint Class. None of these engines was preserved, so the keen folk associated with Didcot Railway Centre decided to build one.
She is given the fake number of 2999 and called The Lady of Legend.
In passing, fbb was uncertain whether the weather station parked in one of the rooms would provide accurate forecasts.
Likewise the Regency scaffolding tower was surprisingly modern in construction.
A highlight of the Arlington Court site is the NT's national carriage museum. Mrs fbb trudged the Devon mile or so round trip to enjoy the remote exhibits whilst fbb chickened out on the grounds of holiday fatigue and creakiness. But the collection is well worth the trudge.
This one looks better without the Regency plastic sheeting!
Now one of those would be a delight for the ride back to the gaff at Combe Martin!
One small exhibit amused fbb. It was an ancient projector, apparently showing slides of life at the House in past times ...
... and changing automatically, too. Sadly, when fbb peered round the pointed end, there was the real projector hidden in the display cabinet.
Beeline Buses Born Again
The Bee Line was a chunk of Alder Valley buses re-jigged for privatisation. The name re-appeared later under the ownership of First Bus.
Now the "brand" is resurrected yet again for the much diminished First Bus operation based in Slough where the passengers are shared with Thames Valley, once a constituent of Alder Valley but now a brand of Reading Buses having more recently been Courtney Coaches.
Yes, it is VERY confusing!
A new livery is beginning to appear on the buses ...
... and there is a Beeline timetable booklet.
As usual, the company tells us how wonderful it is
The new booklet is excellent as far as it goes, but surely a booklet showing First and Thames Valley's network together would be better; and might even encourage more people to travel b bus.
Service 8B also caught the old man's eye.
More in the "normal" Weekend Variety blogs.
Re-Inventing The Wheel?
A fascinating article in the May edition of Modern Railways ...
... suggests a very cunning plan to get more pennies into the railway's widely assorted piggy banks; carrying parcels on passenger trains.
fbb wonders what the brand might be called. How about ...
... with parcels offices called Parcel Points? ...
... and signs at stations.
It is a wonder nobody has ever though of this scheme before.
And railway model collectors can start saving for a whole new range of coaches and wagons.
And Who?
Obviously a huge yellow dog with a blue nose is a vital part of public transport PR. But what and where.
See It, Catch It, Sorted.
Remember Centrebus route 1005 ...
... in Leicester, a school service. fbb has been told that it is a "contract number" but is displayed on the bus so the kiddies using it to get to their influx of academe know which bus to board/hail/run after.
Isn't that what a "normal" route number is for?
Next End Of An Era blog : Friday 28h April
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