Caustic Comments & The King Of Prussia

 Please Note : The Philadelphia Red Line blog will follow tomorrow/

It's A Pub, Innit?

Seen above in 1919, it began life as a cottage built and occupied by colonial pioneers, Welsh Quakers William and Janet Rees two hundred years earlier.  Much enlarged, it became an Inn in 1769, conveniently located one day's horse ride from Philadelphia. It was the first overnight stop on a trek to the west. George Washington popped in in 1777.

Like Mary Queen of Scots in England and Robert Burns in Scotland, there are many, many places where dear George chose to lay his head!

In the 1950s the inn became trapped within the complexities of a new super road construction ...

... and for many years was boarded up and inaccessible. 

Under pressure from conservationists the pub was rebuilt in 1998, or, more correctly, MOVED in year 1998 ...

... and a video recorded the event!

It re-opened in 2002 but it is not clear whether it remains open and for what purpose. It doen't look like it welcomes visitors any more!

Neither is it entirely clear why and for how long it retained its regal name. There are several pubs called King of Prussia in the UK, amongst others at Finchley, Fowey and (below) at Heanor.

His Majesty must have travelled far and wide to enjoy a jar or two!"

A Pub That Growed!

Be that as it may, it spawned a growing community ...

... known, pretty much universally, as KOP! The community is notable as being host to the fifth largest shopping mall in the USA.

As you might expect, fbb is desolate that he will never be able to visit such an overwhelming example of retail therapy delight!

So More Purple?

But the Philadelphia PTA (SEPTA) has planned a branch from the Norristown High Speed (not very) Line to serve the immenseness of the very developed community of KOP.

The proposed line leaves the existing formation at the southern end of this lake via a triangular junction ...

... then wiggles westbound with five stations serving the KOP area. 

The route is mostly on expensive viaduct and the artists' impressions show big stations and, in one case, a big train (or big tram?)

Sadly, however, it will not be happening yet a-while.

They ain't got no money! 

A bit like Transport for London, SEPTA hovers on the edge of near financial collapse year on year. Here is what their KOP line web site says.

And, furthermore ...

Yep, just like TfL.

Congratulatory Comments

The above company lives on an uninspiring industrial b estate at Linlithgow.

But, despite this, they do get the chocolate peanut from fbb for recent customer service.

One of the delights of old age and decrepitude is that you forget to do things OR you forget you have done things OR EVEN you do things twice because you forget you did them the first time. It was the latter that caused fbb to receive two emails from Rainbow Railways confirming that his pre-order was now in stock and would be delivered in a couple of days.

Caustic Comments 

But fbb really only wanted ONE Caustic Soda tank wagon for his collection.

It was a Rainbow Railways exclusive and fbb now understands the game. You announce some obscure railway product, you collect pre-orders and, provided enough enthusiasts want to buy, you then commit to production.

Well, all tank wagon collectors would be desperate to get their hands on one of the above.

But not TWO, perhaps.

fbb emailed Rainbow Railways, apologised for old age and infirmity, and the very, very nice man agreed to nip down to the cellar, unpack the parcel of two, send only one and refund the erroneous payment.

He had no need to do any of this. Dealers have responded to fbb's bludners in the past with a "too late mate" message.

So thanks Rainbow Railways. 

It was actually dafter than the above, because fbb had ordered two DIFFERENT caustic tank wagons! The very nice man was anxious to know which fbb really, really wanted.

fbb had absolutely no idea - but guessed.

Would it be the nice blue one?

That would be fbb's choice, were he to be ordering the wagon today - but who knows?

For the benefit of his eager and excited readers, fbb will unbox the model in Saturday's blog.

A Gold Mustang

Apparently the Mustang in gold was rare back in the days of original Corgi. But now you can own one. It is an accurate copy complete with a reproduction box.

fbb can find no record of what the original cost, but guesses it would have been in the region of five bob.

The repro will cost £17.99, but, caveat emptor, someone on EBay wants to sell you one (pre-order) ...

... for a lot more.

EBay isn't always cheaper!

 Next Delayed Philly Red Line blog : Friday 16th Jun