Is It A Tram? Is It A Train?
Is It A Tram/Train? Is It A Train/Tram?
It stops at proper stations like a train. It shares track with gurt big freight trains.
And there it is on ballasted train tracks!
Yep. It's a train!
Or is it? It tuns along the road with other traffic ...
It has red stoplights, four thereof!
It has yellow indicators ...
... and makes very sharp turns.
Yep - it's a tram!
But where are the wires?
Look closely ...
... and you can see the exhaust exude from an elevated rooftop vent.
It is a diesel tram with its engines ...
... in a lump in the middle of the two passenger carrying cars. Does that remind us of a UK train?
See the same engine "pod" in the middle.
It's about the most genuine tram/train fbb has ever met!
It takes its name from the Delaware River and runs from Camden to Trenton, the "capital" of New Jersey. At Trenton the tram train stops near (but not at) ...
... the main line station.
In Camden it is very much a tram with plenty of on-street running but a reserved track terminus.
For the record, tram/train frequencies are more like train frequencies running every 30 minutes.
There is no late night service because the track access deal means that freight still uses much of the line, but goods trains are restricted to 2200 to 0400.
The fares are "flat" and very cheap ...
... and obviously heavily subsidised.
Caustic Comments
It unblocks drains, cleans cookers and, in general, dissolves protein wonderfully. In industrial use it is sometimes called lye. In horror movies (and occasionally in real life) it is very good at dissolving human bodies, leaving a simple disposable residue of crushable bone remnants.
The stuff is really not nice; but has many positive uses in the food industry.
Revolution trains has made a model of a rail caustic soda tanker for sale by Rainbow Railways of Linlithgow. More correctly, Revolution Trains has commissioned the model from China!
It is an uncommon and specialist wagon (there were only 28 of them ever built) ...
... of which Rainbow are offering thirteen different versions, some differing only in the fleet number.
Let the unboxing begin ...
... with a well packed parcel and a quality box, typical of Revolution ...
... and inside - tada - it was the blue one fbb ordered!
And the model is magnificent! This is why Sam Turner (Sam's Trains) waxes so lyrical. The detail is impressive, but, to be honest, very few observers of any working model railway will ever see it. You would guess that the wagon's owner knows it is there and is proud of it!
Here are some snippets.
Full brake rigging almost totally hidden underneath.
Ridiculously small small print that no one can actually read ...
... beside a thin ladder.
Ridiculously small small print that no one can actually read ...
Proper petite preforations in the tank top walkway.
And, of course, sprung buffers.
fbb has never really understood why a modeller wants sprung buffers. They are important on the real thing for close coupling, but by far the vastest majority of OO trains are not close coupled. If they were, they would never get round the corners.
And, of course, sprung buffers.
Although the bits vary, depending on which model you buy, there are roughly 90 (yes ninety) separate parts to each of these wagons.
A bit more complex than fbb's very first tank wagon, Hornby "O" gauge tinplate.
The End Of Green Line?
Reading Buses is one of the very last operators to take the Green Line brand seriously for its routes from Windsor to London and Heathrow Airport.
The End Of Green Line?
Until now, that is. We now have two brands, each with the same label. fbb will explain.
Buses to London (route 702) are branded London Line ...
... with the 703 to Heathrow being branded Flight Line.
The London example has a rather surreal version of the Royal Albert Jelly Mould on its back side ...
... the bus being photographed outside the normally coloured reality! It's a bit weird for fbb's liking.
Both styles are sub branded (maybe sub-badged) thus:-
Even fbb will miss the Green Line name although, he hardly dares admit it, he has never ridden on ANY Green Line route.
Shame on the old bloke!
And Finally
The rebuilt and extended townscape at Peterville is taking shape. Here is the view from a drone launched from the station platform ...
... and an end-on view of Church Walk awaiting more planters and a bit of urban clutter.
Somewhere (indeed, somewhere!) fbb has a couple of Wills (a Peco company) market stalls to assemble and paint. They would look good in Church Walk, but ...
... will he ever find them? They came as a freebie with Railway Modeller.
Next Tarka The Otter blog : Monday 19th June
The Green Line name is actually owned by Arriva and Reading Buses has been using it under licence. They are citing "issues" with this arrangement, which presumably means they no longer wish to pay Arriva.
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