Why 907? Why 908? Why 721? Why 725?
Yesterday, Roger French reported on the third and fourth new routes offered by Herefordshire. The route numbers have been chosen, presumably, to reflect the ancestry of route 724 which runs from Harlow to Heathrow. Green Line does have a noble ancestry, being the long distance limited stop coach network of London Transport.
The brand is now owned by Arriva although the owning company only has a couple of routes left, namely the 755/757 from Luton and the aforementioned 724.
The others are in the hands of Reading Buses (702/703) and Carousel's 103 which may be rebranded Green Line.
The network began its inexorable declined in the 1970s but services via Stevenage had remains pretty stable over the years. But they bore no relationship to the modern 724 or to the 721 and 725 newcomers! Here is the map for the 716/717 combo in about 1960 ...
... and a timetable for the remaining hourly 716 in the mid 1970s.
More on this in tomorrow's blog.
Top Travel Tips from Transdev
It is good to see some positive promotions from this group. Extra evening buses for Christmas ...
... and a chilly open top tour in Harrogate.
There's back end posters ...
... for Harrogate on a bus in Burnley livery! But best of all ...
... there is a printed leaflet to reinforce the back-end.
A Large Wee Knitting Bus
A delightful design from the Bearded Bus Beautifier from the Bush, no doubt sticky-backed plastic but very much a gorgeous Christmas jumper!
A Large Wee Knitting Bus
More Electrics In Oxford
Brooks Bus beautiful? GoAhead Oxford Bus won the contract to provide buses for Oxford Brookes University (the modern academic upstart, not the proper one!).
Fir those who are really ancient, like fbb, there are TWO Semesters in an acdemic year, not the three terms of old.
Three services are operated; the 100 U5 evert 20 minutes term time ...
and evey 30 in vacation.
There is the 400 U1 (also headed Park and Ride) every 10 ...
...which runs every 20 all year round.
Apparently the 400 (one of the original Park and Ride numbers) was merged with the U1 last year ...
... and the 100 is branded as part of the Oxford City network.
But quite why the 100 is also called U5 when there is a separate U5 ...
Be that as it may, Brookes Bus has some shiny new electric vehicles ...
... which look decidedly odd "under the bonnet".
And what an acedemically uninspiring livery. Didn't Brookes buses used to be blue?
Back to the Future
For most of his railway modelling, fbb uses either PVA glue (usually "No More Nails" or an equivalent) for wood, paper, card and bodging OR polystyrene cement for plastic kits. But some things don't stick using either of these.
Rarely he resorts to Cyanoacrylate (Superglue to you) but as it is very good at sticking fingers, hair and anything made of human tissue, he uses it with care and only when absolutely necessary.
And it is not very good on shiny nylon type plastic like the sleeper bases of OO gauge track. For this he uses two-part epoxy resin/
The idea of the Gorilla version is that the "two parts" are in separate tubes, expressed by a conjoined plungers then mixed together. That's the theory. But if you get the pressure wrong, or one of the nozzles is a bit blocked with old gunk, you don't get equal amounts to mix.
Which is why some bits of track did not glue down.
With memories of an old rhyming couplet which used to refer to a delicious adjunct to a savoury meal, fbb revrites the verse as:
Press and press the G'rilla bottle
First none will come and then a lottle! **
So it's back to another brand, good old Araldite. It used to be grey, smelly and really horrible to use but modern versions are now clear and almost peasant. So ...
Press each tube of Aradite
Mix it well and get it right.
Much better!
** The original was about the tomato sauce bottle before the days of squeezy plastic. It began, "shake and shake the ketchup bottle".
Next Hertfordshire blog : Monday 27th November
Reading Buses no longer uses the Green Line brand, it had been used under licence from Arriva but was discontinued when the new ADL Enviro400 Citys entered service earlier this year. The 702 is now The London Line and the 703 (which is managed and operated by Thames Valley Buses from Bracknell) is now Flightline 703.
ReplyDeleteThere are still *three* terms/semesters at Oxford Brookes, according to the timetable....
ReplyDeleteYou've slightly misinterpreted the 100/U5 situation! The U5 timetable you've got there is an old one. Now the 100 runs every 20/30 during the daytime from Brookes to Cowley then down to Blackbird Leys. In the evenings and at weekends the U5 follows the same route from Brookes to Cowley, but then goes up Cowley Road to the city centre. The whole thing together is the 100/U5. Noone except the students seem to really understand how it all works.
ReplyDeleteOr the U5 times you've got there might be the weekend offering, at second glance.
ReplyDelete