Rails' Bargain Bus No 2
It was only after fbb uploaded this picture to the blog that he realised that the model was mucky! It came without box or packing of any kind, so came from Sheffield stored in one of fbb's spare pair of shoes. Presumably the shoes contained significant quantities of sock dust!
Anyway, it is a "C" registered AEC Reliance with the long-window body (Three big, one medium and one small.) The only picture of a similar bus that fbb can find is one in National Bus livery..jpg)
There are plenty in the Green Line (genuine) livery but although a later "K" reg, they have the shorter windows..jpg)
This is not the latest quality of model (it has intrusive body pillars and painted skylights) ...
... but, for its age, the detail is very good indeed.
The headlights are poor by modern standards. Here is the rear end ...
... and some detail of the lettering on the side.
Again, the ugly splodge of silver paint would not be tolerated for a model created today.
It is a sobering throught to look back at the equivalent Dinky coach from fbb's childhood.
fbb never had enough pocket money for such wonders.
Ot is even more sobering to look at the price being asked on eBay!
.jpg)
.jpg)
Yikes
The Reliance model sports a route 711 destination board ...
Top class information, eh?
So here is the Mon to Sat version of the 711 timetable from way back then.
Note that there was no messing with the 24 hour clock in 1958. Note also that the running time as the same all day long! You don't get that today!
Ah, the joy of sitting on a Green Line Coach for three whole lovely hours is unimaginable! All the way from High Wycombe ...
... to Reigate.
Russian Roulette
It will ever catch on, you know - much like those weird oiler buses that some say will replace our trams!!
If the text is too small for your peepers (it is, as posted, for fbb's) the tram has already done 400kn without passengers and will start carrying real people from September.
Happy 70th Birthday
In 1954 a growing Triang company moved its model railway production to a brand new site at Westwood, Margate, Kent..jpg)
Six years later a delightful little tank engine appeared in the catalogue. It was not of any particular real locomotive but it had a character of its own. It (she, of course) was called Nellie!
The body was moulded in a rather strange blue plastic and it was powered by the iconic Triang X04 motor. It went very fast, very fast indeed, due to ludicrous gearing. Some clever people calculated that at full tilt it was doing a scale speed of over 200 mph!
.jpg)
fbb coveted one, having yet to learn, as a new Christian, the dangers of breaking the 10th commandment.
Clearly sales of the scandalously cheap tank engine were good, so a second blue loco appeared named Connie.
As the years passed things changed somewhat. Connie became yellow ...
... and was joined by Polly ...
Other versions of these locos arrived in the catalogue, this time with numbers, not names.
... but essentially this little shunter remained physicall the same.
As fbb became more able to spend larger sums, his interest in model railways faded somewhat. A teaching career was challenging and jolly hard work and along came Mrs fbb and, in due course, three children.
But the old man still kept an eye on the model world, watching Hornby go bust, the take over of Hornby (in name only) and the subsequent insolvency and later rescue of Triang, now called Hornby!
At some stage in this process Nellie, Connie and Polly disappeared from the product list and the toolling was confined to a Margate Skip.
But the memory was kept alive by a little known version of a Gilbert and Sullivan operetta. Called "The Margato". It was set in China amenhotep amongst the growing overseas production of Hornby model trains there.
This song from the operetta may ring a few bells.
Three little trains from Kent are we
Pert as a loco well can be
Filled to the brim with railway glee
Three little trains from Kent!
Everything is a source of fun.
Nobody's sad wit0h what we've done!
Ours is a joke that's just begun!
Three little trains from Kent!
Three little trains who, very wary
Come from a fact'ry, Chinese, scary
Free lance, not for a detail "hairy"
Three little trains from Kent!
Three little trains from Kent!
Three little trains to celebrate come —
Three little trains for a low price sum
Nostalgic joy, they beat the drum
Three little trains from Kent!
Next Variety blog : Sunday 21st July
'Ah, the joy of sitting on a Green Line Coach ...' Indeed. As a youngster, I can well remember taking the 711 to High Wycombe from Surrey. From here it was possible to take a Thames Valley bus to Henley-on-Thames. Later, in 1967, the 727 route (hooking up Gatwick and Heathrow airports) was introduced. This was to provide the means by which I took my first girlfreind from Reigate to Luton, thence a local bus to Whipsnade Zoo. Oh the glamour...
ReplyDelete