Sarurday Variety

Talking Of Articulated Buses ...

... in a previous blog we saw an experimental artic bus on service 56 to Wybourn (Sheffield). The bus service was labelled "Clipper", the brand of the very busy and very successful city centre shoppers service.

The free service was killed off by the politics of Margaret Thatcher and the buses were deployed elsewhere, notably on services to the new and exciting (YAWN) Meadowhell shopping centre.

Later a "standard" Mainline livery emerged whilst ..

... buses ran cross city to Batemoor.

But fbb was surprised to come across one such that went south to London town, where it temporarily joined the fleet of SelKent, then one of the London Buses' geographically branded companies.

Then route 180 terminated at Abbey Wood ...

... but now is extended to Erith ...

... somewhat further east than Abbey Wood.

Perhaps London passengers might not have been worried by a "funny" livery as the South Yorkshire PTE  moquette looks a bit like that of London Transport.

Oddly, Ian Armstrong does not mention the bendibus - although, as a try-out, it maybe doesn't qualify for a mention in his eyes? 

What does qualify is the somewhat brief appearance of Harris Bus on the 180.

Mr Harris' venture collapsed quite quickly!

Transport Policy?

What Transport Policy?

Any business needs to develop longer term policies for the future; and a big business, like the Railways of Britain, needs a long term strategy to give stability and purpose to its staff and its finances.

So what is Heidi up to?

A "hold" on the fragile coast route via Dawlish; and nothing has been said recently about the back-up inland route via Oakhampton.

The idea of completing the Sheffield electrification ...

... is paused yet again.

Then there's York!

And, obviously, we have the daftest mess of HS2.

Meanwhile the opening of the line from Bristol to Portishead is back on.

Plus a nice picture of the new station at Pill.

This tale seems to have been rumbling on (and off) for almost ever.

And the new station at Haxby (north of York) is back on.

And it has beem years of campaigning!

Then Andy Birnham has just announced more massive expenditure in Manchester, as usual with no idea where the money is coming from.

The plan is for two underground lines, one running north to south and one east to west ...

... both intersecting with a new and massive re-jig of Manchester Piccadilly Station. If the diagram is anything like real (it won't be) there will be a whole range of Underground stuff built at vast expense. And it will be at very very vast expense.

It seems unlikely that fbb will live to see it; if it ever happens. 

Both "Victoria Line" design trains underground ...

... or a "proper" full-size train link ...

... never materialised despite hype and promises in the past.

At least it gives something for the headline writers to enjoy ...

... even if the chances of success are "limited". 

Incredible is the right word.

Talking of Andy ...

In a recent soundbite, young Andy is quoted as follows, "Some people say that all we have done is paint the buses yellow." (factually correct - fbb) "But we have done much more. What is important is that we have taken control of the buses and trams."

Below is an example of "taking control of the buses and trams".

Well controlled, Andy!

 Next Variety blog : Sunday 13 July 

A Bridge Too Far (3) ...

 The Real Viaduct?

This video doesn't even mention the "longest bridge in he world", namely the viaduct from Danyang to Kunshan! But we are forced to admit that the line is spectacular, fast and,  apparently, successful. There are, however, rumblings about its cost and profitability with concerns from poorer residents about high fares.

Now where have we heard all that before?

But, now ...

... thanks to last week's "TV Choice"  listings magazine (!) we have our headline.

For this final blog in the series, fbb will attempt an overview of the "viaduct" section between Danyang and Kunshan,  part of the full route from Beijing South ...

... to Shanghai.

Remember that Streetview has not been allowed to view streets in China.

So we fly via Google Earth to Danyang North station ...

... quite a modest affair, really!

Next comes Changzou North ...

... with a bit more of a wow factor!

It is worth remembering that most of these communities have their non high speed stations as well, some of which are equally impressive but outside the scope of this brief blog.

Next we go to Wuxi East (pronounced more like "woo jee").

Note that all these stations have absolutely massive train sheds ...

... with oodles of room for trains and passengers.

But with 17 coach trains unloading and loading, you would need loadsa space!

Then Suzhou North.

Again, notice the wide piazza in front of the main entrance ...

... and plenty of car parking round the back.

Similarly, at the Shanghai end of the viaduct, we have Kunshan South.

Look at that roof!

Here we say goodbye to the viaduct.

Throughout the line, the engineering is spectacular, as below where the tracks thread their way through roads galore at the Xiajia river crossing.

There is a river in there, somewhere; honest. The high speed line runs from lower left to upper right.

And what of rolling stock?

Upon the line's opening, train sets running at a boring 250km per hour were used ...

... YAWN, a modest 155mph ... but now we have the luxury of the top of the range stock.

For a while these were restricted in speed - rumoured to be due to shortage of electric in the national grid! (heard that somewhere else?). But these beasts are now back to 350 kph max., namely 217 mph.

They look good inside too.

But hold on ...

... slumming it in 3 + 2 abreast seating?

It's just like commuting in London!

Or, maybe not!

Now here's an idea! Why not build a high speed line in the UK, say from London to Birmingham then on to the north west and Glasgow and the north east and Edinburgh. With high speed trains it would be much quicker that air, city centre to city centre, much much better for the environment and, as a Brucie boosty bonus, would do great things for our fragile economy?

How about it, Heidi?

The Transport Secretary has today (18 June 2025) announced that she will accept all recommendations from the landmark James Stewart review to address years of mismanagement and restore public trust in HS2.

First commissioned by the government in October last year, the report sets out evidence of the historic mishandling of HS2 including a lack of ministerial oversight and scrutiny, inadequate control of the project by HS2 Ltd, which will collectively cost the taxpayer billions more than planned. 

Without action, Phase 1 alone risks becoming one of the most expensive railway lines in the world – with costs ballooning by £37 billion and £2 billion wasted on cancelled Phase 2 works.

That’s why  the government has taken decisive action to get back control of HS2 including: appointing new leadership to reset the project, commissioning the James Stewart review, reducing financial delegations to HS2 Ltd, limiting what the company can do without government approval to place a lid on spiralling costs until the reset is complete and providing £25 billion in the recent Spending Review to support all of this work.

So that's all right, then?

Perhaps he could help?

Seems a nice chap?

 Next Variety blog : Sat 1 July 

A Bridge Too Far (2 - mini blpg) ...

 ... And It IS a Viaduct!

The only slight improvement in the truth from the above YouTube video is that it does mention a railway, albeit briefly! But thanks to fbb's somewhat brief researches on line, this blog can begin to redress the balance.

We are talking about the Beijing to Shanghai High Speed Railway.

A separate company runs the line ...

... but a selection of operators runs the trains. Doubtless they are all tightly controlled by the "assembly" which is equally tightly controlled by the central committee!

This logo ...

... is used for the vast network of high speed lines (coloured red) throughout the eastern half, the most populous area, of China.

On the above map, the Beijing Shanghai line is shown in blue to highlight its recent upgrade.

The above extract lacks detail and a simpler diagram may help. The Viaduct part of the route is outlined in blue.

The line is 1318km long (that's 819 miles in real money!); i.e. about 50 miles less than Lands End to John o Groats!

The fastest train of the day takes 4 hours and 18 minutes!

Pause for thought ...

How is the UK's High Speed rail network getting on, Heidi?

Wikipedia, as ever, outlines the line out of Beijing.

The Beijing–Shanghai high-speed railway (or Jinghu high-speed railway) is a high-speed railway that connects two major economic zones in the People's Republic of China: the Bohai Economic Rim and the Yangtze River Delta. Construction began on April 18, 2008, with the line opened to the public for commercial service on June 30, 2011. The 1,318-kilometer (819 mi) long high-speed line is the world's longest high-speed line ever constructed in a single phase.

Just in case our readers suspect a typical fbb musprant, please note that the line was built as one contract and took just four years to complete.

Such is the advantage of building railways in a political dictatorship!

Pause for thought ...

When will the very titchy bit of HS2 be up and running, Heidi? And how long will that have been in total?

Wikipedia also tells us what travel was like on an equivalent route in 1933.

In 1933, a train ride from Beijing to Shanghai took around 44 hours, at an average speed of 33 km/h (21 mph). Passengers had to get off in Pukou with their luggage, board a ferry named "Kuaijie" across the Yangtze, and get on another connecting train in Xiaguan on the other side of the river.

There are five very fast through trains each day and four, much, much slower overnight trips. The line carries about 53 trains a day, although the sources are a little coy about whether that is in one direction or two and whether such frequency applies along the whole line.

fbb had to give up searching for actual timetables as it was hurting his brain too much and he had used all July's tranquillisers already! His knowledge of the Chinese language is, erm, nil!

Tomorrow, your aged ferroequinologist will look at trains and stations on the route of the viaduct.

You will be impressed.

And So To Sheep.

Most readers will be familiar with creatures of the ovine kind and their preponderance in fields in the countryside.

Modellers of rural railways will usually scatter a few of these fluffy beasts around a very small patch of grass to create an impression of bucolic tranquility.  Small herds of sheep are readily available from manufacturers like Peco (used to be sold by Merit) ...

... and Hornby just for example.

But these sheep are made of plastic and are not really fluffy!

So now you can buy one of these ...

... for £60. It is a "static grass" applicator! First you paint the bits of your sheep black, bits like face and feet that don't have the fleece attached.

Next you cover the white bits of the sheep with glue. Then you electrocute each poor OO gauge lambkin ...

... by connecting it to the other end of the circuit from that £60 box. There is flock (bits of furry stuff) on the electrified plate on top of the box.

Due to the wonders of Humphrey Davey's invention (electricity!) the volts cause the flock to leap from metal plate and adhere to the pre-glued animal.

You now have proper fluffy sheep.

Squeamish sheep-lovers ne9ed not shrink from this process - it does notbyse9 mains voltage!

Why not just stick the fluff straight to the sheep without the expensive electronics? 

O foolish and ignorant sheep modeller! 

The electric "static" causes the fluffy bits to stick end on to the sheep, so they don't just look fluffy, they feel fluffy.

No, fbb won't be start plastic sheep farming at Peterville!

There is a rumour that the manufacturer of the fluff'n'paint kit considered including a small sachet of OO scale sheep poo c/w artificial non toxic aroma.

In the end this addition was not flavour of the month.

But surely a manufacturer will soon produce a sound chip of sheepish bleats; with a speaker to be buried in the field?

And a farmer whistling to his sheep dog with responding barks?

Perhaps using Faller road technology you could have sheep and dog running round said field.

fbb notes that wealthy and highly committed modellers will pay anything and do anything to out-detail their modelling chums!!

Talking Of Preparing Plastic Sheep ...

fbb is reminded of a Giles cartoon which your blogger enjoyed aged 10 in 1955, a General Election year.

The caption reads, "Watch the candidate pick up my little brother ... I've painted him all over with glue."

 Next Viaduct blog : Friday 11 July