Sunday, 16 February 2025

Sunday Variety

Puzzle Picture

As is very clear on this picture untainted by fbb's cover-up of key text, the bus is run by Carousel, the GoAhead company now dominant in the High Wycombe area after the capitulation of Arriva. The pictures were first posted by Roger French.

Is it some king of route branding? Apparently not as this is a 103 ...
... and this is route 41.
Unless fbb's dodgy eyeballs are at fault, it would appear to be the same bus.

The vehicle was delivered in a grey livery for the now-abandoned "Connector" brand based on Didcot and operated by another GoAhead company, namely Thames Travel.
Maybe someone was "having a laugh" at the GoAhead paint shop? Maybe it was the same bloke that came up with the Ipswich buses strangeness of a few years ago?

VR to LA
Talking of oddball liveries!
A number of UK VR double decks found their way to Los Angeles for open top tour work. The right hand drive was preserved but, obviously, a new "offside" door was added.

There us more to come from L A.

Talking Of OTs
Confirmation posted recently of the crackpot decision made by First to abandon all their topless buses in Cornwall.
It is not that long ago that First set off a fireworks display of open toppers all over the place, including Falmouth (abandoned), Newquay (quickly ditto) and Exeter (even sooner abandoned; hardly lasted one season!).

It is hard to believe that there isn't money to be made from the glorious sunshine of the south west peninsula.

This smacks of corporate bean-counting accountancy management by people who don't understand what buses are for.

Anyone fancy setting up a circular Open Top route operating between Penzance, Lands End and St Ives?
First Bus deserves to be "run off the road" for a truly crackpot decision.

Positive Portishead?
Dan reckons he has got all the money needed.

Really?

Portishead Possibility?
Will happen?
The above picture shows the new footy stadium in the background, a roadway wiggle which is part of the Park and Ride busway-in-bits top left, and the new housing named Ashton Rise bottom left.
The site of a proposed station for Ashton Gate Stadium, on land left aside by the development of Ashton Rise.. The development of Ashton Rise, on part of an allotment site in Ashton Vale, was kept away from the railway line to leave room for a future station in the late 2010s. Passengers at the station could access Ashton Gate through the South Bristol Trade Park or on a level crossing underneath the Metrobus flyover.
The railway line IS the Portishead branch on a significant wiggle from the South West mainline which runs to Exeter and Plymouth.
Well now; it has taken about 25 years to get the Portishead branch re-opening to a stage where it might be funded and it might happen soon (that's a National Rail "soon", so at least five years once the get go gets going!).

So Ashton Gate station might be open by 2050?

LA Metro Merch**
Herewith some goodies available from the Los Angeles Metro shop.
Now there is a very signifcant fbb birthday coming up, so if any Angeleno reading this blog wishes to contribute to the fat bloke's joy and delight, a line diagram shirt with long sleeves (u
pper left) would be nice. At least XXXL, please!

**Merch - fbb understands that the traditional word "souvenir" (from the French for "to remember") is now supplanted by the above abbreviation of "merchandise". Ideal for fbb's special octogenarian Anniver!

A Mere Detail My Boy!
This is a "Clay Hood". It is an open railway wagon, pretty standatd, with an iron loop holding up a blue tarp to protect the contents - namely China clay from Cornwall.
You might be able to spot blue ropes dangling from the blue tarp.

Next we have an OO gauge model from Bachmann ...
... and an OO gauge model from Accrascale.
Thirdly we have an OO gauge kit from Parkside Peco.
Can you spot the detail missing from the two ready-made models? Probably not, but if you look at the right hand end you will see a faint black line crossing the diagonal white stripe. It is, modelled in thread, the rope that ties down the hood.

If those weren't there the hood would fly away and the wagon would flood, hoodless, with rain!

Now here is the latest N gauge wagon from Peco, It is 1/4 the size of the other models (by volume) ...
... and it comes with 6 rope ties each side.
Good, Innit?

 Next Variety blog : Mon 17 Feb 

Saturday, 15 February 2025

LA Metro Metro and Bus Bits 2 (mini)

Could You Ever Relax at LAX?

Airports are fascinating places, especially if you do not have to travel from them or to them! Just visiting can be OK. In the video below, some brave soul has walked from Terminal 1 at LAX round a gurt big loop to Terminal 8. Fortunately he has speeded things up a bit!

Here is the simplified airport layout plan by way of context.
"B" is a named terminal ...
... and is in addition to the 8! He doesn't get to "R".
Tom Bradley was a long-serving Mayor of LA and a strong proponent of good public transport. His bust stands proud near the terminal entrance.

Red Metro buses at LA
Remember this non-standard and rather posh bus stand at Universal? It is a remnant of a bit of  craze by the LA Metro management.

And here Mr Khan, mega mayor of the UK Metropolis, might well take note as he basks in the success (?) of Superloop and the excitement of the forthcoming Bakerloop.

The idea in LA was to create faster bus routes, operated Limited Stop.  They would not supplant the existing network, but be additional; giving faster journeys for longer distance passengers. The buses would have a distinctive livery ...
... and be numbered in the 7xx series. They would follow quick, direct routes mainly to downtown LA. So, please note Mr Khan, NOT Superloop but Superquick.

The first "Rapid" routes were given some bus lanes, priority at traffic lights and the aforementioned posh bus stops.
But most weren't. And, surprise, surprise, although they stopped less often for people, they still stopped just as much as before for traffic. It all wasn't helped when bus lanes were blocked!
We have heard it all before.

Most "Rapid" routes had disappared by 2020, with resources redeployed into the ordinary orange "local" network. A similar fate was to befall another jackpot idea by the Transit Authority.

Blue Routes Invoke The Blues!
Express buses used the Freeways for much of their route. (for "Freeway", read "Motorway" in the UK.)

Three, numbered in the 500s, still remain.

Observant readers may have spotted the 501 while fbb was exploring the Universal Studios stop.
The curse of contravision is alive and well in LA.

Note the abbreviated form of "North Hollywood".
The route, however, is presented as a very normal "orange" servicr, although designated "Express".

The 501 sort-of follows Freeway 138 as we can see from the route map from Noho to Burbank ...
... and on to Glendale.
Note the fairly substantial diversion from the straight and wide 138.

So, effectively, it is bye bye blues ...
... and the future's bright; the future's  orange !

There are big plans for public transport in LA in preparation for the 2028 Olympic Games. The state authorities are proffering a "car free" Games.

They will need to get a wriggle on!

Pre Trax to LAX?
Getting from central LA to the airport was fun. No 3 son used an "Uber" or similar. But there is a "Flyaway" bus from Union Station.
Buses run every 30 minutes.
fbb could not find an actual fare or details of running time.
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UK Puzzle Picture
Which operator? (NOT which group!)

Tailpiece
A visit by spaceship from the planet Zog failed to take its rubbish home. But the Zoggians did leave a message on their huge waste bin for the inhabitants of Planet Earth.
Thanks a lot, aliens, and thanks for travel instructions if ever we want to visit you!

Yes, you are "up there".
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 Next Variety blog : Sunday 16 Feb 

Friday, 14 February 2025

LA Metro Metro and Bus Bits 1 (mini)

Planning Lax At LAX?


Above is "Hangar 1", opened in 1928 and the first significant structure at what would become Los Angeles International Airport (Code LAX). By 1931 it had growed a bit, pictured here on a military display day in 1931.
It is even bigger now ...
Blog readers may wish to amuse themselves on a quiet February evening by trying to work out where the terminals are. This diagram may help ...
... as might this zoom in!
Strangely, by today's standards, LAX lacked a direct rail service of any kind until 2022. L A Metro Rail line C came close but new line K was planned to served a super duper LAX station opening in 2023.

Only it didn't.

Line K had a hole in the middle!
It's not quite an intergalactic black hole, but it is coloured grey.

This meant the there were two separate Ks.

Before we explore the deep chasm further, a look a short video to give a taste of what Line K, the newest on the system, looks like.
It has reserved track, viaducts, tunnels etc etc and is much more a light railway that the original blue line A.

Mind The Gap
Apparently the Gap exists because the airport couldn't get its act together in providing a connection between the Metro metro station and the vastness of the airport.
It's there now (just about) and the Metro metro gap filler will open (should open, might open?} later this year. 
But the people mover needed to get passengers from train to plane will not open  (should open, might open?) until 2026.
The People Mover is fully automatic (should be, might be?) ...
... and somewhat basic internally.
Presumably, typically overweight "Angelenos" can park their ample posteriors on the perches along the sides. The service runs on a squashed sausage shaped loop at a two minute frequency (Should run? Might run?).

fbb reckons that a 2 min headway is tight for loading people and luggage.

So what happens in the gap at the moment?
It's a bus innit?
It is a proper LA Metro bus with route number 857 ...
... a simple route map ...
... and a proper timetable; all filling the gap.
A ten minute frequency is on offer. So is this short video.
Line C will also extend to, and terminate at, the new station.
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Unbodging the Bodge with a Bodge
The idea was that those two sidings could be removed en bloc to provide fbb with a small work becnch. We have already seen that the hillock and trees are removable.

But fbb's over enthusiastic ballasting had gummed things up! 

So a new base was created using bodged bits of card (several thicknesses) and a good dollop of PVA glue. It was all weighted down with Mrs fbb's father's shop sticky tape dispenser. It weights slightly more than a double deck bus.
Once set, fbb began the process of re-ballasting with slightly less "panache" than before; seen below in the process of setting.
Sadly rhe set of two short sidings failed. The (relatively newly purchased) point had lost its "over centre" tiny spring which meant that it persistently refused to pass the electric to its sidings. fbb thinks he might have been a little too violent in pinging off bits of rock solid ballast and pinged off the vital spring.

Ham fitted idiot!

A new second-hand point is on its way from a well known South American river.

P.S.
No 1 son is 50 today! 
Which makes fbb feel very old!
But fbb IS very old!
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 Next LA bits blog : Sat 15 Feb