Sinday Varoiety

Another Chunnel Challenger

fbb has already mentioned Virgin, but there is a clear aim to get back into rail big time! But it is not just Europe that is in the sights of Tricky Dicky. 

His aim if for darker and more fearful destinations.

He wants to serve Bolton!

At least one on-line author has suggested a new livery!

Hmmm?

Whatever happened to Virgin Cola?

And also joining the race to poke Eurostar in the eye with a sharp stick is FS ...

... Italian State Railways - but not from Italy. FS wants to compete on the Paris to London run.

Interesting - but we will have to wait until 2029 to see what it all looks like.

It's Costing Us WHAT?

The Zipper is a city centre circular for the delightful Cathedral City and one-time cider capital of the UK. Buses run every 15 min ...

... Monday to Saturday round a complex city centre route.

Would Hereford benefit from a better map? If so, fbb's your man!

The Council has announced that its funding will end in 2026, because the costs have been greater than expected. This is odd, because even fbb's minimalist accountancy skills could surely work out how much this service would cost. There should have been no uncertainties, and a prudent Council should have added a contingency for inflation and the unexpected.

Maybe they didn't do their sums correctly?

But the council is now saying that the route is not being closed down; "We are looking for alternative funding sources," they opine.

So if any of our keen bus enthusiast readers has a few hundred thousand quid going spare, just drop a line to the Council and make them an offer. The return on your investment will be ...

... not a lot!

There will, of course, be dozens queueing up to pay for this service ...

Puzzle Picture 1

It was a very youthful pre-bald Sean Connery!

Puzzle Picture 2

The kit started life in the early 1960s as an Airfix platform canopy self-assemble plastic model.

It was later branded as Kitmaster and manufactured by Dapol using the original moulds.

Carriage Shed Mark 1 started as a few lengths of old donated plywood with holes for windows cut with a high quality chisel.

The roof was made of FIVE platform canopies widened with extra plastic sheet.

The walls had plastic stone plating added and the whole thing looked OK. 

But, sadly, the ply did not survive the Seaton weather and the walls fell to bits.

And the plywood disintegrated.

Carriage Shed Mark 2

So new walls were added with new windows all in plastic. A new layer of plastic stonework was added. But the original roof remained.

The trouble with polystyrene is that it goes brittle with age; thus the move from outside and storage awaiting re-erection on the new layout left the vulnerable roof girder structure with some nroken bits.

Four needed mending with sections cut from parts of the new kits, but gratifying to see fbb's original creativity restored. 

It was very fiddly work - very fiddly indeed. This was an expensive solution to a small job physically, but far the best way. It will look better when painted - red oxide this time.

fbb will have loads of bits to use elsewhere, possibly for a canopy at the new halt to serve the extended castle ...

... when ...

Fanning The Embers

Strange name for a bus operator? It is also the name of some techie firm ...

... and an ever-useful PSU heated mug.

The bus operations started small with a short nip across the Firth of Forth; but has now expanded into a significant network linking ...

... Glasgow and Edinburgh with Perth and on to Aberdeen.

Ember does not publish any timetables so the only way to begin the search for omniboligical fact and truth is by downloading the App. But you can get a picture of the service in "real time" by watching little rectangles jiggle about on a poor quality road map.

The company has just announced its next expansion with four journeys a day to and from Fort William.

The route is now on the map but not yet provided with little jiggling rectangles. Services start later this month with extra journeys promised for "The Summer."

To encourage you to travel, all their buses (coaches?) are electric.

Nobody would ever fan the Embers if their vehicles were D**S*L powered, surely?

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 The Easter Jigsaw 

Pure Nard?

Also known as Spikenard. This flower is suffused in oil and used as either a perfume or a soothing balm. Particularly, it was one of the spices employed to anoint a dead body in preparation for burial.

Jesus was in Bethany at the house of Simon, a man who had suffered from a dreaded skin disease. While Jesus was eating, a woman came in with an alabaster jar full of a very expensive perfume made of pure nard. She broke the jar and poured the perfume on Jesus' head.

Some of the people there became angry and said to one another, “What was the use of wasting the perfume?” And they criticized her harshly.

But Jesus said, “Leave her alone! Why are you bothering her? She has done a fine and beautiful thing for me. She did what she could; she poured perfume on my body to prepare it ahead of time for burial.

She did all she could  - perfect service in anticipation of Jesus giving all he had - his life.

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 Next book review blog : Mon 14th April