Sunday Variety

Amazingly Incompetent

Any author, blogger, vlogger or illustrator never knows when he/she will need a picture of a cowboy riding a fully antlered stag through a picturesque autumnal forest. But when it is needed, there is no need to get a stunt man to ride a stag through said forest, you just get your AI software to make one up!

Likewise, you may want a snap of your prize pooch flying through a cloud.

AI will do the job. Well, it will if you "train" it fully and appropriately - which can be fraught with difficulties. 

Usually so-called AI users are satisfied with what a cheapo bit of low-grade software can create.

And below is a picture of a relatively minor  prang that befell a Greater Anglia Train. 

Just for the he record here is a sample of Greater Anglia livery ...

... and here is the AI picture that accompanied the on-line article.

'Nuff said!

This is a photo of platform 4 at Liverpool Lime Street; it shows the splendid overall roof in all its glory. It couldn't really be anywhere except the Scouser City!

But an article popped up on-line. It is about a proposed new service between Liverpool and Wrexham.

Is the picture below really Lime Street station or another example of an Available Illustration rather than the truth?

In fact it is correct! It is the gateline for Platforms 1 to 5 viewed from the passenger concourse ...

... probably bought by the newspaper group as part of a "picture library". It simply doesn't look like Lime Street and the proliferations of these inaccurate or inappropriate illustrations can make everyone suspicious of the reliability of the news.

So fbb was determined to check this one.

The coming together was "near Leominster" but at first fbb was suspicious of the train.

That's because he had forgotten about one of these.

It is a class 67 diesel, hauling four ex East Coast Virgin coaches with a Driving Van Trailer (DVT) at the rear.

fbb did not recognise the DVT, but that is because Transport for Wales is plastering them with multi-coloured "wraps". A train with DVT leading looks like this.

And the DVT is "wrapped"!

So now we can find the actual DVT which met the trailer in an unhappy place.

fbb would think the collision was at slow speed as the offending trailer was only propelled a short way from the gated farm crossing ...

... potentially very nasty, none the less.

It is not very comforting, really, to say that it could have been much worse.

On a lighter note, Hornby have, in recent times, sold a train pack of a Class 67 plus Virgin plus DVT set.

Without ugly "wraps"!

Not Quite Right!

fbb is often intrigued and sometimes saddened by the inadequacies of written English in the media. O.K., a blog is not intended to be Great Literature and even fbb favours a more conversational style than that in "War and Peace"!

But when a company is seeking to attract business, obvious errors can be off-putting. 

Norwegian figure skater Axel Paulsen invented the jump that bears his name.

For fbb, simple stepping on ice in stout flat shoes is very scary so the "Double Axel" is just crazy!

Many firms have jumped on to the 3D printing craze for model railway accessories. 

But this is the first advert for a piece of technology for use in an OO model of a skating rink (?).

Obviously non-working, these devices in reality can count the number of Axels in a figure skating display.

Sadly, fbb has no room for a skating rink on his layout but the models do look authentic.

Or maybe, bamboozled by more AI (particularly AI that cannot spell!), the old man has got the wrong end of the stick - or maybe the wrong end of the axle.

Is This An Accurate Illustration?

More in tomorrow's blog. 

We also examine fbb's latest tank wagon purchase, now removed from the surfeit of bubble wrap in a huge box!

Also, "It seemed a good idea at the time!" - The end of an era of Dubious Rambling Transport ...

... just A Click away!

And more news on Peterville carriage shed bodge improvements. The roof now fits ...

... hmm, fits better .... more hmm ... fits nearly.

This is how it was!

 Next Bank Holiday Variety : Mon 26 May 

Beyond Rose Hill ...

Great For Greater Leys?

Greater Leys is an extra "layer" added on the southern edge of the Blackbird Leys housing estate in Oxford. Clearly it needed a bus service and, like everything else in the city it attracted competition between Oxford Bus and Stagecoach Oxford.

In 2021, the route became jointly operated by the her two warring partners.

The route ran along Iffley Road, but instead of turning right to Rose Hill The Oval, the 3A pressed on in a huge hook shaped route to Cowley. Its early manifestation was somewhat complex in the Blackbird Leys area ...

... seen below in more detail.

Needless to say, the complex one way sections of road were unpopular with the travelling public who couldn't understand them. Neither can fbb.

Appropriately for everyone's sanity the toute was revised ...

... and in a further outbreak of common sense, became Oxford Bus only with a tasteful route branded livery of mustard yellow and bearing the name City3/3A.

Enjogying5 the flavour of mustard we have a sample of the Monday to Friday timetable.

The 3A became every half hour Mon to Fri to Cowley and every 15 to Rose Hill. The yellow timetable was in place before the route was simplified hence a time point in the Blackbird Leys estate proper.

But in 2025 we are now blue ...

... and a new timetable joins the new route.

Buses still run every 30 minutes all the way to Cowley ...

... but an extra service is added providing a bus every 15 min to the footy stadium.

On Saturdays, perversely, buses run every 20 minutes to Cowley without the stadium extras; and on Sunday every 30 min all the way.

Note that the 3A is timed at Rose Hill The Parade (the main A4158); the 3A does not serve The Oval.

This is better shown on the on-line HTML timetable ...

... where we see that The Oval has a service 3 every 15 minutes as before.

An Apology : fbb is not an expert on the minutiae of us services in Oxford and he apologises if he has failed to grasp some of the finer detail of the 3 and 3A. But the average reader of this blog will grasp the basics.

Under the new timetable above, the service has been improved with the extras on Monday to Friday, an increase from half hourly to every 20 on Saturdays and a doubling of the Sunday service from hourly to half hourly.

Lets take a look at the extended route. First call should be at the Science Park ..

... but the current map says it doesn't until the road works are finished. Google maps suggests it was OK.

Next call is at the Kassam Stadium ...

... followed by Greater Leys estate itself. Thanks to a design that is not bus friendly, stops are on a main road with the housing hidden behind a Berlin wall.

Soon, the 3A joined the Wallington Road and its light industry and shopping with a time point at Lidl.

The terminus is at Cowley Templars Square.

It is an indoor shopping centre plus Sainsburys and it looks really appealing from near the bus stops.

Its web site is full of information about parking and taxis ...

... but mentions not a dickie bird about the extensive number of bus services.

fbb does not think that the shopping centre or the site on which it stands ever held any delights for a clutch of monks in the style of the Knights Templar, but part of the area nearby is called Temple Cowley.

People are still looking for the Temple!

What set the investigative juices a flowing for the old bloke was a local Oxford press article..

It accompanied a picture of a bus on service 5.

So fbb read more.

So if it wasn't about service 5, it was about service 3A.

Having followed up the background and the current timetable fbb wonders about the figures quoted.

At a rough guess, the increased costs of running the improved 3A service will be at least 35%. A 22% increase in passengers from Littlemore and Sandford - only a tiny part of the 3A -  might equate to, say, a 5% increase in the overall passenger numbers.

We also need to remember that percentage increase statistics are hardly reliable. A 22% increase.might be from 5 passengers to just over 6!!

So, assuming realistic numbers,  who is standing the 25% (net) increase in costs?

From memory, a chunk of one or other of the raft of bus grants has contributed to the expansion of the 3A.

Value for Money?

 Next Variety blog : Sunday 25 May 

3 Unchanged Today - Mostly

The original Oxford City route 3 was a typical urban service, which might, as in some towns, have once been a horse tram or electric tram. Sadly, trams did not use Iffley Road ...

There was a service along the Cowley Road from which Iffley Road branched at "The Plain". Here are Horse trams near Magdalen College on "The High".

The last horse tram ran in 1914; the system was never electrified, largely due to opposition from the university colleges!

A horse bus service did run along the Iffley Road however. A horse tram (c/w plastic horse!) is preserved in the Oxford Bus Museum ...

... but the appropriately dressed young lady is real!

Maybe a motor bus route was extended into the new-build estate pre WW2? 

The modern map above shows the Thames Travel X40 (branded River Rapids) to Wallingford and Reading. 

Thames Travel is now part of Oxford Bus; the X40 runs every 30 minutes.

We saw the bus situation at Rose Hill in 1964 in yesterdays blog ...

... where we can spot Minchery Farm and Blackbird Leys as names familiar on today's map. A closer look reveals Cowley Centre ...

... Florence Park and Westbury Crescent which are less familiar. A Modern map shows Florence Park; Cowley Centre has become Templars Square ...

... and Blackbird Leys is now a large estate served by a big clockwise loop.

Alas, Westbury Crescent has lost its bus service ...

... which, back then, terminated at a small shopping centre on Kelburne Road.

Look, no shops!

Just to confuse you all, the bus at Rose Hill numbered 45 ...

... used to be Stagecoach 20 ...

... at least between Rose Hill and Cowley.

So much does remain unchanged in the "greater" Rose Hill area, at least broadly unchanged for the last sixty years.

Which brings us to the service 3A!

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Puzzle Picture

A day late but, hey ho, fbb was busy with his monthly meeting and leaflet.

The leaflet'spuzzle pages will follow at the weekend, but here are the puzzle pictures previously presented.

Underground enthusiasts may well recognise the well protected gubbins that drives an escalator ...

... but it is all very well hidden! You can just glimpse a huge drive wheel behind the protective grilles.

And here something similar is in the open.

If you are still doubtful or discombobulated, below is a 4 minute video which explains all.

fbb's visit to an escalator many years ago involved walking down the creepy staircase below the moving stair ...

... with the glorious gubbins at shoulder height.

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 Next Beyond Rose Hill blog : Sat 24 May