Saturday Variety

 Axonometric?

When fbb was searching for plans of Knightsbridge Underground station, he used the wrong word. Fortunately Google knew the right word and corrected the old man. fbb searched for isometric plans but Google insisted, as only Google can, that such plans were axonometric.

A casual user might use the word perspective, but it would be incorrect. Early mediaeval artists struggled to understand and create true perspective. So here, for the edification (?) of his enquiring readers ...

... is a perspective drawing of a cube. The front to back axes (noting that the plural of axis is axes  - axises if you like) can be extended to a vanishing point, viz the blue dot top right.

So here is an isometric drawing of a cube!

Edges drawn along the three axes all have the same length. iso means "the same", metric is measurement. [iso bar, a line on a weather map joining points of the same pressure; iso therm ditto for points of the same temperature; iso sceles, literally a triangle with two equal legs.]

There will be a test later in the week!

Axonometric is a drawing in which lines in any one axis (or axon!) are the same length, but not necessary the same length as other axises! (Pay attention at the back!)

So all these cubes ...

... and the Underground station plans are thus axonometric.

Maybe we should use iso axon  o metric instead of isometric - i.e the same measurement along all three axes as a "special case" of axonometric?

It is rare for fbb to come acros a word that he has never previously met. There are plenty where he has encountered a word but knows not the meaning; But the new-to-fbb axonometric is such a useful word to drop into conversation at coffee mornings, that fbb will keep it safe in his neurons, not axons, obviously.

Flyover Foray

fbb has previously featured the Camp Hill or Digbeth or Bordesley Flyover in Birmingham ...

... seen above with a collection of Birmingham City buses in attendance. In passing, he mentioned the Redcliffe flyover in Bristol which fbb has flown over but with a Bristolian chauffeur.

But both these have now been dismantled.

Our senior Isle of Wight correspondent visited on Thursday last. In response to the earlier blog he challenged fbb. "What about the Hogarth flyover?" he questioned.

fbb's response was a guarded "yer what!"

The Hogarth roundabout is on the A4 at Chiswick where the Great Chertsey Road (A316) joins the Great Western Road (A4).

An enlargement may help.

An approach from Chertsey shows how it operates.

There is a 3 ton weight limit and a 6 ft 6 width restriction, so no public transport can use it. A couple of London bus routes use the roundabout beneath the flyover.

The flyover wiggles!

... quite significantly over the roundabout. An aerial view makes it clear,

It was opened in 1971 and was a temporary measure. 54 years, and one upgrade later, it is still there.

It flies over in one direction only, west to east.

And the name?

The artist William Hogarth (1697 to 1754) lived in a posh pad right next to the flyover. Maybe the noise is why his paintings were so illustrative of indulgence, stress and decay!

Awful New Livery!

Contrast and compare. Below is a bus in the new Stagecoach "blue steel" livery ...

... and next, a typical Royal Navy staff bus in a similar but less shiny version of the livery.

Next we have a Stagecoach bus NOT in the new livery ...

... but even more ugly!

Ray was apoplectic in his rage at these prime examples of bad design! He did recover, eventually, after a long but uncomfortable lie down.

Another Stansted Bus

Over the years that have been many operators vying for trade between Stansted Airport and London. Do we remember Terravision?

Does "Stansted Express" still run?

Certainly Airport Express is still there.

The biggest operator is, of course, National Express.

But the latest arrival has a really silly name.

Flibco is based in Luxembourg.

Flibco?

Flibco, also known as Flibco.com or Flibtravel International, is a public transportation company that manages short-medium distance bus lines to airports especially in Europe. Flibco is part of Sales-Lentz Group (SLG). It is known in Germany, Belgium, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Hungary, Italy and the United Kingdom.

So now we know. Currently the Flibco service runs every 30 min 24/7 from Liverpool Street station via a stop at Stratford. Every journey is shown with a running time of one hour and eight minutes, all day and all night.

Seems highly unlikely to be so consistent in practice!

More stuff tomorrow.

Puzzle Pictures

Do you recognise this locomotive?

Answer tomorrow.

And guess how much one of these might cost ...

Or one of these?

Both (?) are available from Rails of Sheffield.

 Next Variety blog : Sunday 18 May