Saturday Variety

 Any Colour As Long As It's Red

Under Brian King, Trent pioneered route branding beginning with BLUE and RED routes labelled R (for Rainbow) between Nottingham and Ripley. Nowadays that corridor  is somewhat more complicated ...

... and to help people understand, it has three routes, no route numbers and one name. The whole caboodle is "Rainbow One". And the timetable is ...

... potentially mind boggling!

At least the Red Arrow now runs simply from Nottingham to Derby and back. Below is a possible sequence of liveries (E & O E!!!). Firstly two shades of red with a gold arrow in a circle.

Now a bigger arrow in white ...

Now with black and grey appendages and NO ARROW!

At a recent "launch" the latest livery is revealed. Similar black and red combo, but ...

... with a HUGE yellow arrow. The "bubbles" on these last two are a poor version of Trent's multi coloured "bubble" logo - little used these days.

Of course, you do wonder whether a livery change that is as subtle as these really does anything for passenger numbers. Remember Marmite, Golden Syrup and Lux soap!

Also even more wondrous is a "launch" cake to celebrate the uplift in frequency to every 10 minutes.

Not sure of the date; also not sure whether bright red icing might have been a bit too yuk-making for a true celebration. 

Does fbb spot booze in the background?

Snippets

Bike Lane Bother

Buses in cycle lanes? Replacing a 70 seat bus with, say 40 tuk tuks? Buses belching diesel, presumably from a fuel leak? The internet is truly wonderful!

Scantily Clad Observations

This was a headline picture for a collection of dubious road accidents.

Was she on the motor bike? If so, why was she not wearing her leathers? fbb has a Utility that allows you to remove parts of a picture. So out goes the girl in knickers.

The dust cloud, minor fog occurrence, smoke or fly spray cloud, may also have been added by the confuser.

Who Are They Kidding?

fbb's prediction, if there any trains left at all, is ...

... something like the above.

The Three Bob Bridge

Yet another example for fbb's visual collection of cheap and cheerful Airfix footbridges (now Dapol footbridges) appearing in posh and quality model railways.

Web Site Wobbly Service

The Railway Model Store had an excellent short-term discount offer -one of the best! Hoping to come across something really good and really cheap (fat chance) for Peterville, fbb obediently clicked on Railway Model Store ...

Not the best offer ever. Fortunately you could continue shopping but fbb simply gave up in a sulk!

Ready For The Off

Our Tracy (ex Corrie star now demoted to Mega Mayor of West Yorkshire) will start running her own buses very soon. 

Will they be painted yellow as well as having a really silly name?

Too Many Weavers

Also of the avian kind!

Poisonous and piscatorial?

And an etymological eerieness ...

... that looks like something from the latest product of the Star Trek "franchise".

And there are three Overground lines, formerly home of the steam hauled "Jazz" service. now given the same silly name.

So, promoting her franchise, Tracy comes to the Weaver scene a bit late.

fbb doubts it will catch on, and the livery at the "virtual launch" is far too complicated and thus far too costly to apply generally. By the time our Tracy has paid for the tram's (?), there'll be nowt left in 't' kitty.

P.S. fbb could not "ackle" the link to a Facebook video clip, so a couple of screenshots are all that the incompetence unlimited fbb can offer.

And a bit of a tram; a Tracy Brabin pipe dream!

And a whole bus ...

... from the live launch.

See what fbb means about the livery! And he knows it was a "wrap" - but not a long lasting technological or financially viable alternative to a proper paint job.

 Next Variety blog : Sun 3 August