Better Late Than Never (1)

The Power of the Press (1)

(mini blog)

The new service is NOT route 22!

The Leicester Mercury announced the above new bus service in its edition published on Wednesday 15th October. Thanks to our Leicester correspondent, David, fbb can provide the actual article ...

... complete with one of Centrebus' finest sloping at an alarming angle. fbb is assured that nowhere along the route will buses lurch so dramatically, but do hold on tight just in case! Unfortunately, David's phone camera skills were not in full functioning mode that day, so the actual text is a bit fuzzy.

But, showing true dedication to his blogging muse, fbb has waded through the morass of interrupting adverts, delivered to excess by Leicester Mercury, and extracted the salient details from amongst exciting news about foot fungus!

A new bus service has been introduced to link neighbourhoods to the north of Leicester with the city centre. The new Centrebus 21T service will go from the new Thorpebury in the Limes development near Barkby, down Barkbythorpe Road, Humberstone Lane, Barkby Road, Gipsy Lane, Catherine Street, and Dysart Way, finishing at the Haymarket Bus Station in Leicester.

The buses run every 30 minutes in each direction during the daytime, Monday to Saturday, with hourly services in the evenings and on Sundays.

Centrebus said the new service will make "travel to work, school, shopping and leisure activities more accessible for residents". The service is subsidised by David Wilson Homes, the house builder behind Thorpebury in the Limes.

So where is Thorpebury, obviously a new suburb?

It has made a tentative but anonymous appearance on an Ordnance Survey map ...

... being that blob of housing between the two yellow roads. We can see a bit more on Google Earth ...

... and it will probably have expanded further since someone put a shilling in the meter to power the Google Earth Satellite. 

There is, however, no mention of Thorpebury OR the 21T bus route on the Leicester network bus map ...

... just an unserved lane leading to Barkby Thorpe - presumably being the Thorpe of Thopebury.

The lane is marked on a map - faintly - but is busless.

The plans are extensive ...

... with the current area of development being bottom centre in the southern block as shown below.

Into this developing development comes Centrebus 21T ...

... on a route subsidised (heavily) by the developer.

Here is one at its stunning terminus.

Tomorrow, we shall look at the new route, its publicity and timetable and, interestingly, what we can glean from Streetview, Google Maps and any oddments published locally in Leicester.

There will also be a little surprise!

Tank Wagon News

Yet more on a topic which always excites our readers. Don't yawn too loudly! 

fbb has been collating the collection and labelling the shelves.

Depth of field problems mean that the labels are not a crisp as they might be in the pictures. There isn't  room to get all a head-on view without some significantly costly lenses and a proper significantly expensive camera.

The labels are small but need to be; as some of the shelves are quite thin! What has shocked fbb is that he owns a collection of tank wagons from 24 different suppliers.

There is some overlap as Triang, Triang Hornby and Hornby represent different ownership of the same range. But it is useful to think of them as separate suppliers. Some of these are retailers who have commissioned their own products from other mainstream suppliers. Note that the word "manufacturer" is now totally inappropriate, as almost every company buys in its models in from China! Only Peco and Dapol manufacture part of their product range in the UK.

But fbb has uncovered a small but intriguing tank wagon supplier mystery. 

Resolution will happen tomorrow.

A James Bond P.S.

Isle of Wight Alan emails to confirm that Roger Moore definitely did not drive the bus although he was pictured close-up at the wheel but VERY briefly. 

A senior London Transport driver, with a build similar to the star, was despatched to the location to do the actual driving.  Alan, who worked for Lindon Transport at the time, cannot remember the name of said driver.

Continuing tomorrow.

 Next Leicester blog : Tues 21st Oct