fbb's Summer Advebtures 1C

Rotten One At Otterton Part 2

The 57 "parent"

In recent years Stagecoach 57 has run from Exeter to Exmouth and on to an Exmouth suburb, Brixington. A few years back fbb attended the launch of the 57 as Stagecoach Gold ...

... with an enhanced headway of every 15. But the Gold eventually tarnished with a reduction, after a while, to every 30 min. How the gilded mighty are fallen!

The 57 is now back to every 20 min, but no longer runs through to Brixington.

That privilege now rests with route 99 ...

... recently enjoyed by Roger French as part if his blog series travelling on all the routes numbered 99 in Great Britain. Such a project almost makes fbb's collection of tank wagons seem normal.

If you are desperate to relive the delights of a 57 to Brixington, the evening service still runs through, but changes its number at Exmouth to 99 as shown by * on the timetable above.

The 157, 257, 357, the children

The 157 was our service from Sidmouth to Otterton, seen above at Exmouth. The service 157 is hourly, but for passengers from Exmouth there is an additional hourly route 357.

Let's hope they get a better bus today!

The headline also mentions a 257, for which fbb could find no photographic evidence. A recent (but maybe not current) timetable shows us a school journey only.

It is likely that the 257 no longer exists ...

... certainly not in the Stagecoah catalogue.

When planning his schedule for last Thursday's trip fbb was very surprised to find that, according to the Stagecoach web site,  the 357 offers journeys from Exmouth to Sidmouth.

It doesn't serve Sidmouth! 

Well done, Stagecoach!

So, if the 357 doesn't go to Sidmouth, where exactly does it go?

At first glance it looks exxactly like a 'short working' of the 157, with just a trundle along the main road to Budleigh Salterton's Public Hall.

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Note the bus, far left.

But it has a diddy diversion in Exmouth ...

... via Cranford Avenue. Sarlsdown Road time point is half way along Cranford Avenue but, of course, Sarlsown Road doesn't feature on the map.

Devon County's network map is no help, as we shall see.

But, when we look at Traveline's poor route map ...

... there appears to be a large terminal loop totally ignored by the 357 timetable, above. So why cannot 357 passengers travel to the northern reaches of Budleigh Salterton.

Traveline takes them from the 357 on a 12 minute walk from the Public Hall 'terminus' ...

... or a six minute walk from the 157. But to add to the challenge there is an extra 5 minutes to find the Exmouth stop for the 157! Shouldn't they use the same stops? Oh, they do use the same stops!

Well done Stagecoach.

So, why does Traveline make you walk, when the bus continues on its loop?

Here's why!

The tinettable FROM the Public Hall does give timings fo the loop via Knowle, Greenway Lane and the Hospital. 

So why doesn't Traveline tell you to stay on the 357? Look at the arrival at Public Hall, xx50 Monday to Friday and xx49 on Saturday. [Question : Why the difference?] 

Departures are at xx07 six days a week. 

That means a wait of 17/18 minutes before continuing the journey to the beautiful backwoods of Budleigh! Traveline ignores the through bus because it is quicker to walk.

Spot The Where The Train Isn't

The 157 follows a different inland route upon leaving Budleigh Public Hall and aiming for Otterton ...

... but the Geographical map is better.

Cross referencing to Google Earth ...

... we can spot the foliage scar of the railway entering the map from Exmouth top left and leaving to run via the station-less Otterton top right. The line was quite a way from the town centre.

But, fbb is reminded, there is Stagecoach incompetence at Otterton, promised and, at last, revealed tomorrow.

Blast The Ballast, A P.S.

A few dobs of green paint have removed white blobs caused by over-enthusiastic toning down. The track under the old road bridge has also benefited from some rather garish green colour soaked into yet another strip of Mrs fbb's old bedspread.

So what's the drill, then?

It is propping up a tree while the glue sets. The tree kept falling across the track but needs to be in that position next to the bridge to hide non matching backscene - a typical fbb bodge.

You definitely can't see the join!

The garish green will be dumbed down by the application of some "scatter" material when fbb can find the box!

 Next Otterton blog : Thursday 13th Aug