Sunday Variety

 A Few More SMT Vehicles ...

.. And Their Ancestry

BYZ 6240 was First Bus YN08 LCV, seen below in Doncaster.

JMZ 7267 was SN57 JAO with First Midland Bluebird but seen below operating in Glasgow.

JSZ 2355 was YX09 AHD with First Solent ...

... and lived a long and happy life by the seaside.

JSZ 2354 was YX09 AHC with First Solent

Ditto!

These buses have all been given Irish registration plates, which suggests they were obtained from a dealer, rather than their former operator.

YY63 OEM was with East Yorkshire

Fractions Franchising

Summat's up in West Yorkshire, ecky thump!

In English, "Tier C" is school buses. So why is Y W C A (West Yorkshire PTE in the old money) cancelling contracts that haven't even started yet?

It would appear that one company was really miffed with the results of the tendering exercise.

The Franchising schemes are cruel because no credit is given to pre-existing operators. The bigger groups can usually weather the storm, although, currently, the winds of destruction are currently blowing hard on Arriva!

But smaller operators have little chance of recovery.

fbb has already reported on dramatic losses for the little boys, and big losses for the big boys in St Helens and Wirral. Meanwhile all is not going as smoothly as Andy would like to think in Manchester.

It looks as if West Yorkshire is off to a dodgy start!

It all makes you wonder at the wisdom of Darren Sentance and his fellow directors at SMT. They could lose all their business at the stroke of a pen held by an accountant in a grey suit ...

... who never travels by bus!

Give Me The Tools...

... and I Will Do The Job

fbb has stupidly downloaded an on-line catalogue from a company that retails items for model Railways. He has received the first "update" which tells him about all the useful accoutrements he needs for his modelling work.

Of course what every modeller needs is a stand that holds THREE pots of glue! Apart from a few screwdrivers fbb uses this multi-purpose tool!

Yes, a pair of Mrs fbb's old kitchen scissors! They weren't old when he first "borrowed" them!!

Under pressure from No 1 son, he has recently invested in a new voltmeter which he cannot use - the instruction booklet print is minuscule and very small. He solved a recent electrical problem by exercising pure logic. [Actually it was a good guess!]

The Southern Railway concrete post fence panels arrived yesterday and the stone platform face was glued on ...

... all achieved using those scissors!

No Go For Lumo

Lumo was hoping to add trains from Blackpool to its West Coast Stirling oeuvre - but "no room" say the Regulator, Slightly more disappointing is the failure of the Wrexham service. The previous attempt ended when Arriva took over Chiltern.

Talking Of Chiltern

A Strike is Threatened?

One strike day was yesterday with a repeat in a week.

It is all about one man operation on the East West route between Oxford and Bletchley, eventually (yes, eventually!) ongoing to Cambridge, 

Chiltern doesn't think it will make much difference as it is "managers" that will stop work.

You do wonder, don't you?

If the strike of "managers" is not going to make much difference, why strike?

You do wonder, don't you?

If the strike of "managers" is not going to make much difference, why have these managers?

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The fbbs are off on a  short break, tomorrow, to their old stomping ground, the Isle of Wight. Neighbours with a huge Husky will be overseeing the premises with the main security in the hands of Mr Tubbles.

Also please note.

fbb had his six monthly A R M D eye check up on Thursday last - no further deterioration which is good news.

However, the doctors have decides, after two years of rejecting the idea, that they need to hoover out fbb's cataracts.

The procedure is simple and routine but the implications for blog writing are, as yet, unclear. fbb has agreed to a short notice 'cancellation' appointment if available.

As the song says "There may be trouble ahead, but let's face the blogging and cope!"

Perhaps best not think about it?

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  Big Bus Small Bus blog : Mon 12 Oct