Metro and 2 Stations (mini blog 2)

Tyne And Wear Has A Metro ...

... with shiny new trains and plans for extensions, notably to Washington, currently lacking rail transport. 

This picture popped up on line ...

... of the 'northbound' exit from Newcastle Central station from way back. fbb says 'northbound' which is true for the main line to Edinburgh which turns left after leaving the station. But trains to the south via Sunderland and the coast leave turning right. In the good but very old days the junctions were complex.

So was the signalling. A driver would need excellent route knowledge to read the pegs; even more skills to read the flickering oil lamps at night.

The best place to view the junction is from the Castle seen here from the platforms in ancient times.

And a map.

So here is a later but elevated view, but still in the days of steam.

On the right are North Tyneside's electrified suburban lines. 

We move on to diesel days ...

... when slick suburban electrics became standard diesel units. The junctions have been simplified. 

With the arrival of the Metro, those suburban platforms were taken out of use ...

... and the junctions further simplified. 

The main line to Edinburgh is now electrified and the Metro is below ground ...

... approaching the station via the Queen Elizabeth bridge across the Tyne.

Today the trains look like this!

The Blue one is similar from Lumo (First Rail).

Puzzle Picture

The picture above is of Sheffield 'Midland' station from way back before the onslaught if the motor car. Here us a view showing the new fangled electric tram tracks!

In both the above shots notice the serried ranks of terraced housing on the steep hillside.

The station gains a name board for The Midland Railway ...

... later to become British Railways.

Note that in the above, vehicles had access to both sides if the undercover area, with a central walkway in between.

Improvements were made to the station environs ...

... and the low quality terraces have been replaced by what turned out to be low quality Park Hill flats. Fortunately, plenty of greenery has been left. Note also the bus stops, conveniently close to the station. Now they are inconveniently further away, located in the middle of the fountain.

The fountain is replaced by a more lavish water feature ...

... where the bus stops used to be.

The whole of the covered station access roadway has been glazed ...

... and given a new floor for a lavish ticket hall ...

... and passenger circulating area.

BUT ... bus interchange is all further away from the trains. Here is a view as fbb knew it as he settled into academe in the Steel City.

Bottom left is the terminus of Sheffield Transport route 60 which conveyed folk right into the town centre, to the University, uni halls of residence and to the fbb home near the Crimicar Lane terminus.

The terminus remained there ...

... well into PTE days.

The main city stop for this important route is now a tedious half a mile from the station platforms.

Such is progress!

But closer to hand is the tram stop which is located at the eastern exit ...

... and at the end of the main station footbridge. The tram is not as frequent as the 60 used to be!

Sheffield does not have a Metro and not much of a suburban train service.

Tomorrow we go loopy!

  Next SL11 blog : Wednesday  4th Feb 

Metro and a Station (mini blog 1)

 Mentioning Metro

The name originates from the above, a privately owned and developed London Underground company that we now know as The Metropolitan Line (the purple one).

Sometimes known as 'The Met' in publicity ...

... it later spawned Metro-Land, a developer of housing to be home to the people who would fill the trains!

But the soubriquet faded somewhat when the whole collection of London Underground trains, trams and buses became London Transport in the 1930s.

Meanwhile, in Paris, the name stuck!

It gained an extra letter 'i' to make it French!

Now the use of a word, which once meant "pertaining to a large city", is now world-wide stretching as far as Cardiff ...

... where the brand is already being part of 'the conversation'.

Glasgow is on the case as well ...

... using thr Metro brand as a hook on which to hang a fully 'franchised' and  'integrated' network. fbb intends to look more closely at the plans, but at the moment it seems very much like one of these floating past.

But today's  blog Metro is this beauty.

Dubbed the Austin miniMetro, it was introduced in 1980 and a sweet little thing it was.

fbb's  first ten driving lessons were in a British School of Motoring (BSM) Triumph Herald ..

... but he drove about half a dozen different (legally but not far) cars before his next and final set of 5 lessons in some sort of Datsun. Yes, he passed first time! 

Big 'Ed.

But BSM's later car of choice was the Metro. 

Oxford Die-cast has just introduced a cute model to OO scale (1:76) ... 

... and cute is the word. Its detail is amazing at only two inches long in the old money. BSM had moved on from enlarged 'L' plates; so the old bloke, wallowing, yet again, in nostalgia for a long-lost youth, sought corroborative reality.

It looks like these two may be 'preserved' but one lacks the blue stripes ...

... and another lacks the pyramid on the roof.

But there was one photo that matched the model.

From the quietness of the street and the other car lurking in the background, this may be a contemporaneous coloured capture.

The model is  pricey though, and at £10.95 will not be gracing fbb's layout!

Vanguard made a BSM Triumph Herald roughly suitable for 'O' gauge ...

... but with enhanced appurtenamces.

And A Station ...

... but which one?

Readers may remember this from previous blogs ...

It is the approach to Nottingham Victoria at Weekday Cross junction, arriving from London Road High Level.

So is this, but from a different angle.

But what is a 'peak' doing on the Great Central? Gricers please explain.

Or fbb might ask you about this station.

However, below is the station fbb will be looking at in tomorrow's mini blog.

The main structure of the station is unchanged today ...

... BUT ...

... Where are we?

And A Bit Of  Puzzle?

Readers may wish to amuse themselves by trying to explain this ever so genuine photograph supporting an on-line "news" item. The word 'news' should be treated with a pinch of salt ...

.... or perhaps more than a pinch?

Why doesn't the bicycle (between the two cars) have any handlebars?

What item is being ridden by the two people on the right?

What is being celebrated by a blue-white-blue flag and a purple-white-red flag, neither of which exist in any vexillological database?

And does the person with the dangerously enlarged head need some kind of medical treatment before squeezing into his car?

Finally, what has anything in the picture got to say about French driving licence changes?

There may well be some Appalling Implications!!!

  Next Station blog : Tuesday 3rd Feb 

Steve's Sensatiional Service (mini blog)

Emotion Commotion

Apparently it is 'not the done thing' to take photographs at funerals, so the above is from an Undertakers' sales brochure. But last week was a bit of a roller-coaster emotionally. It was Chris's funeral on Friday; he was one of the fbb's fellowship regulars. Then as they arrived at Church they were informed that Stan, another stalwart, had died that morning.

Both were elderly and with health problems and both will be glad to be meeting their God in eternity.

fbb is reminded of a sound bite from former golfers Berhard Langer.  He said ...

When a non-believer dies he passes from life to death; when a Christian dies he passes from death to life.

But it has been busy few days, so readers will excuse mini-blogs until Wednesday 4th February.

Warrington Or St Helens?

It's is a bit of a challenge to grasp where the eastern border of Merseyside actually falls. St Helens us IN, bit Warrunton is OUt. The border is the thick dotted line in the map below.

On the right is Warrington Cheshire and on the left we have the fringes of St Helens district of Merseyside Metropolitan County. Their thick blue line is the M62.

The Council Leader in Warrington is Hans Mundry ...

... and the CEO is Sarah Smith.

She look far too jolly to be a Chief Executive! Meanwhile we all know the boss man in Merseyside ...

... Steve Rotheram, everybody's hero and favourite yellow bus fanatic. So when fbb saw this news snippets on-line we was convulsed with ecstatic excitement - well, mildly interested anyway.

And the accompanying picture was, of course, of a yellow bus!

It would appear that Steve isn't paying - or maybe is paying much less subsidy that such a new route might need.

The Omega Business Park straddles the border between the two authorities and is already bigger than the nap above shows. It has a surprisingly good service from the centre of Warrington ...

... running in a somewhat wiggly fashion via tradition town housing, Buses on route 13 run every 30 minutes Monday to Saturday ...

... with a minimalist service on Sundays. Clearly buses run at shift pattern times ...

... rather than, as would have happened in the past, to convey worshippers to their diverse ecclesiastical destinations.

So that's Warrington sorted. Now, what is Steve providing for residents of Merseyside who may wish to get to the Omega Business Park.

Already running is the 921 ...

... striking off east from St Helens. The timetable is very 'shifty' but does run seven days a week. The route is circuitous.

The route attempts to serve all the main warehouse blocks ...

... even crossing the M62 to get to Omega North.

The bus used to look like this ...

... before it was painted grey.

The 922 starts today!

It wiggles from the north ...

... via Burtonwood, Omega North, Lockheeds Road then over the M62 to its terminus. It serves much less of the collection of warehouses than the 991. Here is a view with Omega North in the foreground.

With the first set of franchising contracts due later this year it is good to see that Big Steve is already making those significant (?) improvements that the new bus broom has promised to sweep in.

Folk will be able to get to Home Bargains at any time of the day as long as it is early in the morning, briefly at lunchtime, or later in the evening.

fbb's guess is that most employees will go by car!

Sorry, it's a distribution centre, not a retail store!

Tomorrow ; a Metro and a Station.

P.S. Steve will be heartbroken, neither operator will run yellow buses!

 Next Mystery Mini blog :Mon 2nd Feb