Silliness At Swanley (1)

Not Silly Yet - Sense with 477s

There was no date on this London Country Area bus map found on-line; but a careful perusal shows a route 477 from Dartford (top) via Swanley (somewhere in the middle) and terminating at Orpington Goddington Lane and occasionally Chelsfield (bottom left).There is no date on the map, presumably because that piece of historic information was on the front cover which is not pictured!

For the record, the 477 still runs between Dartford and Orpington today!

Please also note that there was a route 431 at Chelsfield which ran from Sevenoaks to  Orpington.

The 431 timetable was never frequent ...

... latterly degenerating into a Monday to Friday only service

The Challenge of Chelsfield

To get to Chelsfield today you have either the R1 which doesn't go to Chelsfield ..'

... but serves Chelsfield station; which, obviously, is nowhere near the village (station left, village at PH, right).

The R1 runs every 20 minutes and was once part of the Orpington Roundabout network.

The R3 does serve Chelsfield village, NOT Chelsfield Station ...

... and also runs every 20 minutes.

Today's operator of both is Metrobus with no sign of any local branding.

Neither route materialises in the somewhat confusing Metrobus web site. It is a good web site if you already know where you want to go.

It has been a nightmare sorting Chelsfield out and it is only by the grace of Robert Munster's bus timetables, Ian Armstrong's London Bus Routes and, via Ian, Mike Harris' bus maps. The R1 and R3 are London buses RED routes.

London Buses web site? No proper maps, no proper timetables, so USELESS.

After a slight modern diversion via Chelsfield, we revert to history.

Back To GREEN

The "477" area was, from the formation of London Transport in 1933,  a Country green operation.

The 477 itself was operated variously from Dartford ...

... and/or Swanley depots. 

The picture below shows the last conductor operated 477 on its final trip to Swanley, shown with its proud but saddened clippie no linger clipping but lovingly clutching his ticket machine.

It looks as if they gave him a Routemaster double deck coach for his final day!

You can get a model of the Dartford garage ...

... which didn't change much in later days.

Sadly this iconic depot has been demolished.

The 477 continued under National Bus Company ownership ...

... and still ran to Chelsfield where the terminus was the historic Five Bells pub ...

/// quaint but ancient.

Buses ran every 30 minutes all the way in London country bus days.

So, London Country South East became Arriva via Kentish Bus.

Arriva's 477 will feature tomorrow. 

 Next Silly Swanley blog : Tues 16 Sept 

Sunday Snippets

Bits and pieces that have arrived in the fbb in-box recently, but which don't seem to deserve full blog status.

Tesla Trepidation

As far as fbb can tell, Mt Musk's company is stepping back from its promise to make and sell fully autonomous cars; that is cars where no human intervention at all is required when making a journey other than, obviously, telling the vehicle were you want it to go.

It is not clear what "Full self driving (supervised)" actually means. It may mean that the car self drives happily BUT you have to sit in the driver"s seat, just in case.

That is probably a good thing for driver, passengers, pedestrians and the long term future survival of any vehicle. And yes, it will certainly make spending oodles on a Tesla not-quite-autonomous car something of a waste of money!

Stevenage Suffers

Thameslink and Great Northern are much, much slower. There is another problem. Passengers making short but speedy journeys from Kings Cross to Stevenage will then alight leaving seats free for those boarding.

No alighters may imply no seats for those wishing to join and travel northbound.

Needless to say, LNER is unmoved by the MPs protestations. It is equally unmoved by anger caused by its potty new fares system which neither fbb nor most of their customers can understand.

Whatever happened to standardisation and simplification under not-so-Great British Railways? Is fbb alone in feeling a distinct chilliness in the air as future nationalisation is (not) being implemented. The age old phrase of "moving the chairs around on the Titanic" comes to mind.

Well, it seemed a good idea at the time?

Athelstan - Athelstan Who?

We have no idea how reliable the picture is; it looks as if he were one of the monarchs posing for his picure to be used on playing cards!

Athelstan was an Anglo-Saxon king and the first ruler to be recognized as King of England, reigning from 925 to 939 AD, after unifying the kingdoms of Wessex and Mercia and conquering the Viking kingdom of York. He achieved this through military victories, most notably the Battle of Brunanburgh in 937 AD, and expanded his authority to include the whole of Britain. 

Nobody knows for certain where Brunanburgh was either! Anyway, the enigmatic and slightly mysterious Athelstan now has a ferroequinoligical claim to fame.

And the obligatory gaggle of school children all joined in the fun!

Nice crowns, kiddies!

Do You Remember Cinema Coaches?

fbb cannot say that he does; but a variety of these converted passenger vehicles was used at various times on the network. The above example is parked at Stranraer.

They were used on various promotional tours projecting good old 16mm publicity films. Did they last into the digital age? Surely not.

The good news is that one has been rescued, fully refitted and is now preserved. 

Maybe one of the model railway companies will produce an accurate scale mode in OO with a tiny screen at one end simulating actual films but via a USB input cable from a phone or laptop.

One thing IS certain. If one is made it will surely sell for a ridiculously huge sum of money and, what is equally certain, is that wealthy old men will buy one and drool over it as it languishes in their display cabinet.

Talking of Model Railways 2

The 900th celebratory issue popped through fbb's letter box last week. Apart from a few extra pages of nostalgia, the magazine was as varied and well produced as normal. Part of that nostalgia was illustrations of the covers of all the hundredth editions.

fbb was scared by this one.

What was scary was that it came out in 1959 ad was one of the first Railway Modellers that your author bought! He remembers it well, NOT! In a future blog, he will use the resources of the magazine archives available from Peco to see just what the 14 year old chubby but not yet f fbb was reading.

One product that he remembers and purchased was the range of Airfix kits.

fbb quite enjoys the nostalgia of being able to spot these kits, many of which are still available today from manufacturer Dapol.

Two Fancy Footbridges Feature ...

The 900th edition has an article about a narrow gauge model called Tan-y-Bwlch. It is a slight re-imagination of the former Festiniog Railway terminus. 

The real station has a footbridge now and the model has two.

One is very obviously a "kit bashed" Airfix model (now Dapol) ...

... whilst the other is somewhat disguised.

The bridge deck is home made, but the steps and bridge supports are clearly Airfix.

They are both very obviously still the same base model after at least 66 years of production.

Deep Joy!

More Internet Nonsense

The jet above is apparently passing about 30 feet above families enjoying some down time in a park near Heathrow. They seem oblivious to the plane, its noise and the danger of its too low approach.

That's because it is FAKE!

Here is the plane approaching the landing strip over the trees and some distance away.

Now it is closer and will pass high over the trees. 

The video clip which provided the stills follows the plane against a clear sky and loses the trees, so a direct comparison is not possible.

But the landing is normal and no more frightening than any noisy approach to Heathrow might be.

Ain't the internet just good, solid and reliable - NOT!

Tomorrow ,and for a few days, solid fbb (too solid some would say) will be examining green buses, blue buses, yellow buses and as yet colour  unspecified buses.

 Next Silliness at Swanley blog : Mon 15 Sept 

Coalville Crossing Confusion (2)

 100 Years Old

Midland Red opened their depot in Coalville in 1925 and, coming from the centre of the town to Snibston, you are obliged to pass the former establishment. The depot consisted of a substantial office block in Art Deco style ...

... with the company name and the opening date clearly displayed.

Of course there was a booking and information office as part of the block. Later, new windows were installed although fbb does not know whether these came after Arriva (successors to Midland Red) vacated the premises.

Back to the original with a better view of the booking office ...

... we continue a few yard further along the Ashby Road and there is the depot itself.

Again we see later modification after departure of the bus operation.

A more recent view from above shows a brand new roof throughout, which would have cost much fine gold.

The most recent view from the road shows the garage front completely infilled with panelling.

So, adieu 100 year old bus garage. Snivel, snivel!

What is, of course, significant is the change in the structure of bus operation over that 100 years. Services have been reduced, fares have risen by nearly three times the rate of inflation and many many more potential customers have cars.

How is the move to net zero going, then?

Some of the 100 Years Remembered.

Last Sunday, visitors arrived in good numbers to celebrate the centenary. Older visitors could revel in nostalgia for the good old days when red buses plied the roads of Leicestershire in great profusion.

Some would remember red buses with black roofs, usually gleaming cleanly for their role in long distance express services.

And they were luxury!

Thanks web site designers for telling us twice! fbb has not seen any photos of double deck buses at the event.

A good day was had by all - and there was a small reminder of the strong competition for the buses that would eventually change the industry ...

... namely the motor car.

Remember those railway tracks that were NOT controlled by the Coalville Crossing signal box?

The sidings once led back towards the town and made a junction with the Leicester to Burton branch east of the former Coalville Town station.

But where the thin black siding line crosses the BROWN road is, apparently, another level crossing. Indeed there are still rails in the road ...

... and gates no longer closing. This side is a footpath leading to Snibston Park. Opposite and also gated ...

... is another footpath on the former track bed. This leads, ignominiously, to Coalville's extensive car parks and, via a left hander, leads out on to the former A511 east of the former station and former signal box. 

Here is the path but Coalville doesn't overdo the direction signs.

So you would never know that this footway will take you along the route of the Snibston Colliery sidings and crossing Belvoir Road at Oliver's Crossing.

Oliver?

Crossing what was then known as Hugglescote Lane and because it formed the main outlet for coal from Snibston Pit it was much used, interfering for many years only with limited traffic. The lane was initially very little developed with housing but, as the town grew in importance industrially, more permanent gates were needed, served by an attendant.

The identity of many of the early “gate minders” is not clear but by 1881 Oliver Robinson, aged 62, was described as such. It is understood that he suffered an accident in the pit in the 1870s and was given this duty in compensation.

You wonder what Oliver would have thought if he could ever know that he featured in blogs about Coalville and was a star of the town's history even in 2025.

The above view hasn't changed much today, apart from a lick of paint on one of the shops.

 Next Variety blog : Sunday 14 Sept