Tower Transit 4 Tenders

 

Whoops!

Apologies to blog readers who push their keys or prod their phones from 0200 UK time.  Due to a glitch in fbb's brain, yesterday's blog was running 2 hours late, appearing at 0400.

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Remember this delightful bus picture? In April this year, Tower Transit bought Huyton Travel, operator of tendered services on Merseyside. Bus watchers interpret this purchase as preparation for franchising under the aegis of Steve Rotheram, mega Merseyside Metro mayor.

The company web site makes no mention of its new owners ...

... merely referring to themselves as a family-run firm since 1985!

As ever, your blogger exercises his cat-like curiosity to discover just what Tower Transit has bought.

"Plan a journey" takes you straight to Traveline ...

... but, disappointingly, the 'Timetables' panel takes you straight to the Merseytravel index pages ..,

... starting with their various services numbered 1! So it was not much help in fbb's researches. But one picture back on the start page was this ...

... where a click on "timetables" takes you to Huyton Travels list.

From there you are taken to the PYE's PDF timetable pages.

This revealed a whole raft of services in which HTL had a contract; fbb could not find any service which was operated by HTL outside its contractual relationship with the PTE.

Take this leaflet, for example.

The  headline credits the service to Arriva but the actual timetable adds "Merseytravel" to the information as part of the heading.

On the actual timetable, tendered journeys have an "M" symbol at their head   ...

... with a subscript note referring to HTL. This is the standard presentation for all the PTE's timetable information.

In some cases HTL is tendered to run the whole service ...

... as here with the 602.

... as here with the 602. But "the whole service" only operates evenings and Sundays. Presumably you cannot get to Newton Hospital Monday to Saturday daytime?

A look at the St Helens area map from the PTE reveals that the 602 ...

... is a near clone of route 22, one of those serving Newton Hospital. You would never know that from anything obvious on the 602 PDF or any explanatory note from HTL.

Does the PDF route map help?

in a word, NO!

Bad house point, Merseytravel!

Faced with his 81st Birthday next year, your diligent blogger could not engender enough enthusiasm to read every HTL timetable, because there are lots, including a whole raft of school services. By chance he came across the 111.

... where HTL operates the whole service.

fbb pauses to breathe deeply, aiming to control his excitement.

And here is the whole service.

Stunning!

Whatever; this is what Tower Transit has bought and, surely, the bus watchers are right. This should position the Ozzy company in a good place to attempt to win a block of franchised services from the new-look supremo operation on Merseyside.

Of course their fleet will have to be painted yellow and wear no livery variation other than that of the big cheese mayor.

Will the newcomer opt for HTL or Tower Transit as the minimalist operator guy name? Assuming, of course, that they win any of the tender battles!

fbb thinks the green is much nicer than a rather pallid yellow.

Most HTL buses are small ...

... some very small!

An occasional full sized single decker appears on line ...

... but you would guess that HTL/TT would need some better vehicles to comply with future tenders and Steve Rotheram's aspirations for improvements in frequency and quality.

Maybe, maybe not!

P.S. fbb has found just one example of a Tower Transit Huyton Travel logo on line ...

... It provides a link to a Facebook page.

And next, to Wales!

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Tank Wagon Concours d'Elegance ...

... from fbb's novel collection of European HO tank wagons branded for Shell.

It is pronounced Mare-Klin and NOT Mar-Klin because of the umlaut over the 'a'. 

The track is similar to 3-rail, but instead of a centre rail it has a line of studs poking through the sleepers.

A loco has a skate to collect the electric; it is long and slim so it maintains contact with plenty of studs.

Cleverly, the studs get a bit taller at pointwork to lift the skate over the rails.

fbb's tank wagon is almost all metal, including wheels and axles; typical for 3-rail.

As yet, your obsessed blogger has no idea of when the wagon was on sale or even whether it is a model of a specific prototype. Oddly there aren't many full size railway enthusiasts who collect and post pictures of full sized European tank wagons.

fbb cannot think why such a paucity prevails. But this one is similar.

Clearly it sits differently on its chassis. Again similar but not quite the same.

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 Next Tower Transit blog : Friday 21st Nov 

Tower Transit Three

Wrong Again!

Hornby did market a red-box 2-rail version of the Shell Lubrication tank wagon as seen above as part of a display by a collector. His obsesion appears to be a collection of every Dublo 2-rail wagon; amd all with their boxes. 

Strange things are done by enthusiasts in the name of their hobby!

And So To Guernsey ...

..which had steam hauled trams; then electric trams ...

... but they called it a railway!

One delight is/was a bus built to look like a tram ...

... and a preserved tram that IS a tram!

Later two bus companies emerged; being Guernsey Bus ...

... which also operated an open top service.

Then there was Island Coachways ...

... which had its own "area" - there was no competition!

Like its Bailiewick neighbour, buses were franchised and, again as in Jersey, they ended up with CTPlus, part of the doomed HCT group a k a Hackney Community Transport. The livery was now a very bright and attractive yellow and green.

Later, again in a neighbourly copy, this became trendy but far less attractive squiggles ...

Then, after HCT's demise, guess who won the franchise. Yes, indeedy, twas the Ozzy conglomerate Tower Transit. Although you would never know. 

The only logo appeared on their excellent timetable book.

So anonymous was the operator name, that the BBC, bastion of all that is reliable in newsgathering, reported that from April 2025 a new operator would be taking over from CTPlus!

WRONG! The taking over was from Tower Transit. So these buses are now operated by Stagecoach and managed as an outstation of their depot in Plymouth; a long way to go for a replacement floggle-toggle!

Before we leave the Bailiwick of Guernsey we should remind our readers of the Underground service on Alderney (top of map below).

And here is a train pictured on an open section before plunging into the tunnel.

OK, there is no tunnel. It is a short tourist line and the two-car set is hauled by a diesel.

Such ignomiy!

The train is from the Northern Line, 1959 stock, trundling along a 2 mile track which used to be for freight ...

... serving the Braye Quarry.

Sandstone trains used to run out on the breakwater for transferring rocks to to ships.

So Tower Transit was not too strong in the UK; just running buses in Jersey once London came to and end. Such is the might of global transport corporate growth.

But never mind, eh? Liverpool calls!

  Next Towei Transit blog : Thurs 20th Nov 

Tower Transit Two

The Same : But Not The Same

The bobby looks normal; the post box is standard ...

... although George lacks a regnal number!

The stamps look strangely familiar, but not quite.

Many of the street names are in French - Zut alors!

Its railway is now closed ...

... but the Island's buses had a distinct look of Southdown about them.

Many readers will have already guessed that we are exploring something of the Island of Jersey's bus service history; part of the British Isles with a typically British anomalous existence!

Jersey, officially the Bailiwick of Jersey, is an autonomous and self-governing island territory of the British Islands. Although as a British Crown Dependency it is not a sovereign state, it has its own distinguishing civil and government institutions; on that basis, it is regarded as a small nation or island country.

Its buses, run by Jersey Motor Transport, did indeed look very like those of the Southdown company ...

... although some of the fleet was very different!

fbb has tried to dredge from the cobweb encrusted recesses of what purports to be his memory something of the link between Southdown and JMT. It was minor, but did involve a copycat colour scheme.

Sadly for some, Jersey buses turned blue and cream ...

... much to the disappointment of the bus enthusiasts.

The, horror of horrors, the whole network was franchised by 'The States of Jersey" and the first winner was Connex ...

... and we remember what happened to them."

A new franchisee brought a new livery and a new name, Liberty Bus. The new incumbent was ...

... HCT a k a Hackney Community Transport ...

... and we know what happened to them. As the HCT group declined into ultimate extinction, a new operator was chosen, tada ...

The Liberty Bus name and livery was, however, retained. Tower Transit was just the operator of the franchised network.

fbb thinks that the coloured splodges are the sails of expensive yachts that fill the Island's harbours together with their expensive non bus using owners.

In recent developments, the Oz conglomerate has won an extended franchise contract for a further ten years. Needless to say the company has promised to improve services. 

Electric buses have begun to appear ...

... complete with the Tower Transit logo ...

... there above the driver's cab window.

Meanwhile, across the water in Guernsey ...

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fbb And Lubrication

Remember these?

Both were repainted and preserved as yellow Shell wagons as used in the UK, but, oddly, without the Shell logo. Their use is self explanatory.

Here is a Hornby Dublo model, which, albeit in different liveries, existed from 1938 until the company collapsed in 1964.

The model was all metal, although this one has been fitted with plastic wheels so that it can run on two rail track. fbb does not think it was ever an official Dublo two rail product. As with all Dublo wagons, the underframe was crude.

Triang had a better underframe, but with ugly oversize couplings. The basic model appeared in the late 1950s ...

... and had a metal chassis and coupling, plus metal rods as axles. The filler cap was hugely huge and made the model too tall! The yellow tank and black cradle were each one-piece plastic mouldings.

But some modellers have improved their Triang tankers with addit0ional wire anchorage, new couplings and a dob of red paint.

Painting the black plastic "cradle" in matching yellow was also a good upgrade. The owner should have added ladders, surely? For the record in this case, his chassis was newer, better and made of plastic.

That just leaves an ugly filler cap to sort out.

Interesting beasts, these tank wagons.

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 Next Tower Transit blog : Weds 19th Nov