Copenhagen's Baffling Buses (1) ...

 ... Baffle Much Less

666 (perhaps unfortunately 'The Mark of the Beast - Bible book of Revelation!) was a number used for a special pop concert event at a Copenhagen stadium whilst ...

... 50E was an experimental trolley bus route.

But first, an apology. fbb reported that the overview web site only offered a journey planner and no maps or timetables. That's because the old man clicked on ...

... which was a silly mistake. fbb should know better than to try a web site labelled "public transport" and expect to find all about public transport! Silly old man.

Now, if only the incompetent octogenarian had looked at ...

... as above, he would have found everything he could ever want! Din Offentlige Transport is the "DOT" brand on the front of the buses. It means "Your Public Transport". (see front of 666 bus above)

Anyway, DOT has full timetables, easy to find if you know the route number and only slightly less easy to find if you use the maps. 

There is the Copenhagen city map we have met before ...

... with the airport area shown above. For those with a good retentive memory, note is made that a red line for an 'A' service has re-appeared. One of yesterday's versions showed all the 'A' routes in the area had been withdrawn.

So here goes with a full and frank expose of the bus services in Copenhagen.

Airport Route 36

Timetables are in the horizontal format which is OK once you are use to it.

Saturday service has a similar frequency with Sunday and official holidays offering a bus every 30 min. There is no route map, but a table showing roads served (left) and stops served (right) is useful if you know exactly what you want.

These are the standard City routes.

Special Route 5C

The deep yellow "network" colour is modified by big splodge of cyan.

In this case there is a detailed route diagram on-line but NOT on any of the usual web sites. It is headed Nyt Bynet ...

... which means something like "New Arrangement". But it might help us explore the route from North (Hospital) via the city to the Airport in the South.

Oddly, the bus has a layby on the opposite side of a dual carriageway from the hospital ...

fbb suspects that this layby is a new construction ...

... the bus having been pushed out of stops on the main road to make way for ...

... the forthcoming Letbane tram extension! 

There is the bus stop, inconveniently over there.

There is no obvious subway!

The 5C continues on its Airport trajectory ...

... serving two stations (St), Norrebro being for Metro and S-bane trains ...

... and Norreport being similarly multi-tasking. The Metro bit is splendid!

Next the 5C takes a loop ...

... to get to the main nattily named city centre stop  ...

... Hovedbanegården, Tivoli (Bernstorffsgade) which is the stop for the Central Station. Google Earth obliges.

Tivoli is variously described as a Beer Garden or a Pleasure Park ...

... which will look great when illuminated ...

... and provide lots of fun for kiddies of all ages.

Meanwhile, the 5C continues its run south(ish) to the Airport.

The route passes Anagerbro station on the Metro ...

... where line M2 has yet to come up for air!

The terminus at the airport is at a long roadside bus stop ...

... in full view of the terminal building.

fbb thinks the C of 5C stands for Cityline ...

... although no other service is designated 'C'.

The timetable is, to say the least, impressive.

fbb notes that it suffers from London Buses type "woolly" frequencies.  What does "every 3 to 10 minutes" actually mean? "Every 11 to 14 minutes" to the airport is even dafter.

The service runs all night, every hour from the Hospital, every hour from the Airport but overlapping to give a bus every 30 minutes in the core. There are no through buses overnight from Hospital to Airport|!

Tomorrow fbb will explore 'A', 'R' and 'S' brands.

The excitement is palpable!

 Next Baffling Buses blog : Friday 14th Nov 

Copenhagen's Confusing Cartography

Readers may have been wondering whatever happened to fbb's overview of Copenhagen's bus services. And like they say in all good RomCom films (and in many, many bad ones!), It's Complicated! 

If you stick to Metro, S-Bane and even the national rail services, there is just one map to consider.

It is up to date as it shows the tram, only opened at the end of last month.

But it does not show buses!

There are maps which purport to show everything, but, at first glance they are diagrammatic and assume at least some knowledge of the structure of the city,

Surely, you might think, there would be a web site giving access to all modes which includes a full network map.

Unfortunately, there isn't. This page tells you the link is unavailable and, even if you go by another route, the best offer is a journey planner, and a hapless mapless journey planner - in Danish!!

So fbb tried another approach, by sneaking up on a map via a less obvious route. He explored  maps for travel to the airport.

Some were really useless. There was a fares zone map ...

... which only showed the Metro and only as unlabelled thick lines.

But one offering looked hopeful.

Here was airport, Metro Line M2, buses 2A and 4A in RED, buses 5C and 350S in BLUE and 'Re' in GREEN. T.he actual bus roads are ORANGE, the Metro PURPLE  and the 'Re' BLACK.

But fbb was confused. If there were 2A and 4A routes, where were 2 and 4? Ditto 5C and 350S - and did these two look like different shades of blue?

Yep - even the dots for stops are differently blue; cyan for 5C and a Wedgwood blue for 350S.

fbb was quite pleased with progress at this point, until he came across a slightly more geographical version of the same area.

So the airport chunk (actually an island) of this map was duly enlarged,

The Metro is now dotty, the two blues are now appropriately coloured bus roads and the other bus roads are orange as before.

It would appear that the 2A and 4A have gone and we have a completely different network of multiple orange-line routes numbered without any  letter suffix.

BUT, taking a screen shot of the neighbouring area to the west ...

... there are 'A' routes shown as red lines! We have a red 1A, 7A and 9A, all clearly labelled intertwining with Metro (dotted) and S-bane (solid) black lines.

On the above extract we also have an orange line for routes 991 and 992!

They run along a white scar across the whole map. Or, on another version, you could have a dark blue line.

It is over enlarged, but you get the idea!

The first problem that fbb was able to resolve was the oddity of the suffix  'A'  routes.

One rather unhelpful version of the 'A' network was this ...

... which showed nothing in the "airport" area (map above, lower right area) whereas another version of the same map ...

... showed red 'A' routes in that area. So clearly the network had been expanded. 

Hold fast; none of these maps was dated so maybe the 'A' network had been cut back?

Yesterday was, indeed, complicated. Mrs fbb had booked a haircut for her chubby hubby, possibly as a result of Divine prompting as this coming Saturday (15th Nov) is men's breakfast at church.

fbb had committed to making some soup for lunch out of the weekend's leftovers.

Then, in accepting the invitation to a good breakfast nosh, fbb asked if there were any minor task where assistance was needed.

BE CAREFUL WHAT YOU ASK.

Yesterday evening, back came the reply, "Dear fbb**, our speaker cannot cone due to a very heavy cold, could you manage 25 to 30 minutes post nosh prognostication."

** fbb has summarised the e-mail with the explanation that the brekkie boss did use the old man's more conventional name and did not use exactly the words quoted above. 

To add to the fun, the laptop is unwell and this blog was concocted entirely on the tablet.

But, in amongst all the confusion, your frazzled blogger has managed to extract the truth from The Great Grimpen Mire of Mapping Mystery and will explain Copenhagen's bus network tomorrow.

But wait - it's complcateder!

430 R and 480 R?

R?

It makes the history of model tank wagons almost a relaxation.  But there are four more in 'Shell' yellow to examine.

None of them looks like the above!

 Next Copenhagen bus blog : Thurs 13th Nov  

Blogging Hidalgo Writes About Talgo

 Yer What?

Miguel Hidalgo y Costilla was a priest heavily involved in breaking ties between Maxico and Spain.  The word also means a nobleman of lower status, perhaps the equivalent of the English word "gentleman" as used in the past. fbb is, of course a gentleman in every sense of the word, but 'Hidalgo' has nothing whatsoever to do with this blog

But you try to find something that alliterates with Talgo!

It all started with this picture which emerged as fbb was working on his transport in Copenhagen blogs.

It shows a Talgo train being delivered to DSB (Danish State Railway). The loco is off shot to the left and between loco and train is a tatty freight car acting as a 'barrier wagon'.

Below is a picture of the very first Talgo train built in 1942.

Sadly this beautiful (or should it be this 'ugly') train was destroyed when a fire engulfed its storage shed. Here is Talgo III with minimal visibility for the driver.

And now we have one of the latest Talgo trains ...

... so clearly things have moved on a bit since 1942. Whilst most Talgo designs are multiple unit, with a driving car at each end, some are loco hauled.

So, basically, what is Talgo?

It is the brand name of a specific type of train technology inventd and first built in Spain.

The core of this system is under the carriages.

At first glance this looks like a 'train' of two wheeled bogies attached to triangular sub-frames. A simple diagram looks much the same.

But those purple lines joining each pair of wheels are NOT axles. They are part of the fixed triangular frame.

Each wheel is totally independent and that is what makes it a Talgo.

There is a clue in the name!

Tren

Articulado

Ligero

Goicoechea

Oriol

You can probably manage the first two - Train and Articulated.  Ligero is 'light' (similar to French 'leger') and the last two are the blokes that invented it!

The creation of Talgo can be largely credited to the work of Alejandro Goicoechea and José Luis Oriol. During the 1930s, Goicoechea, a pioneering railway engineer, sought to produce a new generation of rolling stock that would be primarily composed of metal, rather than wood; to reduce operational cost, he also emphasised lightweight yet sturdy construction, while a low center of gravity would deter derailing and thus permit higher operating speeds. In 1942, financial backing for the construction of a prototype train was provided by Oriol, which believed in Goicoechea's concepts. 

The low centre of gravity idea is clear from pictures, with the carriages looking squashed compared with the hauling loco.

You can see 'low' when the train is at the platform.

The independent wheel design is the key to low height - there is no bogie frame, springs or pivot mechanism to get in the way. The whole unicycle construction sits in a pocket at the coach end ...

... and looks fearfully complicated. But there is still only one wheel on each side at the point of articulation.

If we take the wheel set out of the bodywork, the arrangement becomes clear. (clear? Maybe slightly less baffling!)

The independent wheels are supported in a 'U' shaped frame with the vertical tubes holding the suspension. Conventional disc brakes are evident and, on an electric multiple unit version, you might have individual electric motors for each wheel. 

Now we can pack all this gubbins back in the coach.

Sadly, there is no room for the wide open corridor connection familiar in modern, more conventional, stock.

Some Talgos have their locomotive integral to the end of the train as here with a Deutsche Bahn IC version ...

... whereas the Danish sets will be loco hauled. The 'lump' at the end of the rake of carriages is because you need a 'proper' bogie; plus body height to help with aerodynamics.

As the operation of the Talgos progresses, a phase 2 will see DT (Driving Trailer coaches) ...

... allowing fixed formation trains with no tedious uncoupling of loco, just as used to occur on the UK's East Coast Main line.

Because of the larger loading gauge, seating is much more roomy than in the UK - ideal even for fbb's ample posterior!

The speed must seem immense as you are sitting much closer to ground level!

Very nice indeed.

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Star Trik Lego Breck Quiz

Part 2 answers.

First Officer (Number One) : Jonathan Frakes

Will Riker did play the trombone; but his instrument was of a more conventional trombonic form than Lego parts caun manage.

Counsellor Deanna Troi : Marina Sirtis

Spent her time doing the touchy feely stuff on the Enterprise. Eventually married Will Riker. 

Commander Engineer Geordi LaForge : LeVar Burton

He is blind with his sight restored by technology in his visor. In later stages of the Trek franchise he has had normal sight restored.

Three more to come - and a cat!

≈=======================

Tomorrow we return, full of wonder, to wonderful, wonderful Copenagen and its wonderful buses.

 Next Movia blog : Weds 12 Nov