Sunday Variety

Big Cars : Big Kits : Big Price

Pocher is now part of Hornby and the company specialises in quality kits to make up quality cars. The kit consists of a collection of parts made from all sorts of materials appropriate for the model.

The models are BIG at 1/8 scale.

so, how much?

Gallo or rosso, the models are sumptuous.

fbb might consider a HotWheels F50  (scale 1/64) ...

... but he discovers that the on-line price is £72!

Another New Station 

The depot of the Seaton Tramway was developed away from the town centre terminus. The shed was not far from the site of the future fbb mansions.

The word was 'utilitarian ...

... seen here in the early days before the electric was installed. It was very much a working depot with a good collection of workshop clutter.

The decision to do away with the traditional terminus shelter much nearer the town ...

... meant that the depot became the new terminus during the construction ot the terminus' replacement.

Some enthusiasts felt the new building was not in character with the image of a 'traditional' tramway. And it wasn't.

The depot thus had a make over.

The line to the Seaton terminus curves round sharply and sloping to the right.

A further development has been to add another extra stop ...

... with decking and picnic tables.

A Brand New Tramway

The island of Mallorca (Majorca) has railways ...

... notably the heritage line to Soller.

Like so many places, Palma used to have trams.

Now comes news of a new tram line.

As this is an internet news item, we can be sure that the reporting has dodgy bits. Will it really be single track?

Doubtful?

What does seem correctly reported is its route ...

... along the coastal area south west of Palma. 

Key Aspects of the Majorca Tramway Project:

• Initial Line: The first phase connects Plaça d'Espanya to Palma de Mallorca Airport, with later phases planned for Can Pastilla–l'Arenal de Llucmajor and a specific link to Son Espases Hospital.
• Infrastructure & Design: The line is designed as a double-tracked, standard-gauge system, with several sections featuring dedicated tracks separate from road traffic, including elevated sections at the airport.
• Capacity & Features: The proposed vehicles are five-section, low-floor bi-directional tramcars approximately 35-36 metres long.
• Goal: The project aims to significantly improve public transport within the greater Palma area, supported by EU funding.
• Timeline: While initial construction was aiming for 2023, the goal for the first new low-floor trams to be running is 2028.

fbb has never been, but No 3 son has and has ridden the train to Soller. (fbb seething with jealousy?)

Lumo Looking Lovely?

A few blogs back fbb reported on the (sort of) launch of the new First Rail open access service from Stirling to London Euston.

We now have pictures of a whole train ...

... looking very smart for a second-hand Voyager. We are also given a look at the refurbished interior.

How very, erm, grey!

Surely Lumo could afford something with a bigger 'wow' factor?

Disappointing internally; but then the dullness will have been the output of an ridiculously expensive design team with added image consultants.

You've wasted you money, First!

  Next "Wot Next" blog : Monday 4th May 

Saturday Variety

Silly Sensational Screens

There must be some hidden YouTube regulation that compels contributors to 'headline' their carefully crafted videos with utter nonsense.

Unfortunately fbb must have missed the only news item with the headline "Supersonic Jet Falls On Superfast Train". The article will have revealed that the jet was undamaged, the pilot walked free and the high speed train was able to stop and miraculously avoid derailment. Yes, and the fuel in the plane equally miraculously did not explode.

Very likely.

The incident does not feature in the video. But pilots must be very careless as another of the same brand of plane has inpelled utself ...

... into a passing cruise liner. How careless!

Then there is this horrific incident.

Amazingly some sort of tectonic plate breach occured in exactly the same place. This spectacular earthquake caused the sea to evaporate and delivered a slough of magma across the very same road.

In a weird revelation of coincidence, many if the same vehicles were passing as both horrors occurred.

Neither of these events featured in the video.

Now, how do you transport a giant stealth bomber from airfield to maintenance depot?

Easy peasy. you build a dangerously long and wide transporter vehicle, hauled by three tractor units side by side ...

... and you run it along a five carriageway road with just two carriageways in the opposite direction. It would appear that one of the technical problem with the plane is that the wings are incapable of lifting the enormous fuselage.

will the 56 wheels be strong enough? And how does it steer?

Of course, the item being carried is a top secret UFO from the planet Zog!

That explains it!

Yeoman In Trouble

No, it's the Herefordshire bus company that seems to have been in a bit of bovver with the Traffic Commissioners.

Yeomans runs the Hereford city centre free bus service, recently under threat (Guess why? To save money! Oh, you guessed!) of Oblivion. Apparently Yeomans have failed a safety inspection.

The article is, as ever, totally speculative. It would have to be, it is the internet after all,

Readers may remember the excitement of January 2025. Another Hereford bus company, Lugg Valley Travel, was closed down completely due to failure of several safety inspections.

Readers may notice that Yeomans has a very similar livery to Lugg Valley.

Then, Yeomans shared a depot with Lugg Valley; the companies have the same director and vehicles were often 'hired' between the two operators.

But the companies were totally separate.

Of course they were.

So, when Lugg Valley lost its operator's licence last year, another company stepped in and took over operation of all of Lugg Valley's services.

Readers may be able to guess which noble and altruistic operator bravely took on Lugg Valley's routes.

Have you guessed?

Now Yeomans seems to be following the same path.

Two New Stations 

Not reported by fbb; not visited by video producer Geoff Marshall; even ignored by Bus and Train User blog a k a Roger French; two new stations have opened on an important transport link in glorious Devon.

But, somewhat delayed, fbb is on the job!

This is one of them.

And this us where it's at,

The wetlands are part of the River Axe lying between Seaton and Axmouth. But the wet land and the river are a haven for huge herds of birds. The watchers can hide ...

... or catch a tram. The Wetlands stop wasn't ...

... until the 2022 when a paved area wast created at the passing loop. 

Duly opened by the Seatonian Great and Good ...

... it is accessed by a raised boardwalk ...

.. to keep you feet dry!

There is a timetable ...

... which is better than many bus stops in the area!

The view across the wet land is delightful.

A New Model Car Kit.

fbb will tell you, tomorrow, how much of your pocket money you will need to buy one.

More tomorrow.

  Next Variety blog : Sunday 3rd May 

Transport On The Edge (2)

Consistency, What Consistency?

A quick glance at today's buses to Nether Edge may help us understand the changes that came after the withdrawal of the trams. The tram track ended in Moncrieffe Road indicated by the up arrow, far right.

Buses performed a turning loop via Montgomery Road and Moncrieffe Road. With the development of Nether Edge Hospital on Union Road an extra loop was added to confuse new recruits to the routes.

The purple line is for the inner circle service, originally numbered 8 and 9. The present 10/10a is barely recognisable from the original for most of its very mangled 'circle". The section via Nether Edge is, however part of the good old set of served roads.

The 8/9 even attracted competition in the chaos of post deregulation.

And a star artefact (?) from the archives; a leaflet cover designed by fbb!

Consistency : 61, 97, 98, 22, 56, 3, 56

Route 61 on Wolstenholm (?) Road was the first bus service replacing the trams.

The first change was a through route from Nether Edge via City to Southey Green, then on the northern boundary of Sheffield. fbb could find no pictures of a 97 or its variant 98, but from his own resources excavated this very fuzzy ex slide.

This was from a time of bus shortages (faulty track rods - they tended to snap when going round corners) when the route was in the hands of Huddersfield buses.

fbb is not 100% sure of the continuation of consistency and did not have time to unearth his copious Sheffield route records, but there followed a 22 ...

... a 56 ...

... a 3 ...

... and presently back to  56 again, just for fun!

Needless to say, these services ran to different cross-city destinations and served different stops in the city centre - all designed to provide fun and jollity to regular passengers and utter bafflement to occasional users.

Revised 97 and 98?

 

A more resent challenge to the citizens of the Steel City was spotted by a certain Mr Giles Fearnley (retired First Bus supremo) on a recent visit oop noorth.

As First no longer prints timetables to help passengers, the company has been using its electronic blinds to provide useful (?) information.

Sometimes fares info.

Intermediate locations appear ...

... sometimes legibly.

So Mr F saw, but failed to photograph (slacker) a 97 to Totley via Nether Edge!

Young Giles immediately e-mailed fbb asking "What's  going on?" He thought that the 97 and 98 (which used to run to Nether Edge remember?) had been diverted via their old route and the inner circle 10 rejoining the main drag to Totley.

fbb thought not. He consulted the Travel South Yorkshire (TSY) route nap ...

... which showed the 97/98 passing innocently by on their usual routes via the Abbeydale Road to Totley (97) and Totley Rise (98), indubitably NOT via Nether Edge.

Assuming the map is up to date (not always a given), fbb checked the timetable on the TSY web site.

No mention of Nether Edge on the front cover of TSY's non-leaflet.

But the timetable shows ...

.... Nether Edge Abbeydale Road Empire Road, a designation repeated on the computer created route map.

The full route description also complies.

As the politicians oft intone, fbb says "Let me be absolutely clear on this." The old man is quite certain tha not one of the 600,000 residents of Sheffield would ever consider these stops as being in Nether Edge.

This is an utter daftness residing only in the incompetent minds of TSY, and absorbed by equal ignorance at First Bus HQ.

And both these outputters of omnibological obfuscation wonder why they are losing passengers, year by year.

   Next Variety blog : Saturday 2nd May