Sunday Variety

 Whippet Snippet

Whippet is a long standing and much respected bus and coach operator based at Swavesey in Cambridgeshie.

It was one of the first operators to embrace a Flixbus franchise; and the embracing was great ...

... and apparently successful!

But the recent headline is not so cosy,

Whippet have not said why, but have ceased their contracts with Flixbus.

Whippet hit the technology headlines by starting an electric coach service between London and Cambridge.

The green coaches were not green but blue!

But One Out, One In!

This seems one of the biggest deals with Flix.

The boss is pleased, but he would say that, wouldn't he? 

Let's hope that the deal has greater longevity than First's dramatically expanded open top buses in Cornwall. The open toppers always carried good loads but all such delights have been dramatically withdrawn  this season.

How long will it be before the Flix box of tricks leaves First's coaching mix in a fix, earning a profit of nix?

Electric Bus : They Can In Cannes

Globe trotting No 3 son has been to the Cannes film festival again this year. Sadly, actually gladly, he was nothing to do with the famous "red carpet" or the pretentious and pricey frocks worn by people who, it would appear, are famous|!

That gear would go down a bundle on the local bus to the theatre!

No 3 son was promoting some clever technology in a sweaty hotel room and had no contact with the hype!

But he did find time to photograph a bus for his papa. The local inter-urban and rural operator is called "Zou" and is part of the Keolis mega conglomerate. Keolis is, effectively, owned by the French Government and wins most franchise contracts with various arms of the French Government.

Bus 620 runs between Nice and Cannes, every 15 minutes Mon to Sat, on Mon to Fri from the first trip of the morning until past 1800.

Being France, the evening and Sunday frequency is a very memorable (NOT) every 25 minutes!

But what intrigued No 3 son was that the buses were electric ...

... and recharged via a pantograph. The pantograph drops down from a gantry ...

... pumping the electric into two conductor rails on the roof of the bus.

No 3 son did not realise that we have similar technology in the UK, not only in London ...

... but in the wilds of Yorkshire (where they have now got the electric installed!) at Harrogate.

Globally there are two styles of pantograph technology. All the above are "top down" but in a few places the buses have "bus up" pantographs on their roof.

You would guess the latter is more expensive with lots of costly pantographic gubbins to add to the price of each vehicle.

Talking Of First Kernow ...

... which is now to be developed as "First Boring", the new "national" brand.

The company is about to lose the substantial contract to provide 18 bus services for Cornwall College's multiple sites.

These establishments provide post 16 courses in a similar vein to sixth form colleges but with a bias towards the practical rather than the academic. First had provided branded vehicles ...

... and very smart they were. fbb is not sure which operator will take over from September but all bets are on GoAhead!

Puzzle Picture 1

This was the London and North Eastern Railway's class U1 Beyer-Garratt freight hauling monster. It was even bigger and more monstrous the the LMS Beyer Garratts.

The loco was designed for hauling heavy coal trains up the Worsborough Bank between Wath yard and Penistone. Such trains would continue via the Woodhead line to Manchester etc.

With the electrification of the Woodhead route post WW2, the electrics could cope more effectively with the hills. Here we see two electriic locos handling a heavy coal train from a standing start at a set of sidings at the foot if the hill.

The U1 was transferred to the Lickey incline but "the Midland lads" did not like this "foreign" intruder from Yorkshire.

It was changed to oil fired to placate them but never achieved the star status it's uniqueness deserved. It is the oil-fired version that is available as an OO model.

The Danish model railway supplier, Heljan, is offering the model of the U1, complete with two motors as it us effectively two steam locos on one underframe!

You can pre-order your model for just £400 discounted to £320 or, fitted with sound, a modest £520 discouned to £442.

Ironically, Heljan are also introducing "Big Bertha" ...

... built for the Lickey incline.

Bertha was an 0-10-0 and, well, big! But a more modest £220.

Puzzle Pictures 2

The two A4 Pacifics (nicknamed "streaks") are different models of locos from the same era. They both represent the "fully streamlined" version with valances covering a goodly chunk of the driving wheels.

One, by today's standards, is cheap; from Hornby ...

... and well discounted.

 

The other ...

... isn't!

Can you tell the difference?

Back to Harrods tomorrow.

  Next Knightsbridge blog : Mon 18 May 

Saturday Variety

 Axonometric?

When fbb was searching for plans of Knightsbridge Underground station, he used the wrong word. Fortunately Google knew the right word and corrected the old man. fbb searched for isometric plans but Google insisted, as only Google can, that such plans were axonometric.

A casual user might use the word perspective, but it would be incorrect. Early mediaeval artists struggled to understand and create true perspective. So here, for the edification (?) of his enquiring readers ...

... is a perspective drawing of a cube. The front to back axes (noting that the plural of axis is axes  - axises if you like) can be extended to a vanishing point, viz the blue dot top right.

So here is an isometric drawing of a cube!

Edges drawn along the three axes all have the same length. iso means "the same", metric is measurement. [iso bar, a line on a weather map joining points of the same pressure; iso therm ditto for points of the same temperature; iso sceles, literally a triangle with two equal legs.]

There will be a test later in the week!

Axonometric is a drawing in which lines in any one axis (or axon!) are the same length, but not necessary the same length as other axises! (Pay attention at the back!)

So all these cubes ...

... and the Underground station plans are thus axonometric.

Maybe we should use iso axon  o metric instead of isometric - i.e the same measurement along all three axes as a "special case" of axonometric?

It is rare for fbb to come acros a word that he has never previously met. There are plenty where he has encountered a word but knows not the meaning; But the new-to-fbb axonometric is such a useful word to drop into conversation at coffee mornings, that fbb will keep it safe in his neurons, not axons, obviously.

Flyover Foray

fbb has previously featured the Camp Hill or Digbeth or Bordesley Flyover in Birmingham ...

... seen above with a collection of Birmingham City buses in attendance. In passing, he mentioned the Redcliffe flyover in Bristol which fbb has flown over but with a Bristolian chauffeur.

But both these have now been dismantled.

Our senior Isle of Wight correspondent visited on Thursday last. In response to the earlier blog he challenged fbb. "What about the Hogarth flyover?" he questioned.

fbb's response was a guarded "yer what!"

The Hogarth roundabout is on the A4 at Chiswick where the Great Chertsey Road (A316) joins the Great Western Road (A4).

An enlargement may help.

An approach from Chertsey shows how it operates.

There is a 3 ton weight limit and a 6 ft 6 width restriction, so no public transport can use it. A couple of London bus routes use the roundabout beneath the flyover.

The flyover wiggles!

... quite significantly over the roundabout. An aerial view makes it clear,

It was opened in 1971 and was a temporary measure. 54 years, and one upgrade later, it is still there.

It flies over in one direction only, west to east.

And the name?

The artist William Hogarth (1697 to 1754) lived in a posh pad right next to the flyover. Maybe the noise is why his paintings were so illustrative of indulgence, stress and decay!

Awful New Livery!

Contrast and compare. Below is a bus in the new Stagecoach "blue steel" livery ...

... and next, a typical Royal Navy staff bus in a similar but less shiny version of the livery.

Next we have a Stagecoach bus NOT in the new livery ...

... but even more ugly!

Ray was apoplectic in his rage at these prime examples of bad design! He did recover, eventually, after a long but uncomfortable lie down.

Another Stansted Bus

Over the years that have been many operators vying for trade between Stansted Airport and London. Do we remember Terravision?

Does "Stansted Express" still run?

Certainly Airport Express is still there.

The biggest operator is, of course, National Express.

But the latest arrival has a really silly name.

Flibco is based in Luxembourg.

Flibco?

Flibco, also known as Flibco.com or Flibtravel International, is a public transportation company that manages short-medium distance bus lines to airports especially in Europe. Flibco is part of Sales-Lentz Group (SLG). It is known in Germany, Belgium, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Hungary, Italy and the United Kingdom.

So now we know. Currently the Flibco service runs every 30 min 24/7 from Liverpool Street station via a stop at Stratford. Every journey is shown with a running time of one hour and eight minutes, all day and all night.

Seems highly unlikely to be so consistent in practice!

More stuff tomorrow.

Puzzle Pictures

Do you recognise this locomotive?

Answer tomorrow.

And guess how much one of these might cost ...

Or one of these?

Both (?) are available from Rails of Sheffield.

 Next Variety blog : Sunday 18 May