Sunday, 22 February 2026

Sunday Variety

Yellow Submarine??? Obviously.

In 1968 a popular music entertainment group called "The Beatles" created a cartoon film, aimed at children. Then in 1969 a long playing gramophone record appeared with a similar title. The eponymous song was hugely successful.
The singer of this particular ditty was one Richard (now Sir Richard) Starkey, a member of said group of entertainers. fbb understands that he used a different stage name taken from his tendency to consume a noted brand of torus shaped potato based snacks.
Such is fbb's encyclopedic knowledge of popular music culture from the late 1960s.

Indeed, a later gramophone record of the same song was on sale with, it would appear, a large letter "A" incised on both sides.

The submarine in question, probably ficticious ...
... included cartoon style pictures of the celebrated foursome gazing into the blackness of the ocean via foot adjacent portholes.
Oddly, the cartoon faces on the tank wagon are different!
Identifying which cartoon set is a correct replica of the original is way beyond fbb's  pay grade, but the question posed in yesterday's  blog remains

Would blog readers want such a wagon on their model railway, be the model real, speculative of philosophical.

It is a well-known and much loathed loved vlogger who thinks the model is "tat". 
Strangely, Mart Runes (pictured above), who earns a living producing his videos, is often willing to denigrate similar Hornby models ...
... but is perversely happy in his reviews of other ficticious railway rolling stock. He was notably "excited" by the N gauge Toby ...
... by Bachmann, despite the fact that no such loco ever existed in reality.

Mart doesn't often review wagons, but the Hornby tanker ...
... from the Thomas stories, although no longer available, is not quite so "tat-full" as the Bachmann version.
Would Mart agree that these Rapido utterly false models of a fireless tank engine plus wagon ...

... we're "tat". Or Maybe these six wheel milk tankers purporting a brand of artisan gin?
And you have to pay for three wagons enticing you and your modelling chums to pay for expensive gin.

This craze for paying for advertising wagons is on the increase. Would you want to pay Rails of Sheffield for the dubious privilege of advertising ...
... erm, Rails of Sheffield? And there is £4 post'n'packing to add!

fbb is more sanguine about this vitally important debate. Hornby suffered some horrific losses in their most recent published accounts.
Hornby's losses are measured in ££ Millions.
If the company is to continue in business, it needs to find more ways of making money. If that can be achieved by selling "tat", such sales may protect the company and ensure its survival.

Various bits if the UK model industry have disappeared before (Trix, Hornby Dublo, Triang - twice, Airfix, Beatties retail, Hattons retail, to name but a few.) Even Bachmann posted a loss recently.
Maybe fbb should buy a Beatles Yellow Submarine tank wagon to help out?
Cheap as chips!

Back To The Real World ...
... Cornwall Consequences
Thanks to a report from Roger French (Bus and Train User blog), fbb can summarise events in Cornwall.
One consequence of GoAhead's assumption of First's Cornwall's network has been an increase in wrongly liveried buses. Some bus watchers have complained that Plymouth City  (also GoAhead) is short of buses because many have gone to Cornwall ...
... even posh new motors.

One very obvious change is the improvements at Camborne bus station. Under First's  ownership, it had become very dowdy with shop, waiting room and enquiry office ...
... all closed. It now has GoAhead and/or Kernow branding and looks a lot better.
New timetable books and a larger separate map have all appeared.
Roger also took a trip on the route 6 to not-quite Mousehole, experiencing the turn at the new turn-short terminus. fbb is surprised that neither the Council not the Police have objected.

The safest (least dangerous) turn, as modelled by another Plymouth City bus, is to pull forward from the alighting stop, blocking the whole road ...
... then reverse round a blind corner into a side road ...
... avoiding contact with the stone wall on the left. 
Then it is quite steeply up a hill ...
It is not the safest of turns. Ex bus driver fbb would be terrified!

It makes manoeuvering at Mousehole harbour side ...
... seem a minor matter ...
... compared with manipulating a mighty motor bus at the new and disappointing terminus.

Bring back the LHS.
 
Who Is This Man?
He seems to turn up at all sorts of train "happenings" ...
... in wide-ranging locations. fbb hopes this is not a real live female type woman with very stiff legs ...
... and no knickers!

She would be a real dummy to get herself photographed in that embarrassing position!

How clever of Mr Hardhat to stand so still and hold that bewildered expression every time for the camera!

Is she real ...
... or plastic? Is she appropriately dressed for a visit to an industrial area? He is as surprised as we are!

Back to sanity near Sheffield tomorrow.

P.S. More Tat ...
... also from Rapido?

Chortle, chortle.

  Next Mini-Switzerland blog : Mon 23rd Feb 

Saturday, 21 February 2026

Saturday Variety

So Now Electrify The Line

The Borders Line, part of the much loved and much missed Waverley Route between Edinbutgh and Carlisle, has been a huge success. Many trains now require six carriages and services are linked with those to Fife.

Electrification work has now started which will also include the Fife routes.

We all have a yen for the "glory days of steam" ...
... but then trains NEVER ran every half an hour to Tweedbank!
What about trains all the way to Carlisle?
There would be an extra bonus of a diversion route when the West Coast main line goes belly-up.

And Extend The Line!
Another huge success has been the re-opening of the passenger service from Newcastle to Ashington.
And that is before all the stations are open.
Currently there is a 30 minute service.
There is a campaign to extend to Newbiggin, with a station at Woodhorn which sits on the route to Lynemouth Power Station. 
Here it is on a proper map ...
And here is the PR.
And a recognition that the bid is serious
The maps above show no line to Newbiggin, but there was one once!
The route of the track is still there ...
... running from top left diagonally to the coast.

Seems worth doing!

Great Western To Paignton
fbb is not sure which brand the company will use, FGW or Lumo!
Back to the future!
But read the words carefully and push the headline into the long grass.

This is NOT  a new service!
There are already trains from Paddington to Paignton as per the 0702 above. The implications of the map (above) is that the EXTRA trains will run via Bath and Temple Meads, not via Westbury, as now.
More information needed!

It's All On Line No 381
This is the Hornby Factory, as illustrated by a headline picture for an on-line article.
First problem; the company was Meccano Ltd. Hornby and Hornby Dublo were brands made and sold by Meccano Ltd.
Secondly, the Binns Road Factory was single storey and a real hotch potch of assorted buildings. Here is a picture of most of the site from a brochure from the Estate Agents selling after the company's collapse.
Thirdly, the site was quickly cleared and redeveloped. Below is one of the final remnants.
This is Binns Road today c/o Google Earth.
Look, no factory! It is long gone.

The modern Hornby has no connection whatsoever with Frank Hornby. Meccano Ltd or Binns Road. It is a renamed Triang, now back in the former Triang factory in Margate,

Talking of today's Hornby, would you like to own one of these?
Or do you think it is Hornby "tat" as headlined above.

More tomorrow.

 Next Variety blog : Sunday 22nd Feb