Saturday Variety

 Eiffel In Yorkshire?

Above is a picture of Hebden Bridge in West Yorkshire, just. The town is a tad to the west of Halifax ...

... and take note of those four storey houses on the hillside, a distinctive feature of the town.

Only they aren't! They are NOT four storey houses at all. Thy are two two storey terraces built on top of one another, as in the diagram below.

The front doors are marked with a blue arrow; there are no back doors. But look at that road name on the left.

So, if you approach the town on the Halifax Road and then fork right up a hill called Birchcliffe Road ...

.., you come to this building.

Some locals call that bit with the turret "The Eiffel Tower". On the left is the thoroughfare called Eiffel Buildings ...

... with the road leading back down to a bus stop (see below). 

To the right of the tower you will find Eiffel Street.

Just peeping in on the left are the top halves of the properties on Eiffel Buildings. The top of the houses on Eiffel Buildings are actually on Eiffel Street.

So what was Gustave Eiffel doing on a residential hillside in Hebden Bridge?

Nobody seems to know. Here is an extract from the work of a local blogger.

A nice, sunny Sunday, which I saw nothing of, being confined at home grading assignments and wondering (among other things) what I was going to offer for today’s shot. But I did not give up; as night fell I got this shot of the tenement-style housing across the way. Why this line of top-and-bottom housing (the upper levels will be a different house from the lower, facing the street behind) is named for Gustave Eiffel I have no idea, probably it was all being built around the same time as that tower in Paris and so someone paid tribute.

Any other offers?

A nice way of getting there is to combine it with a ride on the Keighley Bus B3, branded Bronte Bus ...

It runs every hour and the ride is glorious.

Talking Of Glorious Rides

Here is a picture of a bus in splendid country.

Where is it?

Where is the country and where is the bus?

Answer tomorrow.

Tiny Mini Tampo Magnificence

A few days back fbb was talking about "Tampo", more correctly "pad" printing. Oxford Diecast makes (gets someone in China to make?) a vast range of diecast model vehicles including hundreds in OO scale. They have just announced three highly decorated Minis.

Here are enlargements of the "pad" printed artwork on the side panels.

Superb detail for a tiny mini but at a superb price as well. £9.95. OUCH!

But even more OUCH is this HO model.

It is not OO gauge (4mm to the foot) at but HO at 3.5mm - so too small for OO scale layouts! And ...

... the price is too big for ANY layout.

 YIKES!

Here We Go Again

How many times have we met a bus that runs on road and rail?

This delightful little creature is about to re-open an SNCF branch - maybe.

The branch from Étang-sur-Arroux to Autun ...

... closed since 2020, is to reopen in 2025 or 2026 as a commercial testbed for the Flexy battery-electric lightweight road/rail car. The €15 million cost is financed by a grant from Corifer (Council for Railway Research & Innovation) announced at the end of June, permitting running trials to start in the autumn. 

Gare Autun, below.

On reopening, there will be up to 10 return journeys daily.

Flexy has been developed under SNCF’s Tech4Mobility innovation programme by a consortium of Michelin, Milla Group and the Railenium research institute, with support from Bretagne and Bourgogne-Franche-Comté régions. Based on a Renault Master van with the chassis modified to accept Michelin’s patented road/rail wheels, Flexy has capacity for 14 passengers. 

This map shows the route ...

Google Maps indicates an intermediate stop at Laizy, the station being called Brion Laizy. Google doesn't go down the dirt track leading to the station but an enlargement via Google Streetview suggests thare are few facilities ...

... and few passengers. There isn't even a platform!

The line is VERY rural and VERY "basic".

To pick up and drop-off passengers, the car can leave the rails at level crossings or ‘intersection platforms’ and run on local roads. Battery power provides an operating range of up to 200km with speeds of up to 50 km/h on road and 70 km/h on rail.

Will it be a huge success like its many, many failed predecessor.

Japan?

Germany?

U.K.?

Time will tell! 

The UK's Eiffel Tower

fbb is reminded by correspondent Andrew of a possible competitor in the tall tower stakes. Edward Watkin of Great Central Railway and proposed Channel Tunnel fame decided to give his Metropolitan Railway passengers somewhere to travel to.

His plan was to out tall the Eiffel Tower, but at Wembley!

Only the first section was built and opened ...

... offering a very limited fun experience! When one corner started sinking, it was closed and subsequently demolished.

If only Gus Eiffel had been in charge?

A Little  Modelling Project

fbb's attempt to paint the beading on his ancient coach was only marginally successful. But it will do. Not every carriage on a full sized preserved heritage railway is in tip top condition; so the old bloke is being realistic - a feeble excuse!

He has eventually identified the coach.

It was originally produced in 1963 painted maroon and ivory as part of a set to go with the Caledonian Railway "Single". The real loco is preserved ...

... and the model was a good likeness by 1963 standards.

The coaches were not quite right, as fbb has discovered. But versions were sold in Midland Railway maroon ...

... and fbb thinks that it was a very tatty version of this that he acquired about ten years ago.

As was normal back then, the coach came with no interior furnishing.

So fbb made an attempt to add seats and compartments some years back, The results were horrible. But leading with the beading, himself decided to have another go.

It would, of course, be a bit of a bodge.

A floor was cut to fit - it fitted sort of - and seats were glued on ...

... after a quick nip up the road to Peco at Beer to get some seat shaped plastic strip.

There was potential - with the rest of the seats still to be affixed.

But this is a corridor coach although it has compartments. Or is it?

More research needed. Additionally, some painting is very necessary.

More tomorrow.

 Next Variety blog : Sunday 11th August 

Sunday Variety

If It Rains Don't Take The Trains!

The balloon went up and the rains ...

... came down! Pity the poor snivelling minions who had to hold the brollies over the bigwig speech makers; and look as if they were enjoying themselves!

Apart from the comparative tedium of all those boats pumping pollutants into the atmosphere or, more likely, mixing them with the rain and dumping them in the river - quite inseine! (GROAN) - the ceremony was ...

... long.

fbb and Mrs watched on to the end of the boats but really struggled as the sports stars carried the torch all the way back to where the parade started and relayed it to the Tuileries (old tile factory!).

Some of the displays on the bank were, frankly, incomprehensible ...

... the above being a Greek hero dressed as a Smurf!!

Then it would have been nice to see at least some of the tableaux showing people actually dancing rather than jiggling about frenetically. Maybe that IS dancing in trendy Paris 2024?

BUT - it was a bold and soggy statement of the Olympic ideal.

Get wet and keep going!

Little was said during the broadcast at the huge level of security for the opening ceremony. This involved horrendous disruption to the lives of Les Pauvres Parisiens (et les Parisiennes, aussi).

This is the Metro map showing all the stations that were closed for most oft the day.

Line 6 was closed completely all day!

Ditto most bridges across the Seine - most closed all day.

As several vox pop interviews revealed, many present at the river parade  opined, as they dripped, that it would have been better to stay in and watch it on the telly.

Such is the Olympic ideal!

But as fbb typed this piece, news comes through of the GB girls winning bronze in the synchronised diving - the first time since 1643, apparently.

So well done Scarlett and Yasmin; and thanks for confirming that they aren't really bronze; they are top quality chocolate and ready to eat!

Lothian Route 16

The bus is photographed here on an Island in South Australia with the sea lapping a golden beach just the other side of the palm trees and with astounding views.

The bus was once preserved in the UK ...

... and its new owners so loved it that they paid to have it carted half way round the world. It arrived in less than pristine condition ...

... but the decision was to keep the Lothian madder livery (maybe a subtle comment on the mentality of such a gargantuan project?) which looks good.

The inside looks homely, almost luxurious.

It is, as they say, compact..

An Australian couple have made an Edinburgh Lothian bus their home almost 9,500 miles from its usual route.

Eight months ago, Kim Ricardo and Ted Dwight made the decision to transform the retro service 16 double-decker bus into a home after discovering it online, decaying in a garden, the BBC reports

Kim said they were both "instantly hooked" and bought the bus for £18,277 and a further £31,332 to give it a new interior.

Kim, 58, said: "We were initially looking for a single-decker bus, but we saw this one for sale online and were instantly hooked."

"It was in a pretty sorry condition when we found it. It needed a lot of work done."

“But we love it, the more we went into the history, we realised how amazing it was.”

The bus was sold off in the 1980s after being retired from public service. It was bought by the owners of a berry-picking farm near Dundee to ferry workers from their accommodation before being restored by two enthusiasts in 1993.

Good on on yer, sport! Have a tinnie on fbb! Bonzer, Bruce and yer sheila!

(Other ethnicities are available).

Hello And Goodbye

Alex Hornby (left) was boss of Transdev and always a sucker for publicity, be it in the local press ...

... or using Social Media.

Then, somewhat abruptly, he announced he was "taking a break" and he said Goodbye to Transdev.

Then he popped up at McGills in a similar role and, once again, the PR appearances began in earnest.

Whether it be political PR as above or just plain "aren't we wonderful" stuff ...

... Alex would be there, front and very centre.

Then, in a move which hasn't actually come as a total surprise, McGills staff received this note from owner and top director Ralph Roberts ...

... and "with immediate effect" it was Goodbye Alex - again.

Bus watchers can only speculate on the reasons but they can be sure the real reason will NOT be what it says in the letter. (restructuring - blah blah - prudent management, blah blah etc etc)!

Where next for Alex?

Where Next For HS2 North?

The new Labour Government has not really made a definite commitment but the rumbling undertow of rumour is the Sit Keir and his chums are in no rush to re-instate the new lines north of Birmingham. There are, it would appear, far more important things on which to spend the money they haven't got.

Andy (Manchester) ad Tracy (West Yorks) both want an HS2 train set to play with and they now have a surprising ally in the persons of the National Audit Office.

The NAO is "independent" but paid funded by the tax payer and thus financially in the thrall of the Treasury and whatever government we have this week. So not 100% independent, then?

Several of the more serious press writers have picked up the NAO's take on HS2 for the north.

Fewer seats?

So running the HS2 stock on ordinary track to Manchester will REDUCE the space for passengers!

Here it is again.

So, if the lads at No 10 don't reinstate the cancelled bit of HS2, anyone travelling north of Watford will have a useless fast service to Birmingham, possibly from old Oak common and not central London whilst passengers north of Brum will have a worse service than now and may be charged a high fare to stop them travelling!

It is called Government planning!

But surely the lovely Louise will sort it out?

So that's all right, then?

 Next Somewhat Variety blog : Mon 29th July