Sunday Variety

 Race For The Smallest

Now fbb in his elderly naivety, always thought that a "shunting tractor" was a tractor used for shunting, as above or in model form below.

It is true that such vehicles were often used at industrial premises where the occasional movement of wagons did not justify a "proper" rail mounted locomotive.

But in full sized railway parlance, a "shunting tractor" can be a small rail mounted diesel,  performing the same function as the road-wheeled item already illustrated.

But, until recently, fbb had never come across one like this.

It is, fbb assures his readers, a powered locomotive and, on some Eurpoean railway systems in this case Germany, it was used to shunt single wagons. Or perhaps a few empty wagons.

And the equally weirdo enthusiast news is that it is available from Italian firm Rivarossi (a Hornby company) as a working HO model. 

As you would expect, it is very small.

fbb really means VERY small indeed.

It is ludicrously small ...

... and it comes with directional headlights - which are also small.

Were fbb thinking of buying one to lose in the piles of junk under his layout or perhaps to be crushed under foot ...

... Frome Model Centre has on in stock. How much?

How much?

It wuld take a finiancial Miracle for fbb to have enough dosh to justify even thinking about buying one!

And, Talking Of Miracles

The fbbs'monthly fellowship meetings come round again, surely moreoften than once a month - it does seem like itat times.

In Setember we are looking at the Miracles in Mark's Gospel chapters 4 and 5.

A lot of rubbish is talked about the Miracles as recorded in the Bible. IF there is a God, an entity outside of human space and time and not restricted by human science and technology (that's what it says on the God-tin) then of course Miracles are both possible and real.

Trying to explain them is a pointless, almost a fatuous task!

The first part of the fbbs' leaflet is far less contentious; a series of examples (?) of what would have been "Miracles" only a few decades ago.

Livery Delivery Prizes

Route One magazine has just completed its annual (?) awards for best liverry.

The big bus winner is Brighton and Hove ...

... for its Coaster livery applied to buses running etween Brighton and Eastbourne.

Edwards Coaches gets a prize for its terrifying Welsh Dragon.

You had better cover the eyes of young children, capable of tears of fear in response to this monster.

Best small bus is this ...

... from Star coaches.

Livery is such a personal matter with a whole range of opinions. fbb. for example, is not in love with any of these winners.

Any blog readers want to offer fbb their "best livery"? Email pictures to

fbb@xephos.com

All pictures will be acknowledged.

Fancy A Rolls Royce

Oxford Diecast (based in Swansea) offers a wide range of 1:43 models suitable for the growing range of "O" gauge model railways. A Recent offer is for six of their rollers.

And the price? Less than £10 a car. That might seem a lot in the mind of an old codger like fbb, but it is really good value.

The models are simpy superb!

And The Ice Cream?

What started as a mini information blog has grown somewhat and will be published in full omorrow. In the meantime a bit of fbb nostalgia. In his youth, a teenage fbb would wait excitedly for the tinkling loudspeaker sound from Gallone's weekly visit to the vilage of \little Billing.

The ice cream was very different from Walls or Lyons as it tasted fresh and wholesome, not sweet and plastic. A "99" (cone with flake) was a real treat.

But families like Gallone, Colpi, Nardini, Jaconelli, Capaldi (etc.) have their heriage locations throughout the Uk but especially in Scotland.

Tomorrow the name is ...

... Rossi!

P..S. Inferior Interior?

Not only has fbb unglued his misplaced sliding doors and repainted the light oak panelling, but he has bought some packs of very thin plastic strip. Expect further enhancements to the new corridor "wall"!

A more "normal" bus blog will follow tomorrow; with an ice cream topping??

 Next Ice Cream Bus blog : Monday 19th Aug. 

Sunday Variety

Aberdonian Aspirations

A R T is being proposed for Aberdeen; that is Aberdeen Rapid Transit.

Pictures show a Belfast Glider vehicle imposed in an Aberdeen street. Aspirations might extend to a tram network but fbb guesses that would cost oodles more than the £150 milion headlined above. The map shows FOUR routes ...

... linked as two cross-city services.

Note the two different routes through the city centre.

Three of the routes aim for well outside the city area and well beyond First Bus termini. Running anticlockwise from due north we have a route to Black Dog "hub" which looks like a park and ride at the A90 junction.

This would incorporate or parallel First Bus route 1B.

The airport is an obvious target with a clutch of First routes plus the Stagecoach express 727.

The next route comes as First city route 23 plus Stagecoach on to Westhill.

Due South the ART runs to another hub at or near Porthlethen ...

... this time associated with the main A92. City routes 18 and 3 go part way.

Additional paragraphs in the news feeds cause us a cautious doubt.

Where is the money coming from? With something of a kerfuffle in Scottish Politics as a result of last Thursdays "interesting" event (?) options may not be so obvious.

The usual conclusion is "Wait and See!"

Be assured that fbb will keep an eye on developments - if any and if he lives long enough!!

Stagecoach Simply Slackers

Maps for Stagecoach services from Aberdeen are appalling - if they exist at all. The above are bits of the routes to Westhill, a proposed ART terminus. There is a similarly feeble effort for the 727.

Meanwhile in Northampton, correspondent Alan is bamboozled by the Sunday times for route D3 to Daventry.

Look closely at the quoted time points.

Only one (Northampton) gives any useful geographical assistance in any location where the bus goes. Natwest Bank was at St James ...

... but is now a supermarket.

A really well informed Northamptonian might know hat Danetree is an old spelling for Daventry but, as for the rest, a thorough knowledge of the county's pubs is essential!

Well done Stagecoach - rubbish publicity as usual!

Does The Press Understand Anything?

There are proposals by LNWR to extend its Euston to Crewe hourly service (via Trent Valley stations) all the way to Manchester. Other LNWR trains may be extended to Manchester Airport. 

Modern Railways reports that financial projections suggest that LNWR (West Midlands Railway in a cunning disguise) will earn annual revenue of £7 million from these developments, but the magazine does not tell us what the increased costs are. Neither is there currently a projection for revenue losses for operators who already serve the "new" stations

What made fbb grimace is this press snippet about the proposals.

The suggestion, implied above, that these semi fast commuter style trains could offer any alternative to HS2 is so ludicrous that you could hardly believe that any reporter could even consider writing it.

But at least one could!

Beautiful Bijou Battle Bus?

Unfortunately the picture is a deep fake - well actually a rather shallow fake! Looking at the angles of the SNP labels, the faking is obvious.

Was it a prophetic comment on the electoral future of the SNP at Westminster. Will the same pattern of growing extermination apply when Scottish Parliamentary elections come round?

At least they can save money with a smaller Battle Bus!

TT120 A-Plenty

The model railway world was astounded when Hornby announced a range of TT scale model railways. The range is to a more accurate  track and gauge combo than the Triang TT range from way back. Here is the old TT compared with the new, running on the same gauge of track.

The new size is 2.8 mm to the foot, with the old at 3 mm behind. 

Or this diagram might help.

Baffling isn't it?

So far only Peco have produced TT120 wagons and TT120 scenic items whilst Oxford Diecast (i.e. Hornby) have offered cars and buses etc. 

fbb has bought an OO wagon from Rainbow Railways of Linlithgow ...

... a company based, not in the town centre, but on an industrial estate.

Their latest announcement is for some big open wagons for TT120.

An eagle eyed fbb spotted that the couplings on the red wagon were OO tension lock ...

... rather than the TT120 versions on the other wagon variants.

These new wagons are manufactured in China for Revolution Trains; but on the Revolution web site there is nary a peep about TT120. 

So Rainbow Railways are "having a go" in this new gauge and scale.

Revolution do offer a similar wagon in OO ...

... so you would guess that resizing the design for the smaller TT120 was electronically easy peasy! But they forgot to change the couplings for the publicity shot.

But here's the real thing in a fetching shade of blue:-

And below, a picture of these beasties being loaded with their aggregate.

They are very very different from the archetypical 16 ton steel mineral wagon of old!

And they whizz along much faster.

Strange, is it not, that you begin building a layout in TT120 to save space and then attempt to run a train of very large wagons on it!

Please Note

Monday's amd Tuesday's blog may be reduced in scope because of the fbb's fellowship meetings today and tomorrow.

 Next Consultation blog : Monday 8th June