Christmas Tuesday Variety

It Brings A Lump To The Eye and A Tear To The Throat

We are used to Christmas wishes from our bus company, usually accompanied by snow, Santa, the occasional reindeer and nothing about Christmas; but Hulley's of Baslow have written their passengers a massive essay. Those that read it will be very weepy.

As we approach Christmas and the end of this year, we would like to reflect back and thank our staff for their commitment and our passengers for the patience and understanding shown.

The public transport industry has arguably seen the most challenging and stressful year, possibly since World War Two. At Hulley's, we certainly have not been exempt from this global pandemic. 

The staff here have remained committed and dedicated throughout both lockdown periods, continuing to deliver a professional service as key workers. Despite the very unusual environment and exceptional circumstances, our team have provided a service to our network, and to the most vulnerable members of the society that rely on us. We have remained on the front line throughout and continue to serve the public each day.

Our staff should be proud and assured that their efforts are extremely valued in order to keep the wheels moving. 

If we have let any members of the public down we are truly sorry for this, we appreciate good and bad feedback, so we are able to continue to learn from this. We've seen short notice timetable changes and some confusion as a result.

We would always appreciate it if any queries or reports are made as soon as possible. This allows us to use CCTV and GPS vehicle tracking systems to assist or to identify and authenticate a genuine complaint or concern. We will, however, always put the safety of our passengers, crew and fleet first, meaning some services may be delayed for this reason.

Technical failures are taken very personally and we will act as safely and as quickly as we possibly can to minimise any delays or disruption. Unfortunately, sometimes we do not have control over unforeseen circumstances that may cause delays such as roadworks, accidents or poor parking.

We are very proud of what we do, and we remain committed to providing the best possible service that we can under the circumstances, with the resources we have available at the time.

We've suffered frequent timetable changes to accommodate revised school finishing times and be able to continue providing for key workers. (AND WE HAVEN'T ALWAYS KEPT OUR WEB SITE UP TO DATE) Also allowing essential travel throughout our network. Fortunately services have returned to almost pre-covid levels and we have launched some exciting additional routes. Whilst not the best of times to launch, these new services were planned many months in advance of covid.

Other achievements include a huge fleet investment programme with many vehicles replaced, repainted and smartened up interiors.

Additionally two double deckers have joined the fleet

to meet capacity needs where required. All are fitted with brand new ticket machines which enable us to take contactless payment and develop a live GPS feed for online tracking in the future.

On a positive note, we will reach our centenary in April 2021 so we would like to thank our passengers and locals for their support over the last 100 hundred years. You are very much part of our community as we are yours. We look forward to continuing to serve for generations to come, just as we have for generations gone. 

We are really looking forward to seeing the end of this pandemic and returning to a normal way of life, until then please stay safe and look after each other.

We would like to take this opportunity to pay our respect and condolences to our fellow public transport colleagues and their families up and down the country who have fallen victim to COVID-19 whilst serving on the front line to help keep essential travel moving. 

Finally, thank you to all front line and essential workers. 

Merry Christmas and a very Happy New Year from all of us at Hulley's of Baslow.

Perhaps not quite the Christmas we expected?

Appropriate (?) illustrations added by fbb,

But thanks to Hulleys for expressing how they feel; so much better than "Season's Greetings and we've reduced the service!

And Livery Tease Pictures

From First Kernow

from Go Ahead North West

And a Poster that never Happened

Grand Central's "open access" service from Blackpool to London was cancelled "due to Covid" despite having smart liveries locos and coaches all ready. Will thee service EVER re-appear?

A Snippet From Twitter

A radiator is merged with a "keep your dinner warm" cabinet; what a splendid idea!

Things You Never Noticed Before

Late sister with cat, Emily. Contrast and compare with her mother at much the same age.

Jane's mum (right) with he older sister in the 1930s. fbb had never spotted the spooky likeness before.

 Next Mini-Blog : Wednesday 30th December 

In Memoriam (2)

CHURCH LINK

SERVICE STARTS AT 1030

Today's service is ON-LINE.
A link can be obtained via the Church YouTube channel
(here) which will (should?) take you direct to the service.

The link only becomes live at about 1015 when they switch on!

-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o

Sister Jane

Picture of Jane with sons Mark and Matthew

Happier Times!

fbb's sister died on Friday morning in the care of St Mary's Hospital, Newport, Isle of Wight. She was 73, living in a care home, and had suffered from repeated bouts of a chest infection (NOT Covid 19) over the last few years. Her passing was peaceful and she had asked to see the Hospital Chaplain earlier in the day. 

May she have taken that step of faith.

Out of respect for Jane, for those who cared for her, for her two sons Matthew (now 43) and Mark (now 46), and for personal feelings, blogging will be suspended for today.

Normal service will be resumed tomorrow.

 Next Lovely Logo blog : Monday 30th November 

In Memoriam (1)

 Sister Jane

fbb's sister died yesterday morning in the care of St Mary's Hospital, Newport, Isle of Wight. She was 73, living in a care home, and had suffered from repeated bouts of a chest infection (NOT Covid 19) over the last few years. Her passing was peaceful and she had asked to see the Hospital Chaplain earlier in the day. 

May she have taken that step of faith.

Out of respect for Jane, for those who cared for her, for her two sons Matthew and Mark, and for personal feelings, blogging will be suspended for today and tomorrow.

The Church link will be posted for tomorrow's service, a usual.

Normal service will be resumed on Monday.

The picture was taken approx 64 years ago outside St Matthew's Church, Northampton at a family wedding.

 Church link blog : Sunday 29th November 

Sunday Variety

CHURCH LINK - HARVEST  

Service starts 1030

Today's "Car Park" service is moved inside.
The fbbs will be attending. It is not possible
to set up an on-screen link before they depart.
A link can be obtained, however,
via the Church YouTube channel
(here) and clicking on the panel for today's date.
-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-

A Sad Personal Farewell

fbb is sorry to report that Giles Fearnley's mum passed away on Thursday last after an extended period of illness. She celebrated her 99th Birthday in August and was a great friend of fbb and later his Mrs. Your author's fondest memory is of the superb meat pies supplied to eke out fbb's pre-marital hunger pangs - and the genuine and warm friendship over many years. Here is Helen with grandson Archie at Babbacombe six years ago.

A fine lady who lived a good and long life, but who will still be missed; the end of an era indeed.

A Sad Transport Farewell

Blog readers may not be familiar with Kerrs Miniature Railway, Arbroath. It has provided rides alongside the main line since 1935, all those years in the hands of the same family.

Running parallel to the "big" railway adds to the excitement.

The news breaks that this delight, the oldest miniature railway in Scotland, will close finally at the end of this season. There are hopes that the trains and track can be moved elsewhere, but apparently it is curtains shed doors for this little line.

The reports do not say whether the intriguing Stagecoach single decker will still ply for trade (thankfully NOT in the new livery) ...

... or whether the fire engine will continue to respond to imaginary conflagrations!

In these days of rapid change, fbb presumes you can still get an Arbroath Smokie in Arbroath?

They look awful and taste delicious.

The Arbroath Smokie is said to have originated in the small fishing village of Auchmithie, three miles northeast of Arbroath. Local legend has it a store caught fire one night, destroying barrels of haddock preserved in salt. The following morning, the people found some of the barrels had caught fire, cooking the haddock inside. Inspection revealed the haddock to be quite tasty. It is much more likely the villagers were of Scandinavian descent, as the 'Smokie making' process is similar to smoking methods which are still employed in areas of Scandinavia.

But please, please don't call them "kippers"!!

How Many Colours?

 SAND         lower bodyside

 CREAM        upper bodyside

 LIGHT GREEN  bodyside swirl

 YELLOW       bodyside swirl

 CYAN         rear end

 PALE CYAN    flag

 MID BLUE     fleet name

 WHITE        other lettering

 RED          dot on "i" of Yorkshire

              and tiny wedge which might be pink?

That's a total of NINE (even ten?) colours used to Create Desire, as they say in Battersea. Does the desire increase with the number of colours - or decrease?

Did this "create desire" way back then?

New Buses For Slough - Not Quite!

The first of the former Southampton Euro 6 Volvo B7RLEs have gone into the paint shop and will come out the other side in a brand new livery for Slough service 4.

Five of the Volvos will receive this livery with another five to be repainted into the current Slough service 7 livery and they will complement the existing Volvo Hybrids.

Here is the 4 livery ...

... and, for those like fbb who cannot remember what First runs in Slough (not much these days), here is an extract from the current timetable.

The 4 zips boringly down the A4 from Maidenhead to Heathrow Central.

The 4 used to look like this:-

Bus Eireann Wields The Axe

We recognised last week that action was being taken to "improve" bus services in Dublin where the word "improve" in bus management speak means "cutbacks". Once outside of Dublin, the nationalised bus service is called "Bus Eireann" under the overall management of CIE which also runs the trains.

CIE has been losing money for a good while, so this announcement should not cause any surprise.

The article explains things a bit more:-

Expressway, Bus Éireann’s premium coach service, provides direct and regular services on over 22 routes throughout Ireland. It is the only coach service to present a connected network to passengers across the Island of Ireland, making it the quickest way to reach an unrivalled number of destinations. Our modern fleet of comfortable coaches offers a cost-effective alternative to the hassle and stress of accessing increasingly restricted car parking and busy town centres. 

Our 28 new vehicles feature power sockets, charging points, and ISOFIX attachment points, allowing your children to travel in safety and you to travel with ease of mind. A majority of routes provide hourly services for timely travel to wherever you need to go. And, our routes let you travel to major airports around the country in luxury with our extra comfort leather seats, while you stay connected with on-board Wi-Fi. 

More cuts on the way for the Republic's "National Express"?

Now There's a Thought (From Stonehenge)

 Next Variety blog : Monday 5th October 

Memories, Memories ...

In Memoriam

Five years ago today the fbbs' No 2 Son was shot dead by a trigger-happy policeman in Los Angeles. Neil was misbehaving, but he was unarmed and the autopsy found no drugs or alcohol in his body. On the night that he died, but unaware of the tragedy, Mrs fbb had a dream - a vision - in which Neil was sitting at the foot of the bed with head bowed in an attitude of contrition. An almost touchable atmosphere of peace filled the room, so different from normal dreams which often featured the young man's flawed nature.

It was a fortnight later that the policeman came to the door and revealed the awful news!

No one took the knee, no one rioted, no one set fire to anything - it was just a routine Los Angeles happening.

Of course black lives matter, of course ALL lives matter.

For only a penny you can buy two sparrows, yet not one sparrow falls to the ground without your Father's consent. As for you, even the hairs of your head have all been counted. So do not be afraid; you are worth much more than many sparrows! - from Matthew Chapter 10.

The fbb's thank God that their son is now at peace; revenge or retribution will not give him back his life, and the fbbs do not seek such and never will; but the bias of George Floyd events does make the memories something of a tough challenge.

Instead of trying to rewrite history by demolishing statues etc, surely the right way forward is to seek condemnation of all future brutality by "the authorities" directed at ALL peoples. And how about campaigning loud and long about the appalling level of violent persecution of Christians (and other faiths). And a similarly vociferous campaign against 21st century slavery, notably for the so called "sex trade", which is endemic throughout the world and thus here in the UK.

All peoples should be working and praying to make things better NOW for everyone, not trying to rewrite history.

-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-

And Now, Some Happier Memories

As part of their 100 years celebrations, Hornby have produced an edition of "The Hornby Book of Trains".

It follows in a long line of such titles, the first of which appeared in 1925.

But that was 23 years after Frank Hornby's genius idea went on sale. In 1902 he began selling the world's first ever construction toy; whereby mechanical models could be made, dismantled and reassembled as something different.

It was soon rebranded as Meccano.

After a few years it was joined by a magazine, first a freebee but then sold on subscription.

The purpose of the periodical was to arouse and develop interest in the technology of the day so that young lads would want to build ever more complex machines as here with a working loom.

In order to do this, of course, it would be necessary to go to your local supplier and purchase extra bits, either as an add-on set or individually.

How about a few trunnion plates? You could have them flat ...

... or angled ...

... or, in a later version, with boss.

Then the Hornby boss had yet another jackpot idea. Why not design a toy train which, like Meccano, could be taken apart and re-assembled using little nuts and bolts.

So it was that in 1920 the 100 years of model trains began with a simple four wheel clockwork loco now reproduced as a three rail electric model. Back in 1920 there were crude coaches and wagons.

Today your £524 (OUCH-plus) will just buy the loco. To run it you need at least some track and preferably a vintage carriage or two. fbb reckons that most of them will sit in display cabinets and never turn a wheel.

But back in the 1920s, it was not long before you could get wagons which did things, like this working snow plough ...

... and a level crossing with working lights.

Hornby produced stock for the Canadian market ...

... and bog standard four wheel loco mechanisms with pseudo European bodies on top.

At least one UK model made a valiant attempt to reproduce a real loco, namely a Metropolitan Railway electric jobbie ...

... but with the 0-4-0 mechanism hidden below deep valances. 

By the mid-1930s hornby had begun to produce stuff of higher quality (and at a higher price!) ...

... but the War curtailed such projects.

fbb owns a couple of the bogie coaches (unboxed) but sadly one of them has been well bent at one end and fbb has not yet been brave enough to try unbending it.

But the writing was very much on the wall for Hornby "O", as announced by a two page spread in a 1938 Meccano Magazine.

Like many of his elderliness, fbb, aged 7/8, was given an enhanced set similar to below for Christmas.

It was second hand but came with track, points, a second loco and a few wagons including fbb's favourite, a side tipper. It ran on a large circuit round the lad's bedroom, such that, inevitably, the spring wound down while it was under the bed. Once re-wound it went so fast the it fell off the track at the corners. There was no speed control, just a brake and reverse controlled by the two levers poking out of the back of the cab..

fbb soon lost interest and the stuff was passed on.

But, more or less, that was the end of O gauge toy trains, leaving the scale to wealthy specialists who constructed their own locos. We all though that traditional tinplate was gone for ever.

Until 1996, that is.

In 1996, Allen and Charlotte Levy started their Ace Trains company.

The locos returned to the scale and quality of those Hornby biggies from the late 1930s ...

... electrically powered (two or three rail), complete with nostaligiafest rolling stock.

Briefly in 2008/9 Hornby re-entered the O gauge tinplate - sort of by accident. Hornby took over Corgi, for long a competitor to Dinky Toys, and with that business came Corgi's entry into the tinplate market using the super historic name of Bassett-Lowke.

The series came with a selection of fondly remember tin wagons ...

... but production was soon ended; leaving the market clear for Ace.

Of course the market has changed yet again, with finely scaled O gauge models being produced at, for some people at least, affordable prices.

£335 - ONLY.

Only 30 years of Hornby's 100 have passed by but post WW2 everything was Dublo!

fbb will pick up the story in a later blog. Also tomorrow we see what finally happened to the Control Tower.

The excitement is almost too much!

 Next Technology blog : Friday 10th July