Sunday Variety

Pad Printing : Bad Painting

fbb's 1960s Triang coach had beading which was needing some painting. fbb has always be open about hs modelling limitations, made worse by his eyesight deterioration but pretty bad before. So when he saw these advertised he was joyful at the possibilities they might present.

These are fibre tipped pens but do not contain conventional ink. They are loaded with acrylic paint. Would they be the answer to a modellers dream and permit the old man to paint lining on some of his carriages?

No, the tips are too thick! 

But what about a small scale pastiche of "Tampo" printing. "Tampo" is a brand name of Pad Printing which works like this.

You create a printing plate and charge it with ink.

A silicone "blob" picks up the image ...

... then "rolls" that image ...

... on to the model or whatever. Because the blob is squidgy, the image can be printed on an uneven surface.

Here is a little video showing a multicoloured image being printed on a mug.

Obviously, fbb's scheme was pitifully simple by comparison. 

Take one pencil rubber ...

... and charge it with the paint. Then press the rubber gently against the beading.

Does it work?

Yes. And No!

From a distance it looks OK but close up ...

... good in parts and rubbish in others.

More practice needed!

Sullivan Shuts Services Suddenly

Sullivan Buses are based in South Mimms right next to the M25. As well as tendered services for Hertfordshire, they have a number of Transport for London contracts.

Abruptly last week and much to the surprise and shock of their staff, this notice appeared.

It is a graphics object which means that fbb cannot extract the text. You may be able to download this version below ...

... but if not, here is the gist.

"We don't earn much from TfL contractor; they are slow payers and owe us over £130,000. They don't pay promptly enough. We have had discussions with TfL but to no avail, so we are handing back the keys as ftom Friday 2nd August. 

Sorry for the disruption, but ..."

Roger French has sent fbb a few comments from various on-line forms including these quotes from staff notices.

Depot Closure

You've Lost Your Job

That would seem to be verging on the illegal?

Sources are suggesting that replacements will start soon (or may have already started) as follows:-

Whatever the rights and wrings of the manner of this decision, it should give those Northern Mega Mayors pause for thought as they rush lemming-like into their much vaunted (?) London-style franchising model!

The Hertfordshire work is unaffected.

Puzzle Picture - Easy!

What and where?

fbb Style Vehicle Maintenance

A recent picture of a London Bus with bits held on by sticky tape. fbb suspects that would be a Safety Service failure possibly with an immediate "stop order" on the vehicle.

It is from HT garage and we can all work out which London garage that is from the two letter code.

Of course it is Holloway! In case you are wondering how you get "HT" from Holloway, the depot used to be called HighgaTe an aeon or two ago.

Seaton Tramway Floral Display

Yesterday, the fbbs took luncheon at the Tramstop Caff in Colyton. fbb had sausage egg and chips, Mrs fbb a mushroom omelette, chips and a salad garnish. Super yummy eaten on the former Colyton branch station platform.

Here is said platform in steam days ...

... and here it is today.

Every summer the platform is bedecked with lavish floral displays. Here are some pictures thereof taken yesterday in between chip and banger munching.

These tubs are all along the platform fencing.

And on the lamp stands.

And beside  the two dinosaurs that have escaped from the Jurassic Coast.

But fbb had better have a tram picture linking the original and today's mode of transport.

It passes a Southern Railway pre-cast concrete lineside hut, so shaped that, with chimney temporarily removed, it can be loaded in its entirety on a wagon without fouling the loading gauge. The tram is based loosely on the London "Feltham" design but shrunked!

And a real one at Crich!

Tomorrow's blog should include a "What's The Difference" challenge BUT content and quantity will depend on the rigours of the fbb's Christian Fellowship meetings, today and tomorrow. As well as the meetings we are enjoying a cream tea with Mrs fbb's Internationally famous scones.

The following item has no public transport content, but it has been of interest to fbb over the last week or so.

Blasphemy What? As For Me, Not?

In a desperate attempt to create a news story where none really existed, the media seem to think the above is a parody of a classical painting by Leonardo da Vinci depicting Jesus' final and meaningful meal with the gang. The word "blasphemy" has been widely used!

For a Bible based evangelical Christian, any deviations from God's moral principles is, of course, inherently blasphemous. Sexual activity is reserved for a man and a woman joined in Holy Matrimony for life. Anything else is contrary to God's will, starting from the example of a drunken Noah in Genesis exposing himself to his family right through to the picture of an Earthly City (Rome?) in the book of Revelation as a prostitute selling herself to the highest bidder.

For your author, those Biblical principles are not open to debate.

What is of interest, however, is whether the tableau at the Olympic opening ceremony was a blasphemous parody of The Last Supper.

The Olympic Authorities have spent some time apologising and denying.

Was Dionysus blue-skinned with an orange beard?

In fact, the only tenuous parallel between the tableau and the painting is that a gang of strangely clad people are lined up on one side of a table. In one (the tableau) they are standing, in the other (the painting) they are sitting.

From a detailed study of the Bible passages, your blogger cannot remember any mention of a Smurf under a huge stainless steel plate cover as a centrepiece of the Biblical Last Supper.

In fact, Leonardo's painting may be great art, but as a depiction of Jesus' last meal with his disciples it is almost 100% wrong.

Here is an upper room on a reconstruction of the home of what we would call a "middle management" earner of New Testament times.

It is a bit different from Leonardo's classical Italian grandeur.

Leaving aside the artistic nicety (but real-time stupidity) of having them all sitting on one side of a table with the other side empty (!), in Jesus' time they would not be sitting. They would be reclining.

Brightly coloured clothing was the prerogative of the rich, the Roman elite and the ruling classes. Khaki, grey or unbleached linen were the norm for "everyman" in Bible times and thus for Jesus and his gang.

And everybody in both paintings has European features! Jesus was a Jew as were most of his guests. He would have had swarthy weather-beaten skin and roughly trimmed hair. This is the real Jesus, according to expert anthropologists ...

... although nobody can be 100% certain.

Of course Leonardo's picture may be a help and comfort to the faith of many but it is not "real" in any way. 

Some draw strength from Dali's "Crucifixion Hypercubus", another highly unrealistic but powerful representation.

Some would call Dali's crucifixion blasphemous!

Maybe we would find the Biblical accounts easier to understand if they were depicted more realistically than the artists of old chose to do.

Here is a good representation of the real Last Supper.

Or maybe this one.

Here you have to ignore the silver cup. It would have been crude pottery and not the opulent Holy Grail!

Contrast and compare!

One thing IS certain; there is no link between the Paris tableau and the real Last Supper, whatever your spiritual aspirations!

The Paris tableau might well have been morally and Biblically offensive to millions of Christians and, for that it should be deplored BUT ...

... it really wasn't making light of Leonardo's painting.

 Next What's The Difference blog : Mon 5th 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