A Penny for the Guy

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

The UKs last independent rail company

has been taken over. 

Arriva Trains (owned by Deutsche Bahn) has bought

Grand Central - operating from London Kings Cross

to Sunderland and Bradford.

Fond reminiscences from fbb tomorrow (Sunday).

  -----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Back to today's blog

First, a few demonyms:-

Manchester : Mancunian
Liverpool : Liverpudlian
Glasgow : Glaswegian
Isle of Wight : Vectensian
Sheffield : Sheffielder
Cambridge : Cantabridgian
Newcastle : Novocastrian

But what about Haligonian, Stopfordian or Leodensian? And, of course, Wulfrunian?

Sydney Guy was born in 1885 and lived in the King's Heath area of Birmingham. In 1901, he served his apprenticeship with the Bellis and Morcom Steam Engineering Company in Birmingham. He also attended evening classes at the local Technical School. On finishing his apprenticeship, he joined a local engineering company, working with a Harry Railing who later became one of the founders of the General Electric Company.


His associations with the motor industry began when he moved to Humber in Coventry in 1906 as a Service Manager. In 1909 he joined Sunbeam in Wolverhampton as works manager (the Sunbeam Trolleybus Company later became part of Guy Motors Ltd). In 1913, he resigned from Sunbeam over a pay dispute.


In the same year he set up Guy Motors in Fallings Park, Wolverhampton. He eventually retired as Chairman and Managing Director in 1957, aged 72. He died at his home in Albrighton in 1971, aged 86. Guy Motors eventually became part of British Leyland.

Guy produced some splendid buses as exemplified by this delicious preserved vehicle from Southampton.

But it was the development and production of the ill-fated Wulfrunian between 1958 and 1965 that brought Sydney's company to ultimate collapse. The Wulfrunian engine was at the front, unlike its obvious competitor, the rear engined Leyland Atlantean. The engine was offset to the right ...

... to allow for a font entrance body with a nearside staircase.

The design was developed in conjunction with the West Riding bus company who bought most of the vehicles produced.

West Riding used a red livery for Wakefield "City" buses ...

... and green for "country" services.

 Exceptionally, however, Accrington Corporation ...

... acquired some Wulfrunians with then conventional open rear entrance. Rumours suggest that the design was a step too far and the buses were both expensive to maintain and unreliable in service, although similar engineering principles were later revived for the Volvo Ailsa. Whatever the historical truth, the marque was the downfall of Guy Motors.


As our illogical nation spends much time and money today celebrating a failed terrorist ...

... perhaps we omnibologists could be allowed a happy memory of a Guy with a deep throated engine roar and radiator adorned with an American Indian's head. Well worth celebrating!


No doubt someone will tell fbb why the "Red Indian" device was chosen.

If you are overwhelmed with excitement about the Guy Wulfrunian there is a superb web site documenting many of the vehicles here. Enjoy!

On, and by the way ...


Haligonian : Halifax

Stopfordian : Stockport

Leodensian : Leeds

Wulfrunian : Wolverhampton

... and : a demonym, also referred to as a gentilic, is a name for a resident of a locality.

And London Transport guru (and colleague), Barry, would not forgive fbb if he didn't include a picture of the archetypal London Guy single decker.

There would definitely have been fireworks in the office!

Groan!

Next blog : due Sunday November 6th

Searching for Sinfin [2]

-------------------------------------------------------------------

found a pic of an 88 trolleybus, sadly not on Derby's Sinfin Lane

but at the Black Country Museum, website here.

see yesterday's blog (read again)

  -------------------------------------------------------------------

Where's the station?
Where's the stations?

In 1868, the Midland Railway opened its branch from Derby to Ashby-de-la-Zouch. It passed through largely rural; farming communities with stations at Chellaston and Melbourne amongst others. The line was hardly a top rate money spinner and it closed to passengers in 1930 and to freight in various stages from 1955 onwards.

Nothing remains the station at Chellaston ...

... except a line of trees top left. Likewise, Melbourne can offer a footpath/cycleway and a small industrial estate.

But in 1976, Derby City sponsored what they hoped would be a rival to the Birmingham Cross-City line. Two new stations were opened. One, Sinfin North, was "private" and located within the massive Rolls Royce aero engine factory; the other, Sinfin Central was available to the public and situated at the southernmost limits of the industrial complex.

a clip from Col. Cobb's Historical Atlas of 

the Railways of Great Britain.

Click on the image to enlarge.

Neither station was particularly close to the original village of Sinfin, or, indeed, the much extended post WW2 hosing development.

Yes, I remember Sinfin North –
The name; because one afternoon
Of heat the diesel-train drew up there
Unwontedly. It was late June.

The brakes hissed. Someone cleared his throat.
No one left and no one came
On the bare platform. What I saw
Was Sinfin North – only the name**

Neither station attracted the custom expected and the service was progressively reduced until in 1993 there was just one early morning return trip. This was replaced by a taxi when new diesel units proved technically unsuitable for the branch. Under privatisation, the line passed nominally to Central Trains who never ran a train to Sinfin.

Despite protests, as here from "The Independent"  of Monday 23rd February 1998 ...

THERE is a train service where passengers recline in leather seats, chat with the driver and get dropped off at their destination's door.


It is not a futuristic vision of Britain's rail service, but the story of the taxi ride that masquerades as the 6:48 morning train from Derby to Sinfin, an industrial suburb of the city. And, if the fat controllers of the private rail network get their way, its journey could be over for good.


Today, public hearings start to close the branch line to the two stations in Sinfin, a three- minute, two-mile journey from the centre of Derby, which costs £1.20 and for more than four years has been served only by a taxi replacing the scheduled service.


Although the taxi takes longer, the chief benefit for the three regular users is that they do not have to walk from the station - the taxi takes them all the way to their workplaces. One is dropped at his factory at Peartree, a stop half way down the line and the two remaining regulars are driven right to the door of the Rolls-Royce plant.


The downside is that the service is only one way. Returning in the evening they have to walk and take the bus - or a normal taxi at £3.20.

... the line was formally closed  on 21st May 1998.

fbb wonders whether the project was a decade or so ahead of its time. Derby "suburbs" Shelton Lock and Chellaston have expanded significantly and trains could have been extended to Castle Donington and East Midlands Airport along existing tracks. But sadly, it was not to be.

THE END

** Poem extract (with apologies!) based on "Adlestrop" by Edward Thomas. fbb and pal rode the line, soon after opening, on a train timed for the middle part of the day. No-one boarded, no-one alighted and the train returned empty, save for the chubby one and his less chubby chum, back to Derby.


Next blog : due Saturday November 5th

Searching for Sinfin [1]

---------------------------------------------------------------------

Re : yesterday's blog (read again) about Portinscale

Thank you "Anonymous" who has discovered that service

86 from Keswick is listed under service 77 in Kendal

on the Stagecoach site and NOT under 86!

So that's all right, then.
The 86 runs additional Winter trips when the 77 doesn't.
Why not call it 77?

---------------------------------------------------------------------

Back to Sinfin ...

The Village Vanishes

There wasn't much to Sinfin in 1887! A few cottages clustered round a road junction with the "Big House" half a mile away. By the 1930s nothing much had changed ...

Expansion of Industry, particularly Rolls Royce aero division, brought a rapid expansion of the southern districts of Derby. Trolleybus route 88, later replaced by a motor bus route,

ran to the County Hotel on Sinfin Lane.

The latter part of the 20th century brought further rapid expansion of the "new" Sinfin and a merger with development at Stenson Fields. The old hamlet of Sinfin is all but obliterated by modern construction with just an odd cottage or two remaining as here on Sinfin Moor Lane.

Sinfin Hall stood where the modern Church now stands.

The present-day bus service, successor to the fotrmer route 88, is Arriva service 38 ....

... which runs every 10 minutes Monday to Saturday daytime (seen above on Grampian Way) ...

... following the traditional Sinfin Lane route.

The original settlement was located at the road junction just under the "S" of Sinfin on the map above. The 38 is joined by a service 37 running every 15 minutes via Stenson Road ...

... seen here near the big ASDA store.

So whereabouts is (or was) Sinfin Station?

Answer, nowhere near Sinfin!

Next blog : due Friday November 4th

In Praise of Nuts [2]

The Problem with Portinscale

Portinscale is a delightful, picturesque Lake District village close to the northeastern bank of Derwentwater and might, possibly, be regarded as a "suburb" of Keswick. It comes to fbb's attention following yesterdays blog about Cumbria's cunning plan to publish a winter bus timetable booklet without bus timetables (read again). The e-mail announcing this spectacular and positive development in public transport promotion commented thus:-

The County Council is very much progressing the provision of electronic based information using, for example, websites and I-apps, and the promotion of such initiatives will be very apparent in the new guide.

Really?

Idly musing on these matters fbb happened upon this ...

... namely next bus information on-line for a stop in Keswick, showing three service 86 journeys. A quick look at Cumbria's bus route map shows the 86 as terminating at Portinscale.

And so to Cumbria's comprehensive timetable listing ...

... and a confident click confirms this timetable.

This suggests (quite strongly in white on green and white on black) that the 77 / 77A and 86 only run during the summer months. AND that there is just one trip in each direction on the 86, NOT three as indicated by the so-called real time page.

So, next to "operated-by" Stagecoach Cumbria who, sad to say, don't admit to running any buses in Keswick; it's not even on their alphabetical list. Never mind, eh? All you have to do, obviously, is look under "Kendal" ...

... how silly of you not to have guessed that, ...

... where you will find buses in Keswick, including the 86.

Except there aren't any!

"What about Traveline?" We hear you cry. ("cry" is the operative word).

It offers a plethora of pertinent planning procedures, one of which is an 86 bus at 1011 to Portinscale ...

... a journey which does not appear on the printed timetable.

Because Traveline North East & Cumbria does not publish any timetables, merely referring the frustrated user to other helpful (?) places, it is impossible to find a definitive answer.

So there you have it! Only you don't. The enquirer of Cumbria's on line facilities has absolutely no idea whether there is a bus to Portinscale or not, and, furthermore, if there is, what the times might possibly be.

Before someone accuses fbb of being economical with the truth, all the other journeys shown in Traveline as running to Portinscale are on Stagecoach service X5 which follows the B5289 ...

... and the very busy A66 ...

... effectively by-passing the village. Not the best stops to use on a dark and stormy Lake District night; with the added delight of a substantial stumble down creepy and uninviting lanes to the village. Thanks, but no thanks.

N.U.T.S. (The National Union of Timetable Secrecy) is doing a really good job in Cumbria.

P.S. The summer service 77/77A offers a truly magnificent circular ride from Keswick via Butterthwaite Buttermere and lots of stunning scenery. A must, if you ever get the chance.

It also serves Portinscale!

Next blog : due Thursday November 3rd

In Praise of Nuts [1]

Timetable-less Timetables?

fbb is in total disagreement with their aims but feels, in the interests of independent reporting, that he must document the efforts of N.U.T.S. (The National Union of Timetable Secrecy). Under the enthusiastic oversight of its dynamic President, Boris (The Blue) Johnson, the "nutters" have made considerable gains in their avowed aim to remove all bus timetable information from the public.

The President of N.U.T.S. acknowledges applause for

total timetable secrecy in London; a huge achievement.

Nationally, bus timetable books have almost completely disappeared; bus enquiry offices are as rare as the Yeti and the latest success for Nuts is now apparent in Cumbria. Here its "Getting Around" comprehensive timetable book disappeared in 2007; but a joint effort with Stagecoach showing at least all the main services has continued to be widely available.

Until Nuts gained a political foothold, that is.

This, distributed recently by the Council.

Cumbria County Council announces its Winter Bus Timetable

The winter guide [to the main bus services in Cumbria] this year will be quite different to the usual format and aims to inform readers about the range of transport services available across Cumbria and to signpost them to new ways of accessing more detailed information. The County Council is very much progressing the provision of electronic based information using, for example, websites and I-apps, and the promotion of such initiatives will be very apparent in the new guide.

The main change to its content is that it will not contain any bus timetables.

And this, from Stagecoach in Cumbria ...  

As Cumbria County Council will not be producing a winter timetable booklet this year, we are producing leaflets for services as follows [e.g. 555]:-

So, a response from at least one Tourist Information Centre ...

"The Cumbria Rider magazine is the only comprehensive paper guide to bus services in Cumbria; it is very popular with our more elderly residents and essential for our visitors.(we give out an estimated 300 of each edition, the library also gives out lots.)

"I must admit that I had to re-read the email several times as I could not quite believe that the bus timetable magazine was no longer going to have bus timetables in it!!

"The people who come in for the magazine either cannot use the internet or are on holiday so do not have access to it; those who could use it cannot even be sent to the library for access as it is hardly ever open. I am really concerned about the effect that this decision will have on the TIC and Library (both single staffed in winter) in terms of cost and workload.

"We simply cannot afford to be printing dozens of timetables off the internet; lots of our visitors want information on all routes available before they decide where to go. We will also end up making dozens more phone calls to Traveline (again at our expense).

"I was under the impression that CCC wanted to encourage people to use public transport? but are no longer prepared to give any information in print on how to do so?

"Please can you send me a telephone number for the person who made this decision in preparation for the deluge of complaints my staff are going to have to deal with in the TIC when the new guide arrives."

fbb's final thought?

The new timetable without timetables, clearly a good way of saving costs as it will be easy to keep up to date, was due to be published "at the end of October". A recent check on the County Council's web site revealed an offer of a download (of the Summer edition?) ...

... sadly a pointless offer as no such download could be downloaded. No mention of any alternative.

A real coup for the N.U.T.S!

P.S. Enjoy a publicity pic of a new Stagecoach bus on the service 555. You could enjoy a ride; IF you can find out when the buses run.


Perhaps the next money saving scheme will be bus routes without buses?

Next blog : due Wednesday November 2nd