Henrietta Emerges from the Workshop

But before she does, how about this for a picture?

Which European city has this splendid display of bus and tram departures accompanied by racks of leaflets?

A departure screen showing bus and trams from near the station together with a map. Yes, it's Nottingham Station. One rack has City bus service leaflets ...

... the other, TrentBarton.

Sorry, that should be trentbarton where we have no truck with literary niceties like capital letters for proper nouns. But a huge bag of chocolate peanuts to Nottingham City Council!

Can anywhere else in the UK match this? Thanks to our Northampton correspondent Alan for the picture.

But now: back to Henrietta.

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

Toby Will be much Happier!

Not every reader of this blog shares fbb's renewed interest in railway modelling, but the screening this week on BBC4 of three programmes whereby the viewer watches paint dry James May putting things back together; combined with the impending visit of young Archie Fearnley, spurred fbb to do something about Henrietta.

Not that fbb is as capable as Mr May in his role at "The Re-Assembler". Far front it.

Henrietta, our loyal readers will remember, is the railway coach that is the constant companion of No 7 Toby the Tram Engine in the oeuvre of the Rev Wilbert Awdry (and son). Will made his own Henrietta in the 1940s ...

... and commissioned a Toby from a more expert modeller. The real coach looked like this ...

... and like this in the original childrens' books.

Models of the Wisbech and Upwell [W & U] Tramway's early passenger car are all less realistic.

Even the semi "offical" HO model produced by Bachmann for the American market leaves much to be desired.

So it was obvious from the outset that fbb's minimalistic modelling skills would only extend to creating a "pastiche" of Henrietta, sufficient to amuse his three year old occasional visitor. The starting point, therefore, was a second-hand Fleischmann model of the Deutsche Bahm "Thonderbox" four wheeler, common in German branch lines from the 1930s through to the 1960s.

These boys toys are beautifully designed ...

... Vorsprung Durch Technik indeed. Everything clips together; nothing is glued; which makes taking it all apart to effect the transfiguration from metal carriage to ancient four wheeler a little easier to contemplate.

The chassis unclips from the body as well, but chubbo only discovered this late in the process, and it didn't matter anyway.

The Fleischmann model is of an all metal vehicle (hence the "Thunderbox" nickname) but the W & U original would have been wood, wouldn't it? So rub off the rivets ...

... using sandpaper this is too coarse. That will give the reproduction a "distressed" look. Then apply a rough representation of the distinctive beading along the sides.

fbb had the idea of changing the shape of the roof to a flatter more accurate contour, but, in a burst of rampant negativity, decided it would be too difficult and abandoned the idea. Next, then, a coat of paint. 

Orange seemed to be the colour adopted by most manufacturers and the creators of the television series.

Whilst he had his paint box and brushes to hand, the ham-fisted modeller decided to decorate the interior. This was a singularly pointless exercise because, due to small windows, it is almost impossible to see the inside!

Of course if internal lights were fitted ...

But that's for later. In the meantime, James May style, fbb needs to become The Re-assembler.

Oh dear!

More in a week's time.

 Next bus blog : Monday 4th April 

Manchester Madness Part 3

The Vantage Advantage?

But this is what it was all about. The launch for press and politicians of the £68 million Leigh guided busway plus £7 million worth of new (and ugly) buses. Everyone was there, as shown in this "official photo":-

Note First bus Fearnley (back left), Transport Committee chairman Andrew Fender (front left) and MP for Leigh, Andy Burnham. He is behind the two token genuine passengers.

Journalists had a secondary bus whilst many of the bigwigs scuttled off (for a free lunch?), but, impressively, Mr Fender stayed with the fourth estate for their sample ride.

There was, sadly, a distinct lack of organisation; but this attempt (akin to being unable to provide pea soup in a brewery) did at least allow fbb to take a look at Leigh Bus Station.

Toilets, clean and in good nick ...

... but at four bob a pee, scandalous; especially compared with £68 million for the busway!

Enquiry office, well stocked ...

... with attractive Arriva booklets and ...

... very unattractive TfGM productions. What was even more disappointing was that the leaflet for the new busway services was equally boring and univiting.

Very poor; perhaps TfGM don't want to admit how good it is? Perhaps it isn't as good as the hype says it is?

After a significant delay, the press gang finally got their ride. fbb grabbed top deck front off-side and was joined nearside by Alan Millar, editor of Buses Magazine who had travelled down from Markinch (in Scotland).

But at last (yawn) we were off. If you like busways, then this one was impressive.

Each junction with real roads was traffic light controlled with priority for the buses.

busway begins, near the site of Leigh station

There was the obligatory car trap, to ensure that errant motoring Mancunians would sink into the pit and gum up the whole service for hours until someone came to haul them out.

But the guideway stretched impressively into the distance ...

... undulating like some mythical beast from Chat Moss. Stops were, of course, all shiny and new ...

... but only scantily "covered" thus offering very little protection against Manchester's famous diagonal rain. It is a mildly amusing fact that the designers of street (and thus busway) furniture only believe that rail descends vertically; a drenching diagonal downpour is not considered.

The comfy bus, equipped with WiFi, USB chanrging points, tanning parlour, massage room and seat back alarm clocks in case the ride is so restful you nod off, sped happily along the full length of the concrete track. Smooth and slick.

Then out on to the East Lancs Road (A580) where much fine gold has been spent on long bus lanes ...

... clearly unnecessary at 1345 on a damp Tuesday. There has been much grumpiness about the effect of these lanes on peak hour traffic to and from the city centre. Perhaps those who grump will decide to use the bus instead?

And then the final travelling treat (?). Our Vantage-mobile pulled into the Park and Ride site at the A580 M60 junction.

Access is only from the A580 as such ...

... and about 350 parking places are threaded cleverly between assorted bits of road. The assembled multitude took lots of pictures of the bus whilst fbb snapped one shot of the (empty) car park areas and consumed a bottle of fruit squash.

It will be interesting to see how this facility develops. Car parking is free.

Then it was back to Leigh but with a stop at the Tyldesley bus stop and interchange.

Under a raincloud lowering sky the picture is in true Mancunian grey, but on the left is the "to Manchester" busway stop and on the right is the layby for ordinary buses arriving to connect with the "fast" service. No-one seemed to have any idea what was to happen here, but the committee chairman did agree that connecting buses would serve the stop. Presumably First's service 35, an hourly service mopping up some of the bits from withdrawn non-busway routes, will use the layby.

But Astley Street (south of Tyldesley and the site of the lovely layby) just has a cursory "Busway stop" added to its map. According to the poster at the "to Leigh" stop, other routes are being diverted there. But nobody seemed to know anything in any detail.

What does the red line actually mean?

More investigation needed. Certainly more services were shown on the under test "real time" displays. fbb hopes something will be done to make these legible. The text was very small ...

... and, even on a very grey day, the information was well-nigh impossible to read because of reflection from the brooding heavens.. The screens need hoods!

fbb had a nice chat with a lady from BBC Radio Manchester, seen here interviewing the MP ...

... in a few precious moments of sunshine.

"Was it a good idea?" she asked the bulbous and opinionated one, thankfully off-air. "£68 million is a lot to spend to save a bit of running time," your blogger opined, "and eight buses an hour is a lot of extra bums on seats needed to make it all work." She dutifully wrote something down in her notebook and moved on.

But, to their credit, First Bus are showing a commercial determination to make a go of it

NEW VANTAGE CUSTOMERS

SET TO BE QUIDS IN WHEN
BUSWAY OPENS

Customers travelling on the busway service, branded Vantage by operator First Greater Manchester, will pay a maximum of £1 for any single journey between Leigh/Atherton, Tyldesley and Ellenbrook (Newearth Rd, Worsley). The promotional fare will be available for at least 6 months from the start of services on 3 April.

When fbb first read this, he was astounded at First's generosity, but on reading more carefully, the £1 offer is for rides on the busway only and locally between Tyldesley and Atherton. A somewhat less attractive offer is for a free day trip busway ticket ...

Hooray

Customers can also claim their complimentary free taster ticket. Up to and including 2 April ...

Boo. Today's your last chance!

... customers can register at www.firstgroup.com/vantage for a complimentary day mobile-ticket.

Boo. Only on your mobile phone.

Possibly the last word belongs to celebrated transport guru Barry Doe.

fbb emailed Bazza with a report that his trip had been "interesting".

To which the great man replied "I am amazed that any busway could be described as interesting. It's just a poor excuse for not building a railway or a tram which would be much better."

Plenty of folk in Leigh would agree with him.

 Next Henrietta blog : Sunday 3rd April 

Sir Brian Re-invents a "Train" ...

... Of Driverless Cars!

fbb has been sent this edited transcript of a meeting of the Stagecoach Bus and Rail Joint Development Committee. It is "hot off the ether" as it was only distributed internally at 0200 this morning.

Sir Brian address the committee:-

"I went to America recently and had great fun on the Heathrow Car Park Pod service. It was such fun I rode back and forwards for over an hour and missed my plane. But it started me thinking.

"Then these wee lads at Google are getting their driverless car going. I only wish I could have a go.

"It is true that not all my amazing ideas have worked. The Yellow TaxiBus was not one of my best ...

... but the idea of hanging a yellow label on your door to attract the driver seemed OK at the time.

"The amphibious bus was, maybe, a technology step too far.

"The people of Yoker (Glasgow) seemed unwilling to risk drowning on the way to work. Disappointing.

I did think my hovercraft across the Forth would be a winner ...

... but the Scottish Government meanies wouldn't shell out for the landing infrastructure. And now they've built an extra bridge!

"My Belles were surely a breath of fresh air, although some folk got themselves in a fankle about it being sexist and insulting to women.

"Anyway the lads down at Bristol have cut it back a bit. Pity. I did like the pictures.

"But my latest idea is a sure-fire winner. You see my chum Peter ...

"... gave me a top-notch Christmas present. A toy London train to play with complete with bus and taxi which ran on the same track.

"Peter used to run the buses in London but they've now sent him to sort out Network Rail. He'll never manage it. If Richard** failed and a couple of Peters** failed, young Hendy has no chance. I sent him a 'Sympathy' card when he was appointed!

"Anyway, my plan.

"Take a whole string of driverless cars and, as they converge on a central point, call it a "Station", they can all stick together like my magnetic underground train ...

"... and they could then whizz down a road, or some old branchline somewhere and when they get to another "Station", they could unhook and whizz along the side roads to wherever people wanted to go.

"All we need now is for you development lot to work out the practicalities.

"An article in Buses magazine tells me that driverless buses will be on our roads by 2020.

"We need to beat that. Stagecoach is always at the forefront of modern technology.

Stagecoach vehicle in service on Sidmouth sea front

"I've got a superb project name for you; we'll call it "Access for People Riding In Line 1".

"Snappy name, eh?"

Sir Brian was speaking, in typical Souter laid-back style, still clad in his Megabus overnight pyjamas, by video link from his room at the Auchenshuggle Home for Over-Stressed Bus Managers. His staff were simply agog in the Perth headquarters.

More news is expected in 12 months' time.

** Beeching and Parker Nos 1 and 2

 Next busway blog : Saturday 2nd April