Where Goes With Logos? Who Knows? (4)

 Looking Lovingly At London's Logos

The whole world (?) is familiar with the London Transport logo; Frank Pick did a capital job in defining transport in the Capital. His legacy lives on today, and will doubtless continue to do so. But, as you can see above, it is wrong to think that the logo hasn't changed since 1933 (and even before that!)

But, for the Underground at least, the red circle with blue bar and white lettering has stayed the course. A week ago (ish) we saw how Oxford Circus' signs had been disgracefully replaced by a none-too-subtle advert for the Play Station 5. (It is a popular but expensive electronic games console, m'lud; young people have them surgically welded to their hands.)

fbb does not intend to venture any further into the world of logos re-jigged for advertising or other non transport related purposes.

So first, the quiz. Can you identify which part of Transport for London's ever widening remit is indicated by these logos. 

LOGO 1 (they used to be blue)

LOGO 2 (lighter orange than No 9)

LOGO 3 (Old Father's transport?)

LOGO 4 (too easy, but vehicular white on red)

LOGO 5 (opened - NOT! - by a lady in a matching hat)

LOGO 6 (interim usage until ???)

LOGO 7 (travelling light?)

LOGO 8 (empty logo - comes with air)

LOGO 9 (don't tell Tfl : it's really National Rail)

LOGO 10 (the original and best)

LOGO 11 (invented by a Mr Train?)

LOGO 12 (all hail, TfL)

LOGO 13 (a logo for walking)

LOGO 14 (rings a bell?)

LOGO 15 (for nostalgia - colour has varied)

There are no prizes (boo) but fbb has given some clues to help non-Londoners hazard a guess.

But the key question is; has Transport for London diluted the logo so much that the impact of the original is now lost?

Cannock Castaway (2)

D & G Bus currently operates mainly in the Stoke on Trent area as this part list of their services indicates.

Some routes, however, do reach as far south as Stafford, e.g. 14s from the list above.

By any stretch of the imagination, the take-over of Arriva's Cannock operation puts D & G in a very different league. Some transport observers have suggested that Arriva had mis-managed its Cannock area, losing routes and passengers in the process. But you have to assume that D & G have done their homework and see a good commercial future in the business.

So let's start with Stafford.

D & G pick up all these routes except the 5 to Telford. They are mostly frequent town services ...

... but the 825, 826 and 827 (old Midland Red style route numbers) represent a significant vehicle commitment.

Just a twitch along the A51 we come to Rugeley ...

... where there is a tidy little local network to enhance the trunk 800s.

Due south of Stafford is Cannock itself where D & G will inherit a wider route map ...

... wider because this part of Staffs has a collection of smaller communities to serve rather than one big lump, like the County Town.

Fittingly, for the "shape" of the community, Cannock to Lichfield is a useful 15 minute frequency. The 25/26 circular to Pye Green and Hednesford is every 15 each way round.

There's a bit more further East as the 60/60A continue to Lichfield ...

... where we find Heath Hayes (remember Harper Brothers?) ...

... Brownhills and the superbly named Boney Hay! But as we tootle round Brownhills we notice the arrival of Travel West Midlands to inject a little competition into D & G's business plans.

The 937 to Brownhills West is just one example courtesy of National Express West Midlands.

The other thorn in D & Gs flesh (according to a correspondent who knows!) is the railway from Birmingham to Cannock and Rugeley.

The half hourly train service, now electrified all the way, is regarded as "The Free Railway" by locals who know that there are no barriers and Abellio (Dutch State Railways) are far from punctilious at checking tickets or selling them!

Why pay a bus fare when you can ride the train for nowt? 350 112 is at Rugeley Town station.

D & G are to be congratulated on their announcement of the new era for Cannock ...

... including, over a month in advance, all the timetables. The company also makes it clear what they will NOT be running.

The only thing that D & G have not so far provided is a network map. The extracts above are from Arriva, although whether they are up-to-date is unclear due to the appalling structure and design of Arriva's almost unbelievably bad web site.

Perhaps D & G would like to may fbb a few pennies to draw one? Hint Hint!

And The Logo Answers:-

1. Cycles

2. Coaches

3. River Bus

4. Buses

5. Elizabeth Line/Crossrail

6. TfL Rail (i.e. Crossrail with a gap in the middle)

7. Emirates Air Line (the cable car)

8. Overground

9. fbb has forgotten this one!

10. Tram

11. Taxi & Private Hire

12. Streets (no idea at all!!)

13. Dial a Ride

14. London Transport Museum

Some unusual roundels will feature in tomorrow's blog - great fun for Logo Spotters!

 Next Logo and Bread Bin blog : Friday 4th December 

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 fbb's Alphabetical Advent Calendar 

Even believers are happy to let the name Jesus Christ trip spiritually off the tongue; whilst those whose attitude approaches asperity are apt to utter the moniker in a blasphemous manner.

There was no Mr and Mrs Christ; Jesus was not named "Christ" at his presentation by Mary and Joe Christ at the Temple (Christening equivalent), so what's going on?

"Christ" comes from the Greek word χριστός (chrīstós), meaning "anointed one". The word is derived from the Greek verb χρίω (chrī́ō), meaning "to anoint." In the Greek Old Testament, christos was used to translate the Hebrew מָשִׁיחַ (Mašíaḥ, messiah), meaning "one who is anointed". Anointing involved pouring oil over the head of the chosen one.

In the Old Testament, anointing was reserved for the Kings of Israel, for the High Priest of Israel, and for the prophets. Theologically speaking Jesus was an amalgam of all three!

In essence Jesus did not become THE CHRIST until he began his ministry at about thirty years of age. His "anointing" came at his Baptism.

Not long afterward Jesus came from Nazareth in the province of Galilee, and was baptized by John (the Baptist) in the Jordan. As soon as Jesus came up out of the water, he saw heaven opening and the Spirit coming down on him like a dove. And a voice came from heaven, “You are my own dear Son. I am pleased with you.”

At once the Spirit made him go into the desert, where he stayed forty days, being tempted by Satan. (Mark's Gospel Chapter 2 verses 9 to 13)

After the announcement by the angels, the arrival of shepherds and later the Magi, Jesus wasn't recognised again as THE CHRIST (the Messiah, the Saviour, God's Anointed) until the last few weeks of his life on earth.

After the first   CHRIST  mas  things went very quiet indeed.

Where Goes With Logos? Who Knows? (3)

 Recognising The Red Roundel

Or even a yellow one! Linguistically a "roundel" is a flat round disc. It comes from Old French "rond" (round) and the "el" is a diminutive, so it means a small round thing. It was/is used in heraldry for a "small round thing" on a coat of arms.

Heraldry is so crazy that it is almost a laugh. You may know it uses antiquated words for colours, also derived from Old French.

"Or" and "Argent" are representative of gold and silver metals. "Sanguine" is blood-red (ruby?), as opposed to "gules" which is more of a vermilion.

But when the colours (sorry "tincture") are applied to roundels, the roundel gets a new name!

So now you know: a purple disc, a roundel purpure is actually a golpe. Now there's a really useful set of facts to chat about over a pint in the pub; but only on the Isle of Wight, Scilly Isles or in Cornwall. Elsewhere you will have to have a scotch egg and chips with your bevvy.

Anyway, aircraft enthusiasts will know the word roundel as it is used for the country's "badge" on military aircraft.

Some military roundels are, it would appear from the map below, anything but round.

London Transport's roundel (set against the Metropolitan Railway's square-el or diamond-el or regular equilateral right-angled rhombus-el) ...

... first appeared in 1908 at St James' Park station. It was a circular roundel gules (a "torteau" in fact - Old French for a small tart) with the familiar blue bar.

The big question, of course is this. As the Met and the District Railway hated each others brake blocks with a vehemence that has never been beaten in railway history, did the Met copy the District in concept, whilst remaining different and aloof in shape; or was it vice-versa? On line infromation suggests that the Met came second in the war of the logos!

Examples of the "torteau and bar" do appear from time to time, having been found at the back of the cupboard at certain stations.

Despite this difference, the formation of London Transport in 1933 brought the genius and wisdom of publicity conscious Frank Pick to the Party. The "circle and bar" roundel became the standard for all London Transport services.

This was specified by Edward Johnson ...

... whose font and its derivatives became the hallmark of all London Transport publications,

Two things to note.

It was officially called a "bullseye" until quite recently when, possibly proposed by politically principled politicians as painfully perturbing to bulls ...

... the term roundel came into currency.

Of course, the story is complex; and lengthy articles, books and learned design treatises have been written on the subject. With the creation of "London Transport" in 1933, the overseeing body gained its own roundel.

Note that the bar is narrower than Johnson's original and the circle is outlined in red. They experimented with colours ...

... and London Transport was added to the standard Undergound logo but with black outlines - spoiling it.

As the story of the bullseye progresses, other stuff happened to it. So, tomorrow, we will all play a jolly festive game of "Spot The Roundel" as we test our powers of observation and identification.

Cannock Castaway

Arriva has now officially announced what has been general knowledge in the industry for some time. It is selling its Cannock operation to D & G Bus.

LETS PLAY MUSICAL SHARES!

D&G Bus was formed by David Reeves and Gerald Henderson in April 1998 initially operating four buses on two routes under contract to Stoke-on-Trent City Council. It expanded with both route and school services in Cheshire and Staffordshire with 16 buses by the end of 1998.

In August 2011 the Staffordshire business was sold to Wardle Transport with 46 routes, 30 buses and the Adderley Green depot. In September 2011 D&G Bus and Julian Peddle purchased South Lancs Travel in Atherton, Greater Manchester. In August 2012 the Midland business was sold to Arriva Midlands with 61 buses. In December 2014, the route operations of BakerBus were purchased with nine buses.

In March 2015, D&G sold South Lancs Travel to Rotala and in May 2015 purchased Wardle Transport back from Arriva Midlands.

In December 2019, Julian Peddle's Centrebus Group purchased David Reeves shareholding in D&G bus, at present it will continue to operate as a separate unit from Centrebus.

There will be a test tomorrow, so revise well tonight!

Arriva explains all:-

From the end of service on 9th January 2021, Arriva are planning to hand over the running and operation of their Cannock bus depot and all local routes operated from the depot to D&G Bus.  

Arriva’s Cannock depot has 29 services covering areas around Cannock and Stafford, nearly all of which would be passed onto D&G Bus from the effective take over date. Arriva’s route 5 in Stafford and services between Tamworth and Lichfield are unaffected and will continue to be run by Arriva.

It is quite a big dump and fbb will examine and explain more in tomorrow's blog.

Kriss-Muss Festive Gift No 1

It is good to know that Hornby understands the reason for the season.

CocaCola is the Fizz of the Festivitizz!

Hmmm?

By the way, Hornby; it is a mantelpiece.

 Next logo & Cannock blog : Wednesday 2nd December 

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And Now ...

 fbb's Alphabetical Advent Calendar 

The Bible gets stick for being anti-women, full of God's "smiting" people, historical inaccuracy and hopelessly out of tune with 21st Century living. Of course NONE of these is actually true but, sadly, the product of ill-informed half truths. The Bible does present problems, however, for modern readers, especially if they try to read a traditional King James (a k a Authorised) version.

It would take a plethora of blogs to investigate these misconceptions so, for the moment we will stick to this.

Generally The Bible is not very interested in   CHRIST  mas  !

There are

1,189 "chapters" in the Bible

260 "chapters" in the New Testament

89 "chapters" in the four Gospels

There are only THREE "chapters" about  CHRIST  mas  !

The celebration of Christ's birth really only developed about 300AD and over the years the Nativity has become a pathetic sideshow in the commercialism of Kriss-Muss. Prior to 300AD it was just a biblically recorded event, planned and announced by God's prophets and delivered by Joe and Mary with a bit of help from some dubious zero hours ovine supervision operatives.

But, if we read those three chapters with an open mind, we will see that something astounding is recorded; but it is astounding in its simplicity and authenticity. Yes, there is the miraculous, the superhuman, but it intrudes surprisingly believably into a real human interest story.

Worth another read in Matthew's and Luke's gospels.

And this is what the Bible says about itself (in the second letter of Paul to Timothy).

All Scripture is inspired by God and is useful for teaching, for showing people what is wrong in their lives, for correcting faults, and for teaching how to live to God's standard.

Where Goes With Logos? Who Knows? (2)

 From Private To Public

The Metrolpolitan Railway had small beginnings as a line linking some of London's main line termini ...

... built by the simple expedient of digging a trench along what became Euston Road, dropping in the track and putting a lid back on the top, a technique known as "cut and cover". Even way back when, this was highly disruptive to London's traffic and even more disruptive to some properties on the edge of the trench.

They collapsed.

The "Met" had a tortuous relationship with the District Railway (now the Underground District Line) as the two companies operated the Circle Line (then called the Inner Circle) jointly, each injecting venom, legal cases and mega-tantrums into the operation.

The so-called "Extension" into Buckinghamshire opened progressively.

There was also a more favourable relationship with the Great Central Railway, last into London at Marylebone and now expunged from History as a main line.

The Great Central had plans to extend its London line under the city, down to the coast and through a tunnel under the English Channel (La Manche) affording the opportunity for through trains from Manchester, Sheffield, Nottingham and Leicester to Paris.

That still hasn't happened!

But the Met always had aspirations of grandeur. They developed land alongside their railway and brought affordable properties to the Middle Classes ...

... and they built a huge block of flats, dubbed Chiltern Court, complete with all the services you could possibly desire ...

... over the top of their London Terminus, Baker Street.

It replaced the original more modest station.

At the time of building, it was the largest block of residential accommodation in central London.

Look closely, and you can see the outer extremities of the platforms in the V of the development.

There is even a train sitting there on the left waiting to depart from one of the terminal platforms.

There is a plan to redevelop the site by building a brand new "raft" at street level using the arches and retail space of the original block as entrances.

This would provide a load of "retail opportunities" to turn the terminus into a "destination", to use the jargon of developers. The frontage would, thankfully, be unchanged.

But, historically the Met was adept at literally building its customer base. It thought of itself as part of a real railway network of quality; not just what we would call today a "commuter" line.

It was therefore the first railway company to be awarded an official Coat of Arms ...

... which adorned all its rolling stock both steam ...

... and electric.

By today's measure, the Arms were the logo, combined with the rich maroon colour and the clear name, they presented that powerful image of quality and reliability.

The company initials appeared, logo-like, on some buildings ...

... but often the publicity just relied on name plus reputation ...

... and, indeed, name abbreviated to "Metro". That was good enough to get the message over.

But, lookee here, again on the Watford line:-

... and at Croxley Green ...

... and even on some timetable publications.

The equivalent of today's London Transport "roundel" featured on station nameboards and other signage.

The "diamond" station logo has also appeared at today's Moorgate ...

... as a celebration of the line's heritage.

Had the line continued in private ownership, no doubt we would still have this logo today, as the Met always considered itself a cut above the "ordinary" Underground.

But all was to change in 1933. 

 Next Lovely Logo blog : Wednesday 2nd December 

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And Now ...

Our political leaders want us to be able to "celebrate Christmas", so have taken the risk of relaxing the rules for five blissful days of fun and frolic (?). fbb has news for these politicians. A Christian does not need their permission, or their rule mitigation, to celebrate  CHRIST  mas , the "mas(s)" i.e. the feast that recognises the arrival of the "Christ", the Saviour.

Each day's alphabetic snippet is offered  NOT to preach or to seek to change peoples' minds - but in a society which only "celebrates" Kriss-Muss, we seek to inform and encourage folk to give the real reason for the season some thought.

So here goes:-

 fbb's Alphabetical Advent Calendar 

Those who, nearly two thousand years ago (give or take a century or two), decreed that  CHRIST  mas  would be celebrated on December 25th, ensured that festivities would start at midnight on Christmas Eve and continue for 12 days. Things are very different today!

A separate Season would begin on the first Sunday in December; starting a month of eager anticipation . The Season would be known as Advent from the Latin for "coming".

Today, many churches and some families light a candle on each of the four Sundays of Advent. The central candle is lit at midnight on Christmas Eve; or, if the celebrants are tucked up in bed, at the service on Christmas morning!

About 500 years before the Nativity, Isaiah wrote in full-powered prophetic mode:-

The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light. They lived in a land of shadows but now light is shining upon them.

Expecting and preparing for the "great light" of  CHRIST  mas  is a big theme of Advent - hence the five candles.

Do we make the link between the Advent light and the Kriss-Muss illuminated decorations?

Candle, probably? Reindeer, not!