Bourne Again - Again

The Delaine "network" centres on four market towns plus the City of Peterborough. From a map enthusiast's point of view their network cartography is, to say the least, basic!

But the individual service route maps are superb. Here is that for the "main line"see if n..

Buses run every 30 minutes Monday to Saturday and every hour on Sundays as route 101. Route 102 is a Monday to Friday operation and tours the complexities of Deeping St James before running hourly to Peterborough.

The hourly extension north to Morton turns off the A15 ...

... and trundles along the attractive High Street to turn outside the equally attractive church where an ideal turning triangle makes the manoeuvre easy!

In addition to the route map, there are more detailed town plans which are, again, excellent.

Note also that the 102 nips down Godsey Lane to call at The Deepings' Tesco.

Whilst at the 102 stop, it is woth noting that Delaine display timetables (remember them?) at their bus strops. Streetview's view is out of date ...

... but the policy is very clear.

Obviously these are maintained by the company that has no desire to hide behind the less-than-enthusiastic information provided by many local authorities.

The 201 takes the "long way round" via Stamford between Bourne and Peterborough and offers an hourly service Monday to Saturday but nothing on Sundays. 

The maps are superb, as usual; and the local extract for Stamford clearly shows that the 202 variant omits the little tour round the town.

The 301 from Stamford to Spalding bcompletes the network.

The map helps!

The 302 serves more of Deeping St James and has occasional trips to Bourne, mainly around school times. The whole 301/302 service runs only Monday to Friday.

401, 402, 403 and 404 are basically school services, mainly to get the kiddies to and from Bourne Academy.

But hidden in the 401 is a "real" bus service.

On Thursdays only it wiggles around the villages near the A15 and on the B1177 ...

... to provide a once-a-week shopping trip into Bourne. A careful perusal of the timetable reveals that the 1215 take-you-home trip from Bourne does not actually terminate at Aslackby but continues in service back to Bourne. 

A round trip via Rippingale Church ...

... would be a real delight.

Also a delight is the former Rippingale Station on the long-closed line from Essendine and Bourne to Sleaford. Amazingly, the station is still intact and sits proudly with a few bits of track.

At one stage the owner had a goodly collection of railway "stuff".

But back to "The Delaine":-

So it was that Alan travelled from Northampton to Bourne in a superbly preserved Stagecoach bus.

Alan's conclusions are apposite as we all watch the bus industry teetering on the edge of collapse!

A Saturday excursion takes us to Bourne  in Lincolnshire where they run the buses in a slightly different manner to the fashions favoured by bigger companies. Newly delivered Enviro 200 MMC  number 170 (AD 22 DBL) ...

... carries  the same  livery as Leyland PD2 number 45, new  in  1956. 

As a bus is a rectangular box the livery is applied in straight lines, no swoops, no diagonals, no motorway service vehicle  yellow  and nothing stuck over  windows. Route branding is applied instead of an advert for the local car dealer.

Buses in Bourne are managed in Bourne, not in Chelmsford, Berlin or somewhere else fifty miles away. Bus stops have proper timetables.  You might describe this as old fashioned as you plan yet another re-structuring which will have fewer managers covering an even bigger area - but observations, admittedly on only one Saturday, suggest it is a way of running a bus company which encourages passenger use.

Big is not always beautiful.

Maybe some of the big groups should look to Delaine and see whether they need to review their business philosophy. 

Maybe they really do need to be Born (Bourne) again?

 Next Variety blog : Saturday 7th May 

Bourne Again : Born At Last

Bourne Again

Just along Spalding Road and not far from Bourbe town centre you will pass a road called Delaine Close. Just before you get to the close, and on the opposite side of the road, you will pass the depot of "The Delaine" a much respected bus and former coach operator in the area.

You would think that somewhere in the comopany's history was a Mr Delaine. But you would be wrong. It all started with a Mr Smith.

1890

William Smith introduced the passenger carrying business as a branch of the family's established General Contractors business.

1910

The second petrol pump in the area was installed on site and taxi operation commenced.

1913

William Smith died and the company continued under the leadership of his 17 year old son Thomas Arthur.

1915

Thomas Arthur Smith married a Miss Emma Jane Weston from whose family the name Delaine emanated.

1919

The first motor bus a Ford T with Economy 14 seater bodywork was introduced. Services were introduced to Spalding via Twenty, Stamford via Greatford and Grantham via Corby Glen.

1923

The main trunk service between Bourne and Peterborough was introduced.

Delaine became added to the Smith family name.

1938

Hugh Delaine Smith (Son of Thomas Arthur Smith) joined the business after leaving Kings School Peterborough.

But it might yet have become Smiths!

1947

With the threat of nationalisation hanging over the industry, the company was split into two parts. Delaine Coaches Ltd being a cream liveried coach operator and the familiar two tone blue of T A Smith Motor Services being the bus division.

1948

The first Double Decker was introduced to cope with the increasing demand on local services. The Garage Roof was raised accordingly.

1949

The threat of nationalization now passed, the two companies were once again absorbed into one and the title Delaine Coaches Ltd adopted as standard.

The Delaine web site gives an excellent history of the company and its operations of which the above is an extract. Here are a few more snippets.

1959

Yeates of Loughborough built the first of a unique pair of Double Deckers especially for Delaine. OCT 566 (48) remained in the fleet for 18 years before sale into preservation in 1977. This vehicle is now currently preserved by a private collector in Belgium.

1960

The second of the Yeates bodied Double Deckers RCT 3 (50) entered service. Being retired from full-time use in 1979, this vehicle became a regular visitor at rallies all over the country, scooping overall winner at Showbus 1982 amongst many awards collected over the years. RCT 3 still remains in the fleet today although as a preserved heritage member, she is still licensed as a PSV which it has been continually since new, making this the longest running Yeates bodied vehicle in service.

2006

Delaine Buses become the first operator in the UK to order the new Volvo B9TL chassis. Fitted with the first example of East Lancs Coachbuilders new Olympus body. AD56 DBL (141) made its public debut at the Euro Bus Expo NEC Birmingham in November and was named 'Hugh Delaine-Smith MBE' in honour of the former company Chairman and Managing Director.

The final on-line entry in the history pages is below:-

2019

January: Extension of the 203 Bourne-The Deepings-Stamford to Spalding following the withdrawal of Shaws of Maxey 100 Service between The Deepings and Spalding.

The extended 19 mile route provided the first direct bus link between these two significant South Lincolnshire Market Towns.

June: The Delaine Bus Museum was officially opened. (click to enlarge the graphic)

100 years of Motorbus operations, following the introduction of the first motorbus into the family business in 1919.

Tomorrow we will see a summary of the services operated by "The Delaine" today and, as a bonus, have the thoughts of Northampton correspondent Alan who visited the depot last weekend.

Born At Last! But Not Quite!

In a surprising announcement, we were told yesterday that the Elizabeth Line line would open on Tuesday 24th May. Of course, the announcement complete with "Conservatives" logo had nothing to do with today's Local Government elections.

Of course it didn't!

The problem is that it won't be FULLY opening on 24th.

But it will ALL open eventually! Honest!

Trains from Reading and Heathrow to Paddington will remain the same ...

... running into the National Rail station platforms.

Likewise trains from Shenfield will continue to run into Liverpool Street terminus.

So no change there.

But you will need to change if you want to ride the middle bit. From 24th May trains will run from Paddington Elizabeth Line line station ...

... via Liverpool Street ditto ...

... and on to Abbey Wood.

Enjoy five minutes of video of the revamped station.

And you won't be able to enjoy the new Bond Street station ...

... because it isn't finished!

So fingers crossed **, out with the rabbits foot **, hope they don't find a nest of internationally rare and threatened weevils under a bench at Canary Wharf - AND you will be able to ride on most of the new bits.

** fbb and his fellow Christians don't do "luck", but whether the Almighty would wish to intervene in the Crossrail project (a k a TfL Rail project - a k a Elizabeth Line line project) is unclear. It depends, as ever, on His purposes rather than human aspirations!

Confused by fbb's label for the new line?

If it's Circle LINE etc it must be Elizabeth Line LINE, surely?

 Bourne Again Again blog : Friday 6th May 

Peculiar Pretty Parkway

It Must Be Right - It's In Wikipedia

And there it is; on a long list  of "Parkway" stations in he section for South, South East and East.

Has fbb missed something. Certainly some of those stations listed above are existing stations with "Parkway" added - so perhaps, unbeknown to fbb, this label had been affixed to Swanley in Kent. It is a station on the now-nationalised South Eastern franchise, formerly in the hands of GoAhead.

There it is between St Mary Cray and Farningham Road with NO Parkway; and it doesn't seem over-blessed with parking ...

... at the southern entrance. 

There is even less on the north side ...

... unless you are riding a bike!

Yet again, a picture of the car park at Swanley Parkway Station shows plenty of cars parked!

But the station seems even more basic than the original Bristol Parkway!

Oh, fbb, you are such a tease!

As usual, always be aware of the limitations of the internet. There IS a station called Swanley Parkway and you find it at a car park; but that is about all it has in common with the real thing!

Take a careful drive along the narrow, hedge-lined New Barn Road, Swanley ...

... pass a few houses ...

... a kiddies paddling pool and a bouncy castle ...

... and you will quickly come to the car park at Swanley Parkway station. You are at one of the two entrances of Swanley Park.

From the adjacent Swanley Parkway station ...

... you can catch your train for the three minute ride ...

... to the terminus back at the paddling pool and bouncy castle.

The line is a lollipop shape with a short stick at its terminus. After a chequered history it is now run entirely by volunteer staff. 

But what sets it apart from the usual "kiddies" miniature railway is the huge range of locomotives available to haul the little trains. We have seen a "Western" above but here is a few more:-

The railway has a wide variety of diesel models ...

,,, but the stars are the live steam engines.

These are just samples from the whole fleet.

Another start of a different, technical kind, is the  signal box ...

... all fully functional.

There is complicated pointwork to admirer and a pleasant ride through the park ...

... and we end where we began, as it were, by picking up passengers at Swanley Parkway Station.

Lovely!

Sadly, getting to the park by bus is less than helpful. Arriva 477 offers a paltry 40 minute frequency from the big rail station to the end of the narrow New Barn Road whilst GoCoach 429 gets you a bit closer but with very few useful journeys. fbb guesses its either a taxi or a brisk stroll with a good map!

Needless to ssay, nobody produces a bus map that is any use!

 Next Bourne Again blog : Thursday 5th May