Nostlgia par Excellence!

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Today is the start of the new First Bus network in Glasgow. Like Portsmouth's changes last year, it represents a major re-think of the whole network. Plans were announced earlier in the year with an invitation to the public to respond. Some changes have been incorporated a a result but these are mostly cosmetic.

Unfortunately, due the "other domestic pressures" (!), fbb is unable to review the changes in detail; there are just too many! But, de-junking and packing permitted, a review of the publicity for this massive change is planned for later in the week. A sample survey of at least one corridor "before" and "after" looks feasible.

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Meanwhile, please allow el chubbo the pleasure of a bit of hyper-nostalgia from ...

41 years ago ...

A blog or few ago, fbb mentioned a visit to Edinburgh, on a day trip by train from Sheffield, accompanied by a teenage Giles Fearnley, now up-raised to the Elysian heights of Director of Buses for First Group. As part of a rapidly failing attempt to clear up, pack up and clear off, Mrs fbb discovered three postcards sent by her hubby-to-be, all on the same day, from that Edinburgh trip.

The pictures and messages reveal something of fbb's wooing ways (!); and something of the future Mrs' resilience to the puerile drivel that your now-chubby blogger was wont to outpour at the slightest provocation.

And still is!

First Class postage was 3p (7d in real money); and the date was 16th April 1972.

Note the world famous Fearnley signature.

Upon arrival in Scotland's capital the party was allowed some free time to explore the shops and historic sights of the City.

So the terrible twosome decided to explore things transportational.

Later a tour of the City by bus was scheduled as duly reported below.

After which GRF and pre-fbb did see a little sight ...

... as skilfully sketched on the obverse of the card.

Two pieces of explanation may be helpful to our confused readers. "Veggereggy Geggood" is in "egg" language, a craze in the Bible Class at the time. You add the word "egg" before every pronounced vowel in every word. Thus

Beggus = bus

Treggain = train

Eggedegginbeggoreggur = Edinburgh

   (with the final syllable pronounced "borough")

"Somebody isn't using ... " was part of a well known advertorial campaign for a breath freshener and deodorant pill.

A childish play on the word "reek" which, as we all know, means "smoke" as in "lum" = chimney. fbb added an erroneous "b" to "lum"!

Several conclusions may be drawn from this wallow.

1. The couple were engaged in the June following the arrival chez wife-to-be of these postcards. It is huge credit to the lady's long-suffering that she still happily (?) endures her spouse's interests. A fine woman indeed!

2. The teenage Fearnley was more interested in The Forth Rail Bridge and the bus tour than the usual pursuits of a "youff" of the early 1970s.

And both Fearnley and Bowie are still going strong!

For the record:

On 26th March 1972, Britain last trolleybus service ran in Bradford ...

... and on 30th April the Pullman Brighton Belle made its last journey.

41 years ago ...

Sigh!

 Next Bus Blog : Monday 27th May 

Small is Beautiful : Butlers Lane

The Station's one Great Asset ...

... was Joe. He lived (perhaps "worked" would be better?) in a hut on the up (to Bimingham) platform and he sold tickets and gave good advice. Joe was a keen railwayman and he would sell you a ticket from anywhere to anywhere and advise on the best deals. He would also tell you about any disruption to service or potential problems in the City centre. He was a mine of useful travel information. Alas, his hut is but a memory but its strong and secure foundations (?) can still be seen at the foot of the station steps.

Joe has long-since been replaced by a nice modern waiting area and ticket office ...

... opening for much, much shorter hours ...

... supplemented by an electronic Joe ...

... here being used by a visitor from the Bahamas! Whilst fbb has no evidence whatsoever, he very much doubts that the scope of travel information available now at Butlers Lane matches that given happily and patiently by Joe!

 Diesel units (from 1957 onwards) ...

... and many subsequent varieties thereof ... 

 ... begat electrics (from 1990) including some Network South East cast-offs ...

... but the line is now equipped by smart class 323 units.

The original diesel frequency of two trains an hour to Four Oaks and one extended to Lichfield has improved somewhat!

The Monday to Saturday timetable provides a train every 10 minutes from Four Oaks to Longbridge. Four of these six trains start from Lichfield (two an hour from Trent Valley) giving four trains an hour (spaced at 10 and 20 minutes) at lowly Butlers Lane. At the southern end of the Cross City line, two trains an hour continue to Redditch.

So who says the railways were better in the "good old days"?

Of course, remembering yesterday's picture of trainspotters eagerly brandishing their notebooks (see yesterday's blog - read again), Butlers Lane would not make an ideal base for today's ferroequinologists unless they were avid collectors of class 323 unit numbers.

But there is occasional variety. Cross Country Trains train can be diverted to avoid engineering work on their traditional route via Tamworth High Level ...

... and there are a couple of scheduled services that run non-top between Birmingham and Derby via the Lichfield Line.

Of course, over the years, various visits to the line would provide a goodly collection of logos and branding.

BR sausages:-

 

West Midlands PTE easy-to-understand:-

Centro's multi dimensional Calabi-Yau space manifold:-

And a return to something more akin to sanity with ...

... "n" for no trains today; "n" for normal service; "n" for nice station or, possibly ...

"n" for Network West Midlands

Not to be confused with ...

... which is a bus company owned by National Express. Which used to be West Midlands Travel.

 Next Bus Blog : Sunday 26th May 

Did the Butler walk this way?

A simple station with a varied history ...

... built on a lane which led from the tiny hamlet of Hill to ...

... Four Oaks Common, maybe to some grand but long-disappeared mansion? Or maybe Mr Butler built the road. Be that as is may ...

Butlers Lane station was built in 1957, to coincide with the introduction of new diesel multiple units on the line from Birmingham to Lichfield.  For its first few years the station was an unstaffed halt and a request stop. However in the late 1960s it became a staffed station, and a regular stop.

It became one of the stations served by the new Cross-City Line from 1978. It underwent major refurbishment in 1992, shortly after the line was electrified.

A better site for a station might have been on Belwell Lane at Mere Green, close to a developing shopping centre as well as (possibly) attracting the residents of the northern extension of "Four Oaks" (centre left on the map above) away from their Rolls Royces.

The land at Four Oaks Park itself (bottom left on the above map) was sold to Hubert de Burgh-Canning, 2nd Marquess of Clanricarde ...

... for residential development in 1868. Roads were named to commemorate the history of the estate, and between 1895 and 1915 approximately 200 houses were built.

The neglected and dilapidated Four Oaks Hall, situated on Luttrell Road,  was demolished in 1898, and the site is now occupied by Carhampton House. 

Four Oaks Estate is a solely residential area approximately enclosed by Lichfield Road, Four Oaks Road, Sutton Park and Sutton Park Line railway line. The most expensive residential area in the West Midlands, the Park's private roads are home to some of the region's wealthiest residents. Four Oaks Park is characterised by its large houses and tree-lined, speed-humped roads. The houses on the Estate are individually designed by prominent architects such as Charles Bateman, and most sell at over £1 million.

Perhaps the well-heeled residents thought that the Four Oaks station (opened in 1888) was enough for those unfortunate to have to slum it on  a train? Or maybe the line's location in  deep cutting on Belwell Lane meant that a new facility would be too expensive, whilst a simple station, constructed of timber like a 1957 equivalent of an IKEA product, would offer a cheap and cheerful station on Butlers Lane.

The halt did not exist when fbb's rather tatty 1957 London Midand timetable book was printed. Table 69 showed stops at Four Oaks and Blake Street but Butler's Lane had not yet started to Butle.

This paste-up of chunks of the timetable shows trains every 30 minutes to Four Oaks, extended every hour to Lichfield City. Very occasionally journeys continued to Lichfield Trent Valley Station where connections were available with what we call the West Coast Main Line.

So that's something of the history of Butlers Lane station. But why does this little commuter halt to the north of Sutton Coldfield interest the fat bus bloke?

Answer : he went there on a day return trip on Wednesday last.

And things have changed quite a bit since these lads enjoyed  a little trainspotting back in the late 50s or very early 60s.

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In theory, one week from today, fbb and Mrs fbb should be resident in their new downsized cupboard in Seaton Devon. At current rates of progress, clearing and packing will be complete early in 2015!

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 Next Rail Blog : Saturday 25th May 

Number Noting Nostalgia [2]

Little Trains of British Railways [BR].

Snippets provoked by fbb's 1958 edition of the "Observers" book.

And the very first page of the locomotives as ordered by class and number shows No.8 from the Vale of Rheidol line [VoR], which, as every enthusiast knows, is the only narrow gauge line ever operated by BR.

And it is still going strong, 55 years after Henry Casserley noted its uniqueness.

Here is the loco illustrated above from the VoR web site today.

Under BR ownership, these little locos actually wore standard blue livery and the BR double arrow zot, much to the disgust of the narrow gauge purists!

The line was finally privatised in 1989 and sold to Peter Rampton and Tony Hills (now owner and General Manager of the Brecon Mountain Railway). In 1996 Rampton and Hills split their partnership, with Hills retaining control of the Brecon, and the Rheidol being sold to a trust formed by Rampton, the Phyllis Rampton Narrow Gauge Railway Trust.

For those less than familiar with the "Little Trains of Wales", the line starts alongside Aberystwyth "big train" platforms ...

... and follows the Cwm Rheidol and the A4120 to  terminus at Devils Bridge.

A delightful little line and well worth  visit. The VoR web site is (here).

But the little brown booklet revealed that BR operated another narrow gauge line in 1958. And here is its loco:-

Our next "Number Noting Nostalgia" blog will reveal all. But this bus just might be a clue?

 Next Bus/Rail Blog : Friday 24th May