With a horrid shock of recognition, I suddenly realised what Stoke-on-Trent Bus Station reminded me of. As a one-time public transport officer in a local authority I, like most others, often experienced the depressing feeling of being unable to source enough funding to keep an originally good idea going. And it was that. The gulf […]
A very particular kind of hush descends as the 1253 to Worcester Shrub Hill departs. That hush is the hush of the parkway station between train services, and the station it has just departed from is Worcestershire Parkway. Though one of the best designed parkway stations, and a very attractive piece of transport architecture, the […]
Stuck on the E20 motorway heading for Copenhagen? Køge Nord station very much hopes you are…
It takes some strange mixture of bravery, confidence, and the thickest of skins to take on the job of redesigning a national icon. Once again, the rail industry’s “double arrow”, the symbol that has come completely to mean “railway” in Britain, has been given a facelift. Previous attempts to adapt or reimagine the symbol have […]
So farewell then, Havant station’s 1930s railway toilets. It is doubtful whether many passengers will mourn their loss, but they are another piece of railway heritage that has slipped beyond grasp. If you care about the story of our railways, expressed through their built environment (and if you don’t, then why are you even reading […]
It is 1961. At Benson Airfield in south Oxfordshire, a test car driver employed by the Roads Research Laboratory is revving the engine of his Morris Oxford and preparing to release the handbrake. With his car (unbalanced atop due to the addition of a large road sign attached to its roof) aiming towards a small […]
Dateline Sunday 23rd April Potpourri Node At Ropery Road The younger set spent Sunday morning at Woolacombe beach either running or swimming or both, whilst the Golden Wedding pair stayed at the gaff preparing their next fellowship meeting. Lunch was planned by daughter-in-law at Comyn Farm near Ilfracombe. Streetview breathed its last at Chambercombe Manor … … but the road…
On The Buses Lovering’s car showroom is very obvious near the sea front at Combe Martin, and, as was often the case, the company was he local bus and coach operator. Here is their OWB parked on the road the leads up the hill (left) to Ilfracombe. The company ran excursions, as here to Plymouth … … and a selection…
“Golden” Holiday Memories Above: the beach at Combe Martin; below a couple of coastal scenes snapped by sons on their local walks, locations not known. (Immediately below, Valley of the Rocks??) It was wonderful countryside. Dateline Tuesday 26th April Arlington Court Given by its spinster owner Rosalie Chichester … … to the National Trust in 1949, the house is more…
About 57 Years Ago It was in 1966 that the first Red Arrow route began from Waterloo Station. From memory (as unreliable as ever!) It ran a route for commuters at peak times and a revised route for shoppers inter-peak. fbb remembers excitedly clutching his tanner (sixpence, two and a half new pence in the new dispensation) and pushing his…