But First, The Shell “I’ll mett ye at the shell!” For many a long age that was the cry of two Glaswegians seeking to agree an assignation in the centre of the city. The Shell at Glasgow Central Station was recognised by everyone; so much so that on a very early visit to see the future Mrs fbb, your aged…
But First … Thanks to correspondent Peter, we can see more. He was more successful in truffling out (Yikes; fbb has been watching too much Alexander Armstrong on Pointless!) a little more information. The vehicle was built by Ikarus as a one off. It sent most of its working days at the Budapest airport. The idea was that it could…
• Euston HS2 TBMs to be buried under Old Oak Common until gov’t green light (NewCivilEng) • Fabulous Pathé BOAC Sunderland flying boat passenger flight: Video (AirlineRatings) • Willy Spiller’s book Hell on Wheels on NYC Subway’s 70s & 80s grime & decay (Colossal) • SFO trolleybuses with batteries Study finds them the best path to zero emissions (Streetsblog) •…
… and Growing! The diagram above gives some idea of the speed of the development of the estate. Work started in 1947 and about ten years later most of the areas were very much in progress. So bus services had to expand rapidly to cope. Bus Services – Growing And Growing Big Year 1956 The very visible change was the…
Puzzle Picture 1 Which bus company? fbb has to admit that this caused him real aggro. Kewstoke and Grand Pier have to be in …? But buses in BLUE? Puzzle Picture 2 Which bus company? The destination has been blocked out – mustn’t make it too easy! But the scenery should give it away. Puzzle Picture Answer? This oddity popped…
Leigh Park Bodge-Up As well as not finishing the job, a weary fbb used the wrong route number. It was route 68. Yesterday’s blog has been corrected! The 68 arrived in 1958 (another correction) and served areas of new-build to the west of the embryonic shopping centre (which was located at the roundabout, upper right on the map below). Note,…
• Where have all of England’s buses gone? Their neglect is a national failure (Guardian) • 10 day closure of northeast DLR leg starts next Sat 19 August (IanVisits) • Warrensville to Westferry: Lessons in modern light rail (MarthaLauren) • The clean lines of Swiss integrated transport (BeautyOfTransport) • Seven projects to reclaim New York City space from cars (CityLab)…
Dateline Sunday 29 May 1949 The two bus operators, Portsmouth Corporation and Southdown, started the first services to Leigh Park at the end of May 1949. Both operators chose a fairly low key advance into the embryo housing estate. Southdown’s 46 an 46a provided a somewhat more complex service to Hayling Island. The company simply extended one journey an hour to…
Episode 1 – A New Life Proposed Because of its status as a navy base, Portsmouth was badly battered during WW2. Each dot above is a bomb strike and some of the pictures of destruction are horrific. The above was Kings Road. So it was that the City Council resolved to achieve two things with the rebuild. Of course new…
The thing about Switzerland’s affordable, hyper-reliable, hyper-integrated and hyper-ubiquitous public transport system is that the regard in which its phenomenal operational expertise is held can overshadow the architectural successes it also demonstrates. Even when transport architecture does enter consideration, thanks to Switzerland’s reputation for scenic delights it can be hard to shift the mental picture […]