It’s All Very Simple – Or It Was!

Fastrack B runs from Joyce Green via Dartford and Bluewater to Gravesend (GREEN)

To these we must add Fastrack AW which runs from Dartford  via Joyce Green to Gravesend. This is not on the above diagram but it has one of its own, confusingly also shown in orange. (click on the map for an enlargement.)

When Roger French visited a couple of years ago he was very enthusiastic, as was the boss of GoCoach whom he met on the day and whom shared soe details of how things were going.

GoCoach’s AW is shown as running 24 hours a day and seven days a week and Rog commented that timetables were on display at every stop of its limited stop route. 

Frequency is every half hour, augmented to every 15 minutes at shift change times. Buses only stop at the time points shown above.

These newcomers were second hand from London Transport and white on blue blinds were “de rigueur”. 

There was a flat fare of £2.50 and the local mafia averred that Amazon employees travelled free.

So it was a massive investment by Amazon and a massive commitment from GoCoach at a time when drivers were beginning to be in short supply. It was also a poke in the eye for Arriva and Fastrack for surely it would snaffle, not only Amazonians, but also classic passengers seeking a faster (and cheaper?) ride.

So why couldn’t fbb find the GoCoach timetable?

An on-line article, written less than a year after Roger’s enthusiastic visit, explains all.

Well, fbb did say he was considering an extension, part of his desire to make models just a tad different from their “bought in” format.

When he was still attending the now-defunct model railway club meeting at Buffers model shop, your ardent blogger built a row of four low relief premises from two Airfix/Dapol thatched cottages.

They looked quite sweet on the club layout and fbb added some detail, including a re-thatching in progress on the left hand single deck cottage, just poking into shot below.

The left-over kit’s bits fits the bill and formed the basis of the bodged extension.

But there is a BIG problem wth the Poacher’s Cottage model. Can you  remember fbb’s irritation with most models of thatch? There is a design catch, a plan to hatch – and reality to match!