{"id":2697,"date":"2023-05-10T01:35:52","date_gmt":"2023-05-10T01:35:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/camcab.co.uk\/redesign\/the-mystery-at-thurnby-lodge-2\/"},"modified":"2023-05-10T01:35:52","modified_gmt":"2023-05-10T01:35:52","slug":"the-mystery-at-thurnby-lodge-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/camcab.co.uk\/redesign\/the-mystery-at-thurnby-lodge-2\/","title":{"rendered":"The Mystery At Thurnby Lodge (2)"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Leicester Buses “Partnership”<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/a><\/div>\n
But how much of a “Partnership” is it? It certainly has posh bus stop flags with the logo proudly disolayed.\n
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And the information at stops served by multiple routes seems to be up to date – a rarity in many towns and cities.<\/p>\n

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An innocent observer could be forgiven for thinking that “Leicester Buses” was the operator of all the buses in Leicester. But you soon see that it isn’t. A quick gance from your personal helicopter reveals a wide range of liveries and operators.<\/p>\n

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On-line, the Leicester Buses web site has a crudely cobbled together collection of different operators’ bus timetable pages, but with the one redeeming feature of a unified network map. The current version shows the area of Thurnby Lodge in comprehensive detail.<\/p><\/div>\n

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Finding it, however, is not intuitive. Which one of these panels would you click for a map of Leicester buses’ routes?<\/p>\n

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Leicester Bus Guide? NO<\/span><\/p><\/div>\n

The Big Bus Plan? NO<\/span><\/div>\n
Flexi Area Map? YES
<\/span>\n
<\/div>\n

Obvious, isn’t it? But at least it is there. But, go to the operators’s web sites and you will find First Bus at Thurnby Lodge …<\/p>\n

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… Centrebus at Thurnby Lodge …<\/p>\n

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… and Arriva at Thurnby Lodge.<\/p>\n

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Yes, that’s right, Arriva cannot be bothered with any network maps.<\/p><\/div>\n

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Why isn’t there a copy of the full network\u00a0map on each operator’s web site<\/span>?\n

And here is Arriva’s timetable for its route to Thurnby Lodge.<\/p>\n

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And Centrebus advertises its route 40 …<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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… TWICE! And with different versions of the timetable.\u00a0<\/div>\n
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The ORANGE 40<\/span> Monday to Friday (and other days separately) …\n
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… has an odd Tuesday only journey (note “T”) – oh it doesn’t mean that!<\/p>\n

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But the GREEN 40<\/span> timetable mixes up Monday to Friday and Saturday in a very confusing way.\n
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… but it doesn’t really matter as the times are different anyway<\/span>!<\/p><\/div>\n

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Both are called “Orbital” as well as “40” The 40 does serve Thurnby Lodge although the name isn’t on the map<\/span> …\n
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… and it doesn’t serve Scraptoft although that name IS on the map<\/span>.<\/p><\/div>\n

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Which leaves us with the First Bus on-line timetable for Thurnby Lodge. The news is initially not good.\n
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What are those nine digit numbers? The average timetable looker-up has no idea.\u00a0 And we’ve got:-<\/p><\/div>\n

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Three Haymarket\u00a0Bus Stations<\/span><\/div>\n
Three Thurnby Lodges<\/span><\/div>\n
Three Uppingham Roads<\/span><\/div>\n
Two Netherhall Roads<\/span><\/div>\n
<\/div>\n

Maybe the actual timetable helps?<\/p>\n

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Hmmm? Not a lot!<\/p>\n

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But do fbb’s ARMD aged eyes deceive him? Can that column heading be really true? Is First bus advertising Arr<\/span>iva journeys?<\/div>\n
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NO, YES and YES<\/span>!<\/p><\/div>\n

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Here is a rare example of partnership in action – although such wonders do not, of course, apply to Arriva’s web site which had no mention of its “partner”.<\/div>\n
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It will take fbb a while to recover from the shock …\n
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… but he should have returned to something like normality in time to try to understand the 37, 38, 38A timetable.\u00a0<\/p><\/div>\n

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So the 53 …\n
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… has been renumbered 37 to present a service\u00a0in true partnership format<\/span>! Is that why Arriva’s timetable (see above) says route 37\/53 although there are no journeys numbered 53?<\/p><\/div>\n

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If only we could understand the timetable?<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
A “New” Carriage At Peterville Quarry<\/span><\/div>\n
A while back, fbb thought he had purchased a Mark 1 Scotrail coach for Peterville. Mark 1 was the standard coached built in thousands point nationalisation and is the standard vehicle on preserved lines.\u00a0<\/div>\n
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But when it arrived it was a Mark 3 Scotail coach<\/span>.\n
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Instead of sending it back, fbb decided to keep it (it was very cheap) because of its construction. Although not entirely clear from the above, the coach sides are a single moulding of clear plastic with the coloured bits printed on.\n
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This is a cheap and cheerful way to keep the glazing flush with the body panels but not entirely realistic at close range.\u00a0 Note the crude coach end detail.<\/p><\/div>\n

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So fbb kept his eres open for a Mark 1 Scotrail coach. But all that appeared on the pre-owned listings is a “full brake”.\n
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Even a vintage Lima model comes at a high price; the model is not of the best quality and Peterville Quarry Railway wants a coach to transport its paying OO gauge customers, not a van for non-existent parcels.<\/p><\/div>\n

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But then fbb spotted a Bachmann Regional Railways coach for about the same price as the Lima one above.\n
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And Bachmann coaches are quality with a capital K. The window “glass” is not recessed …<\/p>\n

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… the corridor end is well modelled …<\/p>\n

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… as is the underframe.<\/p>\n

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The Commonwealth bogies look fine …<\/p>\n

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… and you get seats and corridor partitions.<\/p>\n

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There is even a representation of the “No Smoking” triangle on one of the compartments.<\/p>\n

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Of course, a modern coach would have even more detail and you would be able to read the text on that red triangle (with the help of a magnifying glass mayhap). But a modern model would cost \u00a380 whereas fbb spent \u00a335.<\/p><\/div>\n

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He is still looking for a Mark 1 Scotrail coach in Regional Railways style and at a reasonable price. Does such a thing exist?<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
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\u00a0Next Thurnby Lodge blog : Thursday 11th May\u00a0<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Leicester Buses “Partnership” But how much of a “Partnership” is it? It certainly has posh bus stop flags with the logo proudly disolayed. And the information at stops served by multiple routes seems to be up to date – a rarity in many towns and cities. An innocent observer could be forgiven for thinking that “Leicester Buses” was the…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":2698,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[60],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2697","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-camcab"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/camcab.co.uk\/redesign\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2697","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/camcab.co.uk\/redesign\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/camcab.co.uk\/redesign\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/camcab.co.uk\/redesign\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2697"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/camcab.co.uk\/redesign\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2697\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/camcab.co.uk\/redesign\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2698"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/camcab.co.uk\/redesign\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2697"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/camcab.co.uk\/redesign\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2697"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/camcab.co.uk\/redesign\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2697"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}