Sunday Variety

Remember this? It is a bus for London route 358 that tries to make you think it’s a tram. It even calls itself an “i e tram”. (when first announced, fbb thought it was called, in French, Le Tram.)

Got that?

Well it is running a little late.

It was running a year late …

… but looks like actually appearing some time in June – that’s 2024, or so TfL hopes. Mr Khan is doing quite a bit of hoping!

According to the wonderful Ian Armstrong’s bus routes guide, the route 358 was started in 1989 by then independent Metrobus, running between Crystal Palace and Green Street Green.

Strange name?

In ancient SE England-speak the Street is a small hamlet or isolated community not just a road. The first Green meant that the community was well adorned by woodland hedgerows etc. The second Green indicated the pulsating hub of the community, i.e. the village Green. Over the years the whole kit and caboodle became the village name. 

Now the village green is a location in Green Street Green.

Once the nice buses start (IF?) a caption headline could read “New i e tram electric technology makes Green Street Green green “green”.

Groan!

The bus runs from Crystal Place via a wiggly trajectory to Bromley …

… continuing via more wiggles to Orpington.

A superb 12 minute frequency applies on Monday to Friday …

… taking about 90 minutes for the full journey. When Metrobus first started the route, it ran hourly!

… is the first line of the Flanders and Swann ditty about a London Omnibus.

How might a visitor feel if they came across this sign?

Or they might come across this Underground map! (extract only shown below).

Blog readers are used to fbb’s interest in weird and wonderful (?) Underground maps and this is not the first time the iconic diagram has been repurposed, based on circles. But it is the first such to be posted at a selection of Underground stations. Here, for reference purposes, is a picture of the whole “Circle to Search” map.

According to those far more knowledgeable than fbb it does give all interchanges exactly as on the “normal” map – so you could actually use it.

Thanks to a collection of adverse comments on-line …

… fbb was able to sort it out. Here is a simple guide to “Circle for Search”.

A Galaxy S24 will cost you over £800.

No thanks folks; 

fbb’s contract with Tesco Mobile is £14 a month for TWO phones. Occasionally he does go “over the top” and gets a bill for about £18.

In passing, the Bearded Bus Beautifier from the Bush passed through Euston station recently and saw that the garish, intrusive, disruptive and misleading super huge advert screen …

… was turned off. 

Hooray!

Despite the adverse criticism, the Circle to Search only appears at FIVE stations; and existing maps and signs are unchanged. It is certainly not as confusing for passengers as Burberry Street (actually Bond Street) …

… which was BAD! Playstation icons at Oxford Circus did not change the station’s name, so possibly amusing rather than disruptive.

When HSTs Die …

Don’t we have a shortage of rolling stock in the UK?

So why, oh why … ?

Remember Hyperloop?

A bit like the tubes transporting cash in big stores (Northampton’s main Co-op had them) the idea was to put people in a cylinder  and movie it down a tunnel very fast using a vacuum.

Elon Musk’s Hyperloop was one such.

Abandoned!

But not in China.

Although it is unclear from the picture, it seems that China is putting the people-filled projectile in a transparent tube, so they can see out. (?)

No thanks!

A Light To Lighten The Camp Site

fbb occasionally exchanges modelling news with a chum; and said chum was impressed that fbb was considering adding lights to his Routemaster camping bus. “You must be skillful,” was the friend’s over confident comment.

No fbb isn’t. He follows the teachings of Bill Bodge and Fred Fudge, well known (?) modelling practitioners.

So here’s how it is done using a string of very small LEDs.

Three are positioned on the partitions (bedrooms and small lounge) on the top deck (bodge 1).

And off we go to London!

P.S. Improved “shades” for the upper deck lights – better!

 Next Terminus Trouble blog : Monday 12th Feb