The Mystery At Thurnby Lodge (3)

One thing does seem clear in this combined First Bus amd Arriva timetable fot buses to Thurnby Lodge, namely that everything runs via Uppingham Road. The route out of Leicester starts with Humberstone Road …

… and ancient readers may remember a station of that name passed by most trains going north to Loughborough and Derby or Nottingham. All that remains today of this little used stop is the retaining wall that sat behind the station building at road level; and the remains of the subway to the platforms.

A little further on there appears a three way split in the road.

Uppingham Road veers to the right, Scraptoft Lane is straight on; Tennis Court Drive is on the left. (Wonder where Tennis Court Drive used to lead?).

The comprehensive Leicester Buses map shows this junction clearly.

fbb quotes OUTBOUND routes only!

37 uses Uppingham Road

38A uses Uppingham Road

56A uses Uppingham Road

747 uses Uppingham Road

56 uses Scraptoft Lane

38 uses Tennis  Court Drive

The 56/56A (like the 38/38A) is a lollipop route with buses going alternate ways round the sticky blob that forms the edible part of a lolly.

… but NOT buses like the above, not any mote. SIGH!

The 56 does not really concern us, except that it passes along the northern edge of the Thurnby Lodge estate.

It is coloured DEEP ORANGE on the above map. Also of note is the 40 Orbital referred to in yesterday’s blog showing dotted PALE ORANGE. The 38/38A lollipop is RED which leaves us with the 37 (it was the 53, remember) in dotted PALE BLUE.

So (pay attention, it is important!) the 37 is almost a 38A outbound, then becomes a 38 on its return journey.

The 37 and the 38A (outbound) trundle happily along Dudley Avenue …

… and at the end by Thurnby Mead Primary Academy (noble name designed to make the school sound better than it is) they turn left .and at the end of Oakyn Road there is a bifurcation. 

 The 38A turns RIGHT past The Styrrup Cup pub to continue its lollipop route …

… whereas the 37 turns LEFT then RIGHT to complete a turning movement and join the 38 that has come via Nether Hall tunning “as outward route 37 reversed” back to the city centrer.

The 37 terminus and the time point for the 38/38A is listed as Bowhill Grove which might be the shopping centre that we met yesterday.

Co-op is far left on the map; 38A (and 40) on the left of Bowhill Grove, 37, 38 (and 40) on the right.

SEE, IT’S REALLY SIMPLE!

But, as an interested outsider, can you glean that from the First Bus timetable?

But fbb has a suggestion.

Younger readers (are there any?) might struggle with this announcement in the Model Railway press.

Ellis Clark is a model railway retailer and manufacturer in Skipton who, hitherto, has specialised in top quality “O” gauge products. Here is a picture …

… of Managing Director Ellis (left) and shop assistant Albert (right). Ellis has just announced that the company will be producing its first “OO” model, a Quad Art.

Quad Art?

Here is a video of a Quad Art on the North Norfolk Railay.

Qaad means “four” and Art tis short for Articulated. The Great Northern Railway introduced a revolutionary fleet of four coach sets for its London suburban services.

What was unusual for these sets of four was that the bodies shared a bogie.

Seen above in the set as preserved.