SOS Junction. If anything happens would someone wake me up please..

[Clive Mortimore]

3 hours ago, Mallard60022 said:

Point froggy dealt with by Red Leader. Thanks a bundle matey.

Progress with the Incline Cutting and the Spammers hacksaw method was employed and lo, it works a treat.

Pics later as I'm knackered (done almost nothing but that's me...…).

P

So I am not needed.

[Mallard60022]

3 hours ago, Clive Mortimore said:

So I am not needed.

Maybe not so urgently, however if you CBA to drag over here there is polystyrene to play with!!!!!

 

[Dr Gerbil-Fritters]

Today I shall mainly be clearing my shed of junk, and generally tidying up before (hopefully) doing some track work later this weekend.

 

Anyone want 2 unmade and one partly made Cambrian Turbots?  Free to a good home.  Also a couple (at least) Ratio Clayhoods.

[Mallard60022]

Couple of Clayhoods would be good unless someone more westerny would like them? The Turbots are too modern for me but thank you for the offer as I am sure someone will like them. If I do end up with the Hoods, can I call them Gervil and Fretters?

[LNER4479]

On ‎18‎/‎04‎/‎2019 at 19:39, Clive Mortimore said:

So I am not needed.

Not it would appear on this occasion.

 

Picture alert. Some actual modelling involved (allegedly...)

 

After due attention to said naughty point, we transferred across to t'other side to do some skeenery structure work, using a version of chicken wire (chick wire, perhaps?). Whilst I am comfortable with knocking Peco pins into plywood formers then bending the tops over to secure, between us we invented a different way of affixing chick wire to polystyrene formers, using 1 inch (-ish) screws and a hot glue gun. Worked surprisingly well. Patent application pending.

 

From a slightly more elevated viewpoint, what you can't really see here is that the foam in the top right hand corner is attached to a plywood tray, masking the fiddle yard roads (but easily removable in case of disaster). This allows the cutting side to continue into the expanse and should be quite effective at depicting the deep cutting of the prototype at this location.

 

No caterpillars were harmed during the making of these slopes.

Edited April 21, 2019 by LNER4479

[Clive Mortimore]

1 hour ago, LNER4479 said:

Not it would appear on this occasion.

 

 

see if I care  

[Mallard60022]

12 hours ago, LNER4479 said:

Not it would appear on this occasion.

 

Picture alert. Some actual modelling involved (allegedly...)

 

After due attention to said naughty point, we transferred across to t'other side to do some skeenery structure work, using a version of chicken wire (chick wire, perhaps?). Whilst I am comfortable with knocking Peco pins into plywood formers then bending the tops over to secure, between us we invented a different way of affixing chick wire to polystyrene formers, using 1 inch (-ish) screws and a hot glue gun. Worked surprisingly well. Patent application pending.

 

From a slightly more elevated viewpoint, what you can't really see here is that the foam in the top right hand corner is attached to a plywood tray, masking the fiddle yard roads (but easily removable in case of disaster). This allows the cutting side to continue into the expanse and should be quite effective at depicting the deep cutting of the prototype at this location.

 

No caterpillars were harmed during the making of these slopes.

Merci G. I have been too knackered/feeling shite since Thursday to be arsed to go and do any more/take some pics and so I am really grateful, thank you.

The 'Chick Wire' is actually a modelling, clay-work style mesh (mesh, not mess with a lisp!) and this is the larger gauge stuff. I've got some more that is more like the stuff used in the old fashioned way of fitting a small window with a defence against insect intrusion. I shall try that elsewhere as the screw and glue method may well work better with that but it may not be so flexible to shape. It would have also been offensive to the Caterpillar to use an insect unfriendly material so close by. 

I am hoping that I survive my brief visit to York today, almost all by public transport,  and that by the change in the weather this coming Wednesday I shall be back up the Junction.

have a good day all.

P

[gwrrob]

Your beloved Arygle are currently playing like you feel Quackers and are unlikely to lift your spirits anytime soon. Close to the bottom four too.

[Mallard60022]

Rob, they are absolutely awful. About three players have any passion and make an effort. The rest are total rubbish and I mean trash. They deserve to be where they are and the Manager is lost and has lost the dressing room. It is like watching an old and trusted friend passing away. I've not seem them much in recent years but what I've seen this season has left me wondering what the #### has happened at Home Park? Only good thing is that the pitch is one of the best in the Football League. Oh yes, the Greens are so awful that even some Millwall fans I met after the Donny game were asking WTF is up!

However, it is only a game as we all know and I did have a good few hours at York yesterday where I caught up with some friends, saw some inspiring layouts, bought some glue, wire and a good book (Yeovil to Exeter Central , Vol 3, new edition). It is a large and heavy piece and so, when relegation comes, I can hit myself over the head with it until I lose interest in footy for this summer.

Ar$£

P.S. Well done to the Blues on the survival that seems to be the situation.

 

Edited April 23, 2019 by Mallard60022

[Captain Kernow]

18 minutes ago, Mallard60022 said:

the Manager has lost the dressing room.

I think I mislaid a dressing room once. I was waiting for a bus in Swindon and put the dressing room down on the pavement for a moment, but when I turned round, it had caught the number 54 to Shrivenham without me.

 

[Mallard60022]

3 hours ago, Captain Kernow said:

I think I mislaid a dressing room once. I was waiting for a bus in Swindon and put the dressing room down on the pavement for a moment, but when I turned round, it had caught the number 54 to Shrivenham without me.

 

Yes, it can happen like that. Similar circumstances when I lost my ######### in Weymouth in 1967.

By the way, I have adopted a little, lost Terrier. It just sat there and those sorrowful buffers just looked so sad I had to take it home and give it some attention. I hope it isn't afraid of huge caterpillars? 

Phil

[Alister_G]

53 minutes ago, Mallard60022 said:

Similar circumstances when I lost my ######### in Weymouth in 1967.

 

So if I understand you correctly, your ######### departed on a bus to Shrivenham?

 

Al.

[Clive Mortimore]

Do buses go to Shrivenham?

[devonseasider]

Not from Weymouth they don't.

 

[HillsideDepot]

9 minutes ago, Clive Mortimore said:

Do buses go to Shrivenham?

The S6; every 20 minutes day-times, every 15 minutes in the peak, running, with leather seated, air-cooled luxury, between Swindon and Oxford. And thereby hangs the mystery, the 54 runs, infrequently, to Royal Wootton Bassett, supplementing the 55. These dressing rooms are, perhaps, more cunning than we thought!

Incidentally, I can't find anything in Stagecoach West's Conditions of Carriage about unaccompanied dressing rooms, so I assume they are permitted to travel, probably as long as they don't occupy a seat needed by a fare-paying passenger.

[Mallard60022]

1 hour ago, Clive Mortimore said:

Do buses go to Shrivenham?

Was that a single by some band in 1978?

P

 

[Mallard60022]

1 hour ago, Alister_G said:

 

So if I understand you correctly, your ######### departed on a bus to Shrivenham?

 

Al.

In a way but not exactly.

Ar$£ 

[Alister_G]

10 minutes ago, Mallard60022 said:

In a way but not exactly.

 

Thanks for clearing that up Duckie...

 

Al.

[Joseph_Pestell]

5 hours ago, Captain Kernow said:

I think I mislaid a dressing room once. I was waiting for a bus in Swindon and put the dressing room down on the pavement for a moment, but when I turned round, it had caught the number 54 to Shrivenham without me.

 

 

I once nearly did the same thing with a suitcase. Got on board the bus at St Brieuc bus station (former metre gauge railway station complete with overall roof) and only noticed, after several minutes aboard, that I had left my suitcase on the pavement.

[Joseph_Pestell]

1 hour ago, HillsideDepot said:

The S6; every 20 minutes day-times, every 15 minutes in the peak, running, with leather seated, air-cooled luxury, between Swindon and Oxford. And thereby hangs the mystery, the 54 runs, infrequently, to Royal Wootton Bassett, supplementing the 55. These dressing rooms are, perhaps, more cunning than we thought!

Incidentally, I can't find anything in Stagecoach West's Conditions of Carriage about unaccompanied dressing rooms, so I assume they are permitted to travel, probably as long as they don't occupy a seat needed by a fare-paying passenger.

 

That's a much improved service by comparison with when I worked in that part of Oxfordshire. How is it that some parts of the country have super-frequent services, often running almost empty, while others get barely any bus service at all?

[Mallard60022]

1 minute ago, Joseph_Pestell said:

 

That's a much improved service by comparison with when I worked in that part of Oxfordshire. How is it that some parts of the country have super-frequent services, often running almost empty, while others get barely any bus service at all?

Both can be examples of poor transport planning, using outdated data and historic practices. How do I know this? I used to work alongside certain LG Departments that had responsibility for local public transport planning, including bus services. Interestingly, one of the go to Councils for good transport planning ideas (and loads of other stuff to do with Road Safety and roads engineering), was Oxfordshire, but that was in the 90s.  

Phil

[HillsideDepot]

Swindon - Oxford was hourly, but Stagecoach West used Government Kick-start funding to increase it to half-hourly with new branded buses and a big marketing campaign. That move grew the market, such that double deck buses were needed and the decision was taken to make it a Stagecoach Gold route, as are a number of routes radiating from Oxford. The frequency was also increased. After about 5 years the initial batch of Gold buses were replaced with the current fleet, and the route was renumbered S6 into the series used by Gold routes from Oxford (even though it is a Swindon operated "West" route). The service is now commercially operated, so the loads must be there (S6 is on my list of routes to re-visit).

 

Sitting here at my local authority keyboard, we've had success with Stagecoach West and Kick-Start to convert Swindon - Chippenham from half hourly with London cast-offs to 20 minute frequency with year old "Gold" rolling stock and plans ready for the next stage of growth. Loadings can be quite surprising, even at 09:30 on a Sunday morning there can be 30+ people on board as the bus leaves Calne for Chippenham. Likewise the Swindon - Trowbridge route has gone from wholly-subsidised 40-seaters to commercial (including commercial Sundays as far as Devizes) double decks with just a few early and late subsidised part-route add-ons, simply through partnership working between Stagecoach and Wiltshire. Again the next stage of up-lift is in the discussion phase.

 

It can be done, but it needs constant effort, and a commitment to public funding in the early stages and commercial investment by the operator.

 

Now I'd best get back to the Post-16 Transport report.

 

Adrian a.k.a. Transport Review Officer, Passenger Transport Unit, Wiltshire Council

 

[timbowilts]

5 minutes ago, HillsideDepot said:

Swindon - Oxford was hourly, but Stagecoach West used Government Kick-start funding to increase it to half-hourly with new branded buses and a big marketing campaign. That move grew the market, such that double deck buses were needed and the decision was taken to make it a Stagecoach Gold route, as are a number of routes radiating from Oxford. The frequency was also increased. After about 5 years the initial batch of Gold buses were replaced with the current fleet, and the route was renumbered S6 into the series used by Gold routes from Oxford (even though it is a Swindon operated "West" route). The service is now commercially operated, so the loads must be there (S6 is on my list of routes to re-visit).

 

Sitting here at my local authority keyboard, we've had success with Stagecoach West and Kick-Start to convert Swindon - Chippenham from half hourly with London cast-offs to 20 minute frequency with year old "Gold" rolling stock and plans ready for the next stage of growth. Loadings can be quite surprising, even at 09:30 on a Sunday morning there can be 30+ people on board as the bus leaves Calne for Chippenham. Likewise the Swindon - Trowbridge route has gone from wholly-subsidised 40-seaters to commercial (including commercial Sundays as far as Devizes) double decks with just a few early and late subsidised part-route add-ons, simply through partnership working between Stagecoach and Wiltshire. Again the next stage of up-lift is in the discussion phase.

 

It can be done, but it needs constant effort, and a commitment to public funding in the early stages and commercial investment by the operator.

 

Now I'd best get back to the Post-16 Transport report.

 

Adrian a.k.a. Transport Review Officer, Passenger Transport Unit, Wiltshire Council

 

As a non-driving pensioner living in Calne life would be very difficult without the 55! Exhibition visits would be impossible

Tim T

 

[Clive Mortimore]

1 hour ago, Joseph_Pestell said:

 

That's a much improved service by comparison with when I worked in that part of Oxfordshire. How is it that some parts of the country have super-frequent services, often running almost empty, while others get barely any bus service at all?

So what is wrong with a bus on a Wednesday and Friday to Louth, all of 8 miles from where I live. There is also one home each of those days. And what's more on a Tuesday I can go to either Grimsby or Mablethorpe, oddly I can come home if I go to Grimsby but not if I go to Mablethorpe, I have to wait for the following week.

 

So if our Captain's changing room is spotted in Mablethorpe it might be waiting for the number 28 to take to Grimbsy next Tuesday.

[Joseph_Pestell]

1 hour ago, HillsideDepot said:

Swindon - Oxford was hourly, but Stagecoach West used Government Kick-start funding to increase it to half-hourly with new branded buses and a big marketing campaign. That move grew the market, such that double deck buses were needed and the decision was taken to make it a Stagecoach Gold route, as are a number of routes radiating from Oxford. The frequency was also increased. After about 5 years the initial batch of Gold buses were replaced with the current fleet, and the route was renumbered S6 into the series used by Gold routes from Oxford (even though it is a Swindon operated "West" route). The service is now commercially operated, so the loads must be there (S6 is on my list of routes to re-visit).

 

Sitting here at my local authority keyboard, we've had success with Stagecoach West and Kick-Start to convert Swindon - Chippenham from half hourly with London cast-offs to 20 minute frequency with year old "Gold" rolling stock and plans ready for the next stage of growth. Loadings can be quite surprising, even at 09:30 on a Sunday morning there can be 30+ people on board as the bus leaves Calne for Chippenham. Likewise the Swindon - Trowbridge route has gone from wholly-subsidised 40-seaters to commercial (including commercial Sundays as far as Devizes) double decks with just a few early and late subsidised part-route add-ons, simply through partnership working between Stagecoach and Wiltshire. Again the next stage of up-lift is in the discussion phase.

 

It can be done, but it needs constant effort, and a commitment to public funding in the early stages and commercial investment by the operator.

 

Now I'd best get back to the Post-16 Transport report.

 

Adrian a.k.a. Transport Review Officer, Passenger Transport Unit, Wiltshire Council

 

 

Well done! That sort of good news story about public transport needs a wider audience.

 

I have always thought that more could be achieved with bus subsidy by subsidising the evening services which makes it more practicable to use the daytime services which can thus be commercial.