Beeston Buggibus network goes public – without comment – see my last post

Click in the map to enlarge. This is an exercise of the imagination. Much of the map is deliberately blank. The idea is that you imagine where the little buses go and if you don't live in Beeston, then you can create your own network of little buses to take you where you want to go!

Theses little French buses are part of the future when it comes to public transport

I am sharing this post with my BeestonWeek blog. My interest in buses is as a means of travel and making it easier for everyone to move about seven days a week. Mobility and access matter if we are to make the most of where we live and these little French buses offer a way forward.

Reading the August 2019 issue of Urban Transit I came across a passing reference to this little bus.

Tram enthusiasts, for the most part, see the role of the bus being reduced to a support role, never mind that double-deck buses have more seats and can, in the case of Beeston, get you to a good few places quicker than The Tram. In my book both have an equal roll to play in the Derby–Nottingham conurbation, including little electric buses like the one below, which is French. I love it!

It does all I expect of a buggy bus.

Click here to visit a website showing one of these buses at work in Singapore.

I have blogged in the past about my belief that Beeston needs a community transport network, which I have called the Beeston Buggy Bus network.

I have actually done two posts:

https://beestonweek.blogspot.com/2017/01/hail-beeston-bramcote-buggy-bus.html

https://beestonweek.blogspot.com/2019/03/a-really-interesting-interview-in-verge.html

I really believe that little buses like this French 'Bien Petit' Bus' are the future when it comes to increasing mobility around towns and rural communities every day, not just Monday–Saturday daytime. This little bus is electric with a range of 125km (77 miles) and can carry up to 22 passengers.

Enjoy the ride!

Trentbartonland Days Out Map gets a 3rd edition

Trent-Barton are masters at designing maps which look like works of art and although the style of the Trentbartonland days out 3rd edition map hasn't changed much it it is still worth drawing attention to. You can find a downloadable PDF file version at:

https://trentbarton.co.uk/userfiles/explore2019.pdf

As with all such maps and guides, not all places of interest are included (compare my choices with theirs by comparing locations on this map with my Beeston Days Out 2019 map published a couple of weeks ago)

Ideally you should try and pick up a hard copy either the next time you ride on a Trent-Barton bus or from one of their travel offices. A useful trick is to use your computer's screen capture facility (like I have) to save sections from the map you might like to use.

In the meantime here are three extracts from the map (just click on the images to enlarge):

Beeston Festival sees a Barton's Lego Bus on show

At yesterday's Beeston Festival a young bus lover named Ewan Cooper, aged 11, on The Beestonian stand, was one of the star attractions with his Lego model of an old Barton's Bridgemaster bus.

Ewan's Lego model came apart so that the viewer can see inside the bus, complete with seats and passengers!

What's more, Ewan has a whole page to himself in the July 2019 edition of The Beestonian, Beeston's free streetmag

By chance I have a photograph of the very bus in a copy of a book, Barton in colour — Return Journey, edited by Philip Lamb and published by Prebus Publishing in 2012 (the book appears to be currently out of print but there may secondhand copies about if you search the web). The book says the photograph was taken in 1967 by Derek Bailey

The AEC Bridgemaster was bought by Barton in 1958 and is part of the private Barton collection you can see at The Garage in Beeston.

If you can get along to this year's Heritage Open Day at Barton's Garage on Saturday 14 September you can see all the preserved buses on show as well as displays and stands relating to Beeston heritage in all in manifestations.

There are 64 years between Ewan and me but it's nice to know that there are still some up and coming bus enthusiasts out there despite The Tram's arrival in Beeston.

Finally a P.S.

The banner behind Ewan is one of mine, created for a pop-up shop in Beeston in Autumn 2018 (Click on the banner and all the pics to enlarge):

Beeston Days Out 2019 map and a new Big City Map of Nottingham City Centre

Maps of whatever kind are never finished. At best they are snapshots of time in a world, even here in Beeston and Nottingham.

You can pick the Bays Out map and the Beeston Festival today and the Lakeside History Fair in Highfields Park next Saturday.

Click on the maps to enlarge

In addition here is a copy of what I describe of my Big City Map which first appeared in 2017 and I still regard as an achievement of sorts. I think I can fairly claim it is another unique map which I would like to to something. In the meantime explore and enjoy.

4 walks around Lenton with Primary Arts and me

On Saturday coming (25th May) I am leading a walk around Lenton. Here is a copy of the map I have created and a list of locations. There will be a leaflet on the day. The walk starts from Lenton Lodge on the Derby Road (some of you may know it as the Wollaton Park Gatehouse) at 2.15pm and will last for about 90 minutes.

The focus of the walk will be housing and for health reasons this will also be the last walk I lead (see previous blog post dated 3 May 2019).

Click on the maps and text boxes to enlarge.

The leaflet has seven pages plus a cover by Primary (which I have yet to see). The seven pages have been created by me.

Beeston Transport Map update

I have updated my Beeston Transport Spider Map to take account of the L11 being withdrawn between Bulwell and Arnold (the 23 June has been mentioned but has to be confirmed). I have also added Bramcote's sunken church tower and Wollaton Dovecote to the heritage locations marked on the map. Click on the map to enlarge.

Wigman Road Top apologies and where you can find the 35 History Bus Bluebell leaflet

The weather in Nottingham over the last few days has taken a turn for the worse with the result that I have picked up a lung infection, which means I will not be at Wigman Road Top tomorrow (Saturday) as promised. With luck the local churches and the Mulberry Tree Café in Strelley Hall's old stable block will have copies of the leaflet available whilst stocks last (200 have been printed). I will try to get the leaflets to them ASAP but it will not be for a few days. 

If you are reading this then you will be able to see the leaflet. Its design should make it easy to read on a smartphone.

I have a photo 'essay' of the walks to post but it will have to wait until I have the energy. Right now I'm very tired.

I will be 75 in the next few days and have had a condition known as Idiopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis (IPF) since I was 71. There are bad times and the weather, along with crowds, can make it worst and now is one of those occasions.

From now on I will work with other people and groups when a opportunity occurs but I have decided I can no longer do things  on my own.

The good news is that this should mean more time for this blog. For a week or so, whilst I recover, please bear with me.

35 History Bus Bluebell Walks through Strelley and Bilborough villages- a new leaflet

My apologises for not posting to History By Bus more frequently but when you're 75 life has the habit of diverting you: ill-health (I have pulmonary lung fibrosis which I manage quite well but the cold damp windy weather of late caused me problems so I just had to stop and rest up); election work for the Labour Party and other commitments, and there are always my household responsibilities. Finally there is the growing realisation on my part that I'm becoming a 'half-day person'. Well this is enough about getting old and time to share some good news. My new 35 walks leaflet and map is with the printer and I will be distributing copies on Saturday 4 May at the Wigman Road Top bus stops between 11am and 3pm.

To enlarge the leaflet (which is A4 landscape size) click on the images. To capture and print off use whatever program your computer uses. It has been design to fold into A5 portrait (4 sides) then in half to create a A6 landscape size pocket leaflet.

The orange lines in the background are my layout grids.

Tomorrow I will add some photographs and links. In the meantime I hope you find the leaflet of interest.

35 History Bus Guide gets national publicity

The April 2019 edition of Buses (www.busesmag.com), 'the World's biggest selling bus magazine', includes a two-page spread by me about how the 35 History Bus Guide came about.

I wrote the article last November and it was accepted by Alan Millar, the Editor of Buses, by return, then it was just a case of me waiting my turn in the queue to be published.

You can find copies of Buses magazine in W. H. Smith shops, price £4.80 (I have been a reader since 1955 and still have some copies from the late-1950s and 60s). 

This is the article and the layout as shown here is the copyright of Buses. As you can see Alan and his colleagues have done a good job. There is one little mistake but you'll have to travel on a 35 bus and then I suspect you won't notice anyway. I mention it because there is always someone who wants to nitpick.

I am hoping that will lead to more publicity and more passengers for Nottingham City Transport and it's no.10 and no.35 bus routes, as I give a passing reference to the No.10 Ruddy Day Out booklet.

Ruddington with its museums and Transport Heritage Centre, which includes the Great Central Railway's Nottingham branch, will be directly linked to the Loughborough – North Leicester branch once the bridge presently under construction is complete and able to take passenger trains. 

Visit Ruddington.info for more information.

35 Bus Route Bluebell publicity

The attached page is taken from the March 2019 edition of Breeze, a free door-to-door magazine across the west side of Nottingham.

Saturday 4th May is still some way off, so more nearer the time. In the meantime click on the image to enlarge and read the article, which was  written by me:

Buster is back!

Just before Christmas I was sent a copy of Nottingham City Transport's new published Activity Book, available from its Travel Centre on South Parade in the Market Square.

If this for kids then they are brighter than me, but we live in different times and learning now is so much different from the 1940s and 50s.

What I so happy about is the resurrection of Buster but before I tell you a little here are a couple of pages from the NCT Activity Book.

Buster first appeared in the early-1980s as NCT logo. Here he is on the cover of a map from 1983 (my favourite NCT map, a little battered now). He was everywhere on the map. I thought Buster a great logo and communication tool.

When I created my first 35 History Bus Guide and Map in early-2014 I resurrected Buster with the intention of using him as my mouthpiece but Nottingham City Transport were a little unsure despite my enthusiasm, so I didn't use him and now ids the first time my handywork is appearing in the public domain. I created this logo 5 years ago and I hoping now that Buster can appear on my next map and History Bus leaflets later this year.

Do you like Buster? I hope so. Please let me know.

A story about 35 ghouls for the City Council....

A Nottingham City Transport 28 bus a little lost on Derby Road across from the Savoy Cinema in Lenton but all is not what it seems. It's September 2013 and driver didn't know he was showing the wrong display on a 36 bus. The clue is in the colour. 28s are pink. No one mentioned the wrong display to the driver. He had come all the way from Chilwell without anyone saying a word. It does say 'Victoria Centre'. I couldn't bring myself to tell him, so I just got on like everyone else but only after I took the pic.

This post has been lifted from the City Council website:

📖 Transport tales 📖

Do you enjoy a wild walk to work? 

Or maybe you met your beau on the bus or true love on the tram? 

Maybe you just love your commute and want to shout about it!

We are looking for some keen Nottinghamians to write short blogs (up to 400 words) about their experiences of travel and transport in the city. 

We'll then share some of the best in future newsletters and online.

If you'd like to share your transport tale, we'd love to hear from you. For more info drop us an email. 

Here is my tale:

Ghouls like to travel by Nottingham City Transport's Orange 35 buses because it passes so many graveyards. The dead in the cemeteries along its route hate Halloween, especially those who reside in the General Cemetery by Canning Circus, because their corpses have been sucked dry for over 150 years. Dug up by feverish hands, the gravediggers go back year after year to re-bury the dead. Why not get off at Canning Circus and walk through the cemetery to Shakespeare Street and the Victoria Centre, where the 35 terminates, and walk among the leaning tombstones, uneven and sunken graves. What you see is no accident — it is the work of ghouls and the eternal gravediggers who keep them company. Before the coming of the 35 bus Ghouls waited ages for so many buses that some of the dead in our cemeteries were actually left in peace but not any more and it's all thanks to the 35 bus. Not many know that. Take my advice when your time comes and avoid being buried close to the 35 bus route. It is no coincidence that Batman's ancestral home is Wollaton Hall. It is there between Halloweens that Ghouls rest dreaming of feasts to come!

Fallen gravestones and crosses — just two of hundreds you can see along the 35 bus route if you dare to search them out...

This story has been written to entertain and to make a point. Most cemeteries and churchyards are lucky if they get the grass cut. Other maintenance work is minimal. Cemeteries remind us of our own mortality and that as short as we may think our lives are, they are long compared to many who lived just a few decades ago.