Lynne About Loughborough: buses

Showing posts with label buses. Show all posts

Sunday, 29 December 2024

Ruddington Fields to the Bridge to the Future - the Betwixtmus Train!

Ruddington Fields almost to the Bridge to the Future - the Betwixtmus Train!

Well, I thought I was in for a quiet Christmas, but no, actually it's been incredibly busy!

Today is my usual day for sharing something about Loughborough with you, so how opportune that I happened to have travelled on the Great Central Railway this morning! Not the usual trip from Loughborough Central to Leicester North, via Quron & Woodhouse, and Rothley, but rather from Ruddington Fields, in the Rushcliffe Country Park, through Rushcliffe Halt at the Nottingham end of East Leake, all the way to what the heightened railway bridge over the A60 by The Brush in Loughborough - not quite as far as what I still call the Bridge to the Future, which is closer to the civic amenity site!

I can't wait for the day when the line is totally joined up, and the journey will run all the way from Rushcliffe to Leicester North!!

I've been to Rushcliffe Country Park many times before, mostly for children to play in the park, or to wander around the lake. I was also there on Christmas Day this year, for the parkrun - no, I didn't run, I was there to support those who were running!!! I have stood on the bridge over the railway many times before, also, but had not realised that actually down in the station there was also a collection of old buses, a model railway, a miniature railway, and a very miniature railway, and a cafe!!! I can see I will have difficulty staying away now!!!!

Here's a few photos of my journey. Some pictures didn't come out well, as they were taken from the train, through the windows!

The start of the journey, at Ruddington Fields

Rushcliffe Halt at East Leake, next to British Gypsum

Arriving at the recently heightened bridge over the A60

The return journey

Back at Ruddington Fields

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Posted by lynneaboutloughborough

With apologies for typos which are all mine!

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Thank you for reading this blog.

Copyright:

Dyer, Lynne (2024). Ruddington Fields almost to the Bridge to the Future - the Betwixtmus Train! Available from: https://lynneaboutloughborough.blogspot.com/2024/12/ruddington-fields-to-br [Accessed 29 December 2024]

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Saturday, 27 April 2024

X is for X26/27, XPS, and X-Rays

X26/X27

Based on Royal Way, on the Belton Road West industrial estate, the Paul S Winson family-owned coach company was created in 1980, and has been running bus services in the area for most of that time.

Winson’s X26 service is a popular Monday through Saturday service that connects Loughborough to three nearby villages which fall within the Borough of Charnwood, namely, Quorn, Mountsorrel and Rothley. These villages lie in the Soar Valley and are on the west side of the River Soar: villages on the other side of the river include Barrow-upon-Soar, Sileby and Cossington. In addition to the X26 service, Winson’s also operate the X27 service which runs Monday through Friday, during the Leicestershire school terms only, and is dedicated to delivering children to school (see note below).

XPS and X-rays

Loughborough University has researched and taught all types of engineering since its inception as a Technical Institute in 1909. Chemistry and physics also feature on the curriculum, and today, the Loughborough Materials Characterisation Centre (LMCC) uses X-ray Photoelectron Spectroscopy (XPS), sometimes known as Electron Spectroscopy for Chemical Analysis (ESCA) to analyse the top 3-10 nanometres of a material. Using XPS it is possible to study thin films like those used to coat spectacles, corrosion like oxidation, and adhesion, as well as changes in the state and composition of a wide range of materials, from powders to solids, like metal, ceramics and manmade polymers.

X-rays were discovered in 1895, and Loughborough College used the new techniques, which by the end of the First World War could help inform about the condition of various materials. The principal of the college, Herbert Schofield, had the foresight to invest in X-ray equipment for the college in 1919, which was used to check welds and castings. These early machines lasted until the 1930s when they were replaced by new equipment. The university continues to benefit from all the latest in X-ray technology, like the XPS.

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Notes

Entries for the letter 'X' are taken from 'A-Z of Loughborough', which was written in 2019-20, and published in August 2021. Information was correct at the time of going to press, however, the X26 service no longer runs, and was cancelled in September 2021. Similarly, the X27 School Service was cancelled in November 2022. If you need to travel to Leicester from Loughborough, or travel to one of the villages in between it's probably best you consult the Winson bus timetables, or contact Winson directly, or indeed any other local bus company.

Sunday, 24 March 2024

Finding Loughborough connections in London!

Last weekend I was very lucky indeed, as I spent a few days wondering around London, something I hadn't done for a very long time. I was thrilled to happen upon some direct Loughborough connections, like products made in Loughborough, and some less direct ones, of course!!

Super to see that Loughborough is trendy! There were numerous buildings in London that were being renovated and refurbished, and it seems a covering with a building facade photographed onto it is the new way to hide what's going on, and to look appealing rather than having the traditional hoarding. You can see this in Loughborough town centre, surrounding the HSBC in Market Place. Since the blog post about changes in the town centre was written, the base of the surrounding of our HSBC is now painted with leaves!

Like all cities, towns, villages, and probably hamlets, London has a selection of telephone kiosks dotted around the city. Many are still operating as telephones, some are a little unloved, one which had a perforated, rather than a solid gold crown on the top (below, bottom right), and, of course, those in the city of London are painted black rather than red! You can read about Loughborough's Grade II listed K6 kiosk in an earlier blogpost.

Likewise, it comes as no surprise to find that London has letter boxes! We passed very many of these, and there were an amazing number of double ones. I've written loads of posts about Loughborough's letter boxes, which you can find at Part 1; Part 2; Part 3; Part 4; Part 5; Burton Street box; and Unusual and unreal boxes!

I must admit I was hugely surprised by the number of clocks I saw in London, mostly on the sides or fronts of buildings! One of these reminded me so much of our town hall clock!

On a related topic, in the London Transport Museum, I spotted rather lovely pocket watch - sorry, the photo really doesn't do it justice - which reminded me about one of Loughborough's watch and clock makers - Frederick Stubbs.

As you'd expect, there were all types of vehicles in the transport museum - like sedan chairs, stagecoaches, trams, trolleybuses, buses, underground trains, steam trains, charabancs - but surprisingly, I couldn't find a single Brush body!

In another museum, there was a poster from the time of the First World War, which helped the person on the street to identify specific aircraft. One of these was the Zeppelin, and I was reminded about the attack on Loughborough on the night of January 31st 1916, about which I've written numerous blogposts, and shared a virtual walk.

I've only written briefly on this blog about the Freemasons Hall in Loughborough, which is on Orchard Street, in a building that used to be a congregational chapel. It is quite, quite different from the one in London (which although you can't see it in the photograph, does actually have a clock above the entrance).

As in Loughborough, drain covers bearing the name of their makers were also in evidence in London! This is just one example of the hundreds we saw, and examples of ones in Loughborough are on this blogpost.

Goodness me, it's already time to share this post with you, and all I've managed to do so far is share some of the more generic things with you! Pop back to the blog next week, for some direct Loughborough connections - books, bricks, perfumes, and pharmaceuticals!

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Posted by lynneaboutloughborough

With apologies for typos which are all mine!

_______________________________________________

Thank you for reading this blog.

Copyright:

Dyer, Lynne (2024). Finding Loughborough connections in London. Available from: https://lynneaboutloughborough.blogspot.com/2024/03/finding-loughborough-connections-in.html [Accessed 24 March 2024]

Take down policy:

External Links:

Blog archive and tags:

Searching the blog:

site: https://lynneaboutloughborough.blogspot.com/ “Radmoor House”

NOTE – the words you’re actually looking for must be in “” and the first of these must be preceded by a space

Thank you for reading this blog.

Lynne

Sunday, 10 October 2021

Buses at the Great Central Railway

So, yesterday I walked over to Quorn and found myself at the Quorn and Woodhouse station. I was surprised not to have seen or heard any steam trains along the way, but did manage to see a few passing through Quorn while I was there. What was really very exciting was that there was a vintage bus rally on, so there were lots of old buses in the station grounds, and many of them were offering trips to Loughborough GCR. I last saw such a wonderful collection of buses on a visit to the Stoneygate tram depot in Leicester in 2018, so seeing some of the ones from that trip, here at the Quron station was great.

As I say, many of the buses were really quite old, but one which was less so, and one which I was really thrilled to see, was the Winson bus, which follows the X26 route. I was excited because I've written about the X26 and X27 service in a book called 'A-Z of Loughborough', and it was super to be able to get a photo of one that wasn't actually moving!!!

So, here are a few photos from yesterday's bus rally - I do have more.