No, I haven't forgotten...

..about this blog! It's been pretty manic around here lately. I am now on the "All Duties" rota at work. This means that I am covering mainly minibus duties but I only get a couple of days notice of what those duties will be. It also means that (as I was advised at my induction) I'm getting all the "shite"! A week's duties are any 5 days out of 7, Sunday to Saturday and cover early, middle and late shifts. The first early kicks off at 4a.m. and the last late, which I'm down for next Saturday, ends at 1.35a.m. Consequently I don't know whether I'm coming or going at the moment and I need a line on the "proper" rota pretty damned soon. I'll still have crappy hours but at least I'll have a couple of months notice. With Mrs. B on an equally nightmarish pattern of shifts (including splits) we are like ships that pass in the night. One of us may soon have to take action. We've had pretty poor weather around here lately so I thought I'd post this picture, which I took earlier in the year near Maryport, to cheer myself up.

It's All Over Bar The Shouting!

Apologies for the sparseness of updates but I've not had a lot of time! After all the training, the theory, the driving test, the route learning et al, it all kicks off tomorrow. At 04.45 hours I report to the drivers' room at Lillyhall depot to begin life as a bus driver. The day will begin with the staff pickup journey and then I'll be operating some routes in Whitehaven. ON MY OWN!!! No mentor to use as a safety net, it's do or die. I'll let you know how I get on.

Busy Week

As the heading says, it's been a bit hectic. Did some "Type training" this morning. Seven o'clock start!! Spent a couple of hours with a driving instructor and went for some little drives in examples of the different vehicle types which the fleet contains. Single deck Volvo B10 bus, Volvo B10 coach, Volvo double-deck bus, Dennis Dart single-deck bus and Mercedes midi-bus (or "stretched limo" as it's known in the trade!) One of my more varied Sunday mornings. Spent last week route learning. There were a couple of 12 hour days in there, pretty tiring I can tell you. Some days were spent travelling around and making notes whilst others were spent with a mentor. On these days my colleague would drive the route once or twice with me taking over once I'd got the directions in my head. Driving several different vehicles in one day on different routes is quite an undertaking. Even more so when the majority are over ten years old and worn out. No 2 vehicles of the same type drive in a remotely similar manner. Add that to trying to get to grips with the "Wayfarer" ticket machine, attempting to not take any wrong turnings and trying to stay on time and you can see why I'm nigh on worn out! A second week of it begins tomorrow!

I Must Admit...

...that I thought my hair looked alright. Then I was told that I needed to do my roots. Turned out that I'd misunderstood. What was meant was that I needed to do my routes. Consequently I spent the day riding as a passenger on various bus services across West Cumbria in order to learn timings and fare stages. Next week I'll be out driving with a mentor on actual services taking actual fares. Scary, real scary!

Hail To The Bus Driver!

So, after 3 weeks of intensive training I finally have it. "What's that?" I hear you ask. A full driving licence for PCV is what. To the uninitiated that's Passenger Carrying Vehicle. I drove to Carlisle in the training bus this morning and the test commenced at 11am at Stagecoach's depot in the city. The test itself began with a reversing manouver inside the garage. This was followed by an emergency braking excercise in the yard. The test drive proper then began. It consisted of a 50 minute drive through Carlisle and the surrounding areas and then a return to the depot where I received the good news. Hopefully the fact that I have learned to drive in the fleet's largest vehicle will equip me well for the future. However, for the next 12 months I will be driving only minibuses. All I need to do now is learn all the routes, the types of tickets, the ticket machine and the accents of the locals!

A Strong End To A Weekend

Well, it's Sunday lunchtime and I've just got time to squeeze in a quick update. Mrs. B. is at work today, she set off from here in her Micra at 6.40 this morning, while I was dead to the world, and finishes at 3pm. At that time our day will begin proper. I will be meeting her from work in my car and we will be taking the Nissan for its M.O.T. One of the disadvantages of having moved 400 miles is not knowing which local tradesmen are the ones to use. Fortunately both my Brother in law and my Stepdaughter use the services of a chap in the nearby village of Little Broughton to keep their cars in tip-top condition. Consequently we are dropping the Micra off at his house on our way to my Father-in-law, Henry's B&B (pictured below) this afternoon. The reason for this trip, apart from the social aspect, is to try and sort out a couple of small problems with his computer. Henry lives at Rosthwaite in the scenic Borrowdale Valley, I never visit without my camera. On our return this evening I will be settling down in front of the box to watch the mighty Torquay United take on York City live on Setanta Sports. Tomorrow it's back to work. I've got a week driving the test routes around Carlisle in order to hone my skills for my upcoming PCV test.

First Step Taken

Well, apologies for the lack of updates this week but I've been busy cramming for my PCV Theory and Hazard Perception Tests. The Stagecoach Training Unit has interactive DVDs to enable the trainee to get a feel of what is expected during a test. The theory test for large vehicles has recently been modified, the number of questions has been increased from a mere 35 to 60. The pass mark is 51. For the uninitiated the hazard perception test is a series of 14 video clips. The road ahead is seen from the viewpoint of a driver and the testee must click the mouse when they first see what is called a "developing hazard". One of the clips has 2 seperate hazards but that particular clip can be anywhere in the sequence so one has to be on ones toes throughout. This means that there are 15 hazards in total at a maximum of 5 points each. The maximum therefore is 75 with the pass mark set at 50. I had to pop into Carlisle this morning to take my test. Thankfully the gods were smiling and I achieved a theory mark of 60 and a hazard perception mark of 66. Now I can concentrate on the driving!

Countdown

So; the waiting is almost over. The two months of enforced "resting" between jobs ends tomorrow at 8am. As of then I will once again be engaged in gainful employment, this time as a trainee PCV driver. It'll be interesting to see how it goes and exactly what the job will entail. As well as actually learning to drive a bus there will be other knowledge that it will be necessary to acquire. I understand that I'll be studying for an NVQ Level 2 in aspects of bus and coach driving. Whether this includes learning how near the seat the elderly ladies are before pulling away sharply is yet to be seen! Anyway, keep tuned for updates!

Bl**dy Tourists!

Well, well, Mrs. B and myself became tourists for the day yesterday and drove down to Lake Windermere with my step-daughter. The reason for this jaunt being that my Wife's lifelong friend Bertie is renting a cottage adjacent to the Lake to enjoy a weeks break from the trials and tribulations of running her own buisness. The cottage, at High Strawberry Gardens, is seen above. It belongs to the National Trust, is 2 miles up a secluded shoreline path, and is the perfect place for those wishing to get away from it all. Out the front door and across a narrow track and you reach......
..this jetty. If you then take your chair to the end, a la Bertie, you have views of the lake such as this... ...looking north, and this one...
...across to Windermere itself. It's a very secluded place off the beaten track but within a half hours walk to the village of Far Sawrey for provisions. Just occasionally something will happen to remind you that you're in the 21st century (such as this)... .., but in the main it's like being in another world. Fantastic!

The Wheels On The Bus...

...will not be going round quite yet! Yesterday a 'phone call from the powers that be at Stagecoach HQ advised me that, due to operational difficulties with the training vehicle, they would like to defer my start date by one week to Monday October 8th. So another leisurely week it is! Above is the company's depot and garage complex at Lillyhall. My initial training will be carried out here. If the weeks of training end with a successful out come.....
...I will be working from here, the bus station at Murray Rd., Workington, the oldest purpose-built covered bus station in the country, dating from 1926. As a newly qualified driver I will be restricted to driving vehicles like this....
Mercedes midi-bus. Presumably, if I can get by for a pre-determined time without lunching it I might have a chance of boosting my earnings by getting my hands on something like this....
double decker. This ex-London Regional Transport Leyland Olympian is seen at Rosthwaite in the Borrowdale valley, a stones throw from my Father-in-law's gaff. Only time will tell but I'm looking forward to the challenge.

Man Views Man

Popped out today to take some pictures of the trackbed of the now defunct Cleator & Workington Junction Railway's Rosehill branch. This involved climbing steeply above the cliffs to the south of Harrington. As I neared the summit I looked out to sea and there it was; the Isle Of Man. Thought I'd snap this view for my southern chums. Gave me a chance to get my breath back after my ascent!

Scaredy Cat

Now here's something you don't often see. No, not a cat. Not even a cat in a garden. No, what you're seeing is OUR cat outside in OUR garden. When we moved here a couple of months ago we played it by the book. We kept Simba in for 2 weeks. After that we let him out for a short time each day. At first he stayed within sight and earshot of us but after a few days he started to pop out for an hour or so at a time, wandering further afield. During our first week here we discovered that both of our adjoining neighbours owned dogs. A couple of weeks ago Simba met one of them. To be fair our neighbour had warned us that his rescue collie, Owen, liked to chase cats. He also told us that Owen stops chasing when the cat turns to face him. Unfortunately no-one told the cat! Cue Simba flying back into the kichen with canine in hot pursuit. This has since happened a second time and the little chap's confidence has taken a bit of a knock. He'll now only pop outside if we're with him. This means, of course, that we can't leave him out if we're out. Consequently he doesn't get enough exercise and howls a lot through boredom. Having said all that he's just yowled to go out so we've let him. It's twenty to eleven now so if he's out too long he won't get back in 'til the morning. Poor little chap.

Mental Rental

This is the house in High Harrington in which we are currently living. I have to say that I thought it would be a straightforward operation to find a house for short-term rental in west Cumbria. How wrong I was. A month or so before we were due to move up from Devon my Wife came up to stay with her Dad for a week and sort out a house to rent. Nightmare! Rental agent after rental agent seemed to delight in telling her how little was available, almost with a sense of triumphalism in many cases. Luckily (and I use the word loosely) for us this house became available at the exact moment my Wife was standing in one of the letting agencies. It would've been too simple for things to progress in a hassle free manner, of course. For a start the previous tenant had bailed out owing a shed-load of money to all and sundry and leaving the place in such a state that the landlord had to have industrial cleaners in to sort out the mess. Secondly we have a cat. Cue a week of answerphone tennis between letting agent and landlord while we sweated over our feline ownership. Thirdly, the place is only 5 quid shy of 500 a month but actually worth at least a ton less. Every piece of woodwork in the place appears to have been gloss painted by Stevie Wonder, more runs than the Aussie cricket team. Still, beggars can't be choosers; I was out of work and rental places are almost non-existent because the rise in interest rates means that no-one's moving from rented into bought accomodation. People just can't afford to buy houses in this area. Still, our neighbours are great and that is some compensation. Now I have work we'll be able to start looking at buying our own gaff. Won't be a minute too soon.

Transport Heritage

Although I'm now living in Cumberland Motor Services territory I'm a Devon General man through and through. This hasn't prevented me from embracing Cumbria's road transport heritage however. Being a member of the Devon General Society back in Devon I thought it would be a good idea to join a similar group in the Workington area. To this end I have become a member of the Workington Transport Heritage Trust, primarily to support the renovation and survival of the towns transport past but also with the aim of meeting new people with similar interests. It is also my intention to join the Cumbria Omnibus Group, they are currently involved with the renovation of at least two former Cumberland Motor Services PSVs and are also responsible for the restoration of the 1963 Bristol MW pictured above. The towns heritage trust are here; http://www.wtht.co.uk/ The Cumbria Omnibus Group are here; http://myweb.tiscali.co.uk/cogbus/ .

Screenshot

Rain in Cumbria? Yes, surprising as it may sound, today has been a tad inclement to say the least. The Wife was on a split shift today so I asked her to drive me into Workington town centre at lunchtime to enable me to hand deliver my acceptance of Stagecoach's job offer to their Murray Rd. HQ. In the two months we've been living here I have to say we've been more than fortunate with the weather and had more than our fair share of sunny days, so I think we were owed this one. Here Mrs. B heads along the one way Williams St. past the north end of Vulcans Lane.

Decline Of The Line

Since moving to the Workington district I've made a point of getting to know both its immediate environs and other areas slightly further afield. Having a lifelong interest in transport means that I have concentrated my efforts in familiarising myself with the road and rail layouts of West Cumbria. The main rail route along Cumbria's west coast utilises the station pictured above. Although outwardly the station is of neat and tidy appearance, once inside it is a different story. Rust and decay abound and this reflects the condition of the rail system as a whole. Northern Rail's passenger services are operated by combinations of single-car and two-car diesel units of Classes 153 and 156. Workington sees about 15 trains a day in each direction, reducing drastically at weekends. Sellafield is the start and finish point for the majority of "service users" on this line. Many of the smaller stations are request-stop only, being little more than bus shelters on a platform. With the closure of the majority of Corus' steel plant at Workington, freight traffic is something of a rarity, with the occasional train running into Workington docks. Most freight trains consist of rakes of nuclear flasks heading for BNFL Sellafield, ordinarily under cover of darkness. Further pictures of the Cumbrian Coast line can be seen here

New Clear Thinking

Since my arrival in West Cumbria at the end of July, I've spent a not inconsiderable amount of time and effort attempting to secure gainful employment. As no jobs were available through my connections in the vending industry it was necessary to broaden my horizons. Not having been out of work since 1982 my first visit to Workington's Jobcentre Plus was indeed an education. The staff there do an excellent job in what is obviously a pretty depressed area and appear to have to deal with a large amount of people who have either no desire, or no incentive, to work in the low paid positions available to them. I was able to keep visits there down to my once a fortnight signing on appointments due to my possession of a P.C. This enabled me to access job opportunities online. On more than one occasion I was informed that there is one main "Hoover" for manpower in the area. This is of course West Cumbria's "Elephant In The Room" the Sellafield nuclear power station. British Nuclear Fuels Ltd. employ about 10,000 people on the site, so to describe them as a major employer in the area would be an understatement of biblical proportions. I have to say I didn't fancy it. They do say that most fear is borne out of ignorance but I think a lot of people in the area sleep soundly because they just don't think about any potential risks to health. It's common knowledge that incidents of childhood leukaemia are well above average in the plant's locale. The government admit there's a problem but say they can't explain it. Two of my immediate neighbours work there and several others with whom I've come into contact with either do work , or have worked, there.

A work colleague of my Wife said that her Father worked there at one time. When she was younger he once came home from work with his left arm taped up inside a clear plastic bag. His forearm was green. He had to have injections to stop whatever it was spreading up his arm. The money might be good but you only ever get two arms. Bus driving'll do for me, thankyou very much.

Football

A day of contrasts, footie wise, today. Popped over to the Institute at Braithwaite this arvo' to see Braithwaite play Burneside "A" in Westmorland League Division 4. My stepson plays left midfield for 'thwaite and though he had a good game the better side won and Burneside triumphed by 3 goals to 2. Better news greeted me on my return home, however, as I discovered that my team, Torquay United, had won 5-2 away at Kidderminster in the Conference. The Gulls are currently averaging 2.8 goals per game!

A New Life In The North

High Harrington, Workington. After 44 years living in the same town in Devon, Teignmouth, my Wife and I have re-located to West Cumbria for "family reasons". My Wife was able to arrange employment in this area before we moved, but I was not. Consequently I have spent the best part of two months looking for work. In my southern life I was a vending machine engineer. No work of that type has been available here and so I've had to diversify. The good news is that my driving licence returned from a little holiday at the DVLA today. It now has something that it didn't have when it set off from here; PCV entitlement. On the 1st October I commence employment at Stagecoach Cumbria's Lillyhall Depot as a trainee bus driver. Lookout!