LT bus 126 ( 1970s)

[frodshamfella]

I used to Live in Bexleyheath, one thing I always found odd , was why was the LT bus 126 extended to Bexleyheath on a Sunday ( in those days no one did anything much on a Sunday !) so why / If it was extended Mon- Fri peak hours or Saturday shopping hours I'd understand it. I think it normally terminated at Welling. Just wonder if anyone recalls this ?

 

[Busaholic]

It was extended to Bexleyheath Garage(rather than Welling) to enable drivers to have a drink/use the loo. They weren't able to achieve the former at Beckenham Junction on a Sunday, or at the normal relief point near Bromley North (the cafe in East Street closed for the weekend at 2 p.m. on Saturday, which caused lots of problems with scheduling most routes operated by Bromley Garage). The swap with the 160 on the Eltham to Welling routeing on a Sunday was to provide more work for Bromley's opo drivers on that day. Most of the above confirmed by Barry Arnold in his 'Reshaping London's Buses' book.

 

[frodshamfella]

It was extended to Bexleyheath Garage(rather than Welling) to enable drivers to have a drink/use the loo. They weren't able to achieve the former at Beckenham Junction on a Sunday, or at the normal relief point near Bromley North (the cafe in East Street closed for the weekend at 2 p.m. on Saturday, which caused lots of problems with scheduling most routes operated by Bromley Garage). The swap with the 160 on the Eltham to Welling routeing on a Sunday was to provide more work for Bromley's opo drivers on that day. Most of the above confirmed by Barry Arnold in his 'Reshaping London's Buses' book.

Really.....Had no idea it would be that, thanks for the info

 

[Statto]

It was extended to Bexleyheath Garage(rather than Welling) to enable drivers to have a drink/use the loo. They weren't able to achieve the former at Beckenham Junction on a Sunday, or at the normal relief point near Bromley North (the cafe in East Street closed for the weekend at 2 p.m. on Saturday, which caused lots of problems with scheduling most routes operated by Bromley Garage). The swap with the 160 on the Eltham to Welling routeing on a Sunday was to provide more work for Bromley's opo drivers on that day. Most of the above confirmed by Barry Arnold in his 'Reshaping London's Buses' book.

Isn't there a few more examples of this so drivers can get a meal break ecc, with most relief points not being available on Sundays in those days?

 

[PeterC]

I can't think of any cases where I lived in what was then Essex as the garage network was so dense that most routes could be designed to eliminate dead running. The only thing that ever struck me were the off route short workings of the 174 to North Street.

I do recall that when routes were first franchised the driver's personal needs did not always seem to have been considered. There were complaints about 248 drivers who sometimes ended up having to relieve themselves into bushes at the Cranham end of the route.

 

[Busaholic]

Isn't there a few more examples of this so drivers can get a meal break ecc, with most relief points not being available on Sundays in those days?

Offhand, the most obvious was when the old Plumstead Garage on Wickham Lane (code AM) existed and the 53 got extended on this day from the weekday terminus of Plumstead Common: this applied to New Cross buses as well. The routeing was shown on the bus map as being Sunday only, the roads being otherwise unserved. I don't recollect if there were any intermediate bus stops.

P.S. I remember going to BX on the first day of the 126, boarding at the bottom end of Westmount Road in Eltham opposite the house in which I was born.

 

[CatfordCat]

post deleted. the hell with it.

 

[Busaholic]

There were a lot of odd Sunday only route extensions / variations (and some routes that ran Sunday only) at one time - a lot of these were tidied up in the late 70s as part of the 'Busplan' changes.

There were a variety of reasons for this - partly (as has been mentioned) to provide crew access to facilities when cafes / public toilets were closed (most meal reliefs were at home garage, although with most things LT there were exceptions), sometimes to balance the proportion of Sunday work (either OPO / crew or in general) between garages, sometimes to create routes where X number of round trips would be the right amount of time for a Sunday duty.

Some Sunday variations were actually to cater for passenger needs (at one time, a lot of routes had summer Sunday extensions in to the countryside, or to Hampton Court) or for hospital visiting, as was (indirectly) the case here.

The 126 Sunday variation was to allow the 124 to be diverted (as 124A) to Bexley Hospital on Sunday afternoons for visiting hours. As of early 1970, the Sunday 160A covered the Falconwood bit of the weekday 124 (and was extended to the old Plumstead Garage and at the other end covered the Lower Sydenham bit of the weekday 180 - this stopped when the 160 and 160A went one-man as the Lower Sydenham terminus involved a reverse, and the 160A was curtailed at Catford Garage), and the Sunday extended 126 in turn covered the Falconwood Way / Welling Way bit of the weekday 160.

There must have been a good reason (possibly to do with getting duty lengths right) for not just extending the 126 over the Welling end of the 124 route.

There's a map on the route 160A page of Ian Armstrong's London Bus Routes site here that shows the position in 1970.

I'm not usually one for correcting other people's contributions, but as you wrongly contradict the information I provided I'm afraid I'm going to do so on this occasion.

The 126 Sunday extension to Bexleyheath replaced the 160A over the Eltham to Welling section via Eltham Park Station and Rochester Way. The 124A had been created in 1960, eight years prior to that, to replace the special journeys on the 124 to Bexley Hospital which in turn had replaced the special journeys on the 132, which ceased on Sidcup Garage's relinquishing the route to Bexleyheath Garage in 1959 when BX was converted from a trolleybus depot (keeping up, I'll be asking questions later? The 160A was diverted via the weekday 124 route to Welling, and on to Plumstead Garage, as you say, but it was on the same day as the 126 extension.

Barry Arnold specifically states in his book (and he was in a position to know, probably having been involved in the decision!) that the 126's extension was for driver relief, in the broad sense of that word.

There's no reason why the 126 shouldn't have gone over the erstwhile 160A routeing rather than the 124, whichever it did would require route learning at TB, whereas TL (Catford) worked the 124/a and the 160/a. It might just be that the 36 ft long Merlins on the 126 would have encountered problems somewhere in the Falconwood area.

 

[CatfordCat]

I'll clarify that it was part of the mix involving the 124/A, as the 126 was extended beyond its Eltham terminus to Welling on Sundays from 1963 to 1968

I'm not sure I can be bothered to get in to a bad tempered and bad mannered argument about it all.

 

[frodshamfella]

Offhand, the most obvious was when the old Plumstead Garage on Wickham Lane (code AM) existed and the 53 got extended on this day from the weekday terminus of Plumstead Common: this applied to New Cross buses as well. The routeing was shown on the bus map as being Sunday only, the roads being otherwise unserved. I don't recollect if there were any intermediate bus stops.

P.S. I remember going to BX on the first day of the 126, boarding at the bottom end of Westmount Road in Eltham opposite the house in which I was born.

Hi

I remember using the 53 on a Sunday from Plumstead Garage, there were intermediate stops and it wasn't unusual to pick up passengers. Had no idea it was just extended for a refreshment break.

 

[Mike99]

It was extended to Bexleyheath Garage(rather than Welling) to enable drivers to have a drink/use the loo. They weren't able to achieve the former at Beckenham Junction on a Sunday, or at the normal relief point near Bromley North (the cafe in East Street closed for the weekend at 2 p.m. on Saturday, which caused lots of problems with scheduling most routes operated by Bromley Garage). The swap with the 160 on the Eltham to Welling routeing on a Sunday was to provide more work for Bromley's opo drivers on that day. Most of the above confirmed by Barry Arnold in his 'Reshaping London's Buses' book.

Is the right answer

 

[Busaholic]

I'll clarify that it was part of the mix involving the 124/A, as the 126 was extended beyond its Eltham terminus to Welling on Sundays from 1963 to 1968

I'm not sure I can be bothered to get in to a bad tempered and bad mannered argument about it all.

Nor me - let's leave it there.

P.S. I value your posts and knowledge. I was a bit annoyed when I replied to your post, and, if you consider it was bad mannered, then I apologise unreservedly.

 

[Statto]

Another route i've found, had similar arrangements is the 38 when it was cut to Clapton Pond, some Sunday journeys worked through to Leyton Green, Monday to Saturday the 38 was Clapton depot, Sundays Leyton depot.