Memories of school bus travel

[Bristol LHS]

Late 80s/early 90s Sunderland. Redby Travel ex-Blackpool Dennis Lancets (think there might have been some ex-Newport too?) on a PTE-secured scholars service. At least some of them had ramped floors. Very different to the usual Busways Atlanteans/Fleetlimes or the Northern nationals.

a pic of one (not mine) on this Fydle blog : http://fyldebus.blogspot.com/2012/01/dennis-lancets.html

 

[Pokelet]

In the mid 90's, Malvernian tours of Malvern transported me to school on a variety of coaches. The ones reserved for school duty were normally mid 70's Duple Dominant or Plaxton Supremes on Leyland or Bedford chassis. All had manual doors, and a couple were fitted with the hydrocyclic transmission that a few drivers had mastered. These would have been fine vehicles when new but they were definitely past their best.

 

[Martin2012]

I started secondary school in Yate in September 1999 and the bus route there (Service 967) was officially operated by a company called Kestrel Coaches but used a mixture of Eagle and Kestrel vehicles. Nice selection of Plaxtons and Van Hools. However in June 2000 the route changed to South Gloucestershire Bus and Coach who almost always used a Lynx on it.

In Autumn 2005 I started at ST Brendans College in Brislington and South Gloucestershire were working the transport. They had 3 routes which were meant to be coaches (our regular was T37CNN/ECZ9138) but they regularly used buses. In particular on Friday when they had NX dupe work on. I transferred college for most of 2006 but went back to ST Brendans in June 2007 and by that time SGBC had a single route from Yate worked by a Mercedes minibus in the morning and whatever coach or bus was free in the afternoon. A company called Jenks Travel started doing the route in September 2007 and their main coach was a Jonckheere Deauville. From what I understand though they had some problems operating the route and after only a few weeks it was transferred to Turners Coachways who commonly used the 57 seater Irizar Centuries, MOD Javelins, Plaxton Premieres, Jonckheere Deauvilles or Van Hools.

I also had a few years of using Service 680 between Yate and Filton College, again operated by South Gloucestershire. The route was almost always worked by one of the smaller buses from the fleet. Varios R998YWE, S856JSR and P811REX being common and sometimes we'd get one of two ex Bugler Darts (BIG9668 and BIG9672 I think). SGBC did have a spell of using coaches on the morning journey but they only appeared on the evening journey once in a (very) blue moon. Aparrantley Roger Durbin had the view that using a full size bus or coach on this route was a waste of fuel so if the driver had a full size vehicle on their previous job they were instructed to return to the depot and swap vehicles

 

[Master Cutler]

My memories date back days of Bryn Melyn Motor Services doing the school run into Llangollen from outlying villages back in the late 60s.
I recall the blue, what I presumed to be ex-MOD Bedford busses squeezing down the country lanes to pick us up for school.
The bus terminus was opposite Llangollen railway station where we witnessed the final days of Class 24 coal traffic and track removal trains from further down the line.

 

[JetBlast]

To begin with, I used a standard public bus route. It was mainly served with a H reg Leyland Lynx.

Later we got a dedicated school bus. Initially it was Leyland Lynx as well. However as the route got very popular it changed to a 5 year old Volvo S reg Volvo Olympian (Northern Counties body). What a downgrade. It was a miserable trip in a poor condition, humid bus with water running down the inside of the windows and all over the floor.

 

[Eyersey468]

To begin with, I used a standard public bus route. It was mainly served with a H reg Leyland Lynx.

Later we got a dedicated school bus. Initially it was Leyland Lynx as well. However as the route got very popular it changed to a 5 year old Volvo S reg Volvo Olympian (Northern Counties body). What a downgrade. It was a miserable trip in a poor condition, humid bus with water running down the inside of the windows and all over the floor.

The Northern Counties bodied Volvo Olympians we used to have leaked like a sieve in the rain yet the Alexander bodied ones didn't.

 

[TR673]

Seeing as I'm probably a bit younger than most people here my perspective of school buses is from a more recent time.

I was within walking distance of my Junior (primary) school in the mid/late 00s, but we took buses on trips and to the swimming baths. Nobody lived far enough away to need bussing in at the start/end of the day as my bit of Nottinghamshire is littered with schools.
The swimming buses were ex-Nottingham City Transport Volvo Olympians with East Lancs bodies run by Silverdale and/or Skills Coaches. Someone tried to flag one down at a bus stop once thinking it was a normal service bus and looked confused as we sailed by with a bunch of children pointing and laughing.
Buses on school trips were typically ex-Dublin Alexander bodied Olympians provided by Veolia. One time something went 'bang' at the back while we were on the M1 and there was a noticeable drop in performance from that point onwards. I remember that trip too as we were going to the Space Centre in Leicestershire and it was not long after a school bus going to the same destination had got its roof torn off by a bridge, so that was in the back of our minds for the whole journey.

Secondary school & 6th form had its own fleet of Ford Transits to transfer kids between sites, but in my first year there I distinctly recall a white Optare MetroRider (also ex-Nottingham CT I think) being used to ferry students from further afield home at the end of the day, and presumably it brought them there in the morning. It always did a 3 point turn into a side street near the school that would be teeming with people walking home and I'm amazed it never ran anyone over. The Optare was run by Gills Travel, but they shut down and the school ended up using its own Transit to transport the dozen or-so kids that needed a bus. For trips the school liked to use Robin Hood Travel, whose buses felt like they were about to fall apart... I think their solution to rust was to just paint over it. For more important trips (one to London and one to Belgium) we got quite nice, new Scania coaches from Skills which were unremarkable except the Belgium one had an interior obviously designed to cram as many school children in as possible, with the back of the seat in front so close it was almost leaning over your lap.

As boring as the Transits were, there was one teacher who drove them (in addition to the normal minibus driver) and I was part of an after school group he ran at a different site. When it was over we'd pile into the minibus and he'd give us an incredibly 'enthusiastic' drive down to our normal school for a quicker journey home, including shutting the sliding door by shunting forwards and jamming on the brakes. It was a short journey but absolutely brilliant every time, bouncing along in a 16 seater being driven like it was stolen.

 

[Busaholic]

Regular London bus route for seven and a half years - always an AEC Regent III , classified RT (there were a mere 4,825 to choose from!) EXCEPT for a short period around 1961 when a crew overtime ban meant a private operator was allowed to operate the 160 route on a Saturday using wholly unsuitable coaches with a hinged door. As there was no pretence of a conductor, the driver had to exit the cab to operate the doors for any intending passenger, or to allow you off. I believe I remember seeing a similar coach in one of the 1950s St Trinian's films!

 

[CBlue]

Secondary school transport for me in the early 2000s was provided by Stagecoach, who operated the morning journey as part of the regular scheduled service. As a result either a Northern Counties bodied Volvo Olympian or a President bodied Trident would be our chariot. I remember a 2003 registered batch of President / Tridents entering service and they seemed like luxury at the time.

On the way home was a dedicated journey, normally provided by whatever Stagecoach could persuade to leave the depot for the run. Anything from a dual-door ex-London Park and Ride liveried ALX400 Trident to Volvo B6's and F reg Leyland Olympians, and for several months some elderly and rather smelly LxxxHSG reg Plaxton Interurban bodied B10Ms which were clearly suffering typical Plaxton water ingress issues going by the stench of damp.

 

[Justin Tyme]

My Infant and Junior School was in Wythall, and in the 1960s I travelled on whatever Midland Red could spare. When my dad brought home an Ian Allan BBF book on Midland Red one day, I found that I had travelled to and from school on almost every type in it - double deck, single deck and coach. Not only that, but sometimes the crews didn't know the way, so I had a few wonderful times being a 7 year old guide.

Just as things were settling down in the early 70s I went to senior school, which was on Birmingham's Outer Circle bus route. So I experienced old WMPTE buses hanging on, new buses flooding in and conversions from crew to one person operation.

It was a great education! School wasn't too bad either ...

 

[swt_passenger]

I only got the bus to school for a couple of years, about 1962-4, it was a Newcastle trolley bus service, on the Gosforth Park to Newcastle route (45 I think). But I only took it a few stops along what was then the A1. I think after a while I only used it if wet, and spent the bus fare on sweets. I was about 7 or 8 years old.

Funnily enough, I’ve never used a bus for regular day to day travel since, except for one working week about 1992.

 

[JonathanH]

I travelled to Secondary School for five years with Chiltern Queens, aboard a broad range of AEC Reliances (mainly), Leyland Leopards and Volvo B10Ms (when we were lucky), then again to sixth-form college. Horseman took over that contract in my second year. with more modern and better appointed vehicles - eg D782VMO, E682UNE, F636OHD

My school was one of those with a 'bus bay' out the front and around eight buses would be parked up in the bay at the end of the day, so you would run to the front of the school at the end of the day to get desired seats. Unfortunately, in the early days, the oldest group of pupils (and anyone else who thought they were 'hard') would smoke at the back of the bus so you really wanted to be as far forward as possible. The worst thing in that period was when the disappointment when the bus was late and you were sent back into the central quadrangle of the school to await being called. That call was, unfortunately, in age order, Fifth Years, Bus 8, Fourth Years, Bus 8 etc, and it was those nights when as a First Year you didn't get a very good seat.

It got better in the later years (and the bus routes changed).

A few buses of character in the mix, ranging in age from almost new to nearly 25 years old, and there was no clear pattern as to which would be turned out. Some of the buses were quite dingy - I didn't much like TYD122G which was a somewhat dinky 45-seat bus - the plaxton-bodied coaches were much preferable. I quite liked 591STT, a well presented 53-seat Plaxton Supreme IV Express-bodied Leopard with grant-type doors that carried the registration from an earlier vehicle, particularly when it had its seats retrimmed - the front of the Surpreme IV still looks attractive today. Later, they brought in former Oxford Leopard / Duple coaches such as RFC12T to replace the bus fleet which had comfortable coach seats. BMO891T was 'the Army Bus", a late build AEC Reliance which had utilitarian green vinyl seats but quite good performance on the road.

Towards the end, the regular vehicle, particularly in the morning, was TUD167G, a venerable 57-seat AEC Reliance which by 1993 was 25 years old.

There was always a lot more respect of the newer Plaxton Paramount bodied 'luxury' coaches when they were rostered, with their dedicated drivers, rather than the older coaches and buses. The coaches always had "Introducing your driver..." plates at the entrance. It did seem like coach drivers got promoted up a coach when a new one was brought in or someone retired.

The best journeys were the sunny days when you had one of the modern coaches - the worst were the dreary days when it was a old bus.

 

[Eyersey468]

A bit off topic but wasn't TYD 122G ex H&C of South Petherton?

 

[JonathanH]

A bit off topic but wasn't TYD 122G ex H&C of South Petherton?

Yes, as was CYA181J that also made it to Chiltern Queens - that doesn't of itself make either a good bus for journeys to and from school.

 

[Eyersey468]

Yes, as was CYA181J that also made it to Chiltern Queens - that doesn't of itself make either a good bus for journeys to and from school.

Fair enough, the registration rang a bell that was all

 

[Ridercross]

1989 to 1992 Midland Red (South) provided the service to my secondary school outside Banbury. As these were closed door services anything could be used on them, and they didn't need to have Ticket Machines or Destination Blinds (cards would be placed in a window to indicate which particular route it was on when leaving school).

Typical MR(S) types of the time would be used such as the inevitable Leyland Nationals and Leopard Coaches with Willowbrook bodies. Also in Winter Leyland Tigers in National Express livery would often be used.

Also as these services had been taken over from local independent Tanners, several of their coaches were acquired and would be used, these were Bedfords and Leopards with either Plaxton or Duple bodies. The condition of these varied enormously, the oldest were real bangers from the early seventies and were only ever used on schools and never carried Tanners or MR(S) livery or fleet names. Some of the later Leopards were in better condition and were repainted into MR(S) colours for use in the main service fleet.

All in all in was a fascinating time as a young enthusiast to see what would turn up each morning or afternoon to carry you to to or from school.

 

[ian1944]

I'm pretty well the oldest here, in those days everything was a open at the back decker. Primary school was just over the road, so bus use didn't start until secondary and ran 54 to 61. Entirely Manchester Corpy from Northenden garage, which had nearly everything in the fleet apart from PD2s. A real mix of 7' 6" and 8' wide Crossleys, Daimlers and Leylands. The school was about seven miles away, going in the morning meant catching whatever was on the single convenient regular route and it was advisable to go upstairs to avoid having to give your seat up to adults boarding as the journey went on. No standing upstairs but heavy smoking - to be fair, there were No Spitting notices above the front windows, though barely visible from the back though the cloud of smoke. Looking back, I think that the phrase "secondary smoking" understates the experience, it describes more accurately what my mother got from my clothing on returning home.

Special buses were laid on for the return, and if the first in my direction was bagged it saved a lot of time, as it was non-stop for all but the last mile. No problem about standing downstairs, where the favourite seats were the logitudinal benches just in from the rear platform, where the conductor (guard in Manc parlance) could be interrogated about working practices at the garage and humorous incidents of his (invariably) experience. One regular was a real comic and a fair magician, who could vanish fountain pens and even wristwatches.

The Crossleys, TD5s and PD1s had crash gearboxes which the drivers showed a variable talent at operating. The comedian had a special bell code which he used to communicate his opinion of a particularly rough change. I suspect that a lot of it was a put-up job to add a bit of variety to the job, credulous schoolboys were hardly going to complain.

 

[Brooke]

At post #11 I said a bit about the school buses I had in Cornwall and then West Yorkshire.

Now for some of the incidents! Anyone knowing the Huddersfield <> Wakefield road will know these locations; this was before there were low speed limits, bollards etc!:

1. Far too fast down from Middlestown to Horbury Bridge. Driver comes round the last bend and finds traffic standing for the lights. Nowhere to go, so launches it down the pavement on the inside (it’s quite wide), across the mouth of Hostingley Lane and gets it to stop on the grass outside the farm. This coach from memory. Very lucky no one hurt and coach not damaged!

2. Going up the same hill on a coach that was a flyer, driver pulls out to overtake the local Traction service bus, straight up the white line in the middle. Just as he’s pulling back in, something goes bang, and we come to a halt, middle of the road, and blocking the service bus from going forwards! Service bus reverses out, our coach rolls backwards into the curb, sit there for an hour til another bus comes to get us

3. Going back to Huddersfield in heavy snow one evening, making very slow progress and eventually the coach gets totally stuck on the last climb up to the Kaye Arms. We all sit there for a couple of hours before we realise that we’re not going to get rescued. So all us kids get off and walk the whole way back to Huddersfield in the heavy snow. Not fun, eventually got home around 10pm!

4. Waiting at the traffic lights at Tandem in towards Huddersfield, coach breaks down and can’t get going again. About 20 of us lose patience (probably it’s Friday, or coach was already late) and simply walk across to the bus stop outside the Yorkshire Traction depot. Of course we’ve not much money so one of the sixth formers simply asks the driver of the next Traction bus that comes if we can all get on. Amazingly it works and we all get a free ride into town, leaving the school coach and a lot of the other kids sat there!

As for what us kids got up to, let’s just say we weren’t exactly angels. Fair play to the drivers who mostly ignored it all and kept ploughing on!

 

[Taunton]

At the age of four-and-a-half in 1957 school began, and with it a daily jaunt to and fro in what I think was likely a Bedford OB, hired from a Somerset village operator. In the days of part-time drivers this morning school run, round a string of local roads to pick odd children up at their front doors along the way, was probably the bottom job on the roster, and we hardly saw the same driver twice. Sometimes it was driven by the garage mechanic in overalls. Once by the owner himself.

School was on a main road, on the right as we approached, and shortly before it another road forked to the left at 45 degrees, in between then being filled with a whole series of parallel residential roads, of ever increasing length. It was always an interest to me each morning to see which one, having correctly forked left, this driver was going to turn right into, to make another right turn at the end and come back on the correct side for the school. Once we turned too soon, and came back up to the main road with school still a bit further along, and after a few seconds thinking time, and a muttered expression that it would be surely unwise to repeat to my mother that afternoon (though I did! ), we had to do the whole loop again. Other times we went right to the last road, excitement mounting as each opportunity was passed, and once inevitably went beyond that last road, and received a five minute tour of hitherto unknown territory.

Pulling up outside school, the senior “big boy” (aged eight) performed his daily moment of glory, being the only one allowed to slide back the manual door.

 

[Mcr Warrior]

Favourite seat for me would be the sideways facing seats near the rear platform on the lower deck.

No problem about standing downstairs, where the favourite seats were the longitudinal benches just in from the rear platform...

Not just me then!

 

[High Dyke]

For the majority of my secondary school time we got embroiled in an argument with the education authority about the qualifying distance for school travel; we lived across town from the school. During the final year we obtained school travel. The regular vehicle was a short wheel based Bristol RE coach from W J Simmons fleet. Occasionally the vehicle was substituted for one of their Duple-bodied Leyland Leopard buses.

 

[Ken H]

... the favourite seats were the logitudinal benches just in from the rear platform...

'Sideways seats'

 

[LancasterRed]

The company changed often but on numerous occasions we were set to have coaches but due to issues with rail replacement buses we had to have TOCs lay on services. Most operators handled our services at one point or another, rarely modern buses, usually very grotty buses which I will henceforth describe as 'atypical school buses'

 

[jammy36]

Primary school was in walking distance, so school buses for me were initially associated with "fun" activities - school trips, weekly transport to the local swimming pool, etc. Truronian seemed to be the main provider (along with the associated Flora Motors of Helston), but also Palmer (Wheal Briton) and occasionally Hopley's or Lidgey's or C. R. Williams (the St Agnes one).

Truronian did the weekly swimming trip and provided much variation in type, newness and quality of vehicle! One week it might be a superannuated double decker (Atlantean or Fleetline with all manner of bodywork - some with custom modifications, all with a distinctive odour and loose seat swabs), the next a modern executive coach (Plaxton or Caetano). Their 'mancunuan' Fleetline with its deep screen, and translucent roof panels sticks in the mind. The usual Dominant or Panorama Elite or Supreme also made regular appearances.

Of the other operators Wheal Briton seemed to favour the AEC Reliance/Plaxton combo and Lidgey's the Bedford/Plaxton combo. I recall making a long trip for school camp from Cornwall to Somerset in an aging Wheal Briton Reliance and the headmaster making it clear to the driver that he expected (and he got) a newer vehicle for the return leg.

Towards the very end of primary school Lidgey's acquired a new (?nearly new) DAF/VanHool with a very protective driver (lo and behold anyone who dared recline their seats or switch on the reading lamps - we were under no misapprehension that the coach was too good for us!). Williams's (?ex Glasgow) Atlantean with its panoramic windowed Alexander AL bodywork also sticks in the mind.

By secondary school everything was a little more standardised and a lot more boring. School was on the cusp of practical walkability, so I usually caught the Western National service bus in the morning (almost always a Bristol VR or occasionally a ECW Olympian or a Hoppa if I got the earlier service) and walked home in the afternoon. Truronian had also started to adopt the VR by then (used for school trips, but with Volvo B10Ms with Caetano or Plaxton bodywork for longer trips).

 

[D6130]

Travelling in from Rhu, through Helensburgh, to Hermitage Academy at Craigendoran in the early 1970s - courtesy of Garelochhead Coach Services (Tel. Garelochhead 200). A large and motley fleet of double and single decker buses and coaches of varying vintages, most of which were second-hand AEC chassis with a variety of bodies. Each roster had its route number - not usually displayed, but the buses lined-up in order in the school car park ready for the homeward rush at 16 00. Generally-speaking, the longer distance routes (Coulport, Cove, Kilcreggan and Rosneath) had the more comfortable coaches - usually Plaxton-bodied AECs named after West Highland lochs - with separate vehicles for boys and girls; while the shorter-distance routes (Rhu, Shandon and Garelochhead) had the vintage double-deckers which had previously seen service in places as far away as London, Swansea and Hull! However, for some reason - possibly the low bridges under the West Highland Line at Whistlefield and Tarbet - the distinctive green and cream GCS buses never ventured North of their home village and pupils from the Northern reaches of Loch Long and Loch Lomond travelled either in a rather spartan Dunbarton County Council maroon and white Ford/Willowbrook single decker (from Arrochar, Finnart and Whistlefield) or a 1950s-vintage Duple-bodied blue and cream AEC coach belonging to MacTavish of Arrochar (from Ardlui, Tarbert and Luss). My old schoolmate @McRhu may be able to recall some amusing and possibly frightening incidents on the journeys to and from school.

 

[McRhu]

Aha! Yes indeed D6130. I well remember Garelochhead Coach Services and in particular 'The Tank' double decker which was incredibly ancient (even in the late sixties) and looked like it had seen service at Dunkirk.It had a strangely deep corridor well that necessitated careful climbing down from the seats, and it used to sway frighteningly going over the A814 railway bridge. A couple of accidents: one in which the double decker (sorry I'm not very good with makes and models) was rear ended by a mini of all things) in Helensburgh, leaving the steps unattached to the rear wall, like so many springboards. I suffered a cut lip but not a bit of sympathy did I get. The other accident was a more serious affair, circa 1968/69) in which the Garelochhead bus skidded on the way home from school on ice near Faslane, was hit by a car and toppled over, completely crushing said car.

 

[D6130]

and in particular 'The Tank' double decker which was incredibly ancient (even in the late sixties) and looked like it had seen service at Dunkirk.It had a strangely deep corridor well that necessitated careful climbing down from the seats,

I'd forgotten about 'The Tank', a lowbridge-bodied double-decker which had long four-a-side bench seats on the upper deck with a sunken corridor along one side. Yes, that was a real veteran which felt as though it had solid tyres and no springs.

The other accident was a more serious affair, circa 1968/69) in which the Garelochhead bus skidded on the way home from school on ice near Faslane, was hit by a car and toppled over, completely crushing said car.

.....and sadly, presumably, its occupants. Were there many injuries on the bus?

 

[McRhu]

Occupants of the car killed unfortunately. No major injuries on the bus as far as I can recall. Most pupils back at school the next day. The car for some reason (so I recall) eventually ended up dumped beside the redundant sidings at Craigendorran. Why I have no idea.

 

[AJM580]

Started secondary school in 1978, so my trip to school involved Eastern Counties Bristol VRs on the 560/561 Norwich City Circle route for which the stop was a couple of minutes walk from the house we lived in at the time. If I fancied a change I could enjoy a lovely Bristol FLF on the way home from the stop outside the school to Dereham Road on the West Earlham - City routes (548/549?) then call in at my grandmother's flat a short distance away. Couldn't do that today - no VRs, FLFs and the school was closed and demolished several years ago!!

 

[52290]

Going to school here in Leyland in the 1950's, where it seems many of your school buses were built, most of us went to school on our bikes, or walked it.