TRIVIA: What is the bus that sums up your childhood?

[507021]

I can't pick one, so I'll list the ones that come to mind the most.

Leyland Titan B15, Neoplan N4016, Scania L113CRL, Volvo B10B and Volvo Olympian.

 

[randyrippley]

It seems that many who have written here recall mainstream large operators. I was different; at the age of four-and-a-half in 1958 school began, and with it a daily jaunt to and fro in what I think was likely an old Bedford OB coach, 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 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, other times by Mr Coach Company himself, looking a bit cheesed off.

School was on a main road, on the right as we approached, and shortly before it another road forked to the left at an angle, 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 the 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. At least once we turned too soon, and came back up to the main road with school still a bit further along to our left, and after a few seconds thinking time, and an 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.

A lot of the Somerset school services were run by Wessex (they had an outstation at Chard)
Livery was usually an awful combination of red and grey/green - and they only used Bedfords. Any chance it was one of those?

 

[Stan Drews]

For me, it’s the Strathclyde Transport last Leyland Olympians. They were new on the 44A, and I remember loving how the side number display could change itself! I would take a matchbox car and let it roll around on the back engine shelf while going to nursery!

SBL LO50 K350SDS Great Western Rd 1993

The first of the Larkfield fire replacement Olympians, and the only one to carry a 'K' reg on the road (although not the only one to carry a 'K' reg...) is seen here new, looking very fresh on Great Western Rd, on the 66 route on which they were best known. Hopefully LO101 in GVVT will look...

www.flickr.com

I may well have driven you to nursery.

 

[Whistler40145]

Being from Blackpool, I fondly remember a mixture of Leyland PD3s, AEC Swifts and then in the late 70s the introduction of Leyland Atlanteans

 

[Springs Branch]

As several other posters already said, for me it was red Guy Arabs and LUT's various vintages of Daimler Fleetlines which allowed me to escape the sooty red-brick dullness of Wigan to discover the sooty red-brick dullness of Bolton. Leigh, Salford etc.

When I was old enough to roam a bit further, I graduated to the bright lights of 1970s Manchester with its thrillingly modern orange & white Selnec Standards and Mancunians, and to countryside destinations like Chorley via Ribble's noisy 1st Gen. Leyland Nationals.

 

[alphabravo43]

For me it’s the Alexander bodied Metrobuses of Midland Bluebird

885 B585 MLS

Outside Balfron depot with MCW Metrobus 830 ULS 630X

flic.kr

 

[smtglasgow]

This thread seems to be a bit skewed towards those of us that grew up in the early/mid 90s in Scotland! Like a few here, I grew up in Kelvin Central land. It seemed normal to me that the buses were a bit knackered, painted everything from Kelvin blue, to Central red with random touches of Strathtay/Merseyside/EK Chieftain/Monklands. Earliest memories are of Kirkie Bus Olympians heading past the house on their way to Hamilton – which must have made sense to someone at the time – and then a year or two later getting all manner of Leopards (Y and T types and proper coaches) to school on what had by then become the 250, then 55, then 255. For a while there were some Olympians on the 260 that ran in full Fife Scottish livery – basically, you could expect anything to turn up. No idea how they kept going with such a varied (and old) fleet, but when Strathclyde bought them out they had to buy over a 100 Volvo PS to clear the worst of the tat.

 

[delt1c]

For me it would have to be the Lodekka, remember the FS and FLF entering service with Eastern Scottish, one school journey had an FLF still with plastic on the seats so it was probably its 1 run Always had a soft spot for the FS

 

[TheGrandWazoo]

This thread seems to be a bit skewed towards those of us that grew up in the early/mid 90s in Scotland!

I don't know about that. I've been genuinely pleased to see the wide range of different operators and types that different people are putting forward; it's really interesting.

 

[Non Multi]

Leyland National Mk1s. Sometimes this was an ex-Alder Valley 'Careline' National (that ran a short lived accessible bus service to major London terminals). These were replaced by the amazing* ex-Centrewest Renault-Dodge S75s, rattle-tastic Pointer Darts and ex-London Handybus Darts (when they realised the RW S75s were a really bad thing).

My mother, who doesn't drive liked shopping in Slough Town Centre, so I was taken on the 71/72 (later renumbered 5/5A). Thankfully one of those guys who spent many days hanging around filming at Slough Bus Station with camcorder back then has uploaded their videos. So you can watch the mid-1990's experience**. They also captured the view from where I used to wait inside (recorded in 1998) as well as running through the middle of the High Street (now closed to buses).

There was also the Falcon Travels Freight Rover Dormobile which was typical 1990's one man band competition for the Beeline 5/5a route.

*Definitely not amazing.
**The long yellow banners on the windscreens were to inform you that 'Revised fares are in operation'.

 

[BVW]

The smart, ubiquitous rear-entrance Crossleys of Birmingham City Transport.

And if you want to date me even further, standing on the railway bridge in the centre of Walsall watching Super-D 48895 wheeze her way northwards on a local freight with those all-blue 8xx numbered Walsall Corporation trolleybuses sitting on the stand of the old bus station opposite ....

I've no connection with the place at all but given a time machine I'd love to visit late 1960s Walsall just to witness that barking mad vehicle policy first hand!

 

[Wyrleybart]

Born in Coventry it was CVG6s for me althouh the very first Daimler rear engined buses were appearing. I rather liked the small double-door fleet of Bristol REs which Coventry had for a while, but mention must be made here of 401 402 and 403 which were coaches but sometimes used in stage carriage service.

Moved to Merioneth in 1971 and saw Tilling green Crosville for the first time. Local services were Bristol MWs and the various coaches Crosville used out of season. There were MWs LSs and various REs with ECW bodies, and i nthe height of the summer the nasty Bristol SCs were pressed into traffic. Then the first N reg Nationals started sweeping the Bristols away.

Moved back to the West Midlands and discovered the rather lovely WMPTE Bristol VRs alongside loadsa Fleetlines. Met Camm, Park Royal, Northern Counties and East Lancs bodies galore. Then Metrobuses took over and I totally lost interest, even more so since Metros have been replaced by ?????.

 

[baza585]

Guy Arabs painted emerald green and cream in the fleet of Provincial aka Gosport & Fareham. Or even older AEC Regents and Regals with wonderful gearbox tones. In the 60s, Hoeford depot was like a working museum, with buses from the 30s, 40s and
a few fromtbe 50s. All with crash gearboxes and all expertly driven. Amazing memories.

 

[BenW390Fan]

Enviro 400 and the open top ALX400's in the lakes, having family in Ambleside meant every time we went we'd go on the open toppers. So many memories

 

[Busaholic]

As with everything, there were always some local agreements which trumped the 'master' agreement - no mixing of routes on same duty, no bifurcations of route, no mixing of vehicle capacities etc. Peak hour only routes such as 176A (8A, 6A, 46 etc) would have to be contained within the main route rota, but I expect they were on both halves of spreadover duties. The change of route at Catford Garage was most unusual, but I suspect the changing of blinds was done cursorily by a member of the Catford 'inside' staff, rather than the driver or conductor.
The blinds not being displayed correctly was probably an 'inside' man having to do this at speed during the day, amongst other work!
The main service between Carterhatch/Forty Hill and Brimsdown Station could display 135 or 135A; the number only mattered on the Power Station (135) or Lockfield Avenue (135A) extensions. Were Power Station and Lockfield Avenue really visited by the same bus working, without an intermediate visit to Ponders End Garage? I'm unsure, but I suspect not.
They had to have different numbers due to the 'no bifurcation' agreement, (although this was broken on such routes as 51, 140 and 299). Most Garages insisted on the scheduling agreement being fully observed (' thin end of the wedge' and all that), whereas a few were more accommodating.

Your mentioning of the 51 reminds me of the 51A/B, and that I'd forgotten the switching of route numbers between the two at Well Hall Station which can be seen by a reading of the complete 51B timetable featured on Ian Armstrong's London Buses site for the 1958 extension of the route to Eltham and, yes, I did spy buses on those routes running around with some wrong blinds. The intermediate points were the same on blinds, and all the conductor was required to do with the two blinds at the rear and over the patform was a quarter tweak so that the 51A at the top disappeared and 51B appeared at the bottom: 135/A were the same, if my memory isn't playing tricks again!

P.S. Just had to mention the most obvious case of outrageously late running I ever observed on the London bus network, when on an incredibly dense smoggy evening two 51As and a 51B arrived together at about 8.30 p.m. at Well Hall Station, where my lone vigil observing the incredible efforts being put on to maintain a bus service continued. From listening to the crews, they'd adopted a 'convoy system' on leaving Sidcup Station and, at prob 5 mph max, had determined to just make it to Well Hall Station, which very few buses were doing at the time, other than curtailed 161/As. It was that sort of thing that determined me to seek a career with London Transport on the bus management side when I reached adulthood.

 

[Geordie driver]

I remember the first time going to school on my own on a yellow & cream Newcastle trolley bus, the Gosforth Park service, 45 I think. That would be about 1962 or 63, but for trips into central Newcastle we generally used some sort of “United” red single decker, which were non stop to/from Haymarket at our stop on the A1, they’d normally have been Morpeth or Alnwick services I think.

The trolley buses were replaced by Atlanteans starting a couple of years later, in basically the same livery. We moved elsewhere within Newcastle about 1964, and from then on it was a constant diet of Atlanteans on all my usual routes. I remember the early Atlanteans still had the flat split front windscreens, a few years later we thought the newer versions with curved glass and the second doorway were a bit of an upgrade...

This almost exactly mirrors my memory, we lived near a terminus and one of my earliest memories is my mother telling me that was the last time we would be on a trolley bus as they were taking them off, I thought it meant no more trips to Newcastle, how I cried!

I was 22 years old. Not really, I was about 3.

Yellow corporation Atlanteans after that or a variety of red United vehicles and sitting upstairs unable to breath ( everyone seemed to smoke, especially the drivers and conductors), conductors who took your fare as you got off (fiddling), one of my old managers had been a duck in the 60s and could entertain you for hours with his tales.

Later the Metropolitans which seemed a big leap from the Atlanteans but not so popular with the drivers.

How I miss our red and yellow buses.

I was about 7 when I was permitted to travel into town by myself, different world.

 

[Ploughman]

Ribble PD3 Burlingham bodies.

 

[AndrewP]

For me it has to be the Northern Routemaster in poppy red from when I was very small and yes that does make me old!

 

[Devon Sunset]

I had a few to choose from starting with the standard Eastern Scottish fare of Lodekkas, Seddon's and Fleetlines with the occasional exotic Bristol RE's on the 504/5 services to Berwick and Newcastle. My favourite was the Volvo Ailsa which was fast and had plenty of engine noise but a special mention goes to the Leyland Lion's which could really motor.

 

[Gloster]

The Hants & Dorset Bristol LH and RE that gave me the opportunities to get afternoons away from a hated boarding-school. Also the Tillingbourne ex-LT Guy Vixens that l saw in Guildford and always wanted to travel on because they looked different, but never got the chance.

 

[Class465pacer]

RTs on the 62 Barking to Barkingside, RMs on the 86 Limehouse to Upminster. Red bus rovers bought at Seven Kings garage. Happy days.

The 62, being the last RT route in London, made for a great local celebration.

Interesting how much routes in London have changed since then

 

[Strathclyder]

From right off the top of my head and in no particular order. Born in 1996 and having grown up in the 2000s and early 2010s living in Central Scotland (Clydebank & Glasgow specifically), this list will have a mix of low-floor and step-entrance buses in it:

• Wright Renown-bodied Volvo B10BLE
• Wright Fusion-bodied Volvo B10LA
• Alexander bodied Leyland/Volvo Olympian
• Wright Axcess Ultralow/Floline-bodied Scania L113CRL/L94UB
• Alexander RV-bodied Volvo B10M-50 Citybus
• Alexander PS-bodied Volvo B10M-55
• Alexander/Plaxton-bodied Mercedes-Benz 709Ds
• Optare Metrorider
• Plaxton Pointer/Carlyle-bodied Dennis Dart
• Marshall Capital/Plaxton Pointer-bodied Dennis Dart SLF
• Alexander ALX400/Plaxton President-bodied Dennis Trident
• Optare Excel
• Wright Cadet-bodied DAF/VDL SB120
• Wright Eclipse Metro/East Lancs Nordic-bodied Volvo B7L

 

[Rob F]

Has to be Nottingham City Transport Atlanteans in the OTO---M number plate range in the classic green double-stripe livery. Would use them on the 14 and 21 routes into the city from West Bridgford which later became routes 95 and 90 after everything started to run across the city centre, 95 to Snape Wood and 90 to Arnold, I believe. We have now gone full circle and everything just loops around the city centre and returns, the 6 is what was the 90 but the 95 route has been radically altered in West Bridgford and the nearest approximation is the 7.

These had the separate exit doors that were aligned exactly with the bottom of the stairs so you could try to jump off without touching the lower deck at all! After the introduction of the AutoFare system only one of the double front doors opened, prior to that, if you had a season ticket of some sort you could use the other half of the front door and bypass the queue waiting to pay the driver.

Another memory is that on the back few rows of the upper deck the seats had no padding, they were just painted wood. Why was that?

 

[RT4038]

Another memory is that on the back few rows of the upper deck the seats had no padding, they were just painted wood. Why was that?

In that era, rear upper deck seat vandalism (slashing) was a far bigger problem than now.

 

[TheGrandWazoo]

Another memory is that on the back few rows of the upper deck the seats had no padding, they were just painted wood. Why was that?

I would suspect it was done because they were continually vandalised.

United replaced some on their VRs with plastic seats like these (but without the table and all facing forwards) on the rear most seats on the top deck

 

[gordonthemoron]

Newcastle Trolley Bus, but no idea what models they were

 

[Ken H]

Leeds in the 60's All the green LCT back loaders, mostly with exposed rads.
But going to Vicar Lane the red WYRCC buses were different. Lodekkers with platform doors. And a red bus meant an adventure! And if one was lucky we got a United bus to harrogate/Ripon! And we sometimes got Sammy bus to Otley/Ilkley. And out of Leeds buses meant a Setright ticket machine instead of a bell punch ultimate.
Dad never drove so days out we went by bus.

 

[busken]

Southdown Leyland PD3s (Queen Marys) as a child as it meant we were at the seaside for the day or on holiday. The livery always makes me think of bright sunny days.

 

[ChrisC]

It’s got to be Bristol Lodekkers for me. Midland General in Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire. They were the only buses I really knew in my school days. Many of them might have been old but always immaculately turned out by Midland General in blue and cream.

 

[Busaholic]

Newcastle Trolley Bus, but no idea what models they were

Never saw them in service, but they certainly had BUTs similar to the last models introduced in London at Fulwell and Isleworth depots, some of which saw further service in Spain.