Bus stops at rural stations

[Geep7]

I am modelling a Southern Region branch seaside terminus in the late 60s / early 70s, and was wondering if there ever would have been a separate bus stop sign post for the bus to stop at, or would it just pull up outside the station in the lay-by and collect the passengers?

 

In all the photograph i've looked at, I can't see any evidence, so perhaps it's a more modern thing?

[Joseph_Pestell]

No hard and fast rule. There are places with no "flags" or a "flag" on one side of the road only.

 

But at such an important location as a station, I would expect there to be a "flag".

 

In your era, it might still be one of the old castiron rectangular signs with BUS above STOP, black lettering on a white background with black surround. I am sure they are in the Tiny Signs range. By the mid 70s, it would have probably been an enamel national standard sign with the silhouette of a single deck bus, again black on white.

[crompton 33]

When i worked for the M&D bus co in the mid 1960's to 1970 's . Bus stops where Black & white.  Some had Request stop on them or just bus stop depends where they where .

[Nearholmer]

Southdown bus-stop signs were very distinctive too, and including one would help give the sense of place.

 

My recollection is that most places where buses called had them, but possibly not where the route was seasonal and/or very limited-service. I don’t remember one at Sheffield Park station, for instance, but that was on a route from Uckfield from quite early in preservation days.

 

Even if no ‘flag’, then you will need a timetable board, and they were againvery distinctive.

Edited June 18, 2019 by Nearholmer

[Joseph_Pestell]

https://www.google.com/search?client=firefox-b-d&biw=1366&bih=654&tbm=isch&sa=1&ei=QsMIXbuPOa-f1fAP85S0qAk&q=southdown+bus+stop&oq=southdown+bus+stop&gs_l=img.3...83846.90691..91828...0.0..0.90.342.5......0....1..gws-wiz-img.......0i30j0i24.DgkoOOjq7ic#imgrc=5pSMD-Ku0hpbLM:

 

Various stops shown by googling Southdown Bus images. The one above is in Newhaven but I don't think that is a Southdown vehicle. More likely Eastbourne Corporation.

[HillsideDepot]

At Chippenham there was no sign, nor a timetable, until the 21st century when a proper 3 stand bus area was created and most services diverted to serve it.

 

Various buses called at the station, including, for a while, a Sundays only Post Bus to Reading, but the main reason for buses going there was to serve the nearby college rather than connecting with trains. The station yard merely made a convenient (relative term!) place to turn. Two double deckers, and a double bank of cars parked up didn't make a good combination, especially on a dark winter's night with steamed up windows. Buses would draw up parallel with the front of the station (occasionally hitting the canopy in the process), and reverse to the left by the Parcels Point before drawing forward to load in the middle of the area. This shows the area in 1989, little changed in several decades.

Photo: Ben Brooksbank, Wikimedia Commons

 

Currently I'm professionally involved in discussions on the next iteration of the "Station Square" as its now grandly titled.

[crompton 33]

13 minutes ago, Joseph_Pestell said:

https://www.google.com/search?client=firefox-b-d&biw=1366&bih=654&tbm=isch&sa=1&ei=QsMIXbuPOa-f1fAP85S0qAk&q=southdown+bus+stop&oq=southdown+bus+stop&gs_l=img.3...83846.90691..91828...0.0..0.90.342.5......0....1..gws-wiz-img.......0i30j0i24.DgkoOOjq7ic#imgrc=5pSMD-Ku0hpbLM:

 

Various stops shown by googling Southdown Bus images. The one above is in Newhaven but I don't think that is a Southdown vehicle. More likely Eastbourne Corporation.

Eastbourne corporation  buses never ran to Newhaven. May have been a Demonstrator on loan to Southdown route 12 to Eastbourne.

[Joseph_Pestell]

17 minutes ago, crompton 33 said:

Eastbourne corporation  buses never ran to Newhaven. May have been a Demonstrator on loan to Southdown route 12 to Eastbourne.

 

I don't recall that bus type (odd/ugly lobridge body) being part of the Southdown fleet and there is some sort of crest on the side which is not the Southdown logo. Will have to see if I can enlarge the photo.

 

 Edit 1) Better still, if one clicks on the photo, it takes you to a Newhaven history site where various parts of the photo are enlarged. One shows the stop in more detail and a sticker in the front window "on hire to Southdown".

 

Edit 2) Isn't the interweb thingy wonderful? 8072 DA is a Guy Wulfrunian and was indeed being used as a demonstrator. It was yellow not green as suggested on the Newhaven website.

Edited June 18, 2019 by Joseph_Pestell
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[Nearholmer]

And, the stop sign isn’t the classic one.

 

i will see what I can find.

 

a visit to Amberley Chalk Pits would help, because they have an entire bus garage and a lot of Southdown gubbins.

 

For a summer scene, worth noting that the staff uniform was a pale grey jacket with green collar, and that a white top with green piping was worn over the cap.

 

You could also show an excursion coach, with chalk-boards leant up against it listing the tempting destinations - that was very much a typical sight in seaside towns.

Edited June 18, 2019 by Nearholmer

[Joseph_Pestell]

I could not find a photo of one with the Southdown logo. But agree that Amberley is probably the place to look.

[Nearholmer]

Frustrating, isn’t it ...... people should put more photos of old bus-stops on the web!

 

what I remember is a ‘flag’ about 12” square, with rounded corners, and a section at the top with the logo on it, either Southdown or Mud&Dirt, the route numbers being on little tiles that fitted into slots, overall colour off-white, edge and logo black. I have a feeling that these were a standard (BET?) design used across several companies.

 

Timetable boards on posts were a sort of little glass-fronted presser-steel cabinet c15” wide, by c30” tall, by 2.5” deep, they were green, with the logo embossed and painted at the top of the front door. The paper timetable was clipped inside.

Edited June 18, 2019 by Nearholmer

[crompton 33]

Just found this one may help you .

 

 

[crompton 33]

Or this one.

 

[Geep7]

Thank you all for the advice and pictures.

 

I really should take a trip to Amberley, it's not too far away from me so I really have no excuse.

 

Hmm, I think a flag stop would look good outside the station, so i'll probably work one up on the computer.

[Nearholmer]

The book below is a mine of photos of street scenes with buses in them, but annoyingly few actually show bus stops!

 

However, breaching copyright, I have rather clumsily extracted this from a photo of Rye Station forecourt.

 

It seems to have one of the ‘flags’ of the type that I’ve been on about, although it would do a blind man good to see it. The rump of a bus is actually a rather nice East Kent Road Cars vehicle. I think that the flag visible is an M&D one, because the EK one is very clearly visible in the original photo, and is of a completely different design.

 

Excuse me obsessing all over your thread again - its just that you have a habit of raising topics that set-off a flood of nostalgic memories ........ I don't usually spend half the day thinking about buses and bus-stops!

 

Edited June 18, 2019 by Nearholmer

[Nearholmer]

Continuing my sad pursuit of bus stops .......

 

Two signs, both M&D, which, if cross-bred, would produce the ones I remember.

 

We lived on a joint Southdown/M&D Route, the famous 122, reputedly the longest bus route in England, and although we were in SD territory, i’m Beginning to think that M&D must have dealt with the signage. To add to variety, the bus was sometimes a hired-in East Kent vehicle, and a now preserved vintage Eastbourne Corporation vehicle used to bring trainee teachers to our school.

 

 

[Geep7]

Is it my imagination, or is the sign in the top photo for Aldershot & District? Would have been my local bus company had I moved to the area earlier and was a bit older. I just about remember Alder Valley until Stagecoach (are we allowed to mention them on here) took over.

 

I think i'll go with just a plain 'Bus Stop' on a white background on a post, and perhaps have a Southdown timetable board on the wall of the station building.

[Nearholmer]

It is; sorry!

 

Its the same as the M&D ones, and I got too enthusiastic.

 

Aldershot & District Traction (brilliant name!) operated the service from Woking station to the end of the lane that led to my grandparents’ home, then on, I think, to Sunningdale, and I well remember their antique spelling of ‘shown’ as ‘shewn’, as in “All tickets must be .......”.

 

Copped my first and only Q1 from one of their buses, while it was waiting to leave Woking, and saw an N shunting coal wagons at Sunningdale from a bus too.

 

This is identical to the buses on that route https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aldershot_%26_District_Traction_Company_Limited#/media/File%3AAEC_Reliance_bus_alton.jpg Weren’t buses special in the 1960s .... beautiful pieces of work.

 

More nostalgia!

 

 

Edited June 19, 2019 by Nearholmer

[D9020 Nimbus]

Yes, sometimes bus companies had interesting names. The north-east had United Automobile Services Ltd., and Newcastle Corporation Transport and Electricity Undertaking (they allso ran trolleybuses) not to mention the Teeside Railless Traction Board (also trolleybuses). Later the latter became part of the very American-sounding Cleveland Transit.

[Johann Marsbar]

3 hours ago, Geep7 said:

Is it my imagination, or is the sign in the top photo for Aldershot & District? Would have been my local bus company had I moved to the area earlier and was a bit older. I just about remember Alder Valley until Stagecoach (are we allowed to mention them on here) took over.

 

I've got one like that attached to my garden fence!!     (along with a couple of Ipswich and Doncaster ones............)

[Fat Controller]

31 minutes ago, D9020 Nimbus said:

Yes, sometimes bus companies had interesting names. The north-east had United Automobile Services Ltd., and Newcastle Corporation Transport and Electricity Undertaking (they allso ran trolleybuses) not to mention the Teeside Railless Traction Board (also trolleybuses). Later the latter became part of the very American-sounding Cleveland Transit.

'Motor Traction' was quite common, as in 'Potteries Motor Traction'; Stoke-on-Trent, where everyone suffered from 'PMT'

[phil_sutters]

On 18/06/2019 at 12:01, Joseph_Pestell said:

https://www.google.com/search?client=firefox-b-d&biw=1366&bih=654&tbm=isch&sa=1&ei=QsMIXbuPOa-f1fAP85S0qAk&q=southdown+bus+stop&oq=southdown+bus+stop&gs_l=img.3...83846.90691..91828...0.0..0.90.342.5......0....1..gws-wiz-img.......0i30j0i24.DgkoOOjq7ic#imgrc=5pSMD-Ku0hpbLM:

 

Various stops shown by googling Southdown Bus images. The one above is in Newhaven but I don't think that is a Southdown vehicle. More likely Eastbourne Corporation.

There is a notice in the front window saying 'On loan to Southdown' The crest on the side looks like Eastbourne's and some of their buses ran in a cream livery with blue accents. Having said that I haven't been able to work out the make & model and haven't run to earth any Eastbourne Corporation buses looking like that.

Edited June 19, 2019 by phil_sutters

[HillsideDepot]

Bus Lists on the Web says that it is a 1969 Guy Wulfrunian with Roe body. It was a demonstrator for Guy. Its visit didn't lead to any sales, no doubt to the relief of Southdown's Engineers, given the Wulfrunian's subsequent poor reputation.

Edited June 19, 2019 by HillsideDepot
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