Apotheosis of the Bus on Bridge Trope

[Andy Kirkham]

I couldn't resist posting this

 

[APOLLO]

None come for over an hour - then three come along at once !!!!!!

 

Brit15

[Wickham Green too]

Must be in lockdown - there's only a handful of passengers ...... mind you, the gricers aren't social-distancing very well !

[Andy Kirkham]

On further thought I'm inclined to suspect that the buses weren't just passing by; rather, they were the means by which the gricers arrived. This photo adjacent in the photostream and taken on the same date gives an idea how many visitors there were.

 

They were participants in the Home Counties Railway Society "Mendip Special" railtour and I suspect that the buses were laid on as part of the tour to facilitate visiting all the Bristol sheds.

[keefer]

Could this be the start of the cliché?

Waverley Bridge, Edinburgh:

Old postcard from '1900s'

 

Actually, look at any photo of the Bridge from any era and there will always be buses there - mainly City Tours, some service buses and in more recent decades, the Airport Shuttles.

And the entrance ramp down into the station was often just a long line of black cabs (FX4 in my era) until traffic was barred from there.

Edited September 26, 2020 by keefer

[Merfyn Jones]

1 hour ago, keefer said:

Could this be the start of the cliché?

Waverley Bridge, Edinburgh:

Old postcard from '1900s'

 

Actually, look at any photo of the Bridge from any era and there will always be buses there - mainly City Tours, some service buses and in more recent decades, the Airport Shuttles.

And the entrance ramp down into the station was often just a long line of black cabs (FX4 in my era) until traffic was barred from there.

 

But no longer, Taxis only now I believe.

[Davey]

Hi Andy,

 

it's not very often you get 3 buses out for a 'Duck'

 

Davey

[balders]

I must say the fact I didn't understand the title caption made me click the open button! A great photo!

 

Regards

 

Guy

[Wickham Green too]

11 hours ago, APOLLO said:

None come for over an hour - then three come along at once !!!!!!

 

Brit15

I suppose we should consider ourselves lucky there are three of them ......... a pair of Bristols might get redacted by the moderators !

[Busmansholiday]

A trio of Bristol Omnibus Bristol FLF's with Eastern Coach Works 70 seat forward entrance bodies and fitted with Cave-Browne-Cave heating.

 

I'll get my anorak and leave now.

 

[Mike_Walker]

On 27/09/2020 at 08:51, Busmansholiday said:

A trio of Bristol Omnibus Bristol FLF's with Eastern Coach Works 70 seat forward entrance bodies and fitted with Cave-Browne-Cave heating.

 

I'll get my anorak and leave now.

 

The one on the left at least appears to be a shorter FSF.

[stewartingram]

More like a VR?

[wombatofludham]

11 minutes ago, stewartingram said:

More like a VR?

Definitely a Lodekka, the VR wouldn't have been in service at the time.  The ECW body for the VR was an evolution of the Lodekka design, especially for the flat front Series 1 types, but even as late as the Series 3 variants which became the standard NBC double decker, there was a remarkable family similarity with only the front being visibly different.  More than thirty years of broadly the same body design even though the engine had moved from the front to the back is surely a design classic.
 

[alastairq]

Don't stop the bus in 5th gear!!

Company Orders...

I referred the VR, being tall, to the FLF-type....which had pedals that leapt out of the floor to an enormous height...resulting in a seating position for me, right on the base of my spine. The BU type saloons were even worse, being designed around a driver with very short, stumpy, bow legs....

[pH]

7 hours ago, alastairq said:

Don't stop the bus in 5th gear!!

Company Orders...

 Because you then couldn’t get it out of gear and had to try and pull away in 5th (or ‘booster’) gear?

 

7 hours ago, alastairq said:

 

... the FLF-type....which had pedals that leapt out of the floor to an enormous height...resulting in a seating position for me, right on the base of my spine.

I saw a 6ft 4in driver hand over a bus (an FLF or perhaps a Guy, I can’t remember which) to a 5ft 5in relief. He couldn’t even touch the pedals.

[Busmansholiday]

7 hours ago, pH said:

Because you then couldn’t get it out of gear and had to try and pull away in 5th (or ‘booster’) gear?

 

Usually, 5th gear was only selectable when you were in 4th. You had to knock the gear lever to the right and push it forward. Some Bristol single decks had the same system. 

[Bill Radford]

How times change...

 

September 2009 - 4 on the bridge plus another on the North Bridge!

 

 

Edited April 22, 2022 by Bill Radford
Reup

[alastairq]

4 hours ago, Busmansholiday said:

Usually, 5th gear was only selectable when you were in 4th. You had to knock the gear lever to the right and push it forward. Some Bristol single decks had the same system. 

 Sometimes, one would ''get away with it''....the problem being, with a crash box, the teeth had to ''line up''...otherwise, the fitters had to attend...usually 'rolling' the bus slightly to get the thing out of 5th.  Hence, the company orders.

 

I drove for United Auto in Scarborough in the mid 1970's [1974-75]...before sneaking off to the  scruffy lot down the road [EYMS] when they offered me a 'permanent' job.  I say 'scruffy', but if one saw the Renown deckers turn up at Valley Bridge,  in their very dark blue livery, they did indeed look 'scruffy'...

However, whilst EYMS paid a bit less than United....the chance of a 'permanent' job was too good an opportunity to miss. hence I moved to Bridlington depot.

 

I should point out to millenials that, in the sticks, especially coastal places back in those days, ...a full time job on the buses was usually preceded by several 'years' of being a summer, [seasonal] driver/conductor...ie, getting laid off through the winter...a time when, in coastal areas, work literally dried up.

So the opportunity  [a promise really, which ought to have been taken with a pinch of salt]....of a full time job being there at the end of  the summer season ought not be ignored?  Work would involve vying for double shifts every day, working all rest days, not letting any trip pass by.....in the hope one would make enough money to see one through the winter. In Scarborough, maybe landing a short time job driving the odd small firm's school bus contract might help...or maybe, at the bottom of the barrel, driving for Joe Leddon's taxis off South Cliff?

To think I gave up being a London Transport bus driver for all that?

But, hey, a lifestyle choice I never once regretted...glad to have got out of London, I was..never ever again.