Strangest bus destination screens?

[duncombec]

Is there still a bus from Canterbury to Preston?

No longer a terminating service, Now part of service 11, the same one that serves Plucks Gutter mentioned above, as well as the delightfully, if not humourously, named Wickhambreaux. From memory, the 11 also has a fair few tight corners and at least one reversing manouvre, mainly operated using double deckers. I've only been on it once, but I keep meaning to go back and check it's worth suggesting to Roger French.

 

[edwin_m]

I also like Fatherless Barn in the West Midlands (213/214 from Cradley Heath) and Whirly Barn in Cheshire (19 from Macclesfield, although buses all now run through to Prestbury).

At 0925 do they have Twirlies in Whirly?

 

[NorthOxonian]

At 0925 do they have Twirlies in Whirly?

Disappointingly it seems that buses pass through there at 0825 and 0934, but at no time between those two.

 

[philjo]

In Dublin the buses leaving the depot say “Entering Service”

 

[Statto]

How about Wick, Highland, it gets on my wick ecc ecc.

 

[MotCO]

Has any bus had Pratts Bottom in Kent on there destination blinds?

The 261, when operated by Metrobus, had a school journey back-projected to start from Pratts Bottom, but I don't think it ever returned there.

The R5/R10 is now the circular from Orpington Station in place of the 471. Not sure if it ever shows Pratts Bottom on the blinds.

 

[Busaholic]

The 261, when operated by Metrobus, had a school journey back-projected to start from Pratts Bottom, but I don't think it ever returned there.

The R5/R10 is now the circular from Orpington Station in place of the 471. Not sure if it ever shows Pratts Bottom on the blinds.

I've drawn a blank so far in finding Pratts Bottom on a destination blind. I was rather hoping that when the 47 got extended from Farnborough to Knockholt Pound on Sundays, off and on for several years in and just after WW2, their blinds might have incorporated PB as a turning point for late runners, but I can find no evidence for it. On the 471. Cudham was a destination for a school journey. However, I have on order a copy of the new Capital Transport book on the GS class, and I'm expecting quite a lot on the 471, with photos, so I live in hope. In my attic are hundreds of timetables from the 1950s, including several of the Orpington and district area, but I'm unfortunately utterly incapable of going up there to look through them, and no-one else is volunteering.

 

[69036]

The McGill's 907 when it ran had a typo saying Gourock Piehead as a via point instead of pierhead, think it was fixed after a while but still

 

[Bluebirdscot66]

I used to drive a 45 service in Glasgow that went to kennieshead One customer asked me where’s kennieshead ? ..., my reply .. on top of kennys shoulders

 

[Flange Squeal]

I've drawn a blank so far in finding Pratts Bottom on a destination blind.

This photo on Flickr even offers a description of said bottom....

https://flic.kr/p/aGEmFT

 

[daodao]

Disappointingly it seems that buses pass through there at 0825 and 0934, but at no time between those two.

The place is actually called Whirley Barn, and the buses have a quaint method of turning round by reversing into a side road, in order to continue their journey. There were originally 2 separate routes to Prestbury and Whirley Barn run by NWRCC, but were combined into current route 19 (the historic route number for the Prestbury service) many years ago to save costs. As might be expected, given that the route terminates in Cheshire's wealthiest village, patronage is generally light; the service is subsidised by East Cheshire Council.

 

[py_megapixel]

Deleted

 

[py_megapixel]

Is it possible to buy a return ticket?

Nope - I think Stagecoach Manchester only offer singles and day/week rovers...........

One of the disreputable small operators serving MK on tendered services (remember those?) used to have a blind that said Wolverton. Not a lot remarkable there. Except it didn't, because they had made a mistake ordering it and had ordered it with Wolverhampton, so they coloured in "hamp" in black marker pen and sent it out anyway.

So that would be "WOLVER TON" then?

 

[Bletchleyite]

So that would be "WOLVER TON" then?

Yeah, it was exactly like that. Said everything about the disreputable operator concerned.

 

[duncanp]

Wasn't there a Womens Institute at Loose? (Please say there was!)

Yes, there is a WI at Loose, but they have changed their name to the Loose Valley Women's Institute, presumably to avoid all the lavatorial jokes.

However there is a WI at Ugley in Essex, who have also changed their name to the Womens Institute of Ugley, also to avoid all the schoolboy humour.

Going back to buses, there is a Pratts Bottom in Kent, served by TfL routes R5 and R10, and Upper Dicker and Lower Dicker in Sussex, served by several Cuckmere Buses routes, and Shellow Bowells in Essex, served by First Essex route 46 between Ongar and Chelmsford.

 

[MedwayValiant]

Yeah, it was exactly like that. Said everything about the disreputable operator concerned.

Probably at about the same sort of time, Jubilee Coaches (Stevenage) won a whole load of Hertfordshire contracts one year - although it surrendered most of them within a few months, having realised that it had massively over-reached itself and couldn't deliver. I don't know where they got their blinds made, but someone didn't trouble to check with an atlas and there were quite a few spelling errors. "Boramwood", "Harpendon", and "Hitchen" were the most egregious but were not alone.

Welwyn Hatfield Line (Codicote) had a better reputation, but drivers were always a bit shamefaced when they had to set their blinds to "5th Hatfield" (error for "Sth"). Unless they had their blinds made in the US, which seems unlikely, I don't quite know how that one happened.

 

[Trainfan2019]

In Sheffield of recent times I've seen buses displaying 'engineer on road test'.

In olden times of Sheffield on the syt blinds there was a place called Fence.

I'll try and remember to check my timetables at some point as for the works services I'm almost sure Izal Factory was on the syt blinds.

Often used to see the syt number blinds showing XXX or 0X0.

 

[Class45]

Devon General used to run a service to a place called Decoy just outside Newton Abbott. I used to imagine them sending out a decoy bus to lure people away from the real bus.

 

[geoffk]

Devon General used to run a service to a place called Decoy just outside Newton Abbott. I used to imagine them sending out a decoy bus to lure people away from the real bus.

Reminds me of Patchway Shadow Factory, the destination of many Bristol buses. I always thought this was a decoy meant to attract bombers away from real factories, but apparently not.

 

[cnjb8]

Nottingham has a Top Valley which seemed weird to me.
Growing up in Nottingham, I found Bingham to sound funny.
I know this forum is for buses, but I once had some American tourists ask me if the South West Trains service goes to 'Daché', aka Datchet.

 

[edwin_m]

Reminds me of Patchway Shadow Factory, the destination of many Bristol buses. I always thought this was a decoy meant to attract bombers away from real factories, but apparently not.

So what was it, a factory making shadows?

(The actual, but less interesting, answer: additional factory set up pre-WW2 to make aircraft using motor industry resources)

 

[Busaholic]

This photo on Flickr even offers a description of said bottom....

https://flic.kr/p/aGEmFT

Indeed, I made reference to it in my first post on the subject, but it's as an ULTIMATE destination that I'm looking for, which may or may not have ever existed. I'm (a) so ancient and (b) with connections to the area in early life that I well remember that blind, the interesting (to those interested in such things ;lol fact being that Orpington isn't flagged up as the destination i,e. in larger letters.

 

[johnnychips]

The back of a TM Travel decker in Sheffield today indicated it was going to NIS, which is in Serbia

 

[MotCO]

I've drawn a blank so far in finding Pratts Bottom on a destination blind. I was rather hoping that when the 47 got extended from Farnborough to Knockholt Pound on Sundays, off and on for several years in and just after WW2, their blinds might have incorporated PB as a turning point for late runners, but I can find no evidence for it. On the 471. Cudham was a destination for a school journey. However, I have on order a copy of the new Capital Transport book on the GS class, and I'm expecting quite a lot on the 471, with photos, so I live in hope. In my attic are hundreds of timetables from the 1950s, including several of the Orpington and district area, but I'm unfortunately utterly incapable of going up there to look through them, and no-one else is volunteering.

The only thing I can offer are these photos from running days.

 

[oldman]

Borders Buses school route Y01 was shown on timetables as running to Conundrum, which puzzled me. The stop is still called that on Google Maps, but it's official name is now Ramparts Business Park, which is where the garage is.

 

[edwin_m]

Did any Oldham routes terminate at Mumps?

 

[davehsug]

Speke in Liverpool, is a strange destination too, bringing the old jokes

Passenger, "is this bus going to Speke"
Driver "I've been driving it all day, & still hasn't said a word"

How do i get a Parrot to Speak, send it on the 82 bus!

Mentions of Cemetery Gates brings up destinations from On The Buses sitcom.

Similar to the Stoke one, which went "How do you get an elephant to Talke" -"Put him on a bus outside Argos".

 

[156443]

Preston Bus 20780 / PN57 NFG by kieron mathews, on Flickr

Was having a look through my photos and found this one

 

[martyjon]

SPICE GIRLS
MASSIVE ATTACK
MADNESS
ROD STEWART
are just a few that appeared on Bristols destinations in 2019 for the shuttle buses taking concert goers to the various gigs.

 

[martyjon]

BRAZEN BOTTOM
on the 23A on IMBERBUS DAY annually.