Bad stuff we did on buses as kids.

[Busaholic]

You drove the St. Trinian's school bus? Respect!

No, that was Michael Ripper, who lived quite near Pinewood Studios and was a well-known local 'character' who must have appeared in dozens, if not hundreds, of films of the 1950s and 1960s, and was the only other passenger on the bus when I caught the Pinewood Special (a 441D?) once on an out-and-back return just for the hell of it. I was too shy to ask for an autograph.

 

[Gloster]

No, that was Michael Ripper, who lived quite near Pinewood Studios and was a well-known local 'character' who must have appeared in dozens, if not hundreds, of films of the 1950s and 1960s, and was the only other passenger on the bus when I caught the Pinewood Special (a 441D?) once on an out-and-back return just for the hell of it. I was too shy to ask for an autograph.

In The Belles of St Trinians the bus driver was Michael Balfour. A now forgotten actor and never a star, but he has 232 acting credits on IMDb, the first in 1938.

 

[185143]

The worst thing we did was to not challenge the driver when he charged us child fares



Thanks. I really needed to know that I'm getting old

I did once! I was 16 but obviously still at school, got on the bus, asked for my destination and put the adult fare in the cash tray. Driver looked at it, looked at me confused. Told him I was 16, to which his response was something along the lines of "you're coming home from school, you're paying the child fare, sit down!" as he passed me my change. Not bad.

 

[ABB125]

I did once! I was 16 but obviously still at school, got on the bus, asked for my destination and put the adult fare in the cash tray. Driver looked at it, looked at me confused. Told him I was 16, to which his response was something along the lines of "you're coming home from school, you're paying the child fare, sit down!" as he passed me my change. Not bad.

On the local bus route I used to use, the child fare is under-19s. I suspect this is to avoid the sort of situation described above, as the service is used by over a hundred children each day ranging from year 6 to year 13 at two different schools several miles apart in a primarily rural area.

 

[Busaholic]

In The Belles of St Trinians the bus driver was Michael Balfour. A now forgotten actor and never a star, but he has 232 acting credits on IMDb, the first in 1938.

Yes, shock of dark hair if I remember rightly. I suspect Ripper only appeared in the one St Trinian's film, can't remember which.

 

[Dai Corner]

Yes, shock of dark hair if I remember rightly. I suspect Ripper only appeared in the one St Trinian's film, can't remember which.

He was in The Great St Trinians Train Robbery, The Belles of St Trinians and Blue Murder at St Trinians according to Imdb

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[Mcr Warrior]

I suspect Ripper only appeared in the one St Trinian's film, can't remember which.

Michael Ripper (1913-2000) seems to have been cast as Albert Faning, a jockey/horse trainer, in "The Belles of St. Trinians" (1954) and then as Eric the liftman (at the Ministry of Education), in "Blue Murder at St. Trinian's" (1957), in "The Pure Hell of St. Trinian's" (1960) and again in "The Great St. Trinian's Train Robbery" (1966).

 

[Gloster]

Michael Ripper (1913-2000) seems to have been cast as Albert Faning, a jockey/horse trainer, in "The Belles of St. Trinians" (1954) and then as Eric the liftman (at the Ministry of Education), in "Blue Murder at St. Trinian's" (1957), in "The Pure Hell of St. Trinian's" (1960) and again in "The Great St. Trinian's Train Robbery" (1966).

He managed a total of 244 credits as an actor on IMDb. The first in 1936, the last in 1992: another familiar face to be recognised, which made watching old films such fun.

 

[GusB]

We appear to have taken a diversion - back on topic, please!

 

[topydre]

Being on the autistic spectrum (though undiagnosed at the time), I was the "plaything" on the school bus at the start of secondary school. One of the older boys' favourite games was to swing me into the upstairs back window in an attempt to throw the window and me onto the road behind, preferably on the 60mph section. It never worked... but I learned when I came back from being ill that someone had succeeded (but not by use of another person) in knocking out the back window while I was ill. Phew!! I decided the lower deck was a better option....
Another game people would play was to smoke at the top of the staircase and drop the lit cigarette on the head of anyone they didn't like who happened to be at the base of the stairwell.
Dropping objects, such as sandwiches, onto the roofs of lorries from the upstairs windows and splattering yoghurt everywhere on the top deck were quite common. Yoghurt fights could be quite messy...
I think the driver had some kind of way of turning off the bell alert, which he would use when people were ringing the bell constantly (every second) to annoy him.
The Deputy Head started travelling on the bus part-way through my first year; wonder why!
Then I realised I could read in the school library until about 4 o clock and get a later service bus in peace

 

[Geordie driver]

I think the driver had some kind of way of turning off the bell alert, which he would use when people were ringing the bell constantly (every second) to annoy him.

Some buses, Fleetlines iirc had a fuse panel behind the driver and you could switch the bell off, or you could get a kid to press the bell in and hold it which also stopped it.

Kids I didn't mind but occasionally you would get an adult who thought it was funny. I would turf off an adult who did it.

I was once stopped by the police as the kids were throwing stuff from the top deck and they were going to "sort it". I advised them to just leave it as most of the kids would be off at the next stop, but they were determined.

The 2 police women went upstairs and got a barrage of abuse, by the time they came down they were nearly in tears.

 

[Bungle158]

Sorry for mentioning this in the Buses section, but I'm told that in the days of the SWT slammers this was a favourite activity of the Godalming ASBO squad. I also nicked a couple of bulbs from the compartments, but only for use at home when I was a skint student!

I once pinched a bulb from the ceiling of a compartment on a 2 BIL. I was horrified to see sparks from the empty socket and on scuttling off the train at Wokingham, noticed all the interior lights out on one side of the unit.

 

[Mwanesh]

The day i started on the buses i was put on a school run. I felt like walking away. Come the friday i had enough. They started playing with the bell. I just pulled into a tiny bus stop and ordered them off. Said i needed to check the bus. They were outside for 30 minutes. Let them on and stopped at every stop along the way. By the time i got to the first stop they were well behaved. I never got a complaint.

 

[Martin1988]

Worst thing I ever did was on my college bus route which was operated by South Gloucestershire Bus and Coach. One evening our route was operated by a Leyland Lynx instead of a coach which I was a bit annoyed about. Somebody went running after the bus just after we had pulled off and I rung the bell several times to get the driver to stop. The driver got a bit cross about the bell being rung and asked who had pressed it. I responded with "Your mum"!

He then asked what my name was and I told him it was Harold Bishop!

I did apologise at the end of the journey.

There was one other occasion a few years later where I got in hot water with a driver on the same route and that time told him my name was Jim Robinson!