Quirky or quaint practices on buses in the past

[Springs Branch]

Does anyone have any recollections of peculiar or unique practices on UK buses within living memory?

I'm prompted by reading a Facebook Group focusing on reminiscences about life 'on the buses' at the former Princess Road bus depot in Manchester.

One of the yarns posted on there concerns the former GMT Service 232 (previously North Western Road Car Co's route 32), which ran hourly from central Manchester via Princess Rd & Barlow Moor Rd, then a gentle ramble through Cheadle, Bramhall and Poynton, ending up at Middlewood. The story is that the last journey in the evening from Manchester would stop at the Boar's Head pub in Higher Poynton (around 2230 or 2240), where the conductor / OPO driver would alert the regulars that he's arrived and was just popping up the road to turn around at the Middlewood terminus. This gave the punters time to drink up (or maybe order a quick snifter "for the road") and turn out in time for the bus's return.

Apparently, the instruction to stop and remind the Boar's Head's drinkers appeared as an integral part of the official running board for the last journey through to Middlewood.

It's a practice that wouldn't have surprised me in, say, rural Suffolk, or with a local independent operator in Wales. But seems a bit incongruous for one of the biggest and busiest depots in the Greater Manchester PTE area to be documenting these specific instructions to crews. No doubt PS inherited this from NWRCC days - who were likely much more amenable to rustic 'local arrangements' and 'personal service'. But even with NWRCC, the route had been operated from their distinctly urban Urmston depot.

Any other odd-ball bus practices that anyone is aware of? Preferably from larger or big-city operators, where you don't always expect this sort of stuff.


Original 'horse's mouth' quotes from Facebook are:-

Very few of you people will remember that Princess Rd operated the 232 service that ran from Chorlton St to Middlewood ( Cheshire) Via Princess Rd Southern Cemetery Didsbury Cheadle Cheadle Hulme Bramhall Woodford Poynton and Higher Poynton. For those of you that did drive that service can any of you remember the instructions on the timeboard on the last journey to Middlewood regarding the Boars Head pub at Higher Poynton ? Answer later

I will answer the question about the 232 service. The timeboard stated that in reaching the Boars Head drivers were asked to make sure that the regulars in the pub were aware that you were passing going to Middlewood terminus this gave drinkers time to either get another or finish what they had before getting outside so that the 232 to Princess Rd Garage could pick them up usually about half a dozen sometimes more all were off by the time the bus got to Woodford. In those days drivers did the same back half of a late for 6 nights Sunday to Friday and nearly every Friday night the passengers would give the driver a few bottles of beer as thanks for getting them home imagine that nowadays

 

[darloscott]

There used to be, and maybe still is, notes in I think it was Stagecoach East Midlands open data about collecting post from various depots as part of their duties.

 

[Dai Corner]

Newport Transport's last buses of the day all left the bus station at 2300, an inspector (remember them?) blowing a whistle.

 

[overthewater]

Newport Transport's last buses of the day all left the bus station at 2300, an inspector (remember them?) blowing a whistle.

The same happened at Sheffield at 23.15

I'm trying to remember which route it was in Fife, around 15 years ago one of the duty broad clearly stated " Which out for a blind woman at X times at a Supermarket bus stop" Supermarket was a timing point. It was in very big and bold lettering.

 

[Tom Gallacher]

When I was a young boy my parents and I went to visit old neighbours of ours who had moved away - nothing unusual in that I hear you all say. Well, we lived in Glasgow and our neighbours had moved to Norwich. First part of the journey was pretty standard, Glasgow to Preston, then a coach to Nottingham changing again to another operator for the final leg to Norwich. On this part of the trip we stopped at a farm shop where we were encouraged to purchase some of the produce (which to be fair lots of passengers did).

Don't know if this was a registered stop or just one of the driver's perks.

 

[MartinC]

Up to the early 1970's Exeter City Council had two "spare" buses sitting in Bedford Street, during the rush hours, ready to cover any gaps in service. Needless to say,when the Council sold out to Devon General that soon disappeared.

 

[Whisky Papa]

Back in the early 1980s, a tea-time journey run from Greater Manchester Transport's Stockport garage had a note on the running board that read something like "Pick up Metcalfe & Davies workers at Romiley Station at 1702" which would require hanging back a couple of minutes from the normal timing. I'm thinking it would have been the 1637 384.

My fellow Stockport scheduler Pat Keeley (later of Tame Valley) used to joke a stray comma could be inserted to suggest you had to wait for British Rail station staff called Metcalfe & Davies.

Ironically, some decades later I did actually work at Romiley station on occasion, and would have been very grateful to have been able to leave at 1702!

Does anyone have any recollections of peculiar or unique practices on UK buses within living memory?

I'm prompted by reading a Facebook Group focusing on reminiscences about life 'on the buses' at the former Princess Road bus depot in Manchester.

One of the yarns posted on there concerns the former GMT Service 232 (previously North Western Road Car Co's route 32), which ran hourly from central Manchester via Princess Rd & Barlow Moor Rd, then a gentle ramble through Cheadle, Bramhall and Poynton, ending up at Middlewood. The story is that the last journey in the evening from Manchester would stop at the Boar's Head pub in Higher Poynton (around 2230 or 2240), where the conductor / OPO driver would alert the regulars that he's arrived and was just popping up the road to turn around at the Middlewood terminus. This gave the punters time to drink up (or maybe order a quick snifter "for the road") and turn out in time for the bus's return.

Apparently, the instruction to stop and remind the Boar's Head's drinkers appeared as an integral part of the official running board for the last journey through to Middlewood.

It's a practice that wouldn't have surprised me in, say, rural Suffolk, or with a local independent operator in Wales. But seems a bit incongruous for one of the biggest and busiest depots in the Greater Manchester PTE area to be documenting these specific instructions to crews. No doubt PS inherited this from NWRCC days - who were likely much more amenable to rustic 'local arrangements' and 'personal service'. But even with NWRCC, the route had been operated from their distinctly urban Urmston depot.

Any other odd-ball bus practices that anyone is aware of? Preferably from larger or big-city operators, where you don't always expect this sort of stuff.


Original 'horse's mouth' quotes from Facebook are:-

I'm slightly surprised to learn that the 232 (or its forbear) was run from Urmston - sorry, I don't use Facebook so can't see if this was confirmed on the Facebook page? I would have assumed NWRCC's Manchester garage would have run it. Stockport (Charles St) might also have been more convenient.

 

[MotCO]

Up to the early 1970's Exeter City Council had two "spare" buses sitting in Bedford Street, during the rush hours, ready to cover any gaps in service. Needless to say,when the Council sold out to Devon General that soon disappeared.

That sounds similar to the old Green Line reliefs held at Victoria for any routes needing support due to late running or breakdowns.

 

[Gloster]

Back in the early 1980s, a tea-time journey run from Greater Manchester Transport's Stockport garage had a note on the running board that read something like "Pick up Metcalfe & Davies workers at Romiley Station at 1702" which would require hanging back a couple of minutes from the normal timing. I'm thinking it would have been the 1637 384.

Do you mean Davies & Metcalfe? The injector and brake manufacturer had a works a short way along Stockport Road from the station. The company also built the two original Vale of Rheidol locos.

 

[Whisky Papa]

Do you mean Davies & Metcalfe? The injector and brake manufacturer had a works a short way along Stockport Road from the station. The company also built the two original Vale of Rheidol locos.

Yes, indeed I did . I got so tied up in trying to check the journey time I didn't notice I'd transposed the names - and that was after looking up their connection with the VoR! I couldn't recall if it was the extant locos they had built, but as you say, it was the original ones which didn't have a particularly long life.

 

[DunsBus]

In Tyne & Wear PTE and Busways days South Shields depot drivers screened both ends of the route, unlike their counterparts in Newcastle and Sunderland who screened destination and via displays. The only exceptions to this were on the three Olympians at South Shields which had electronic displays - 648/675/676.

 

[ian1944]

I'm slightly surprised to learn that the 232 (or its forbear) was run from Urmston - sorry, I don't use Facebook so can't see if this was confirmed on the Facebook page? I would have assumed NWRCC's Manchester garage would have run it. Stockport (Charles St) might also have been more convenient.

There must have been a lot of anomalies route/garagewise. I recall that in Manchester, Princess Road supplied none of the hundreds of buses a day going right past on their way to/from Wythenshawe, Sale and Altrincham, these coming from Northenden (the only closed MCTD garage still standing, I think - Wikipedia shows it as a Grade II* listed building). Princess Road serviced the via Old Trafford routes to Altrincham, Sale and Flixton, the latter shared with NWRCC who (presumably) used their Manchester and Urmston garages. Another strange one - the original 50 Piccadilly-Brooklands via Northenden ran from that garage almost 100%, but Parrs Wood a long way off route did occasional runs.

 

[Ianigsy]

In Tyne & Wear PTE and Busways days South Shields depot drivers screened both ends of the route, unlike their counterparts in Newcastle and Sunderland who screened destination and via displays. The only exceptions to this were on the three Olympians at South Shields which had electronic displays - 648/675/676.

Until electronic displays arrived, the 28 in Leeds had a single destination blind which read “Adel & City”.

 

[Bletchleyite]

Until electronic displays arrived, the 28 in Leeds had a single destination blind which read “Adel & City”.

Similarly for London the side blinds always said "via <point in the middle of the route>" to avoid a need to change that blind.

 

[AndrewE]

I don't know if it was universal, but when I went to secondary school in about 1965 it was nearly an hour's journey each way on one or more London Country (Country Buses?) RTs.
The bell signals were 1 ring from anybody for a request stop, 2 for "right away" (obviously from the conductor only) and 3 from the conductor/conductress: "Full up: ignore people at request stops!" I was very glad that I boarded before it became F&S.

 

[Flange Squeal]

Not sure if this entirely meets the criteria for this thread, but Stagecoach run a circular route in a local urban area that consists of a generally hourly service (with a gap for driver's lunch break) that penetrates deeper into estates located just off the main roads served by the core route network. It's primarily patronised by the elderly and mothers with young children, and drivers will still frequently pick up/drop off (mostly the latter) regular passengers at their garden gates. My Grandfather lived on the route and was a fairly regular passenger, particularly as he got older and could no longer manage his walk to a Morrisons closer to home so got the bus into town even more frequently. A couple of years ago, after news he passed away must've reached his fellow regulars, within a week a sympathy card was posted through the door signed "From the drivers and passengers of the number (x) bus". So despite it being a route operated by a large operator in an urban area in the modern day, there was still very much a relationship between drivers and their passengers, down to knowing exactly which house they lived in!

 

[Roger1973]

Newport Transport's last buses of the day all left the bus station at 2300, an inspector (remember them?) blowing a whistle.

Similarly, Reading Transport / Reading Buses did this from the 'Stations' and 'St Marys Butts' terminus points. I think there's a video of the last departure, but couldn't find it on a quick search.

I don't know if it was universal, but when I went to secondary school in about 1965 it was nearly an hour's journey each way on one or more London Country (Country Buses?) RTs.
The bell signals were 1 ring from anybody for a request stop, 2 for "right away" (obviously from the conductor only) and 3 from the conductor/conductress: "Full up: ignore people at request stops!" I was very glad that I boarded before it became F&S.

Would have been London Transport (country area) buses until the end of 1969, then London Country from then.

1 for stop and 2 for go was pretty much universal, from what I can gather. 3 bells for 'full' was fairly common but not universal. I have seen rule books (but never encountered it in use) that included either 4 bells, or 2 -2 for a conductor to advise driver that something behind was trying to pass the bus.

Whether 1 bell was required at all stops, or just request stops, varied - and who gave the signal would vary. On crew operated buses and trams in Blackpool, it was 'not the done thing' for passengers to ring the bell for a stop, the conductor was expected to notice someone stand up and ring the bell for them. I believe some other operators worked on this basis but don't remember much about crew operation in practice elsewhere.

An added feature of the RMC (and presumably RCL) type Routemaster 'coaches' was that only the bell push on the platform gave the driver a bell signal, others gave the buzzer (on open platform buses, the buzzer was only the one upstairs) - I didn't travel on them often before they disappeared and was fairly young at the time (and I don't remember them at all on Green Line routes, they were just 'buses' by then) but the signals seemed to be 2 bells = signal to go and conductor will close the doors from the platform, 2 buzzes = signal to go and request driver to close the doors from the cab. (Opening the doors was generally the driver's job at all stops.)

 

[PeterC]

An added feature of the RMC (and presumably RCL) type Routemaster 'coaches' was that only the bell push on the platform gave the driver a bell signal, others gave the buzzer (on open platform buses, the buzzer was only the one upstairs) - I didn't travel on them often before they disappeared and was fairly young at the time (and I don't remember them at all on Green Line routes, they were just 'buses' by then) but the signals seemed to be 2 bells = signal to go and conductor will close the doors from the platform, 2 buzzes = signal to go and request driver to close the doors from the cab. (Opening the doors was generally the driver's job at all stops.)

I used to travel on RCLs quite regularly in my late teens. I don't remember anything special about bell operation.

IIRC the RT configuration was that the downstairs cord and buttons rang a bell while the solitary upstairs button at the top of the stairs was a buzzer. If the conductor was collecting fares at the front of the upper deck they would check the stair mirror and bang twice on the destination blind housing rather than walk back to the button.

 

[AM9]

I used to travel on RCLs quite regularly in my late teens. I don't remember anything special about bell operation.

IIRC the RT configuration was that the downstairs cord and buttons rang a bell while the solitary upstairs button at the top of the stairs was a buzzer. If the conductor was collecting fares at the front of the upper deck they would check the stair mirror and bang twice on the destination blind housing rather than walk back to the button.

I remember all of that in the '60s when I relied on RT for virtually all local travel. Having moved out of the LT area in 1970, on my occasional visits back to family was surprised to see what was effectively the abandonment of the request/compulsory stops. Passengers in my youth were wee acquainted with red(or green in country/green line areas) and white bus stop colours. Consequently passengers ring the bell for almost all bus stop now. The system worked particularly well when buses were late, aenabling them to make up time, whereas now it seems that all stops bring the bus to a standstill.

 

[py_megapixel]

The system worked particularly well when buses were late, aenabling them to make up time, whereas now it seems that all stops bring the bus to a standstill.

Perhaps London is different, but everywhere I'm familiar with in the UK now treats almost every stop as a request stop. The only stops a bus will serve without a request from a passenger are a few large interchanges, driver changeover points if a changeover is booked mid-route, and of course timing points if it arrives at one early.

 

[65477]

On LT buses it was common practice for conductors, if they we near the front of the upper deck, to give the away signal by sticking the blind box with their locker T key.

I was once on a bus where this occurred and the bus was immediately brought to a hallt by an emergency stop signal. A furious inspector then came up the stairs and read the riot act to the poor conductor in front of the passengers.

 

[Harpo]

Until 2003, Southend’s open top buses had special rules for passing under the low bridge at the inland end of Southend pier. The conductor had to check that everyone upstairs was seated before belling the driver to pass under the bridge. There’s a link here to a photo (not mine) that illustrates why.

Southend Corporation Transport - Lowbridge Leylands

 

[Dwarfer1979]

I don't know if it was universal, but when I went to secondary school in about 1965 it was nearly an hour's journey each way on one or more London Country (Country Buses?) RTs.
The bell signals were 1 ring from anybody for a request stop, 2 for "right away" (obviously from the conductor only) and 3 from the conductor/conductress: "Full up: ignore people at request stops!" I was very glad that I boarded before it became F&S.

Not only probably pretty universal at its core but was still being taught during driver training when I did mine about 20 years ago (there were still conductors in service when I did mine). 1 bell to stop at next stop, 2 bells to go, 3 bells means bus full & 4 or more equals emergency stop immediately. I'm not sure it is ever practically used now with all buses being driver only so there being no one to provide the communication (& passengers have a different idea of what they mean) so it may have been dropped from training now.

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 27 Dec 2025 ==

On LT buses it was common practice for conductors, if they we near the front of the upper deck, to give the away signal by sticking the blind box with their locker T key.

I was once on a bus where this occurred and the bus was immediately brought to a hallt by an emergency stop signal. A furious inspector then came up the stairs and read the riot act to the poor conductor in front of the passengers.

They would also often just do it by kicking the bulkhead above the driver. My dad, who used to work as an LT conductor in his university holidays, knew of one incident where a couple of kids sat in the front seats upstairs did so accidentally and the driver set off whilst the conductor was still stood on the pavement requiring the conductor to chase the bus down the road and only catching up next time it stopped as there was no one to give the go signal.

I understand it happened because LT only fitted a bell push by the stairs upstairs on many buses to ensure the conductor couldn't give the go signal without being in sight of the platform to check it is clear.

 

[ChilternTurbo]

Growing up in the 1980's I have vague memories of broken down LT buses having a seat cushion removed and propped up against the rear of the bus. I'm assuming this was to signal that assistance was on the way for the stricken bus? Did seem rather an odd practice!

 

[Bletchleyite]

Perhaps London is different, but everywhere I'm familiar with in the UK now treats almost every stop as a request stop. The only stops a bus will serve without a request from a passenger are a few large interchanges, driver changeover points if a changeover is booked mid-route, and of course timing points if it arrives at one early.

London now uses the German approach at all stops, which is to stop if anyone at the stop may wish to board but to alight you do need to ring the bell. A lot of people do put their hand out, though.

 

[MotCO]

Growing up in the 1980's I have vague memories of broken down LT buses having a seat cushion removed and propped up against the rear of the bus. I'm assuming this was to signal that assistance was on the way for the stricken bus? Did seem rather an odd practice!

I think it was to alert buses approaching not to get too close to the stricken bus, so that they could pass by. Buses have the habit of stopping inches behind buses at bus stops, and without the seat, would have been unable to pass without reversing. This was obviously before the says of hazard warning lights.

 

[AM9]

Growing up in the 1980's I have vague memories of broken down LT buses having a seat cushion removed and propped up against the rear of the bus. I'm assuming this was to signal that assistance was on the way for the stricken bus? Did seem rather an odd practice!

Yes, with RTs it was always the cushion from one of the 'three seats'.

 

[Harpo]

Growing up in the 1980's I have vague memories of broken down LT buses having a seat cushion removed and propped up against the rear of the bus. I'm assuming this was to signal that assistance was on the way for the stricken bus? Did seem rather an odd practice!

Made it very easy for fitters to spot the broken down vehicle.

 

[Whisky Papa]

There must have been a lot of anomalies route/garagewise. I recall that in Manchester, Princess Road supplied none of the hundreds of buses a day going right past on their way to/from Wythenshawe, Sale and Altrincham, these coming from Northenden (the only closed MCTD garage still standing, I think - Wikipedia shows it as a Grade II* listed building). Princess Road serviced the via Old Trafford routes to Altrincham, Sale and Flixton, the latter shared with NWRCC who (presumably) used their Manchester and Urmston garages. Another strange one - the original 50 Piccadilly-Brooklands via Northenden ran from that garage almost 100%, but Parrs Wood a long way off route did occasional runs.

Actually, Princess Road did run the 99/108/9 routes that passed the garage pre-deregulation, which ran to Sale, Timperley and Wythenshawe Hospital respectively (8 buses all day, but later this was complicated by them interworking with the 260/6 in Piccadilly!).

In a desperate attempt to get back on-topic, perhaps their use of roadside canteen points remote from garages could be considered quirky? The Northenden garage worked services to Wythenshawe had their mealbreaks at Southern Cemetery, while the services through Old Trafford worked by Princess Road had theirs at a very cramped canteen there - surprisingly, it appears to be still standing! Elsewhere, there was another canteen at Levenshulme Lloyd Road and I believe Belle Vue too, although I didn't really get involved with schedules on that side of the city.

 

[Bletchleyite]

Yes, with RTs it was always the cushion from one of the 'three seats'.

That practice persisted until the end of Routemasters. Just another version of having the bonnet open on a car I guess (even if the nature of the failure doesn't relate to something under the bonnet).