Quirky or quaint practices on buses in the past

[Statto]

Didn't the old compulsory stops require the driver to stop even if there was nobody waiting?* Whereas now there's no requirement to stop if the bus stop is empty (and nobody's rang the bell). So these days, they function more like a request stop than a compulsory stop.

* - I'm sure I remember reading something, several years ago, about the old compulsory stops acting as sort of makeshift brake tests before buses approached major junctions or steep hills, but that could just be an urban myth.

Yep, drivers stopped at the compulsory stops regardless if there was nobody waiting.

Speaking of turning in the road from the London thread, buses in my area used to terminate at Moreton, Bermuda Road (historically the old 21/28, before the 21 was withdrawn, & 28 renumbered to 40), & turned around in the road, they used the corner of Acton Lane/Hoylake Road to turn round, Acton Lane has quite wide corner to accommodate this, the practice was ended at deregulation when the routes were extended to Saughall Massie Overchurch Road

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[pokemonsuper9]

Didn't the old compulsory stops require the driver to stop even if there was nobody waiting?*

Yep, drivers stopped at the compulsory stops regardless if there was nobody waiting.

No different to timing points today, if the bus is early they have to just wait there until on time again, no matter if noone wants to get on or off.

 

[Pinus contorta]

I don't whether it was unique to the Isle of Wight but I can remember travelling on a bus from Ryde to St Helens and the bus stopping to pick up and drop off parcels.

I remember being surprised that parcels being dropped off was still going on when I travelled from Fort William to Kilchoan to catch the Mull ferry with the wife about 15 years ago.

 

[AndrewE]

I remember being surprised that parcels being dropped off was still going on when I travelled from Fort William to Kilchoan to catch the Mull ferry with the wife about 15 years ago.

Parcels by bus reminds me of what we found in N Norway about 25 yrs ago. We were waiting at a bus station somewhere W of the railway line to continue north by road when I realised that there was no sign of our bus, or any bus. Then spotted a line of vehicles backed up against a parcels dock, the rear halves being like a pantechnicon while the front halves were a single-decker bus.

 

[SCH117X]

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

South Notts did that with the Nottingham - Clifton Estate services. They used a single large blind with numerous variations fior their main service between Nottrgham and Loughbroiugh plus those to villages off the main service. Each Clifton Estate numbered service usually had its own blind route number Broad Marsh and Clifton Estate. Theer are photos of older vehicles plainly having two blinds per Cliftion Estate route and others with both destinations listed but without the and.
Another Nottingham quirk was Barton Transport who for years advertised on their buses Parcels Carried.

 

[Tester]

Parcels by bus reminds me of what we found in N Norway about 25 yrs ago. We were waiting at a bus station somewhere W of the railway line to continue north by road when I realised that there was no sign of our bus, or any bus. Then spotted a line of vehicles backed up against a parcels dock, the rear halves being like a pantechnicon while the front halves were a single-decker bus.

Same thing in New Zealand in 1987 - what looked like normal long distance coaches were front half passenger/rear half freight.

 

[Acathater]

I'm a refugee from the rail pages here, but this was very standard on Western National buses in Taunton in the 1960s-70s, and actually across much of their territory as well, apparently all down to shortage of the linen indicator blinds when vehicles were transferred around from one point to another. The town service double deckers were especially prone to this. They had provision for the destination, the intermediate points, and the number. The destination read "Western National", the intermediate points were "Service No", and the number was correct. I seem to recall they had a stock of blinds that only had these couple of generic points that would be put in when they ran out of the proper ones. The town routes were about half a dozen numbers scattered between 204 and 276, and I really don't think that many passengers knew their numbers well.

The "Western National" roller blinds were in some cases used because of the tendency to swap and borrow buses and coaches around between Southern and Western National and Royal Blue. You'd (for instance) get a Southern liveried bus with a Western headboard on a Western route. Happened even more frequently after the amalgamation of the companies where everything was technically "Western" but hadn't been repainted. Other examples were Southern predominantly cream-painted dual purpose vehicles running with "Royal Blue" headboards

 

[Whisky Papa]

Establishing canteens at major termini makes sense, to minimise dead time between finishing journeys and taking a meal break.

Historically, Southern Cemetery was a major tram and later bus terminus. Until shortly before the demise of the first generation tramways, many of the Wythenshawe buses stopped short at Southern Cemetery and one apparently had to change to a tram to continue travelling to the city centre. The planned tramway further south to Wythenshawe was cancelled in 1929/1930 following the appointment of a new corporation transport manager, whose father-in-law was a bus manufacturer.

Yes, Southern Cemetery was still a terminus for various routes in the 1980s, although AFAIK the only terminating one regularly to have mealbreaks there was the 48 from Piccadilly via Yew Tree Lane, operated by Princess Road. Unusually for Princess Road, the driver worked the 48 both halves of their duty with the same bus, which was parked during their break. The 88 was later extended there from Chorlton (Hardy Lane) in the evening, and one or two of those operated by Princess Road may have had breaks there.

The other terminating routes (94/169/170) were worked by 'East' garages, so had canteens elsewhere, and AFAIK only used Southern Cemetery as a layover brew-stop and convenience option.

Obviously it was more flexible schedules-wise to have the canteen mid-route, and the Northenden operated Wythenshawe services 100-6 that had breaks there were slightly odd for the time in that they often had a dead thirty minute mealbreak, dropping onto the same route they had driven on the first half of their duty. With the canteen sitting in the middle of the dual-carriageway, there was no walking time in either direction. Up the road at Princess Road garage, it was two minutes outward, three minues inward walk to the canteen or signing-on point, and the Union wouldn't wear thirty minute breaks anyway!

While the first generation tramways disappeared in the 1940s well before I was born, one bus service that I do recall was route 94 (formerly tram route 37), which ran from Southern Cemetery to Levenshulme Lloyd Road via Deansgate.

The 94 came in very useful when my girlfriend (now wife) and I briefly had a flat at the bottom of Seymour Grove and frequented a long since closed pub in Cornbrook. As a through route though, it was definitely an oddity!

 

[JKP]

The "Western National" roller blinds were in some cases used because of the tendency to swap and borrow buses and coaches around between Southern and Western National and Royal Blue. You'd (for instance) get a Southern liveried bus with a Western headboard on a Western route. Happened even more frequently after the amalgamation of the companies where everything was technically "Western" but hadn't been repainted. Other examples were Southern predominantly cream-painted dual purpose vehicles running with "Royal Blue" headboards

Western and Southern National buses wore the same green livery. Are you thinking the amalgamation of Western National with Devon General? There was a mix of liveries in various places in the 1970s.

 

[Bletchleyite]

I thought that all bus stops in London were now regarded as 'request' stops - or is it the other way round?

They are, but they are request stops on the German model, which means you stop if anyone there might want the bus, but if nobody is at the stop (or they make it obvious they don't want it, eg visibly stepping back) you need to press the bell to alight.

At a compulsory stop the bus had to stop and open doors regardless of if anyone was there or anyone had pressed the bell.

The Big Red Book as I linked above explains.

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 28 Dec 2025 ==

No different to timing points today, if the bus is early they have to just wait there until on time again, no matter if noone wants to get on or off.

Different in that if nobody is waiting at a timing point, nobody presses the bell and you aren't early then you don't need to stop. At compulsory stops it was required to stop and open the doors regardless of whether there was a purpose of doing so.

 

[Mark L]

I remember a discussion on the letters page of Buses Illustrated back in the 60s about the Brigadoon like village of "Service" as well as its subsidiary settlement of "Town Service".

In the same period Eastern National seemed to be a common destination for ENOC vehicles in Chelmsford.

Wilts & Dorset (the “original” incarnation rather than the post-1983 upstart) buses frequently displayed “Relief” or “Relief Car” as a destination.

 

[Acathater]

Western and Southern National buses wore the same green livery. Are you thinking the amalgamation of Western National with Devon General? There was a mix of liveries in various places in the 1970s.

No, I'm talking about the subsumption of Southern National in Western National in 1969.
At that time the fleet branding took some time to change, hence the need for "Western" headboards. There's an example at the start of this page

https://www.lthlibrary.org.uk/library/PDF-225-1.pdf

and here's another

SCT '61 - Western/Southern National Operator Index

and to be honest there was a difference in the livery. The Western livery at the time seemed to be a more yellowish shade of green than the Southern version and could easily be distinguished.

You mention Devon General - I only saw one of their buses on an out-of-area service once, and that was a red painted RE in Yeovil on a Taunton service (264???) in the mid 1970's, by which time the locally based buses were either painted in National Bus Green + white, or National Express white (a few LH coach bodied ones used on stage service but capable as backup for Royal Blue)

 

[Thames99]

I was a conductor at Portsmouth Corporation for a year or so in the early 70s. There was a cafe near the 143 terminus at Eastney and the conductor was always expected to pay for both the driver's and his cups of tea. The thinking was that when the bus was busy, conductors could run off 1p tickets for 2p fares and put them straight in the bin. This custom generated enough change to provide refreshments. I'm sure it must have been known about and tolerated by the management.

 

[WAB]

They are, but they are request stops on the German model, which means you stop if anyone there might want the bus, but if nobody is at the stop (or they make it obvious they don't want it, eg visibly stepping back) you need to press the bell to alight.

At a compulsory stop the bus had to stop and open doors regardless of if anyone was there or anyone had pressed the bell.

The Big Red Book as I linked above explains.

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 28 Dec 2025 ==



Different in that if nobody is waiting at a timing point, nobody presses the bell and you aren't early then you don't need to stop. At compulsory stops it was required to stop and open the doors regardless of whether there was a purpose of doing so.

In reality, though, if you don't hold your hand out, the bus likely won't stop.

 

[Whisky Papa]

You mention Devon General - I only saw one of their buses on an out-of-area service once, and that was a red painted RE in Yeovil on a Taunton service (462???) in the mid 1970's, by which time the locally based buses were either painted in National Bus Green + white, or National Express white (a few LH coach bodied ones used on stage service but capable as backup for Royal Blue)

I have a poor night photo of 3317, a Plaxton-bodied narrow-width Bristol LH in NBC red dual-purpose livery that was working in Ilfracombe during my holiday in 1980. It was used regularly on the 305 to Lee Bay.

This reminds me of another Western National quirk from that holiday - instructions on the driver's running board (or duty card / insert name of choice) to wait for another service to clear a section of narrow route. On Sundays that summer, there was a very ambitious network provided between Ilfracome and Lynton, including journeys down to Hunters Inn in the Heddon Valley. I boarded one such service at Blackmoor Gate, but the driver soon pulled over and waited, pointing to an instruction on his running board to let an earlier southbound bus pass and clear the road. Actually, I had been on the earlier bus, so knew it had cleared, and eventually I proved it to his satisfaction by poring over the Devon timetable books we were both carrying.

Perhaps that now seems another quirk - they always seemed to have the appropriate timetable book to hand.

 

[Ballyheigue]

Waiting for another bus to pass a narrow section of road was an instruction on one of the running boards for the Dalesbus Leeds to Buckden or Hawes 874/5 service via Ilkley, Grassington and Kettlewell. I think this instruction was for the lunchtime services which passed each other on a narrow road between Kettlewell and Buckden. Some drivers either got impatient or simply didn't follow the instruction so had to reverse when they saw the downward bus approach!

 

[Dai Corner]

I was a conductor at Portsmouth Corporation for a year or so in the early 70s. There was a cafe near the 143 terminus at Eastney and the conductor was always expected to pay for both the driver's and his cups of tea. The thinking was that when the bus was busy, conductors could run off 1p tickets for 2p fares and put them straight in the bin. This custom generated enough change to provide refreshments. I'm sure it must have been known about and tolerated by the management.

I wonder whether Inspectors avoided the journeys with scheduled breaks so they didn't 'discover' the fraud they'd probably been involved in earlier in their careers.

I seem to remember late night passengers (after the inspectors had finished for the day) could proffer less than the fare due and say "no need for a ticket mate" .

Also an attractive female colleague in the early 1980s who was usually the only passenger on her bus to work when she boarded near the start of the route was never asked to pay by one of the drivers.

 

[Taunton]

As we are going at Western National, another of their features in rural Somerset is they would stop anywhere on request (as they always have done), but villages had one formal bus stop, typically a timing point, formed of a large roadside board painted bus green, with the entire bus service for west Somerset, pages taken from timetable book, printed on yellow paper, where one had to scrutinise closely to find the right bit for the locality, all with BUS STOP printed in large pale red letters right across the lot.

For rural routes based at Taunton there were a number of last buses at 2230, which in the timetable it actually states (I have a 1960 one here) that if the film at the Odeon cinema had not finished the bus would wait for it to do so. The projectionist there used to back-calculate from information provided by the film distributor what bits could be "optional" for a fixed finishing time.

 

[GordonT]

Depots which went to enormous lengths to ensure the availability of their least favoured vehicle for occasions when a defective/broken down vehicle from another depot needed a replacement.

 

[ejstubbs]

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!

There is a name for this, according to The Meaning of Liff by Douglas Adams and John Lloyd:

EDGBASTON (n.)

The spare seat-cushion carried by a London bus, which is placed against the rear bumper when the driver wishes to indicate that the bus has broken down. No one knows how this charming old custom originated or how long it will continue.

 

[TheGrandWazoo]

Depots which went to enormous lengths to ensure the availability of their least favoured vehicle for occasions when a defective/broken down vehicle from another depot needed a replacement.

See also “the punishment bus” - parked near the depot entrance if a driver was tempted to book a vehicle defective on a whim

 

[Springs Branch]

The OP described a 'quaint' pub-based practice from the past. A less pleasant bus & pub anecdote, also involving Manchester Princess Rd (and Northenden) depots, concerns a former drinking establishment located on Princess Rd in West Didsbury, south of Southern Cemetery - variously named the Mersey Hotel, Snooty Fox and finally Mersey Lights.

The Mersey Hotel was one of those large, main road pubs neatly described as "1930s roadhouse style". Seemingly, for many years the pub had been a popular, expansive community venue offering live music, multiple bars etc, but by the mid 1980s it had developed a decidedly rough, antisocial reputation, especially at closing time.

In the days of Greater Manchester Transport, each night there would be a wave of buses coming south along Princess Rd which had all left Piccadilly "on the whistle" at 23:00, heading for various parts of Wythenshawe and elsewhere. Such was the reputation for trouble from tanked-up patrons boarding at the Snooty Fox / Mersey Lights that it was common for bus drivers to temporarily switch off the saloon and front blind lights on the approach to the pub and to sail past at a brisk pace in the outside lane of the dual carriageway.

Reportedly, the 'lights out' routine was well known to regular passengers already on the buses, who were probably very happy not to stop there and be invaded by boisterous, pugnacious drunks.

Closing-time aggravation was so bad that for a time the first outbound Night Service 100 journey (2345 from Piccadilly) was diverted away from Princess Road via Lapwing Lane & Palatine Rd to avoid the pub.

GM 100 230985.pdf

drive.google.com

That particular example is long gone*, but there must still be plenty of other problematic pubs around the UK. Do any drivers use the 'lights out' strategy these days?

* The Snooty Fox / Mersey Lights followed a familiar trajectory after this - closed down, then soon after mysteriously 'went on fire' (as the saying goes), followed by demolition and sale of the site for redevelopment. I believe it's a McDonalds and large petrol station these days.

 

[jp4712]

Back to the North Western company: my North Western Bristol was new at Wilmslow garage, and I was fortunate to procure a Wilmslow garage blind. I was puzzled to find the destination ‘Kerridge’ on it, which is a small suburb of Macclesfield, many miles from Wilmslow. I later found out from a former employee that the service from Wilmslow to Macclesfield involved a long layover at Macc, so management - ever keen to squeeze what they could out of its assets - decided that instead of enjoying leisurely cups of tea in Macclesfield’s canteen, the buses (and their drivers) could fill in the time with a trip to Kerridge and back. This was quite unpopular! There are other similar quirky ‘fill in turns’ from around the country, but they wouldn’t be obvious to a passenger. Perhaps the best known are the express routes between England and Scotland, particularly the overnights where the coach would go northbound one night and return south the next, and buses from Trent, Ribble, North Western et al would be spotted ‘borrowed’ doing a local Glasgow service during the day on behalf of Central or Western SMT…

Another Salford City Transport quirk: in 1945, Salford Corporation Transport was on its knees, banjaxed by wartime strain and poor management. The Transport Committee brought in Charles Baroth, a Midland Red trained man who took on arguably the worst municipal General Manager job in the country - in return for a free hand in fixing the Department’s problems. In short, within seven years he’d transformed Salford from being the worst municipal operator in the country to the best - it‘s a fascinating story, told in the book ‘West of the Irwell’. The resulting quirks included snippets that included Charlie Baroth refusing to have a bus go out dirty or dented; having a ‘punishment bus’ (as noted previously on this thread) for change-overs; but perhaps his best was reserved for the very rare occasion when a bus ‘failed to proceed’. When this happened - which was very, very rare - the standing instruction was that the bus should NOT have a cushion put behind the back panel; that the destination blinds should be set to ‘private’ as if parked on a private hire; should, if at all possible, be pushed into a side road; and left, accompanied by a member of staff, until after nightfall. Only then would Salford’s immaculate AEC Matador tow lorry come to take the victim back to the depot. The Matador was NOT to be seen on Salfor’s streets during the day - except once a year, when (polished and driven by an employee in a white dust coat) it led Salford’s carnival parade. This is why, at the Museum of Transport where we have a photo collection of perhaps 75,000 images, we do not have a single photo of Salford’s Matador towing a bus…

 

[MotCO]

Back to the North Western company: my North Western Bristol was new at Wilmslow garage, and I was fortunate to procure a Wilmslow garage blind. I was puzzled to find the destination ‘Kerridge’ on it, which is a small suburb of Macclesfield, many miles from Wilmslow. I later found out from a former employee that the service from Wilmslow to Macclesfield involved a long layover at Macc, so management - ever keen to squeeze what they could out of its assets - decided that instead of enjoying leisurely cups of tea in Macclesfield’s canteen, the buses (and their drivers) could fill in the time with a trip to Kerridge and back. This was quite unpopular! There are other similar quirky ‘fill in turns’ from around the country, but they wouldn’t be obvious to a passenger. Perhaps the best known are the express routes between England and Scotland, particularly the overnights where the coach would go northbound one night and return south the next, and buses from Trent, Ribble, North Western et al would be spotted ‘borrowed’ doing a local Glasgow service during the day on behalf of Central or Western SMT…

Two other examples of 'fill-in' duties:

1. Green Line coaches often did local routes prior to taking up duties on Green Line routes, and likewise in the evenings.
2. East Midland had an operator name of Frontrunner, which won some TfL contracts in the Romford area. In order to rotate staff and vehicles for maintenance, there was a late Friday evening and Sunday evening route from Mansfield to Ongar, which probably carried few passengers. This post gives further details. https://www.railforums.co.uk/threads/trivia-britains-strangest-bus-routes.203562/page-8 post #215 onwards.

 

[Taunton]

Yes, most London night bus crews were on regular nights (as ever with LT, some garages did different things) - it tended to be senior crews, as it was a regular week - and until a certain point, regular Saturday nights off, as most LT night routes didn't run Saturday night until the early / mid 80s, the whole shift was on 'unsocial hours' rate. And if the crew / driver did the sixth night as 'rest day' (at garages where there was just one night bus) after the 5 day week came in, that would have added up to quite a good pay packet.

In Edinburgh in the 1970s this was very entrenched, the five hourly all-night bus routes which lined up one behind the other at Waverley Bridge and all set off together on extended loops were it seemed wholly the province of the most senior drivers, headed for retirement, they were notably easy trips and it wasn't a full 8 hour shift. They didn't have a lot of outward trade, and if returning into the city I was commonly the only passenger - more than once they diverted off route to put me off closer to where I was going, with "ah, there's naebuddy ever there, son". Fascinating stories from them about driving the trams, or wartime days, alas started but inevitably not finished. They used the old single deck buses, which were hardly seen in daytime, and knew which had good heaters.

 

[Statto]

Back to the North Western company: my North Western Bristol was new at Wilmslow garage, and I was fortunate to procure a Wilmslow garage blind. I was puzzled to find the destination ‘Kerridge’ on it, which is a small suburb of Macclesfield, many miles from Wilmslow. I later found out from a former employee that the service from Wilmslow to Macclesfield involved a long layover at Macc, so management - ever keen to squeeze what they could out of its assets - decided that instead of enjoying leisurely cups of tea in Macclesfield’s canteen, the buses (and their drivers) could fill in the time with a trip to Kerridge and back. This was quite unpopular! There are other similar quirky ‘fill in turns’ from around the country, but they wouldn’t be obvious to a passenger. Perhaps the best known are the express routes between England and Scotland, particularly the overnights where the coach would go northbound one night and return south the next, and buses from Trent, Ribble, North Western et al would be spotted ‘borrowed’ doing a local Glasgow service during the day on behalf of Central or Western SMT…

The current T3/T3C Wrexham - Barmouth has plenty of short Barmouth - Dolgellau journey's in the timetable so buses don't have a long layover at the Barmouth end, although they do have long layovers at the Wrexham end.

 

[Wawanesa]

I don't know about quirky practices in the past but today I was riding on a certain bus in a certain place when the driver, on spying slow moving traffic ahead, shot down a road that hasn't seen a bus service in fifty years, then took a quick right turn to get back to his original route half a mile further on, having managed to avoid about ten minutes of queuing traffic. I'm not sure whether he would get a commendation or a disciplinary from his manager if that was noticed on the tracking.

 

[Mark L]

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.

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!

In "London and its Buses" published by LT in 1979 to mark the 150th anniversary of George Shillibeer's first bus in London this practice is described thus "Leaning a seat cushion up against the back of a disabled bus is a habit peculiar to London busmen, thought to date back to horse-bus days, when it was used to stop people boarding".

Clearly from comments made in response to the original posting it was not unique to London but I can see how leaning something against the rear of a horse bus would have stopped (or at least deterred) anyone boarding. Mind you, can a horse bus break down?

 

[Sir Felix Pole]

Western National in West Cornwall had 'Garage Workings' in Helston and Penzance, where passengers were officially permitted to ride on 'empty-stock' workings to and from the depots which were some distance from the town centres. They were undavertised, as timings varied from day to day, but were useful for residents of hilly Helston!

 

[MikeFromLFE]

Same thing in New Zealand in 1987 - what looked like normal long distance coaches were front half passenger/rear half freight.

I distinctly remember a London Transport Country bus (before London Country) delivering parcels in Kent during one of many teenage Rover trips. I never saw it on any other LT service so I wonder to this day whether it was official.