Recent content by 91104

Not sure if this belongs in the London buses section or not but an interesting development from first Essex from the end of next month into tfl land when route B1 currently a local Basildon route gains a lengthy extension along the A127 to Harold Wood station. Probably aimed at people who...

What caused house prices to explode in the late 90s early 00s? My experience was I bought my first home in 1996 during the dying days of John Majors government in an unfashionable part of London for £50k at the age of 21. Although I wasn’t earning great money then as was still under British Rail...

I can just about remember seeing the class 309 units in Jaffa Cake livery. How long did this livery last before it was replaced by the Network Southeast livery? Also I know some southern third rail units got this livery but did anything else get it and was there ever any consideration to put all...

They were certainly part of a GNER drivers uniform so lasted after privatisation. I was issued with one when starting as a driver with GNER but never wore it. There was only one old school driver at my depot who I can recall wearing one.

Another phrase that everyone seems to use nowadays that makes no sense to me is “can I get”. When people are in a Coffee shop or pub etc and say “can I get a….” It seems to imply they’re asking permission to come behind the counter and get whatever it is they want themselves.

Is it just me or has anyone else noticed that a vast section of society now seem unable to have a conversation without saying the phrase “and I was like” several times. What does this phrase even mean and how did it come to be such a big part of the British vocabulary?

In the 1980s different parts of London could be defined by what buses were in use. East and South East London it was Leyland Titans. South London was B20 DMSs and South West,West and North London was Metrobuses. That was until route tendering came along and changed things.

In GNER days I remember getting an easy days overtime when a class 91 was dragging an HST in passenger service. Can’t remember what was wrong with the HST but they wanted to get it back to Craigentinny. The rear HST power car was left running to provide power to the coaches and because there was...

I was allowed to pick up my first weeks wages in cash as I was a 16 year old who hadn’t got a bank account sorted but after that it had to be paid 4 weekly into a bank account. I remember getting £3 quarterly for bank charges which I believed BR would’ve offered as an incentive to get people to...

When I started in 1991 we got an annual leave allowance of 21 days plus 9 bank holidays on top. If you were rostered to work on a bank holiday you got double time plus a day in lieu to take whenever you wanted so as a result bank holiday working was very popular. Indeed I remember one occasion...

When I was a fitter at Bounds Green in the 90s we worked a 3 week recurring roster that went as follows: week 1Sun R/D Mon R/D Tue 08:00-18.00 Weds 08.00-18.00 Thurs 08.00-18.00 Fri 08.00-18.00 Sat 08.00-18.00 week2: Sun 08.00-18.00 Mon 08.00-1800 Tues 08.00-18.00 Weds 08.00-18.00 Thurs R/D Fri...

Am I in a minority by not really liking Coffee and failing to see the attraction of the stuff? When I was a kid growing up in the 80/90s Coffee seemed to be a choice between Nescafé and Maxwell House and if you wanted one when out and about a greasy spoon cafe would knock you one up in a...

I worked on the Mark 4s pre Mallard refurb at Bounds Green. They were awful things when compared to a Mk3. Horrible grey/pink colour scheme. Red vestibule carpets that looked really bad when worn (later replaced with black matting), Lino in the toilets that was all bubbled and had loads of tacks...

Well not if it turned up at the same time the train would be due but the train in question departs from Wickford at 04.21 so a bus at 04.00 would get to Shenfield in time for the 04.38 departure to get into Liverpool St at 05.06 so I could stomach getting up 20 minutes earlier. Admittedly for...

As per the title do train operating companies have an obligation to provide rail replacement buses to cover planned cancelled trains? The reason I ask is because of overnight engineering work Greater Anglia are cancelling the first up service of a morning from Southend Victoria to Liverpool St...