Amusing Occurrences in a Transport Context

[GordonT]

About 40 or so years ago a bus driver whose steady shift was on the Leven to Dundee coastal route had some family connection with a farm, which he passed when driving through a rural part of Fife.

Parallel to the road was a field containing a solitary horse.

If he was running slightly early and the weather was reasonable the driver would pull over, stop his bus, wander over to the horse and ride it once up and down the field before returning to his bus to continue the journey, as if this was a perfectly normal way to behave.

Regular passengers were used to it, but tourists and other non frequent passengers probably thought that they were dreaming.

 

[BrandanM]

Many years ago my mother inadvertently posted a handful of letters into the used tickets bin on the bus. The conductor had to raise the seat in order to gain access and retrieve them for her.

Apparently he wasn't too happy about it

 

[DM352]

Heading to St Bees as final destination late 90's to do the Coast to Coast walk I changed trains at Carlisle and saw the not so trusty 142 smoking away in the bay platform in provincial livery. It did not look well.

Boarded and got to I think Parton and the 142 conked out except for a starter motor which just shook the train doing nothing more.

We were rescued by a northbound 153 going towards Carlisle which changed its diagram and magically dragged the dead 142 towards Whitehaven with lots of revving.

Reason why stuck in my mind was there was a full on BR strike the next day and the accommodations were all booked.

 

[BrandanM]

You wait ages for a DMC DeLorean to come along and then 4 arrive at once

I encountered these purely by chance several years ago on the approach to Foxton (FXN) station. I think they were on their way to/from a car meet.

 

[MotCO]

Many years ago, a bus driver friend relayed this story.

He was driving a bus along the road between Hampton Court and Kingston upon Thames. This road closely follows the River Thames, and this day was especially foggy, a real pea-souper, not helped by being close to the river. He was proceeding slowly, and then he saw a bus coming towards him, straight at him. He tried waving to the other driver to get him to change lanes, but in the end, the other bus passed him on his nearside - my friend had inadvertently been driving down the wrong side of the road!

 

[TheSel]

Back in the 1970s, so well before the days of the mobile phone, we had an afternoon turn at our local depot (NBC constituent) that covered a school run, then went 'light' (i.e. empty) to a regular terminus to do a 'fill-in' peak time trip on an otherwise hourly service. One day the driver - not the sharpest tool in the box, shall we say - having dropped off the school kids, and running empty in an elderly Bristol MW, broke down about ten minutes away from said terminus. With no radio control in those days, and no phone box in the vicinity, he looked at his watch and thought: "I know, I'll wait here for the 1705 off the terminus and get him to take me to the village (3 miles away) where there's a phone box."

You've guessed it - he was waiting for himself coming back! Only when I got there on the next outbound working did he realise his error. Result, much humour in the canteen for the next week or so.

 

[DM352]

During the 90's rail strikes was informed trains are running limited to London from Tunbridge so showed up first thing at the station to see lots of red lights and no train in sight.

Learned quick it was Tonbridge which locals pronounced the o with a u. I got to work late on a 4Cep with the only space by the secondmans area where the units joined.

 

[Egg Centric]

Not an "occurrence" so much as terrible statistics reporting but this notice on LNER amused me. 25% of "people" - unqualified - haven't got period products on public transport apparently. Well, given that at least 70% of people don't menstruate that would imply that about half the population is unnecessarily carrying around period products for no reason!

(Image shows above claim as well as that LNER are the first operator to offer free period products on their trains)

 

[MotCO]

I've just received an email from Metrobus with their latest 'newsletter', which included a bit about 'lost and found', the stuff people have left behind on buses. Along with the usual wallets, phones, keys etc, there were violins, a trumpet and a tambourine (maybe someone said 'abandon bus' ), but more bizarrely, there was a canoe, wardrobe, electric cooker and a fridge! It reminds me of an episode of On the Buses where they were using a bus to move house.

 

[PG]

more bizarrely, there was a canoe, wardrobe, electric cooker and a fridge!

I'm wondering if they were all miniature versions else what were the drivers thinking letting them on board!

 

[Egg Centric]

I'm wondering if they were all miniature versions else what were the drivers thinking letting them on board!

I think you can explain canoe by being a kayak, wardrobe by being flat pack, and fridge by being one of those useless peltier effect things. Struggling with electric cooker though. Air fryer maybe?

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 15 Jan 2025 ==

Many years ago my mother inadvertently posted a handful of letters into the used tickets bin on the bus. The conductor had to raise the seat in order to gain access and retrieve them for her.

Apparently he wasn't too happy about it

Was this one of those Royal Mail buses that they (used to?) have in rural parts of Scotland or was she just being (in the kindest possible way) rather dosy?

 

[philthetube]

Going back to when ticket office staff had to calculate fares involving freedom passes, network cards etc a member of my walking group ended up with a day return from London Victoria to Berwick upon Tweed for £4.50

 

[DM352]

Going back to when ticket office staff had to calculate fares involving freedom passes, network cards etc a member of my walking group ended up with a day return from London Victoria to Berwick upon Tweed for £4.50

That reminds me whenI had a six zone travel card and weekend train trips outside used to be a manual process at the booking office for boundary zone fares. Recall sometimes 5 minutes with lots of beeping noises heard from the NCR ticket machine as fare calculation attempts were made.

 

[Peter Mugridge]

Struggling with electric cooker though.

Probably one of these things?

( Picture shows a portable mini electric stove consisting of two hot plates on a base only a couple of inches tall. )

 

[Sun Chariot]

I commuted from Hertfordshire to Liverpool Street for a few years in the 1990s. I recall one evening rush hour, waiting on the concourse, a rather amusing moment.

The announcer's tannoy was on - a female announcer started to make noises which - well, if you remember the film When Harry Met Sally and Meg Ryan in that scene: yep, those sort of noises! - soon filled the station... Cue shocked / bemused faces on the concourse.

Just as she reached her "peak", she burst out laughing, as it was clearly a fake one!
We on the concourse started laughing too. It made our day!

 

[Ken X]

Whilst chatting to a long deceased uncle he mentioned that he, and other servicemen used to chat on buses by tapping their rings on the metal rails forming the bus seat frames. They were all fluent in morse code and reckoned it carried for surprising distances across a bus. The subjects varied but usually revolved around the ladies accompanying them.

Often wondered how widespread the practice was.

 

[DelW]

Whilst chatting to a long deceased uncle he mentioned that he, and other servicemen used to chat on buses by tapping their rings on the metal rails forming the bus seat frames. They were all fluent in morse code and reckoned it carried for surprising distances across a bus. The subjects varied but usually revolved around the ladies accompanying them.

Often wondered how widespread the practice was.

Possibly a skill learned and honed in PoW camps? At least, that seemed to be the way they did it in old war films, with messages sent between cells via the pipework.