Quirky or quaint practices on buses in the past

[Tim33160]

Back to codes shown on buses indicating their garage allocation, and the system used by Greater Manchester Transport from the mid 1970s until deregulation doesn't seem to have been mentioned yet.

AM - Altrincham
BN - Bolton (covered Shiffnall Street and Bridgeman Street before they closed and were concentrated at the enlarged Crook Street)
BS - Birchfields Road, Manchester
BY - Bury (also covered Ramsbottom until its closure)
FK - Frederick Road, Salford
HE - Hyde Road, Manchester
LH - Leigh
NN - Northenden
OM - Oldham
PS - Princess Road, Manchester
QS - Queens Road, Manchester
RE - Rochdale
ST - Stockport (included Charles Street buses until they were all accommodated at Daw Bank, but the code was not shown by Charterplan coaches based at Charles Street)
TE - Tameside (originally Ashton-under-Lyne Mossley Road and Stalybridge Tame Street, transferred to new garage at Whitelands Road, also included Glossop garage)
WE - Weaste, Salford
WN - Wigan

In homage to the 125 years of Queens Rd depot - opened for electric trams 6th June 1901,
allocated buses once again, have QS stickers after the fleet numbers. First had MR stickers at one time for this depot

Stagecoach / Bee Network are holding an open day at the depot on Saturday 6th June 2026 in conjunction with a celebration weekend held next door at Museum of Transport GM, Boyle St on Sat / Sun 6 / 7 June

Queens Road 125​

Saturday 6 June 2026 Sunday 7 June 2026 10am to 4.30pm​

Celebrating 125 years of Queens Road Depot​

https://www.motgm.uk/events-themed.html#june

 

[frodshamfella]

Oh yes, Thames Weald certainly was quirky! With a proprietor named Dr. H. Nesbitt Heffernan, a psychiatrist in a Dartford hospital, it could hardly be otherwise. But his minibus routes provided a lifeline to isolated settlements around his base at West Kingsdown for over 30 years - eventually extending to Crawley and Romford, after the Dartford Tunnel opened - and he is still well remembered locally.

Bio and links here (pdf).

Dr Nesbitt Heffernan must have had a lot of conviction to keep the TW route going.

 

[trentside]

TW wasn’t officially in the one man band camp, as he did employ another driver at times but the concept of a one man band operator is a rare thing now. I can think of Fareline in East Anglia as an example, owner and driver the same person and a single vehicle.

 

[JKP]

TW wasn’t officially in the one man band camp, as he did employ another driver at times but the concept of a one man band operator is a rare thing now. I can think of Fareline in East Anglia as an example, owner and driver the same person and a single vehicle.

Ray Cuff in Dorset was another one man operator.

 

[TheGrandWazoo]

Ray Cuff in Dorset was another one man operator.

Wasn't Weaverbus in Dorset another one man band?

 

[Whisky Papa]

I'm looking at a timetable from 1982, the 7/8 New Brighton - Newton, & journey's are timed to take the same time regardless of time of day & day of the week they operate on, which is bizarre as no allowance is made for lighter traffic in the Evenings, Saturday mornings & Sundays, this was most timetables from that era, were as nowadays timetables are set (i know not always) with traffic in mind, like 15 minutes New Brighton to Liscard on the 7, the current 414/432 take 10 minutes.

Wirral 7 001182.pdf

drive.google.com

It's often why drivers were early at the last stop before the terminus, & on route.

Sorry to jump so far back, I've been meaning to comment on this for a while and not got around to it.

It might be viewed as bizarre now, but I would suggest having standard running times throughout the day / week was pretty much the norm then, although I'm sure there would have been exceptions.

In the area I was scheduling around that time in Stockport, the south of Manchester and Trafford, I can recall two exceptions. In 1985, the 53 Cheetham - Old Trafford 'circular' was allowed 45 minutes at all times except during Mon-Fri peaks when it got 50 (47 and 52 minutes respectively in the opposite direction). The headway was also reduced at these times, although not for very long in the afternoon peak, I now notice. The most frequent service was actually on Saturday afternoons with a 5 minute headway (but no increased running time) which given it served both football grounds was perhaps not surprising.

The other oddity was the 197 between Stockport and Manchester via Heaton Moor and Burnage. Part of it replaced the 311 Stockport - Heaton Moor (Green End) service, which had two buses per hour in the evening and Sundays. As the 197 was planned to be hourly, the Trade Union reps kicked off, and a last-minute compromise was reached where a two buses per hour evening and Sunday service was retained. In order to cover this with only one extra bus working, a quite hefty reduction in running time from 51 minutes southbound or 52 minutes northbound during the day to only 40 in the evening and Sundays was agreed - this was a very major concession by the Trade Union at the time.