When did rail replacement bus services first operate?

[deltic]

Until the motor bus arrived I assume there were no replacement services and rail services were just cancelled. More alternative routes and less restrictive health and safety rules presumably meant engineering works did not impact as much on services but does anyone know where and when the first temporary rail replacement bus services were operated?

 

[randyrippley]

I think I've seen reference somewhere to the GWR operating them, but where, or when, I can't remember

 

[Magdalia]

More alternative routes and less restrictive health and safety rules presumably meant engineering works did not impact as much on services

This is correct. In most instances through trains would be provided with diversions and/or single line working. For example, most track relaying would not have necessitated a route closure.

 

[Helvellyn]

I know the OP means for engineering works but I suppose in the 1960s many branch lines closed because rail replacement bus services were being provided, and certain lines survived because a replacement bus couldn't be provided, e.g. Bedford-Bletchley along the Marston Vale line.

 

[RT4038]

This is correct. In most instances through trains would be provided with diversions and/or single line working. For example, most track relaying would not have necessitated a route closure.

Most lines had sparse or no passenger train service on Sundays, and much work could be done between trains. I expect that buses have been used as replacements ever since they had been widely available from the 1920s onwards. What sparse service there was could be diverted, and locally trains could be turned at just about any station, so RRB was usually only between two or three adjacent stations and trains were not unduly delayed waiting for them. Before mass motoring, obstruction by car parking at stations or en route was less of an issue too. Obviously in places where roads did not follow the line of rail there would have been more local disruption.

 

[WesternLancer]

I am sure one of the BFI Collection British Transport Films (BTF) collection DVDs includes a film that looked to me from the 1950s IIRC, covering line closure for track relaying work on a secondary line or branch line - possibly with no sunday service - I think it may be BTF from 1956 'Making tracks' which I found and link below

Skimming over it I see no mention of buses though (unless I missed that) so now I have found it I am not sure that this is much help really - but it is a great bit of railway film making from that era. c15 mins doc so I will post anyway. Does look like the job is all handled on a Sunday.

 

[Hassocks5489]

I'm a subscriber to the British Newspapers Archive, and was inspired by this question to do a search for "replacement bus" across the whole of the archive. Already in the first few hits, I've found a couple of things which touch on points made above:

"RAILWAY CLOSED TO PASSENGER TRAFFIC: The Cheshire Lines Railway between Cuddington Junction, on the main Manchester-to-Chester line, and Winsford has been closed to passenger traffic and the train service from Winsford and Whitegate stations will replaced by a bus service connecting with the main line trains. The Cheshire Lines Committee announced a month ago its intention to close the branch on line December 31 [1930], and there has been strong opposition from the Winsford District Council, the Ratepayers' Association and the Co-Operative Society, but all efforts have failed to alter the committee's decision. The Urban District Council, however has not relinquished the fight and is seckmg counsel's opinion on the legal position. The branch line had previously been closed, but in 1890 the Canals and Railways Commission ordered the resumption of passenger traffic." (From the Dundee (!) Evening Telegraph, 1st January 1931)

"A 58 years’ record was broken by yesterday’s temperature in London. Not since 1871 has day temperature of less than 29 degrees [Fahrenheit] been recorded in Loudon the middle ten days of February. One remarkable proof of the strength of the frost occurred on the main Southern Railway line between Broad Clyst and Pinhoe, Devon, where it fractured a rail. Traffic was confined to one track, while the broken rail was replaced." (From the Sheffield Independent, 13th February 1929, backing up the point about alternative routes, wrong-line working etc.)

I'll see what else I can find! (There was also one for our Disputes and Prosecutions board: a 14-year-old boy defrauding a bus company out of two and a half pence by travelling on somebody's season ticket he had found and altering the name, in 1948!)

 

[6Gman]

I am sure one of the BFI Collection British Transport Films (BTF) collection DVDs includes a film that looked to me from the 1950s IIRC, covering line closure for track relaying work on a secondary line or branch line - possibly with no sunday service - I think it may be BTF from 1956 'Making tracks' which I found and link below

Skimming over it I see no mention of buses though (unless I missed that) so now I have found it I am not sure that this is much help really - but it is a great bit of railway film making from that era. c15 mins doc so I will post anyway. Does look like the job is all handled on a Sunday.

Cracking film and nice to see early coverage of the PWM locos in use - generally seen in sidings awaiting next weekend's work! (Small declaration of interest: the first railway photograph I had published in the Railway Magazine was of a PWM, parked at Radyr.)

 

[WesternLancer]

Cracking film and nice to see early coverage of the PWM locos in use - generally seen in sidings awaiting next weekend's work! (Small declaration of interest: the first railway photograph I had published in the Railway Magazine was of a PWM, parked at Radyr.)

Thanks - yes, I agree it's well worth a which even if it does not help answer the original question in the way I had hoped it might!

A photo published in the RM is quite an achievement indeed - congrats, what was the rough date of that one may I ask?

 

[jp4712]

The book ‘London Main Line War Damage’ by Ben Brooksbank (Capital Transport Publishing, 2007) makes frequent references to replacement buses due to war damage; and at the Museum of Transport Great Manchester we have publicity relating to buses replacing the Manchester London Road (Piccadilly) to Oxford Road stretch while it was rebuilt and electrified in 1958.

 

[6Gman]

Thanks - yes, I agree it's well worth a which even if it does not help answer the original question in the way I had hoped it might!

A photo published in the RM is quite an achievement indeed - congrats, what was the rough date of that one may I ask?

Winter of 1976/77 I think.

Long time ago now!

 

[WesternLancer]

Winter of 1976/77 I think.

Long time ago now!

Thanks

 

[Rescars]

In retrospect, it seems surprising that the concept of rail replacement bus services took so long to develop. AIUI the GWR was using steam and motor buses to provide rail feeder services from c1903. Other railway companies naturally followed suit.

 

[Dr Hoo]

G P Neale, Superintendent of the Line of the L&NWR wrote in some detail about the Llandulus Viaduct (on the main Chester-Holyhead route and critical for Irish mail traffic) being washed away in floods on 17 August 1879. Rail replacement road coaches were immediately introduced between Colwyn and Abergele. Neale gives no impression that this was anything new or unique.

As might be expected, such serious damage took some while to repair. It took as long as eight days for a temporary single line causeway with 1:23 gradients to be constructed and commissioned. The permanent replacement seven-span steel viaduct, was built entirely at Crewe Works in kit form in a week and constructed on site within 26 days of the original incident by exploitation of 24-hour working with the newly-invented assistance of electric arc lamps.

Nothing new here!

 

[Rescars]

G P Neale, Superintendent of the Line of the L&NWR wrote in some detail about the Llandulus Viaduct (on the main Chester-Holyhead route and critical for Irish mail traffic) being washed away in floods on 17 August 1879. Rail replacement road coaches were immediately introduced between Colwyn and Abergele. Neale gives no impression that this was anything new or unique.

As might be expected, such serious damage took some while to repair. It took as long as eight days for a temporary single line causeway with 1:23 gradients to be constructed and commissioned. The permanent replacement seven-span steel viaduct, was built entirely at Crewe Works in kit form in a week and constructed on site within 26 days of the original incident by exploitation of 24-hour working with the newly-invented assistance of electric arc lamps.

Nothing new here!

And going even further back to the 1830s, AIUI the London and Birmingham Railway used a stage coach shuttle service between Denbigh Hall and Rugby until the construction of Kilsby Tunnel was completed. Being pedantic, a case of rail substitution rather than rail replacement in this instance.