A selection of Corporation buses


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During my time working at NCT I met some really amazing people, different races, colours, religions, all walks of life. One thing that I noticed was the comradeship amongst bus crews. Even today I still bump into old mates walking the streets of Bulwell. Several books could be written about the subject.

One point is bus maintenence. Absolutely top notch in every way, defect a bus & it was fixed pronto, no question. I've worked for some haulage companies & the general public would be surprised at the condition of some wagons on the road, not all bus & coach companies were whiter than white either.

NCT was the best company, for vehicle maintenence I ever worked for.

What happened to the bus conductors was a regular question. Some, not all were trained as bus drivers, oh dear, some were good, some not so good & some were bleddy awful !

Those who fell into the latter category we called not drivers, but bus "aimers", point the bus & hope for the best hellothere

At Bulwell Depot we had the first lady bus driver on NCT, soon there were many lady drivers, again some really good ones. etc !

I always thought that some women drivers had to prove a point that they were as good as men drivers, they didn't, they were good & bad the same as men. However they were moving into a male dominated area, the first time since there were lady drivers during the war. Nowadays every other bus has a lady driver, a few months ago I actually complimented a lady on her excellent driving. No kidding, she was very good.

Talking of ladies, there was a male driver who let's be polite & say he liked his beer ! Having been banned from driving he was made a conductor to keep him in employment during his driving ban.

Early one morning he decided to get his bus ready while the driver went to get a cup of tea, he jumped in the cab of an AEC Renown & drove from the top of the depot to the bottom. The garage floor being quite slippery he applied the brakes & cos he was going too fast he slid the bus into the ..........................Ladies toilets !

Completely demolishing them !

Thankfully no one was in there !

Happy memories for me.

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loppy asked about Inspectors, were they like "Blakey" ? No, not at all, a Blakey wannabe would appear very rarely but never lasted more than five minutes. Inspectors needed goodwill from the drivers

#68. Difficult to answer really ! AEC Renown has to be near the top of that list. We had at Bulwell Depot 360 to 379 & every one was different in some way. 363 had lovely light steering (rememb

Part 2. My favourite buses. There were many I liked but my two all time favourites would be in second place the Mk 1 Leyland National used on the central area free bus service. I did the odd shift on

Bus maintenance on Trent was never an issue either. I have driven for a fair few private coach companies however and without exception maintenance was NEVER anything more than 'mend it when it breaks'.

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Enjoying your posts, Mick. You could write a book. :-)

Just wondering, did you ever have any inspectors like "Blakey" in On the Buses?

Was On the Buses even true to life?

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#78.

When I joined NCT in ]'74 we were free to do what we pleased in our spare time. Driving for private operators was a done thing. Personally I went wagon driving instead of bus or coach driving.

One favourite port of call for a bit of freelance work was Camm's Coaches or otherwise known as Camm's Collapsible's, some of the horror stories brought back to the Bulwell Depot canteen table would have you in nightmares.

Dodgy brakes a sure favourite, hydraulic leake a regular occurence. One driver said after a trip with a load of schoolgirls to London he had an hydraulic clutch failure. A phone call to Camm's was met by, Oh yes that's common on that coach, go & buy an half inch AF spanner & a can of brake fluid & get a passenger to bleed the clutch for you !

This was the mentality of Camm's Coaches.

I only ever did a bit of private stuff on one occasion. School contracts, taking the kids to school & picking em up after school. With this you had a lady assistant on the bus. I found out why the hard way, these kids attended a "special" school.

If you didn't drive around every roundabout on the route three times they went barmy, & woe betide you if you didn't shake hands with every one of them when they got to school.

The coach was an ex army thing from the early fifties still in army green ! AND a lovely eight speed "crash" box, that really sorted the drivers out for sure.

Hard work but great fun.

The bus owner actually begged me to go & work for him but the pay was almost 30% less than what I was getting on NCT, with no overtime at all.

A bit about Inspectors next after I've been outside to cool down.

Later !

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At school I always wanted to be a bus driver, when I told Mr Spungin (the careers bloke at Trent Bridge) he said "& what are you going to do till you're 23 then?" So ended up down the pit. I wanted to train as a bus driver after my army days, but the PSV test waiting list at the time was months long, so became a taxi driver instead (zero test waiting list) & did that for a few years. I'd then sort of had my fill of driving the public around & became a driving instructor but kept my taxi badge for when a lot of my pupils all passed their test at the same time & got nowt to d. I'd then rent a taxi for 12 hours, & go on the road & earn a few quid. Then a detached retina blinded me in my left eye & I gave up driving as a career. I now just drive my car..

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Not in that bleddy duck suit, or is that reserved for certain wins by the Pies ?

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Later in life I decided that I wouldn't have minded being an airline pilot, but it was too late for me by then. Had an aquaintance who was a pilot for BA. Started out on 707s and finally ended up pushing a 747 around by the time he retired. He got in there via the RAF. Hard for a working class kid to get in there. I think you needed a university education and a private pilot's license before they'd even take you on as a trainee.

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loppy asked about Inspectors, were they like "Blakey" ?

No, not at all, a Blakey wannabe would appear very rarely but never lasted more than five minutes. Inspectors needed goodwill from the drivers, for instance they would chase us to finish a late shift on a Saturday night, if the Inspector wasn't liked a firm pi$$ off would send him on his way, a decent Inspector knew his men & worked accordingly.

Just after six am one morning I'd overslept by about half an hour when the phone rang & a certain well liked & respected Inspector said to me, look out yer window Catfan I've sent a bus for you ! hellothere

On pay day I had lost no wages due my lateness ! Some were absolutely brilliant blokes.

Don't forget all these were old hands at the job, either conductors or drivers so they knew every dodge in the book, they had done them themselves !

When the rules were relaxed whereas a driver with only six months employment could apply to be an Inspector was when the rot set in in some ways.

Jumped up little Hitler's who thought they were really clever soon came unstuck, like pulling the bus up on Vernon Road toilets & taking a newspaper for a read !

When questioned the standard answer was, if you gotta go, you gotta go hellothere

One particular Bulwell Inspector often jumped on my bus in Bulwell Market, he would say gerroff upstairs & have a fag, great, he would drive to Basford Gasworks where he would get off & go home nearby for his break. !

We also had other Inspectors at Bulwell who were fantastic blokes. Only time problems occured was when a spare Inspector covered for holidays, days off etc. Arrived on the scene. That was when the serious fun started, or known as Do as you like time ! These jumped up Blakey types didn't last five minutes.

The thing was, life was a two way street, & as one Inspector always quoted, KNOW YER MEN !

Great days they were ! I have enjoyed my ramblings about the buses !

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I've enjoyed 'em too, Mick. Thanks.

I think the Blakey thing was one of the things that made On the Buses quite a good show in its day. You always wondered if Jack was ""gonna get the sack." this week. The shop steward conductor, I forget his name now, was also quite a character.

Edited for spelling.

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I remember when 'on the buses' started some newspaper guy said "how can a bus depot be made into a half hour comedy? Nothing funny ever happens in the bus business!" Oh how wrong he/she was, one of mt favourite programmes. I fancied Anna Karen who played Olive, lol..

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You would never believe the funny things I saw etc in my time.

A driver radio'd in one night. "I have a dead bloke on the bus, what shall i do ?"

Answer "hand him in to lost property, if not collected in three months, he's yours" hellothere

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Heard on the local wireless tonight that NCT are buying fifty three new low emission gas powered buses keeping the city centre fume free ! But I thought the "Slug" was the city council's pride & joy, flagship white elephant, call it what you will.

Does the council have unlimited funds to spend or is the "Slug" on it's way out or do they just like spending our money ????

https://www.nctx.co.uk/2016/07/nottingham-city-transport-set-to-become-one-of-the-cleanest-and-greenest-bus-operators-in-the-uk-thanks-to-successful-olev-funding-bid/

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I know you didn't Mick. That was a bit tongue in cheek. :-). It is an example of what we've talked about elsewhere. All depends on how one looks at it. Certainly not political to me. Just an example of a ruling group making decisions that some see as unwise.

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This is not the first time NCT has trialled alternatively fuelled vehicles. They had some ethanol powered buses but the experiment only lasted as long as the subsidy from the government. Once that expired they were converted to run on good old fashioned Diesel

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