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Old Nottingham City Transport Single Decker

Old Market Square , Nottingham c1960s

King Edward Street, Nottingham 1976 Former site of Central Market after it moved into the Victoria Centre & was being used as temporary parking for the Nottingham City Transport buses Ph

Looking at the photo reminds me of passing the Empire just after demolition had commenced. The wall on Sherwood Street had been knocked down revealing the auditorium. I was surprised to see how narrow the interior was. The stage was there, either side of which were elephant heads. Being a lover of pachyderms I always admired them when I went to see a show. Now here they were, no doubt blinking in the daylight that they had never seen in their 70 years of existence.

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Re #667 - Merthyr, sorry the only 33 that I ever knew of was the one you mentioned - Melbourne Road to City hospital via Bar Lane and Southwark Street. It only ran on Sunday afternoons for hospital visiting. It is one of the few routes I never travelled on. (On one occasion in my early teens I took a trip into Nottingham just to travel on the rather occasional and erratic 51 from the bottom of Alfred Street to Hartley Road - sad eh?!)

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I think the Goose Fair specials were shunted around a bit over the years. My memory is of them picking up on the south side of the Old Market Square (i.e. across the road from South Parade), then round the front of the Council House, north side of OMS, and Market Street, before heading up Goldsmith Street. I guess this would be the mid to late 1950s. The bank holiday tour of Nottingham started there as well - that must have been 1958 because it was the first NCT Leyland PD2 that I ever travelled on.

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I certainly don't recall the Goose Fair buses running from South Sherwood St and, I have to say, that I consider it highly unlikely that you would want (potentially) a long queue of buses parked on the main road through the centre of town

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It may interest the Bus enthusiasts on this site. This man was born in 1899 and was interviewed in the early eighties about his employment with Nottingham City Transport. As it is a lengthy interview I have only extracted a very small part of it.

“….there was trams operating nearly all trams, latterly they got one or two buses but I was then able to obtain employment on the Nottingham City Tramways Department, the wage I believe was £3.15s for a 48 hour week……..after being unemployed for a period I started as a conductor…..At that time I was on, you started as a spare man and a spare man was given all kinds of duties. He was to cover in the case of sickness and in case people didn't turn up for their work. You would be on what they called 'spotting' seeing cars out which meant that you reported at the Depot if you had an early shift round about 5.30 and you would stand by, waiting for the conductors, as I was a conductor, if he failed to turn up you would then take on his duty and perhaps complete his full day. In the earlier days though they were called spare man, if he stood at the Depot and everybody turned up, he didn’t get anything, then at a later stage through negotiations if he didn't get a job he got a shilling…………

take Bulwell Depot, they operated in my day from Bulwell to Trent Bridge and from Nottingham Road, Radford and Lenton……Trent Bridge Depot covered various routes, there was Sherwood Depot which covered the Sherwood or Route 1, Route 9 service, Sherwood Trent Bridge, Arnold Trent Bridge and then in 1926 they built a new Depot and reopened it at Cartergate……also the internal combustion engine was being developed and of course then the department started taking on buses as well as trolley buses and the first trolley buses were operating on the Nottingham Road, King Street…….

Well, what you had in operation for instance on Carlton, you had a single line, see you had a double line coming down Carlton Road near St. Matthias Road owing to the narrowness of the road there would be a single track. The same thing happened on Wilford Road whereby when it was foggy the driver would have a wooden staff and he would keep that staff and as he was going the instructions were, he donged once and, oh I just can't remember what it was, and twice on another occasion and then when he got to the single track he would wait until he received a staff from the car that was going in the opposite direction to let him know that the single line was clear. There was no question of the tram that was coming to town would clash with one from town and then he would keep that, he would take that staff over but and give it to the next bloke y'see and what would happen also would be a point lad who would, at the one end where there was no car coming up would hold the staff for the car coming up to take over the staff so that the bloke at the other end wouldn't proceed because there was no staff because the car that was coming up from the City had got the staff and that was what used to happen during fog, but when toe buses became where there was no lines, no rails, they wouldn't want any staffs, they used to proceed very very slow and the conductor unfortunately and I've done it several times had to go in front, of course he used to perhaps sit on the mudguard to see that the thing was very clear. I remember walking all the way from Beeston to Nottingham when it was foggy, sitting on the mudguard to guide the driver.”

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Following on from #692

".........nearly all the trams were open fronted, the driver used to be provided with a heavy coat and waterproof apron.....I've seen many a driver, particularly when it's cold if he'd got a moustache, there would be icicles on his moustache and the car.........say you were on the first tram at 5am in the morning you, from a conductor's point of view you would be perished and when I first started with the Corporation you weren't issued with a full uniform, all what you got was a peaked cap and a torn overcoat......later on you would get a full uniform, trousers, tunic a great overcoat and a cap....."

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As I recall it was the 44 from Bulwell Hall to Colwick, but I suppose that could be topped now.

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No, the 43 was not the longest or anywhere near. 44/71 Bulwell Hall & Rise Park to Colwick Crossings one of the longest, 21/75 as mentioned, 23/85 Hempshill Vale to Adbolton Lane also long & 35 Norwich Gardens Bulwell to City.

I could never in my life understand why a service like the 21/75 had dual numbers, i.e. from Bulwell it was a 21 & return journey was 75 from Edwalton, talk about confusing passengers ! Also the 82 service from Bulwell Hall to Carlton via Netherfield of all places. This extended the service 44 from Bulwell Hall was extended from Colwick Crossings to Netherfield, one of if not the longest route. This did not last long, someone must have realised the stupidity in doing this.

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Had a quick look at two of my old timetables. In terms of length of journey (i.e. minutes from one terminus to the other) in 1971 the longest was (surprisingly to me) the 45, which was timed at 45 minutes from Wollaton Park to Wolds Estate via Derby Road and London Road (only 44 minutes in the other direction). Next was the 71 at 42 minutes from Colwick Crossing to Rise Park Estate, only 38 in the other direction, and the similar 44 at 41 and 37 minutes. Other routes with a running time of 30 minutes or more were the 25, 43, 53 and 75. Looking at 1959, (the routes were recognisably similar but not exactly the same - some were shorter then, for example the 53 only ran from Dunkirk to Mansfield Road) the longest journey was the 44 at 39 minutes northbound, 37 minutes southbound. The 25 and 43 were joint second, at 30 minutes from Huntingdon Street to Knighton Road via Carlton, and Trent Bridge to Bulwell Market respectively. I don't have any earlier timetables, but before the 1952/53 route changes I suspect the 4/4A would have been the longest - Beeston to Arnold (the Arnold end became the 57) would be about 42 minutes. Similarly the 3 Sneinton Dale to Radford (later 58) would have been around 30 minutes.

Somebody mentioned the present day 79, which is a sort of amalgam of the old 22 and 7, then extended from Bulwell to Arnold via Rise Park Estate. This takes 79 minutes. I guess there aren't many people who travel on it from end to end !

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