Buses in Nottingham

[catfan 14,793]

That particular bus stop on Processional way was only a setting down point as far back as I remember up until some clown changed the roads around in the city calling "The Big Wheel" or some other stupid title. Should have been called "The big cock - up" !

 

Anyway back on topic, drivers HAD to stop at that stop whether anyone wanted to alight or not, otherwise an instant bookable offence.

[catfan 14,793]

Those service "extra"'s were operated by Bulwell, PSD & Bilborough Depots. These buses would usually follow behind the normal service bus when in fact should have gone first ! It wasn't called the "Lame Sick & Lazy" rota for nothing !.

I remember doing some overtime at Bilborough Depot one afternoon working on their "1600! rota with a conductor operating on 31s & 50s I told the conductor I didn't know where to go & he said, just follow the service bus & you'll be fine !

That would have been in '74, happy days !

[Deepdene Boy 642]

13 hours ago, catfan said:

Those service "extra"'s were operated by Bulwell, PSD & Bilborough Depots. These buses would usually follow behind the normal service bus when in fact should have gone first ! It wasn't called the "Lame Sick & Lazy" rota for nothing !.

I remember doing some overtime at Bilborough Depot one afternoon working on their "1600! rota with a conductor operating on 31s & 50s I told the conductor I didn't know where to go & he said, just follow the service bus & you'll be fine !

That would have been in '74, happy days !

Mick, thanks for the info. Given the peak time frequency of the 31s and 50s, my April 1975 timetable shows every three and three quarter minutes, it would have been hard not to be following the service bus

[annswabey 599]

Posting about buses - who'd have thought it!  There used to be a man on the bus home to Bilborough, so 56 or 60, from tahn on a Friday/ Saturday night in the mid-late 70's who would hammer out a tune on the back of the seat in front of him - so brilliant

[Willow wilson 894]

I moan when there's a problem but really I must give a big thanks for the people who organise and run this essential operation;

And this,

I wonder how nostalgic my grandchildren will be about this in 2050.

[NewBasfordlad 3,599]

Think your right Ian with that trolly or trackless as mum would have said. Corner of Perry Road and Nottingham Road, cemetery behind the stone wall and Bairnswear behind the iron railings, in fact wouldn't mind betting mum was in there on that date.

[Deepdene Boy 642]

13 hours ago, catfan said:

Remind me sometime to talk about Bilborough 1600 rota !0

Mick, would love to hear your memories.

[catfan 14,793]

Firstly a brief history of Bilborough Depot, as far as I can find was opened early '50s but could be a few years out. Built to cater for the Bilborough, Strelley, Broxtowe & Aspley areas. As these estates expanded so did the capacity of the depot meaning a lot of buses had to be parked out side overnight. this depot had room for expansion but was never enlarged.

This was all well & good but was no fun looking for an allocated bus at 4.30 am on a freezing cold morning I can assure you.

 

Upon finding your bus you would soon realise that all the windows were covered in frost inside as well as the outside area of the glass, if you weren't wearing gloves the steering wheel wanted to take the skin off your hands. First thing to do was clear a small area of the windscreen so if you were lucky & you managed to fire the bus up you could drive around to the depot where a portable storage heater would blow hot air in to the bus without hitting anything on the way. subsequently all the frost melted & the windows were then wet through. Leyland Atlantean buses had notoriously poor heaters !

 

So bus fired up & defrosted after a  getting a quick warm yersen it was time to hit the road, noticing that all these buses had a couple of inches gap beneath the entrance door which blew a nice cold blast on to your left side from face to feet. I've even seen ice formed on the seats ! Leading to many passenger complaints, but the driver's seat was just as cold as all the others.

Bilborough Bus Depot was the only purpose built bus depot in Nottingham, all other depots were originally built as tram sheds. Also Bilborough depot like Parliament Street Depot were the only Depots to have a service timekeeper / garage inspector around the clock 24 hours a day 7 days a week.

 

Every depot had their own bus routes & each route or group of routes had a rota number, Bulwell route being the "1300" rota, Bilborough Depot among others had the "1600" rota. This rota consisted of mostly old clapped out AEC Regents of the open rear ended variety(No entrance doors) all manned by a driver & conductor who were usually on light duties for various medical reasons or who were just plain lazy or wanted an easy life. These type of rotas were called sick, lame & lazy rotas !

The work they did were mostly school extra's , service extra's & works contracts i.e. Boots, Players, Plessey etc. Nice easy work in fact. The best part being when the kids were off school a lot of these crews had no work to do at all.

 

Having no work to do for all the school holidays meant another source of enjoyment had to be found so the creation of card schools, domino competitions, snooker tournaments even five a side football matches & games of cricket across the road on the park were quickly organised to find the crews something to do by the crews themselves !

I worked at Bilborough Depot on many occasions on overtime, day off working & being sent there when they were short staffed, I did enjoy working the 1600 rota many times doing service 31 & 50  extra's being a spare one man driver at Bulwell they had to pay me one man rate at any depot doing any work, thank you very much !

 

Some drivers I knew elected to work that rota full time, regular Monday to Friday split shifts with no late or weekend, bank holiday working was an attraction to many especially if they didn't need the overtime.

 

Sadly all good things came to an end & Bilborough being the first outer depot to close  which many never thought it would, but it did & eventually Central Market, Bulwell & Sherwood depots also closed, the end of an era.

 

Funnily enough I knew of one driver who borrowed a bus from Bilborough depot one day so he could move house, he paid a friendly fitter a few quid to remove a few seats & move house he did ! Such was the fun at Bilborough Depot !

Happy days !

 

 

[denshaw 2,872]

Also there in 1979, with Frank the instructor, think we spent more time in Bulwell canteen.

[catfan 14,793]

24 minutes ago, IAN123. said:

Not you is it?

Could well be...................crack on youth !

[catfan 14,793]

7 minutes ago, denshaw said:

Also there in 1979, with Frank the instructor, think we spent more time in Bulwell canteen.

Drinking copious amounts of tea was part of the training we were told !

[Deepdene Boy 642]

Roy Marshall did indeed take the photo, alas he passed away 2/3 years ago. I believe that he bequeathed his huge photo collection to be made available to publishers for use in future books.

[Bubblewrap 3,815]

Crap replacements for the trolley buses?

[catfan 14,793]

I totally agree BW  !

[catfan 14,793]

Pennyfoot Street.

[Commo 1,292]

Did Shipsides have rooftop storage? Can't rightly remember but the building is in about the right spot and the construction looks similar.

[denshaw 2,872]

40 to Wilford rd would have come along St Ann's well rd and turned left onto Huntingdon st then around this building in the picture Lower Parliament st.

[denshaw 2,872]

Rooftop car park would have been either Royal Mail or Shipsides car dealers.

[Dodie 51]

I remember the compound  on the corner of Manvers and Pennyfoot street being erected. After the workmen left  local kids all flocked to it as the gates were up but no wire fencing on them and they made a great swing. I was about 4 year old at the time but couldn't get a swing as I couldn't reach the bar to hold on. Somehow or other my right thumb got squashed in the gate as it swung to. Split it to the first knuckle, luckily a neighbour was just getting off the bus took me home and got her Dad who was the Landlord of the Poplar Tree at that time to take me to the General Hospital in his car. (He later moved to the Ferry Boat in Wilford). Pleased to say thumb still works 70 od years later.

[Deepdene Boy 642]

Just to avoid any confusion, 39ATO is a Leyland Titan PD2/40 with MCW "Orion" bodywork. Bloody good photo.

[catfan 14,793]

Bleddy good bus too !

[catfan 14,793]

Out of interest, Pennyfoot Street car park nowadays !

 

https://www.google.co.uk/maps/@52.9513257,-1.1370321,3a,75y,10.93h,86.71t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1sTgX-9gJeOor9n5TLS6xJYQ!2e0!7i13312!8i6656?hl=en

[catfan 14,793]

Just now, IAN123. said:

Like you said before then.."the Depot blokes kept the buses in tip top condition"...All credit due to them.

There was a bloke who undertook car painting on the side for drivers & his work was superb, he could paint a car by hand & was hard to the untrained eye to see any difference his work was so good.

[The Pianoman 1,535]

** ATO must be 1956 registered. Picture taken 1973? not bad I don't suppose. I learnt to drive in a PD2/40 of 1967 vintage. That was front entry Metro-Cammell bodied. Ex Salford City Transport JRJ 268E.

[The Pianoman 1,535]

47 minutes ago, Deepdene Boy said:

Pianoman, although xxxATO was a 1956 issue, they were reserved for the Titans, which didn't enter service until 1958/9.

Aaah! A bit like the 6 wheel trollies then.  all KTV *** which in theory was 1949 reg but they were registered up to 1953.