don't you just love it when metropolitan types who enjoy the luxury of excellent subsidised rail services have a good laugh at the expense of us "get your hands dirty" types out here in the "Do it yourself" wild west, where the last train ran in the days before space flight !!
Victoria Coach Station
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A few weeks ago there was an interesting programme on the TV about Victoria Coach Station, and I made a mental note then not to visit the place - although I have no plans ever to return to London, at all, anyway.
The last time I was in Victoria would have been 1948/1949 when we returned from Bristol by what passed for a coach - but I'm pretty sure that it was only a bus!Money can't buy you happiness............but it does bring you a more pleasant form of misery - Spike Milligan
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Originally posted by alycidon View PostThe last time I was in Victoria would have been 1948/1949 when we returned from Bristol by what passed for a coach - but I'm pretty sure that it was only a bus!
Remember the old double deckers that had no passenger doors? You stepped on the open platform then went inside, sat down (or not) and waited for the conductor to come along, with his rack of coloured tickets, and paid your fare.It isn't given us to know those rare moments when people are wide open and the lightest touch can wither or heal. A moment too late and we can never reach them any more in this world.
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Originally posted by french frank View PostRemember the old double deckers that had no passenger doors? You stepped on the open platform ...
"...the isle is full of noises,
Sounds and sweet airs, that give delight and hurt not.
Sometimes a thousand twangling instruments
Will hum about mine ears, and sometime voices..."
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And they had a little metal "Stubber" plate to stop you setting light to the bus with discarded unstubbed cigs.
at least they did in Southampton.
ah, the old No 15...7 stops from heaven......!!I will not be pushed, filed, stamped, indexed, briefed, debriefed or numbered. My life is my own.
I am not a number, I am a free man.
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Originally posted by Caliban View PostIt isn't given us to know those rare moments when people are wide open and the lightest touch can wither or heal. A moment too late and we can never reach them any more in this world.
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Tell me this is the latest idea for the new London Routemaster:
Not exactly the same as ours, but the same idea. We had 1d - blue, 2d - mauve. 3d - light orange, 4d - limey yellow (I don't remember anything more expensive than that).It isn't given us to know those rare moments when people are wide open and the lightest touch can wither or heal. A moment too late and we can never reach them any more in this world.
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Originally posted by french frank View PostNothing new, is there? I don't remember the conductor hanging off the platform like that, though
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Originally posted by alycidon View PostA few weeks ago there was an interesting programme on the TV about Victoria Coach Station, and I made a mental note then not to visit the place - although I have no plans ever to return to London, at all, anyway.
I would agree that Victoria is not a part of London I'd rush to see before anything else. London's railway stations do not have the style of stations such as New York's Grand Metropolitan, but few do, though there are some lovely stations on the line up into Connecticut.
The river views are about as good as most other city river views, though Paris and Stockholm and Budapest are high on the list too. Budapest and Prague are interesting, but smaller, while Rome and Venice are of course splendid.
I have yet to visit Berlin, Madrid, Lisbon, Warsaw, and indeed many other cities, capital or otherwise.
As capital cities go, London is a pretty interesting place, though it is perhaps too large, and too many people live nearby. Despite some of its faults, I would not dismiss London as a city to visit, even if only occasionally.
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scottycelt
Oh, I used to know the place well often boarding the last bus to Manchester Airport (via Heathrow, Stansted and Birmingham Airport!) after many evenings at the Proms in the 80's. Crucially, the last train to Manchester was always beautifully-timed that it made sure it left a few minutes before scores of potential passengers pouring out from West End shows and concerts, complete with the distinct possibility of much-needed rail fare revenue, could realistically get to Euston. So it was the coach or a night in a dodgy "hotel" nearby.
Those who have never got the last coach to Manchester from Victoria haven't really lived. Being there during the day is certainly a rare experience, but even that palls in comparison to the same place around midnight. Mere dinginess is replaced with almost total blackness and the already foul air is replenished with a new, beery aroma from the hordes of noisy, screaming patrons exiting the public house opposite.
There were (maybe still is) two coaches that left for Manchester at the same time around midnight ... one bound for the city centre, the other for the airport. The regular routine was that a significant chunk of the intended travellers (many no doubt who had previously exited the aforementioned pub) would board the wrong coach, with their large luggage already safely stored deep in the compartments underneath. The result was that both coaches left about 30-45 mins late following a routine pre-departure ticket check with the inevitable cries of 'Eee loove, we're on the wrong ****** bus!'
Ah, sweet, sweet memories .... though it was maybe just as well that I rarely neglected the vital importance of having one or two fortifying and consolatory pre-travel drinks in that pub myself.
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Originally posted by french frank View PostDid it look like this:
Remember the old double deckers that had no passenger doors? You stepped on the open platform then went inside, sat down (or not) and waited for the conductor to come along, with his rack of coloured tickets, and paid your fare.
I certainly do remember the racks of tickets which weren't superseded in Bristol until 1956. Even more memorable were the ticket punches which used to jam, and then the conductor would hurl it at the downstairs front bulkhead. From 1956 Bristol used setright machines that used to cough out a little yellow ticket. Happy days!Money can't buy you happiness............but it does bring you a more pleasant form of misery - Spike Milligan
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Originally posted by Dave2002 View PostMaybe you don't like cities.Money can't buy you happiness............but it does bring you a more pleasant form of misery - Spike Milligan
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Originally posted by alycidon View Postsetright machines
Needless to say there's a website about them!!
It's the curvier Gibsons (I learn, about 90 seconds ago) that I remember... !
http://www.ticketmachinewebsite.com/...lbumid=6070877"...the isle is full of noises,
Sounds and sweet airs, that give delight and hurt not.
Sometimes a thousand twangling instruments
Will hum about mine ears, and sometime voices..."
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