Victoria Coach Station

[alycidon]

Great minority interest stuff!!

Needless to say there's a website about them!!

http://www.ticketmachinewebsite.com/...etmachines.htm

Thanks, Caliban. I drove buses for a few years, and playing with my Setright was the high spot of each shift!

[amateur51]

It's the curvier Gibsons (I learn, about 90 seconds ago) that I remember... !

http://www.ticketmachinewebsite.com/...lbumid=6070877

Blimey guy, I posted about the Gibson machines at the turn of the day in msg # 39

[amateur51]

Thanks, Caliban. I drove buses for a few years, and playing with my Setright was the high spot of each shift!

There was a splendid eccentric motoring journalist called L.J.K Setright whose dad invented said machines. He wrote for the much-missed Car magazine.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/L._J._K._Setright & https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=L....w=1143&bih=676

[Nick Armstrong]

There was a splendid eccentric motoring journalist called L.J.K Setright whose dad invented said machines. He wrote for the much-missed Car magazine.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/L._J._K._Setright & https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=L....w=1143&bih=676

Ah HA! I knew the name rang a bell ("ding ding! any more fares please!" ... I'm here all week... )

Leonard Setright was a client of my previous law firm, and I have the bonus of a signed first edition of his lovely book "Drive on!" - his signature is as flamboyant as his beard...

I'd no idea of the ticket machine connection.


EDIT: at these prices, I wonder what I should do with the book http://www.amazon.co.uk/Drive-Social...6418034&sr=1-1

[french frank]

Your picture is of a Bedford OB [MHU 915] delivered in April 1950 but if my memory serves me correctly, we travelled on an L6B, probably with a KHW/KHY registration.

Incredible erudition! Yes, I remember the ticket punches - and I see ebay had a conductor's leather bag which he collected the fares in.

[amateur51]

EDIT: at these prices, I wonder what I should do with the book http://www.amazon.co.uk/Drive-Social...6418034&sr=1-1

Well you could donate it to the Brighton Philharmonic Orchestra's fighting fund for a raffle, c/o Bbm's thread under that name.

http://www.for3.org/forums/showthread.php?9096-Brighton-Philharmonic-Orchestra-in-financial-difficulties

Otherwise common decency and the House Rules prevent me from making a more direct suggestion

[Bax-of-Delights]

Ooooh, a bus porn thread. Lovely.

RT, RTL, RTW, RLH (my favourite with the aisle running down the side of the upper deck) RF, GS...

Those who know, will know...

[Nick Armstrong]

Otherwise common decency and the House Rules prevent me from making a more direct suggestion

I knew friends and fans would rally round... !

[teamsaint]

I would just like to say that I recently travelled on the world's longest tram line.

Marvellous, but a one day multi stop 5 euro pass was no substitute for a little yellow ticket to stick between the meaatl and plastic of the seat in front of you.

Top thread this.....does it go via the Flower roads ?........

[gurnemanz]

Ooooh, a bus porn thread. Lovely.

RT, RTL, RTW, RLH (my favourite with the aisle running down the side of the upper deck) RF, GS...

Those who know, will know...

Resonant letters even over 50 years later ... GS - weird little single deckers with a bonnet? I travelled to Clapham Junction to go to school and aged 11 round there both train spotting and bus spotting were the done thing - short-trousered and underlining numbers in your Ian Allan bus book. There were still plenty of steam trains and trolley buses around to enliven the scene. This riveting pursuit did fairly soon give way to the delights of such as Jet Harris and Tony Meehan.

[Dave2002]

I lived in Barkingside till the age of seven, moved down to Bristol, then 1978 to Ryde [Isle of Wight], and then 1987 to Inverness. 2003 to a village south of Inverness - so, I think that I've got cities out of my blood. Seeing programmes about London, I'm sure that at the age of 70, I just wouldn't be able to cope. We went to Bristol a few weeks ago, and that was horrendous! [albeit not half so horrendous as the Tokyo station featured on TV last week].

I sympathise about the difficulties of coping with cities as one gets older, but there are many who do manage it. I'm not so much younger, and do have a bus pass. I tend to prefer buses to tube trains, though I do use the suburban commuter lines, perhaps once a week on average.

If you enjoy Inverness in many ways I envy you. i'd be scared of the winter cold and dark - but I still think you could enjoy some of the benefits that cities offer on occasions. Edinburgh, for example, currently has a da Vinci exhibition which I've heard is very good. There are also some good things in Bristol. I'm sorry you found it a strain.

[Bax-of-Delights]

Resonant letters even over 50 years later ... GS - weird little single deckers with a bonnet? I travelled to Clapham Junction to go to school and aged 11 round there both train spotting and bus spotting were the done thing - short-trousered and underlining numbers in your Ian Allan bus book. There were still plenty of steam trains and trolley buses around to enliven the scene. This riveting pursuit did fairly soon give way to the delights of such as Jet Harris and Tony Meehan.

Indeed Gurnemanz! The GS was still tootling around the Surrey country roads when I ventured forth with my Ian Allan spotter's handbook (one of the greatest regrets is the loss of that heavily annotated book. Why on earth would I have thrown it away?). My knowledge of London came from my Red Rover days, setting off from Croydon on the 109 or 220 and, armed with the LT red bus map, weaving my way to the nether regions of the north and west in search of those elusive garages that might just house some of the older buses still known to be existence but not necessarily running. People look at me goggle-eyed when I say I travelled on London trolleybuses up to Ally Pally...
As you say the delights of young ladies, the Beatles and Rolling Stones and Saturday night parties finally put a stop to my rovings - but my heart still skips a beat when I encounter one of the buses of my youth (Routemasters don't really count!).
If I knew how to insert a picture I would (I've tried but it always say "invalid file"). Here's a link to the GS website:

http://www.countrybus.org/GS/GS.html

[Bax-of-Delights]

And for those still tuning in...

This is one I caught at Kingston garage back in 1961 - in fact it may well be exactly the same bus. The TD class.

http://www.classicbuses.co.uk/TD.html

[Dave2002]

Not all old buses were nice, though they may seem quaint and quirky now. Crosville, which operated around Liverpool, had some double deckers with a weird staggered arrangement of seats on top. There was a side aisle on the right, with the zig-zag seats going over to the left side of the bus. The Liverpool Corporation buses were larger, with better headroom and a central aisle. I can't remember wheher any other bus companies had buses with such a curious upper deck layout. Ribble also operated around Merseyside, with routes going towards Southport, but I think they had a simpler layout upstairs.

Of course smoking was allowed upstairs, so it got pretty mirky some days, particularly in the winter, when the windows were closed.

[Bax-of-Delights]

And the signs - certainly on the Brum buses in the early 50's - which threatened a fine of £5 for "spitting". I was always amused by this - until I learnt later in life that my grandmother and her daughter had died from TB.