In early 1980 before computers became commonplace all paperwork was done by hand and following the introduction of new schedules, we went to take over a bus on the 191 in Emmanuel Street only to find that two other crews were waiting to take it over as well! We all then went around the corner to find an inspector to sort the problem out, meanwhile, another crew came along and they took over the vehicle. Teapot-ups like this were very few and far between. On another occasion, the duty foreman had not recorded our booking, one morning, and after we departed with our bus on the 181, dispatched the spare crew to work our duty. We were overtaken in a cloud of dust by another crew on our way through Chesterton en route to the station and found that the road ahead was being cleared for us. It was not till we got to the Station that we found out why.
As previously mentioned Drummer Street bus station used to be an absolute nightmare (and still is despite two facelifts with countless thousands of pounds being thrown at it. It surely must rate as one of the worst in the country) As well as the country’s services starting from Drummer Street almost everything else had to come in there. The National Express services used to load at the bottom in the stands by the sweetie caravan thus preventing any other bus from swinging around “Premier Island”. Other operators to use Drummer Street were Premier Travel, operating cross-country services as well as some local workings and often had vehicles on layover, Percivals of Oxford and Yelloway were both regular visitors. Summer weekends were even worse with many extras being required to work reliefs on the express services. I think Whippets, were the lucky ones, all their services used the bays, which are now known as the express stands. Of all the operators mentioned so far, Whippets is the only one still going in this area.
Damage-only PSV accidents, were quite common, especially in the narrow streets of Cambridge, one driver I had was known as “Basher” as he was always “bashing” into something with his bus. On the day he passed his test, he tried backing a coach out of the garage and up the lamppost on the other side of the road. Other feats to his credit include hitting a dust cart, nearly bringing down some scaffolding in Sidney Street, and clipping no end of cars. Some years later, I saw him working as a driver instructor for the British School of Motoring! Two accidents come to mind including one driven by Basher. Who was running light back to the garage with a Leyland National from Drummer Street, the fuel line worked loose in Emmanuel Street as he swung into St Andrews Street and as the rear wheels ran over the leaking diesel, he lost control of it. The front end of the bus somehow ended up on Emmanuel College’s wall, while the back end was up against the shop fronts on the other side of the road. Amidships the remains of a Ford Corsair could be seen. The fitters who happened to be following him back to the garage very quickly managed to fix the fuel line before the Police arrived, trying to make out it was driver error. It was Basher’s lucky day because someone else had seen something leaking from under the vehicle.
The second accident involved two buses and a police car at Gonville Place, a Leyland National working a 192/3 service was waiting to enter Gonville Place via the left-hand filter from Regent Street, in the queue of traffic waiting to turn right out of Gonville Place into Regent Street was the police car. Our bus driver was aware that his rear overhang might hit the police car if he pulled out and beckoned for the car to move forward a little. The car would not move and our driver did not wait and hit the police car with the rear overhang. Our driver pulled over while PC 99 got out of his car. Meanwhile, as the traffic started flowing out of Gonville Place an officer sitting in the passenger seat decided to get out and open his door just as a VR was coming up on the inside to crossover into Lensfield Road taking the door with it!
The conductor was also responsible for timekeeping, which in normal circumstances was not a major problem until I had a new driver, whose name escaped me. Having just passed his test he was put to work with me, one the first day he did not manage to find 3rd gear, and as a result, we ended up being lapped by the other crews on the block. By the end of the shift, we had lost almost two trips. It was with this driver that I did the Chivers contact and we reached Histon some forty-five minutes down. Two days later I was summoned to the office for a dressing down. Having stated my case the interview ended. Strangely nothing was said to the driver!
We had our good days as well as our bad days, sometimes it would only take one cantankerous punter to spoil it. The skills that a bus conductor requires to carry out his duties are many, none of which I was informed of at my interview! Not only did he have to be an agony aunt, but he also had to be a mobile tourist information center and mind reader and was expected to perform magical tricks with £20 notes at 0800 hours on a Monday morning to non-English speaking language students! There were times when one could have a laugh and joke, with the punters, on one occasion, one of my drivers, Dave ( an ex-LT driver who was just coming to terms with using his left foot for the first time in years, having been used to semi-automatic Routemasters and was a dead ringer for Tommy Steele), suggested one day while waiting for time up at King Hedges Road that we swapped roles and that I would become the driver. Once we had several passengers on board, I would announce that my hangover was so bad that he had better drive the vehicle, to which he replied he hadn’t driven anything bigger than a minicar. As he got in the cab the tittle-tattle started from our passengers and went into overdrive as he tried to start the engine while in gear and then pulled away with the hand brake on! It took quite a while to convince the passengers that everything was above board and that the real driver was sitting in the driving seat. There are two things that I have yet to work out, one being how this blind passenger we used to pick up always knew where the door was on the bus as sometimes the service was operated by either LFS/FLF types and secondly, why do people run for a bus that is running late?
One task the early spare crew always got lumbered with, after fetching the teas for the foreman, was the bank run for which an Alexander (Belfast) bodied Ford A series was used, the extra muscle was not to stop anyone from robbing us but for carrying the bags of coin into the bank each day. MD997 had come to Cambridge for the Cambridgeshire Pick Me service, which was operated in the Huntingdon area, it is being replaced in service by a larger ex-Luton Corporation via United Counties (but never operated) Bristol LHS, (LHS936, WNG105H) which used to be palmed off to the crews whenever it was in station, being fitted with a Perkins engine it used to shake everyone to the bone. It was also unique in having a Chinese gearbox, which caught a lot of drivers out. In time it too was replaced on Cambridgeshire Pick Me UP services by a Bristol RL. The early flat-screen Bristol LH’s must surely rate as the worst product to have been churned out of Brislington and Lowestoft! The later types of the WEX—S batch were far more superior vehicles. The REs were also subjected to the Lowestoft rattle and again it was mainly the flat-screen variations which were the worst, but they were good work horses. I must confess that I preferred working on the back of an LFS to that of a Fluff, at least on the LFS you don’t have everyone staring at you all the time and watching every move you make. Also with the LFS, you could have the door open and get some fresh air. It was within the first few weeks while working on an LFS, that my ticket machine went out of the back door and under the car behind, luckily I was not wearing it at the time. When not using them the conductors would take them off and place them behind the handrail on the emergency door and as I placed my machine behind the rail we hit a pothole in the road.
One of the advantages of working for the National Bus Company was the bus pass, which unlike most charge cards was accepted on all poppy red or Lincoln green buses. I had thought about traveling down to Swansea on the card one summer, but her indoors was not too keen on the idea.
The National Express drivers started to receive new vehicles in 1979 in the shape of Leyland Leopards with a mixture of Duple, Plaxton, and Willowbrook coachwork. The early ECW-bodied Bristol REs were then withdrawn from service to have their bodies removed, with a view of placing new bodies on the chassis, most of these chassis being stored in Ely garage. The Dual purpose RELHs, some of which bore National Express colours were downgraded to town work. How these ever got on to National Express work beats me! Also, a start was made on withdrawing several vehicles that had been acquired from National Travel (South East), these included several Bristol RELHs and early Leyland Leopards most with Plaxton coachwork. There was also I believe a pair of former Ribble machines (836/7) as well, which went into the service fleet once withdrawn from service.
In those far-off days, almost everyone connected with running a bus company had one thing in common. They all started on the bottom rung of the ladder, either as conductor or crew driver, and slowly progressed up it. There was always a touch of snobbery, within the ranks of the platform staff. The Express drivers, some who had spent most of their working life on the buses thought they were the bees-knees and looked down on everyone. Some of the OMO drivers thought they were special, some even refusing to go anywhere near a vehicle with a crash gearbox and then we had the humble conductor. Two of my former managers have done very well for themselves, Ben Colson following a few years with United Counties became managing director at Stagecoach Manchester and now owns and runs Norfolk Green, and Dave Hurry is now a director with Sovereign. I have often wondered, where I would be today if I had not left when I did, possibly running up and down the Arbury still!
During the latter part of 1979, I started to get disillusioned with life on the buses. The company it seems was having trouble attracting staff and to this end found it more cost-effective to cut out the odd bus and leave the crew in the canteen, which meant that the crews on the road were not only having to work harder but were getting all the flack from the waiting passengers. By March of the next year, I moved on to another job.
It would seem by observing some of the young harassed drivers, of these minibuses that even in 1997, something has not changed. One wonders how this new generation of platform staff with their computerized gearboxes and ticket machines would ever cope with a shift on the BLOCK, some may have never had to use a Setright ticket machine in anger! It is only 14 years or so since Cambridge bid farewell to its last conductors.
© Richard Haughey 2009
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