TRIVIA: What is the bus that sums up your childhood?

[sk688]

For me it's Metroline's Volvo B7TL Plaxton Presidents which they used o n my local route 140 for the vast majority of my childhood , and most of my Hugh school memories were from those , with the B5LH Gemini 3s featuring a bit at the end , but can't beat the B7TLs for the memories it provided

 

[ls2270]

London Transport Leyland Nationals on the 227 roaring up Beckenham Lane in Shortlands past my primary school, plus contemporary Green Line coaches on the 725 to Gravesend in one direction and Windsor in the other. A shopping trip to Bromley Town Centre would bring further variety....red RMs on the 47 to Shoreditch and 119 to Thornton Heath, DMSs on the 61 and 138 and Bristol LHs on the B1 to Kidbrooke and green Routemasters and Atlanteans on the 410 to Reigate. The DMSs and RMs were then replaced by brand new Titans which seemed very modern by comparison!

 

[Logan Carroll]

Not a big bus person but First Glasgow bendi-buses have noticeably disappeared from when i was an child.

I have vague memories of riding one and being entraced by the bendi part.

 

[LUYMun]

If I had a pound for travelling on Arriva London's ALX400-bodied B7TL on route 142, I'd buy the fleet!

 

[52290]

It made me think back more than 40 years! How do you think I feel? Lol

A mere youngster! I'll have to go back 60 years or more. Living in Leyland I would travel on various buses operated by the local firm Fishwicks (rip). My dad worked as a bodybuilder at Leyland Motors and sometimes pointed out to me some of the actual work he had done on the bus body. Unfortunately bodybuilding at Leyland ceased in 1955 with an order for 500 RTWs from London Transport and my dad was transferred to the development department at Spurrier works.
Does anyone else have a parent who helped to build the buses they traveled on as a child?

 

[TechDan2002]

First Barbie liveried low floor Dennis Dart Plaxton Pointers and Dennis Trident Plaxton Presidents for me as an 18 year old whose lived in Penryn, Cornwall all his life. The only recollections from early childhood I have of buses was going into nearby Falmouth with my uncle as both my parents drove. My enthusiasm was only sparked when I started college last year and took interest into the vehicles I was travelling in (mostly Trident Presidents). I have since joined the local bus preservation group (with @richw ) and met a fair few local people with the same interest.

 

[MDB1images]

Very early age would be GMPTE Leyland Atlantean /East Lancs(680x fleet numbers).
But I suppose the one from Bus chasing was the Leyland Atlantean Northen Counties (85xx fleet numbers onwards)which saw much pocket money spent as they came out the factory n droves.
First 'thats not common I'll scratch that in' to do with my childhood will always be the GMPTE Leyland Titans that Stockport had (400x Fleet numbers)showing up in Bolton on a SUo PM service on the 400.

 

[madannie77]

Sheffield Transport had a very diverse fleet when I was a child. The buses I remember best were Sheffield's Park Royal bodied Leyland Atlantean PDR2/1s of 1969 which took over my mother's favoured route into Sheffield from AEC Swifts. They were big (33ft long), had two doors and bodywork which I found very attractive then (and still do): although the first batch had rather shallow windscreens the ones on "my" route had a deeper windscreen which enhanced their looks. I was particularly fond of the sideways facing seats over the rear wheels back then.

I was very happy when another local route into Sheffield gained 30ft long Daimler Fleetlines with similar bodywork. It was one of these which was the first bus I saw in South Yorkshire PTE's unusual coffee and cream livery - what a let down after Sheffield's white with lined blue bands.

Another bus of my childhood which fired my imagination (and eardrums) was the Van Hool McArdle bodied Volvo Ailsa - this was something completely different to what I usually rode, and I made some rather convoluted journeys in order to ride them whenever possible.

 

[Busaholic]

A mere youngster! I'll have to go back 60 years or more. Living in Leyland I would travel on various buses operated by the local firm Fishwicks (rip). My dad worked as a bodybuilder at Leyland Motors and sometimes pointed out to me some of the actual work he had done on the bus body. Unfortunately bodybuilding at Leyland ceased in 1955 with an order for 500 RTWs from London Transport and my dad was transferred to the development department at Spurrier works.
Does anyone else have a parent who helped to build the buses they traveled on as a child?

I'd be interested to know why your father thought Leyland ceased bodybuilding after that order for the marvellous RTWs, which I remember well though rarely travelled on one. A Leyland PD2 with a Leyland body is my idea of a nearly perfect bus, visually speaking, though I'm not qualified to speak on its performance data relative to other models.

 

[Richard Scott]

Single door long Leyland National without a doubt. Rode on loads as a child and especially remember the National 2s when they were new thinking how they sounded like coaches. As a young child didn't realise they shared their engines with Leopards. Also remember the typical Leyland indicator stalk shared with many cars of the time. Also vaguely remember FLFs and REs (these were common on County Bus services) and the VRs, some were dual door. Then the Olympians came along, arrived new to the area. Only seems like yesterday!

 

[datdad]

Living outside Reading it was the Bristol Lowdekka from Woodley first and then when we moved into Reading the Reading Corporation Transport Trolleys buses (6 wheelers?)

 

[Bungle158]

Living outside Reading it was the Bristol Lowdekka from Woodley first and then when we moved into Reading the Reading Corporation Transport Trolleys buses (6 wheelers?)

Good old Thames Valley. I started life at Arborfield Camp, we used to catch Lodekkas to school at Farley Hill. I also rode the trolleys, mostly to go swimming at Arthur Hill's. Later on, it was Corporation Lodekkas, not nearly so much fun as the big old trolley buses.

 

[317666]

It would have to be Stagecoach Cambridge's ALX300 MANs, with which the Citi brand was launched (I was 5 when they entered service in 2001). When I lived in Cambridge the Citi 2 was my local route, so I was still able to enjoy them regularly up until 2013 - they were absolutely knackered by that point!

 

[Great_Western]

For me it's the Scannia L113/Alexander Strider, which despite being rare nationally, my local operator had by the shedload in the 90's and 00's.

No other bus feels quite like it, right down to the unique smell they made when damp, which no other bus has been able to match. The loud voith gearboxes and the obnoxious cammo pattern seating moquette. Absolutely marvelous machines.

 

[jamesst]

No idea what type of bus as im not into them but the old Red Rider red and yellow double deckers that used to work through West Wirral in the 80s/early 90s always stick in my mind

 

[Whisky Papa]

Daimler Fleetline with early Alexander body (A-type?), North Western RCC livery. Regular on the school bus from junior school and any school holiday trip made into Manchester with my mother. Still acceptable in SELNEC (Cheshire) orange and white, although the brighter GMT version was better, with an honourable mention to a couple of early overall advert schemes that appeared. White City greyhound track was one (on NWRCC fleetnumber 2 I think) and local car dealer "Quicks for Ford". Both were pretty horrible in retrospect, but different enough to catch the eye of a child. There would have been plenty of other interesting buses knocking about Urmston. particularly in my early days, but the Fleetlines reigned supreme and lasted pretty much until I started work with GMT in 1980, although they were utterly disliked by the conductors at Princess Road garage I believe - "Sweatbox" is hardly a term of endearment.

Bolton's striking livery and unusually-styled Atlanteans also made a mental impact on me during our regular family visits there, although I never got to ride on them at the time. We also had family in Huddersfield, which offered the last glimpses of its trolleybus network. However, my interest in spotting buses as a potential hobby really crystalised during a visit to Chester, specifically stood on Eastgate Bridge with my father while my mother went shopping, and noticing the handsome Guy Arabs trundling underneath with big gold fleetnumbers with one or two digits (unlike the four-digit numbers that adorned most GMT buses at hiome). Soon after Alan Witton produced the first of his fleetbooks (for Greater Manchester) and I was hooked!

 

[Lockwood]

Olympians and Altaneans in stripy stagecoach

 

[bussikuski179]

Now obviously I’m not British, but having grown up in North/Northwest Helsinki all my life, several types of Volvo 8500LE. HelB’s CNG variants, which were horrible, been on those many, many times. Then came Nobina’s newer ones, slightly better, which, though for several years after I moved everything was VDLs, now occasionally run on my local lines. Been on those Nobinas more times than I can count.

 

[52290]

I'd be interested to know why your father thought Leyland ceased bodybuilding after that order for the marvellous RTWs, which I remember well though rarely travelled on one. A Leyland PD2 with a Leyland body is my idea of a nearly perfect bus, visually speaking, though I'm not qualified to speak on its performance data relative to other models.

I understood that the body shop at South Works closed in 1955 after the London order was completed and the workers were redeployed or retired. I was only 11 at the time and there was some fear of my father being made redundant, although this didn't happen.

 

[datdad]

Good old Thames Valley. I started life at Arborfield Camp, we used to catch Lodekkas to school at Farley Hill. I also rode the trolleys, mostly to go swimming at Arthur Hill's. Later on, it was Corporation Lodekkas, not nearly so much fun as the big old trolley buses.

The Bus / Trolleybus to Cemetary Junction for Arthur Hills or the Cinema. We lived just up the Wokingham Road from the Junction.

 

[alexf380]

I was born in 1996 so for me, early low floor Dennis Darts ruled the roost. The P_NSC batch bough just before SMT was taken over by First were my particular favourite. The 04 plate Tridents bough by Lothian, with the "love heart" route 26 branding, were the first buses I remember being brand new and I'll always have soft spot for them.

 

[Class465pacer]

Some other buses I grew up with were First London E400s on route 252, Tower Transit Gemini 2s on 25, Arriva London E400s on 150, B7TL ALX400s on 128 and Allison AT545 Pointer Darts on 462

 

[djpontrack]

When I was at school it was any single deckers that were available on school services from my village to Lochaber High school near Fort William. I remember the first time we had a Leyland National, it seemed very modern then and sounded great of course.

 

[David Verity]

Also Sunbeams including 501 which survives in preservation at Beamish. Had a long term loan at Sandtoft during which I passed by driving test on it. Beamish are creating a 1950s town in which you will be able to see it in operation again.

Never saw them in service, but they certainly had BUTs similar to the last models introduced in London at Fulwell and Isleworth depots, some of which saw further service in Spain.

Apologies my reply about Newcastle 501 should have appeared here but it's ended up on the next page. Sorry Mods.

 

[Beemax]

Not exactly childhood but in my early apprenticeship years I used to travel from Southampton to Lymington daily on the Hants and Dorset 56. The allocation meant that this was normally a National mk 1 in the morning and Bristol RE coming back. I used to find the Nationals very utilitarian with their vinyl seats and expanses of cream painted metal. I guess that was a reflection of NBC's monopolistic position in those days.

 

[30907]

I started going to school aged about 5 on LT route 227 so I'll second Busaholic's RFs, graduating after a while to RTs on the 126 for the homeward journey (we'd moved house and that way there was no main road to cross...). However I will give an honourable mention to Godstone's RLHs on the 410 just because no-one else has mentioned them. All the way from Bromley to Redhill to visit our ex next door neighbours was some run!

 

[CN04NRJ]

Cardiff Bus Olympians on the 26 to Cardiff (from Caerphilly) and various MCW/Optare Metroriders from Caerphilly to Cardiff. Also the local independents with Nationals and IBT with their Leopards and East Lancs converted Nationals.

Once we moved to Cardiff it would have been Lynxes and largely Scania/Alexander deckers and ECW VRs.

 

[Bevan Price]

The St. Helens Corporation trolleybuses on Service 4, Moss Bank to Parr via town centre. The Moss Bank terminal loop was at the end of the road where we lived at that time. The newest buses did not normally get to Moss Bank, so we got a mixture of pre-war or wartime buses, - a mixture of Ransomes, Leyland or Sunbeam types, some rebodied after the war by East Lancashire.

 

[meepmeep]

The St. Helens Corporation trolleybuses on Service 4, Moss Bank to Parr via town centre. The Moss Bank terminal loop was at the end of the road where we lived at that time. The newest buses did not normally get to Moss Bank, so we got a mixture of pre-war or wartime buses, - a mixture of Ransomes, Leyland or Sunbeam types, some rebodied after the war by East Lancashire.

I wonder if they could/would re-body busses in the 21st century?

 

[Richard Scott]

Cardiff Bus Olympians on the 26 to Cardiff (from Caerphilly) and various MCW/Optare Metroriders from Caerphilly to Cardiff.

Once we moved to Cardiff it would have been Lynxes and largely Scania/Alexander deckers and ECW VRs.

What about the Ailsas? They must have been there and outlasted all of those listed?