How can you tell the difference please?
-
Our booking engine at tickets.railforums.co.uk (powered by TrainSplit) helps support the running of the forum with every ticket purchase! Find out more and ask any questions/give us feedback in this thread!
Strangest bus destination screens?
- Thread starter Geordie driver
- Start date
- Status
How can you tell the difference please?
Sponsor Post - registered members do not see these adverts; click here to register, or click here to log in
R
RailUK Forums
Pat1105
Member
Stagecoach North East Scotland (Fife) does this with certain places (no Via points displayed either) just says St Andrews Bus Station
Yes the short journey displays use both E and PART ROUTE.
See the picture below:
BJ03EWX National Express West Midlands 94E 4489
Explore Matt's Transport Photography's 46754 photos on Flickr!www.flickr.com
They don't use the E on the X routes however, though PART ROUTE is still used:
NXWM 4185
Operator: National Express West Midlands Bus Type: Alexander ALX400 bodied Dennis Trident Registration: Y789 TOH Fleet Number: 4185 Garage: Birmingham Central Route: X20 University Location: Birmingham
With TWM/NXWM, a few years back this was the general layout of route number and letter suffix, not complete gospel as there was a few oddities.
Examples
5 & 5A, Both had the same start and finish points, but the 5A missed out The Baldwin and Sarehole Mill.
1 & 1A, Same starting point and route up to the Pershore Road, diverging to the QE Hospital and Five Ways
36 & 36C, The 36C only operated during off peak daytime, The 36 only ran before 930 and after 1600. Both started in Stetchford, but had different terminating points, Sparkbrook (Mole St) 36, Sparkhill (Fernley Road) 36C. The main difference other than terminus being different and only a mile or so apart, was the 36 didn’t serve Acocks Green.
8A & 8C, 11A & 11C, The inner and outer circles. One went clockwise, the other anti-clockwise. When running short, or terminating along the route, as it had no terminus being a circular, you would display an E. Such as my favourite 11E Pineapple Bridge! The ticket machine and running board would be 11AE or 11CE so you’d at least know which way round you we’re supposed to go.
1 & 1E, Before the current routing, and the work in the city, the 1 used to go all the way to the Town Hall, but only during the off peak, during peaks it would be 1E Five Ways, and at night 1E Sheepcote Street, later changed to display Broad Street instead.
10 & 10H, I never drove this route, so I am unsure to wether the terminus were the same, but I know that the H went through Harborne, I’m sure there’s a few other routes in the WM that used letters that matched the place name, not many though!
Another interesting point, was that WMT/TWM had 4 track roller blinds, so you display a 3 number route and a letter suffix, such as 192E.
But I found them to be much amusement when broken down, here’s 628 broken down, on the 36, Percy Road, Sparkhill 16/7/2009.
I’m a former driver at AG & YW, so anything you want to know about former routes, numbers and which way they went, I’m sure I can help out.
Go-Coach of Sevenoaks manage to combine different colours for the route from the destination:
The Mobitec one looks like the one on Xplore they use - I wonder if thats the one they used on there older Geminis ie 7001 and one of their single decks 2031 (at a guess again correction if wrong) but the style looks familar as if thats the one used as they have a few of their single decks like that also (but they don't scroll the via points) but it would make a bit of sense if thats the case?, reason I suspect it could be Mobitec its just the style of the fonts especially the bus numbers (I know this could be said with Hanover as pointed out earlier) as they don't much tally up with the rest of the fleet (as I say I could be wrong with my own thoughts here but still....
)
Last edited:
The 10H did used go to Harborne. While the 10 used Augustus Road. 10H ran from Birmingham City Centre to Quinton Tesco, think the 10 also has a different terminus at the Quinton end
The 10H was rerouted via the QE/Uni a few years back - along Church Road, Edgbaston Park Road, Somerset Road, Farquhar Road, Vincent Drive, University Station, QE, then leaving the QE along Mindelsohn Way and Metchley Lane.
Then in October 2019 it was cut back to the QE Hospital, so it no longer went to Harborne in its later days running from the City Centre to the QE via Ladywood, when NX used the X20/X21/X22 branded platinums on it running of an X20/X21/X22 board.
It has now been replaced by a new 25 service.
The 10S which currently exists is another that matches the place name. Goes from Quinton to Selly Oak via Harborne and the QE. The "S" matching Selly Oak.
Prior to the 24, what routes served that area of Small Heath south of the Coventry Road, that the 28 and 28A serve today?
https://www.flickr.com/photos/mcw1987/20171932954/in/photolist-wJwqTu-9LDd5q/ The flag in this picture appears to say "590A"? What way did the 590A/590C take in the Small Heath area? And has the 28 always terminated at the current Waverley Road/Golden Hillock Road terminus in the Small Heath area?
Last edited:
Pat1105
Member
Yes, they’re both Mobitecs. NXWM only have hanovers, however the Scania bendies they had a good few years ago did have Mobitecs. Having just one type of blind fitted is easier when it comes to programming, as each blind manufacturer uses a different piece of programming software, so having just the one type of blind means you don’t have to program everything twice on two separate pieces of software.The Mobitec one looks like the one on Xplore they use - I wonder if thats the one they used on there older Geminis ie 7001 and one of their single decks 2031 (at a guess again correction if wrong) but the style looks familar as if thats the one used as they have a few of their single decks like that also (but they don't scroll the via points) but it would make a bit of sense if thats the case?, reason I suspect it could be Mobitec its just the style of the fonts especially the bus numbers (I know this could be said with Hanover as pointed out earlier) as they don't much tally up with the rest of the fleet (as I say I could be wrong with my own thoughts here but still....
View attachment 78568
View attachment 78569
Statto
Established Member
Merseyside PTE had 4 track roller blinds on 18xx East Lancs & Willowbrook bodied Atlanteans, 0019 to 0028 MCW Metrobuses & Willowbrook Dominators, this when they got allocated to Kirkby area routes which the PTE had revised to 150 to 159, so they could fit if any suffixes if they were added later, funnily enough the batch of Willowbrook Dominators were based Speke don't think any reached Kirkby apart from on Industrial services.
London had 4 track numbers like 171A but on 2 track roller blinds, i think London blinds though were fitted to what the depot ran
GMPTE didn't have 4 track blinds, but the last blind was big enough so they could fit in 192X, in GM land the X sufflix stood for extra bus, i felt GM had the best blinds
I think the only track blinds London had were the 3-track blinds as fitted to Leyland Nationals. When they wanted add a suffix to a route with three numbers, they added the suffix to the destination blind - I think the only example was the 234a in Croydon.
The only other example with track blinds may be ex WMPTE Titans which ran on the 177E.
Two occasions. One bus had a waypoint destination via a town called North Camp, but was misspelt as "Notth Camp", which I'm sure there's a Flickr photo out there somewhere.
Another bus was operating a dead run, with "Help me!" written on its destination. I laughed my rear end off seeing that, the driver giving a thumbs up as he passed!
Another bus was operating a dead run, with "Help me!" written on its destination. I laughed my rear end off seeing that, the driver giving a thumbs up as he passed!
That does make sense and also adds to the oddness as to why they don't scroll the via points (well for me and understanding of the tech!)
There was an occasion with Xplore rather than state destination as St Mary's (as usual) they accidentally loaded up St Maryos' it seemed to baffle the drivers and passengers (this was more spotted on the mobitec blinds!)
Not a destination, but a wrong number.
In September and October 1979, London's Bromley Garage lost its DMS Fleetlines and gained Leyland Nationals in their place for routes 61, 124 & 138. Bit of a downgrade in capacity (though an uplift in reliability, by and large). These came with the usual 3-track number blinds as being discussed elsewhere currently. Occasionally, buses would be seen numbered as 061, but one driver presumably failed to come to grips with the view from the back and so displayed 610 for a few journeys.
In September and October 1979, London's Bromley Garage lost its DMS Fleetlines and gained Leyland Nationals in their place for routes 61, 124 & 138. Bit of a downgrade in capacity (though an uplift in reliability, by and large). These came with the usual 3-track number blinds as being discussed elsewhere currently. Occasionally, buses would be seen numbered as 061, but one driver presumably failed to come to grips with the view from the back and so displayed 610 for a few journeys.
Pat1105
Member
Both Hanover and Mobitec blinds have the ability for pieces of text to scroll. In the example you’ve used, it hasn’t been programmed to scroll.That does make sense and also adds to the oddness as to why they don't scroll the via points (well for me and understanding of the tech!)
Whisky Papa
Member
- Joined
- 8 Aug 2019
- Messages
- 395
Yes, the third track on GMT number blinds had a longer roller blind with every number duplicated with the x suffix, thus taking twice as long to wind through as the other two. By the time I was working as a part-time conductor (at Princess Road and Northenden) when in the schedules office at Stockport, the majorty of buses in use were GMT "Standards", so front, side and rear number blinds might need changing at a terminus if interworking onto another route. Even with a driver to help, this was something of a chore, and much more so for the usual OPO drivers.
At the time, buses at Stockport that were not on cross-town routes (190/1, 192, 306/16 or 368/9) used to interwork randomly in the bus station, and it was a local agreement that only the front number blind needed to be set. In fact, the minimum layover of 5 minutes was actually split into 4 minutes layover and 1 minute to change blinds, meaning on a Sunday, the Brinnington circular 325 that arrived back at 2246 was able to work the 2250 departure back to Brinnington (last buses being 2250 on Sunday rather than 2300).
Incidentally, while the x suffix originally suggested "Extra", it came to imply "Part Route" and was eventually widely used in all-day service. When the 203 from Manchester to Reddish was extended to Stockport (or, from our Stockport perspective, the 317 to Reddish was extended to Manchester and renumbered
), there were still some regular short workings from Stockport that terminated at Reddish, which had to show 203x. Likewise 378x journeys that terminated at Grove Lane rather than carrying on to Wilmslow, or the 379x and 380x shorts that terminated at Adswood.
Busaholic
Veteran Member
- Joined
- 7 Jun 2014
- Messages
- 14,088
Didn't the Olympians London United bought for their Riverside Bus operation from Turnham Green pre-privatisation have 3 track number blinds?
TheSel
Member
Some - but not all - of Bristol's FLFs had four track number blinds. Here's a contrasting pair at Lawrence Hill on the 'last day' (which, of course, turned out not to be!)
Yes, I think you're right. I was also thinking about the Armchair Olympians - but I think they had all been sold before Metroline bought the business.
If both systems are able to roll then why do it for one and not the other? Just seems a strange setup yet they have been using this equipment since the late 2000's (can't remember when all their buses became digital)
Another strange one was when Stagecoach Manchester first started operating 23A from Stockport to Trafford Centre, at the time they still had buses in the fleet with roller blinds and as these blinds obviously didnt have the A fitted on them they had to use part of the 4 to make it look like an A.
Pat1105
Member
I have no idea why. MIE (the Mobitec software program) can be a bit fiddly to work with, so they probably found it easier just to use static displays.
The irony is I believe this is only on a few single deckers (can't remember the fleet numbers other than 2031) and the Geminis (well the Geminis we're their first double decks with displays), I still thought they employ people to do all this (or know how to work it), saying that I haven't seen them display any of the UK/Scottish Gov messages onscreen! (missed opportunity!)
Pat1105
Member
They don’t employ someone specifically to do the displays. It is most often a member of staff who does the displays. NXWM I think uses an outside company to do the displays for them, but I’m not 100% sure.
Mutant Lemming
Established Member
Geordie driver
Member
An empty bus is a happy bus!Today I spotted a bus on the main road with "Bus full: social distancing" on the front. The only person on it was the driver.AnA
I suppose it's one way to avoid people but I can't see him pleasing the bus company!
- Status