Is it just around here?

[Kaz]

We had the classic red Routemaster buses round my way growing up, so they had conductors on I loved those buses and liked to sit upstairs at the front

Ossie, the drivers and passengers can be chatty here too

[JoM]

We still had the old buses with the open back well into the 90s here
There was a small local bus company who used a fleet of old buses, complete with a conductor on the double deckers, and I used to have to get one to work and it was always the same driver and clippy on that route in a morning. I'm shivering even thinking about how cold that journey was in the Winter

[cromwell]

I used to love the old Routemasters. You could run after them and jump on!

Buses then we so different. The sideways seats at the back which seated three and "stubbers" on the back of the seats to put your cigarette out!

There is a company near here which runs a couple of old buses as wedding vehicles.

As a lad I can't remember thanking the driver but everyone does it now.

[Kaz]

They have one for hire around here too Crommers It gets hired out for weddings and all sorts It's currently parked down at the Quays, for the Christmas Market

[TheOstrich]

I used to love the old Routemasters. You could run after them and jump on!
There is a company near here which runs a couple of old buses as wedding vehicles.

Master O and DiL hired an old Routemaster bus to transport the wedding party on a tour of the London tourist spots last year. Mrs O, my S, Mrs O's S and myself all sat on the lower deck, up the front. I was even asked to "ring the bell" (actually, it was one of they old fashioned cord pulls) to get us started!

All I can say is never in the history of Human Endeavour has an Ostrich been photographed so many times by Japanese Tourists ....

Back in Birmingham in the 70's, BCT had rear-entrance Leyland and Guy Arab buses. The custom was, when the bus was coming off shift and returning to the depot, the bus destination blinds were changed to show something like "9E - Service Extra". You knew if you managed to board a "Service Extra" coming out of the City Centre in the evening rush hour, it would go like a bat out of hell in the outside lane out to the suburbs and home. That's where sprinting across two lanes of traffic and hurling yourself aboard the rear-entrance platform came into play .....

[JoM]

LOL about the Service Extra and your bell ringing

We were remembing the old Bullring bus station the other week. Our bus stop was always right up the corner by the doors to the indoor market. I seem to remember that there was little place selling drinks and snacks up that corner at one time. Never used the bus again after the railway line was opened up again in the late 80s.

[Workingman]

Dad took me on the last local tram in to Leeds; it looked like a Victorian building on wheels.

The local terminus was at Compton Road and the final stop at the Dark Arches near City Square. The tram would then go to the shed for a quick clean and turn round. However, on its final journey we were allowed to go all the way to the shed. We got off, it got cleaned, then it was turned on the turntable and we got on again and set off home.

The thing was that as Compton Road had no turntable it was a push me - pull you tram with drivers cabs at both ends. At Compton Road the driver would change ends while the conductor flipped the seat backs to the opposite side so that passengers were seated facing the right way. The journey was 1/- for adult and 6d for children and we got a commemorative booklet about the history of Leeds trams.

A journey not forgotten.

[Workingman]

I found a photo.



The tram is at the end of the line where Compton Road meets Harehills Lane. The track on the right is a spur to Burton's Menswear factory on Hudson Road, "a town in itself" where tens of thousands of workers tailored away, day and night.

[Kaz]

That's quite something Frank! The only time I've been on a tram was in Amsterdam

[TheOstrich]

Dad took me on the last local tram in to Leeds; it looked like a Victorian building on wheels.

The local terminus was at Compton Road and the final stop at the Dark Arches near City Square. The tram would then go to the shed for a quick clean and turn round. However, on its final journey we were allowed to go all the way to the shed. We got off, it got cleaned, then it was turned on the turntable and we got on again and set off home.

The thing was that as Compton Road had no turntable it was a push me - pull you tram with drivers cabs at both ends. At Compton Road the driver would change ends while the conductor flipped the seat backs to the opposite side so that passengers were seated facing the right way. The journey was 1/- for adult and 6d for children and we got a commemorative booklet about the history of Leeds trams.

A journey not forgotten.

Nice photo, WM. I recall from the last time I went on them that the older Blackpool trams, the double-deckers, had that rather ingenious system of reversible seats upstairs.

I missed the Birmingham trams - I think they were phased out in the very early 1950's, but I do (and I guess Jo probably will also) remember the Walsall and Wolverhampton trolleybuses that ran well into the 1960's. Bournemouth had an extensive system that ran well into the '60's as well.

That Midland Red Bull Ring bus station was an absolute hole! I used to hate having to get a bus from there on dark evenings.