A Journey Of Wonder!
When fbb was just a callow youth, you could buy a Central Area bus timetable for two shillings - which was quite a chunk of the lad's meagre pocket money. But the idea of having hundreds of bus timetables in one little book was beyond the lad's imagination. (it was actually beyond the laws of physics as the book would perforce have been huger than huge!)
But the staff version provided much more and it is the volume for 1958 that fbb will examine in thie blog.
Friend Alan from Isle of Wight was a depot manager for LT and explains that engineers did not get a copy of the "Red Book" as they had no interest in where the buses went once they left the depot. Sometimes the engineers had to go out and find one that had broken down but mostly they simply welcomed them back after a busy day, fed and watered them and kept the gubbins in working order.
The book begins wth an index ...
First up, there are emergency numbers ...
... and area (divisional) management numbers.Then comes the index. The user is reminded that motor bus routes were numbered from 1 to 299 and trolley bus routes from 500 to 699.
Routes 285 to 298 were motor buses but also included the 1958 version of Night Buses. More on these in due course.
fbb has ordered a hard copy of the Red Book for 1977 and, when it comes, a "contrast and compare" blog will follow (in due course?).
Which begs a troubling question ...
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fbb Biden |
As yesterday's blog was tending towards the Bidenesque, critics and the media have been asking whether your noble and perceptive blogger is just getting too old for the job. Despite these negative concerns, fbb is keen to emphasise that he has no intention of withdrawing from the blogging race and will be good to serve his readers for many years yet! Any suggestions of incompetence, senility and crookedness are entirely politically motivated. fbb is fit to stand. (Maybe keener to sit!)
On a more serious note (?), fbb is grateful to several readers who have offered to help the old bloke with material which will enable him to do a better "contrast and compare" job for 2024 and times past - e.g 1960s - in the London Country area.
He has also ordered a hard copy of the 1967 Country Bus map ..
I'm sure that your loyal band of readers will be voting for many more years of informed blogging. No Trump here, thank you !
ReplyDeleteYoungs Corner is the junction of Goldhawk Road and Chiswick High Road, just south of Stamford Brook station.
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