The Red Book (1)

 A Journey Of Wonder!

It was an advert on one of the pages of Ian Armstrong's London Bus Routes pages that alerted fbb to the above publication.

What you get for your money (£6 in fbb's case) is not the book itself but a scan of its pages; which suits fbb as it is one less thing to clutter up fbb mansions.

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!)

Neither volume contained complete red bus timetables. As we have come to expect, there is a state secrecy about London Transport timetables - but both the public (2/-) version and the staff "Red Book" contained each route shown as "first and last" buses with the intervening frequencies.

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 ...

... and then there followed huge amounts of detail which would enable staff to keep in contact with anyone and everyone involved in running the Central (red) bus routes. And not a mobile phone in sight!

First up, there are emergency numbers ...

... and area (divisional) management numbers.

Now some of these numbers may look a little strange. This is because London Transport had its own "private" telephone system with superior technology and availability to the GPO system on offer to  the ordinary folk of London town. 

So the list of bus garages shows both phone system numbers.

And everywhere you might find an inspectors box, you would have an internal (private) phone number. Here are just a few.

The book also contains numbers for London's Fire Stations ...

... and where to get a replacement for a failed bell punch ticket machine.

The book doesn't say how the machine would get itself to your stranded bus.

These Bell Punch machines were almost all gone by the year of fbb's Red Book (1958) replaced by the ubiquitous Gibson.

You can buy one of the Gibsons on eBay for a modest £595.

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.

If course! In 1958 the trolleybus was king on many London Streets.

Railway stations are shown in all capitals. The only letter of the alphabet without a place name is "X" ...

... with plenty of Ws, three Ys and a Z.

Here is trolley 667 ...

... which served Youngs Corner, wherever it was!

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 ..

... plus a couple of timetable books ...

... one to match the map more closely.

That is fbb's pocket money for July all spent; so no more treats until August!

This largesse should mean your rejuvenated blogger will be able to put right the inadequacies of yesterday's posting, mainly caused by a poor quality on-line map.

 Next Red Book blog : Wednesday 24th July