... In Slough (Part 1)
Carousel Buses has always had a reputation for smart liveries, tidy branding and a logo that more than hinted at its London Country predecessor.
The independent Carousel was bought by GoAhead, but, as usual with that group, the original identity and style has been retained. There is not a hint of the national branding by Stagecoach and First in the corporate minds of GoAhead!
Thankfully!
As fbb was meandering casually through the wondrous world of the interwebnet he spotted this:-
Here is a map for those whose knowledge of the greater Greater London area is even worse than fbb's.
The original 458 stuck to the LIGHT BROWN B470 and was later diverted via Iver Heath and the RED A4007 as revealed below.
The furthest that fbb can go back, lacking a Dr Who time travelling contrivance, is to a London Transport Country (green) bus route map..jpg)
The fbb screenshot is a bit over-enlarged, but with a squint and a peer you can make out ...
.. that a 457, 457A and a 458 ran between Slough and Uxbridge. fbb has even found a timetable to support his investigations.
The old 458 ran every 30 minutes cross-town from Cippenham, then on from Slough via Langley, Shreding Green, Iver and Iver Heath to Uxbridge. The old map shows the 457s as via Iver Heath not 458s, so doubtless some rationalisation had occurred between map and timetable extract.
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And here is a bus doing it!
By the time privatisation had settled down post 1986, the route has been numbered 58 and is in the hands of BeeLine, The Berks Bucks Bus company, formerly Thames Valley and not to be confused with some upstart in Manchester!
Bee Line was bought by First Bus; and below we see an early example of First's dedication to route branding ...
... with an Airport 74, 75 and 76 branded bus on its way from Uxbridge to Cippenham and going nowhere near any airport.
Soon First's Barbie Livery became ubiquitous ...
... later followed by the even more wishy washy son of (or maybe daughter of) Barbie.
There were some early examples of route branding on Barbie vehicles ....jpeg)
A masssive PR exercise on the routes between Slough and Heathrow ...
... but this degerated into a resurrection of the Bee Line name.
And, in typical First Bus fashion, we see a Bee Line bus operating in Glasgow!
As yet, there are no pictures on-line of First's appalling corporate livery!
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... followed by some generic "Berkshire" scheme.
... accompanied new vehicles as the "7" brand.
In a rush of blood to the head some town services were awarded colour coding.
Thankfully!
So it would appear that Carousels nostalgically numbered 458 is offering strong competition with First's former 58, now numbered ...
... as First Bus route 3.
So it would appear that Carousels nostalgically numbered 458 is offering strong competition with First's former 58, now numbered ...
Carousel's 458 appears to follow the same route.
Or do they?
More tomorrow.
Puzzle Picture
This is the crude but effective way Glasgow "Subway" trains were once removed from the circling tracks for maintenance and to adjust the frequency.
On London's Waterloo and City Underground line, there is an underground depot at Waterloo.
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But to get replacement trains into the system or remove them for heavy maintenance, a crane has to be hired..jpeg)
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More on the Glasgow Underground depot later in the week.
Next Going Ahead blog : Tues 6 Jan
Carousel's livery is good. Simple, but striking and easy to maintain. It's a pity then that they've diluted it by introducing the unnecessary Carousel Country brand, together with a rather turgid livery.
ReplyDeleteI visited the Glasgow Underground in 1974 during an Omnibus Society Presidential Weekend. We were taken by bus to Govan Cross station at around 2230 on Friday night to get on the first train to come out of service and then taken a ride round the whole circle which included the chance to stand up front along side the driver. We eventually reached all the other trains which were parked up in a continuous line where we walked through the connecting doors of all of them and down a ladder to track level and then up the staircase shown in your photo. There we were given a demonstration of a car being lifted off the track into the workshop. It would not have been practical to do this to regulate the service so it was a case of running all the or none at all.
ReplyDeleteAn amazing system! Alighting passengers in the front car had to pass through the driver's cab and hand the driver their tickets! (Those in the rear car gave their tickets to a platform attendant; boarding was in the middle of the train). There were terrifying knife switches for the power current in an enclosure on the tunnel headwalls, with only a waist-high railing to protect them.
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