(Pre) Destination Part 2

But, of course, the wise and knowledgeable would aver, if the teenage fbb had a good modern translation of the Bible, he would have understood his "Destination" more clearly.

Not sure!

For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters. And those he predestined, he also called; those he called, he also justified; those he justified, he also glorified.

The above is from the New Internatiinal Version, often called the Nearly Indispensable Version by some.

It wouldn't have hepled!

Back to a London Destination.

Going back far enough, destinations were often painted on the side of the bus, but as operators developed their business, removable metal plates were used with a cut out route number slid into a light box. These early vehicles carried a massive six lines of intermediate passing points!

Something more akin to modernity came along ...

... making it easier to change routes but not necessarily easier to read! The same could be said for this ...

... now with five lines of intermediate places and a 'roof box' for the route number. The use of a 'condensed' font of all capital letters was a significant aid to illegibility. Even when reduced to four lines ...

... it was still squashed. At least someone had realised that lower case is easier to read than all caps.

And then reduced to three.

One idea was to use yellow on black.

For most people, yellow on black is easier to read, particularly in difficult conditions, than white (usually a worn light grey).

The reminder number under the overhang was useful if a queue of buses at a stop meant that big blinds were obscured.

But then intermediate place names went from three lines to none!  Single track ultimate destinations are all you got ...

... in yellow. At the Boris Bus launch the text was yellow.

But the flavour of the month soon reverted to off white on black.

With the newer vehicles we also had the delight of electronic blinds which, perversely, were set up to be indistinguishable from roller blinds!

But, to go back a bit, fbb is not sure whether this version (below) was "official" but herewith a photo of a green 'Country' bus  ...

... showing its route number three times.

Which brings us to the green fleet. 'Normal' buses followed the pattern of the red fleet ...

.... with even the same lowbridge variant.

Green Line produced further variety of Destination. The theme was black on yellow ...

... with side destination boards added at one stage.

The yellow appeared darker then?

And, generally, fbb has not explored the delights of single deckers or "Special" displays. The whole subject is exciting OR stimulating OR just plain boring!

Is there a learned society for the study of bus destination blinds?

Using his encyclopaedic knowledge of 'O' level Latin, fbb proposes ...

The London Itineribus Society Team or L I S T in acronym.

Itineribus is a possible Latin translation of "routes".

But that all means that Destination blinds are becoming a thing of the past.

You've got to wonder why?

fbb will take a look tomorrow.

 Next Destination blog : Tuesday 12th May