Sheffield Buses Past

[telman 10]

yes i remember suet. i once went home for dinner and fell aslleep before my mother

could put my plate on the table. i still had my knife and fork in my hands.

trouble was that if the transport dept. set more staff on, overetime would fall

and people would leave, thus defeating the object of cutting overtime.

got on a coach recently and the driver stopped every 3 hours for a break.

how things change. sorry no pics of garages.

[crookes 10]

When my wife and I got married we worked together as driver and clippie. I used to prop her up at the bus stop at 03.30 in the morning waiting for the staff bus to take us to work. We worked all morning, all day and into the night and when we worked on Intake/Walkley we would pick folks up to take them to work and pick them up to take them home again. Later we would pick them up to take them to the pub, or whatever and then when they came out we took them back home again. They'd say, "You still here!"

[crookes 10]

...they came down Eastbank road at a fair speed with the best drivers.

 

Mmm, puts me in mind of driving down there with an old Leyland back loader. I was one-and-oneing it with an East Bank Rd bus and as I pulled into a layby and braked for a stop on East Bank Rd he overtook me and then my brakes failed to a point where I had no option but to bounce up the kerb and just managed to steer out as he went past without hitting the tree in front. That was interesting. A split seconds difference and I would have either hit the tree or him. I got some funny looks from the passengers at Pond Street. They don't know how close we came to an accident.

 

It was raining heavily as I was once approaching traffic lights in an old AEC with a van in front. He gunned it before the lights, which weren't changing by then. I unwisely anticipated that he was going through, but the amber came up and he stamped on his brakes and so did I, as we got to the rubber pad that used to be near the lights. The front wheels locked on the pad and we screeched up to the van and stopped about 2ins from his rear end. I slowly turned round in the cab and everybody was nonchalantly looking out the window or reading a newspaper. Phew! LOL

[telman 10]

I was conducting on a 82 bus and we pulled over to let a fire engine pass

on pinstone st. it sped off down the moor at rush hour everybody letting it

through, so my driver decided to follow it to the bottom of the moor.

3 foot from the back of the fire engine. he got reported but no action taken.

inspector had a quiet word. freezing cold on a back loader. happy days.

[crookes 10]

There was a trip on one rosta that had you going on the 87 Maltby route, but terminating at Wickersley (I think) and this meant not returning for half-an-hour. It was midwinter and during the half-hour the condensation on the inner saloon roof froze solid.

 

I was on route 88 Fulwood/Roscoe bank with an Atlantean and during the short stop at Fulwood, the brakes froze on.

 

On one rime ridden day, it froze on the trees quite spectacularly on the way to Lodge Moor the roof kept smashing into ice coated branches. I thought the front windows were going to break and so did the passengers who shifted to the rear.

 

A bus got stuck up Lodge Moor terminus one night and the crew went to the hospital and phoned for assistance. They were brought back by Land Rover. It was very windy and it snowed all night and when they finally got back to the bus it had filled with snow and one of the springs had broken with the weight.

[crookes 10]

I seem to recall six-wheelers in Sheffield, donkey's years ago. I'm sure I remember seeing one go down Crookesmoor Rd

[telman 10]

the big greatcoats we wore weighed a ton. mine was 3 stone . i was 7 and a half.

[manaman 10]

Thanks for the explanation. I used the 8/9 a lot in the 50s to/from school but don't remember that type; they always seemed to put the most clapped-out buses they had on that route.

 

The City-Nether Edge route used to have much more modern stock.

 

I also used the the 8/9 inner circle route in the 50's to and from school and can remember going on that type of bus occasionally. You were right about the clapped out buses that were used on that route. The ones that spring to mind were the Crossley engined buses which, as well as having a distinctive engine noise, also had a distinctive window line where the windows towards the rear of the upper and lower decks were smaller. I tried to avoid sitting in the rear section of the upper deck because I was too small to see out of the window.

Hillsboro do you have a link to these buses?

 

Greybeard, you were right about the stock used on the City-Nether Edge route, they were usually Leylands similar to buses used on the 32 City- Woodthorpe route I also used on my way to and from school.

Hillsboro do you also have a link to these buses?

[athy 10]

This thread, which I've just discovered, brings back many happy memories, firstly of the 102 route which was the first bus I ever caught, I think, as when I was about six (1955) I started going to town shopping with my parents on a Saturday morning. We caught the bus opposite the end of Gleadless Avenue, can't remember the name of the road [ EDIT: Gleadless Common perhaps?] - it sloped down from the Punch Bowl Hotel. A few years later I was allowed to catch this bus, or the 101 which went the same way to town, unaccompanied.

Hillsbro, were you at King Ted's? I started there in 1960 or 1961. Got off the 102 at Harmer Lane (the request stop just before Pond St.), scuttled back round the corner to a stop opposite the Midland Station where I had a choice of three buses to KES: 54 Rivelin Dams, 55 Crosspool, or most often the 60 which, as far as I remember, did not have a destination board, but its conductor always called out "Hangingwater Road", one of thre most marvellous destination names I have ever heard. Of course I never saw H. Road as i got off the bus at KES; I don't suppose that the place was at all exotic really.

I do remember the four-seats-abreast buses, though I only once travelled on one. Did they go to Dinnington?

[hillsbro 32]

…The ones that spring to mind were the Crossley engined buses which, as well as having a distinctive engine noise, also had a distinctive window line where the windows towards the rear of the upper and lower decks were smaller. I tried to avoid sitting in the rear section of the upper deck because I was too small to see out of the window.

Hillsboro do you have a link to these buses?

 

This was perhaps the Crossley DD42/7 - here are a couple of pictures:http://www.jumbliesmodels.com/images/OM41601.jpg http://www.regent9.ic24.net/pompey%2054_1.jpg

 

As for Leylands, Sheffield had some PD2's and TD7's: Here's a Sheffield PD2, albeit with M.C.W. bodywork: http://lh5.ggpht.com/_03smgKElkTM/R_Lm3w9vD_I/AAAAAAAAHUU/td19qMOGfF4/shef100-0002_IMG.JPG.

 

This PD2 also had a Leyland body: http://www.exetermemories.co.uk/EM/transport/Leyland48.jpg

 

Hillsbro, were you at King Ted's?

 

Yes - I was at King Ted's from 1959 to 1966 - and so I remember Ponto, Flink, BlackJack, Dusty, Lucy, Red Fred and Fat Nat Here's a good website: http://nlc.oldedwardians.org.uk/

 

I do remember the four-seats-abreast buses, though I only once travelled on one. Did they go to Dinnington?

 

They were on the "C board" and as far as I know they normally operated on long-distance routes (especially to Upton) but they were sometimes used on other routes. Dinnington could also have been served by a different operator that might have had "lowbridge" buses. Wigmore's operated a Dinnington service but as I recall they were single-deckers.

[athy 10]

From memory it was either service no.6 or no.12.

I think you must have been the year above me, Hillsbro. My first form master was "Eli" Vout, form 1.3. The following year I was in 2.1 but then I left as the family moved away from Sheffield. My best friend stayed till the end of the 6th form: his name was Jon Haworth and we are still regularly in touch today. He is now a judge.

I did know some boys in the year above me through Scouts - I was in C troop and then, when it disbanded, B troop. The only name I can recall is Pete Reed, though a boy called Beaman may have been in your year as well..

[hillsbro 32]

From memory it was either service no.6 or no.12.

 

The No 6 went to Dinnington, also the 15 and 19. The 15 went via Todwick Bar, the other two via Kiveton Park.

 

I think you must have been the year above me, Hillsbro. My first form master was "Eli" Vout, form 1.3. The only name I can recall is Pete Reed, though a boy called Beaman may have been in your year as well..

 

I knew Pete Reed and Dave Beman. Dave has lived in America for many years. Here is a photo of form 1(3) complete with "Eli" Vout: http://nlc.oldedwardians.org.uk/photos/60.1(3).html. Eli died in 2005, aged almost 80: http://www.oldedwardians.org.uk/nlc/staff/VAV.html