Title Removed because of complaint

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Permalink Reply by Gordon T on October 23, 2016 at 8:54

Tangential to the bus and the    heading, but relevant news:

A multi-million pound sat-nav project aims to stop lorries and other vehicles getting stuck in narrow lanes and under low-lying bridges on UK routes (BBC News, 19 Oct).  

Now I don't recall seeing satnavs in buses in London, but if fitting were made mandatory to prevent low bridge impacts.....

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Permalink Reply by StephenBln on October 23, 2016 at 10:41

Thanks for the link Gordon..

Back in the day when I drove Private Hire Buses for LT, drivers had to have been accident free for at least five years in order to get the job. The rule of thumb was always to follow 'bus routes' when in London and keep your eyes open when outside. The necessary height restriction was the first thing you are taught - 14'6" - There are quite a few bridges (in South London) that only have 14'3" and I've seen photos of buses having the air let out of their tyres to pass through after getting stuck.

What this bus was doing in the back streets of Tottenham? Obviously somebody asked the driver to let them off the bus outside their house. The real culprits, no doubt, who fooled the driver into doing it and he'll probably now lose his job.

As for the 'B' word. Drivers often joked about being in this situation, especially if there was a sudden diversion for any reason. That probably accounts for my naughty flippancy.

A shot of one the Private Hire buses that I drove - 22 June 1983 Hastings

More info here: https://www.flickr.com/photos/isarsteve/4450857852/in/photolist-7MiNYu

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Permalink Reply by Gordon T on October 23, 2016 at 11:19

I 'enjoyed' the '60s alternative as my transport to school - the lowbridge design. We schoolkids usually sat upstairs in a bunch at the back, so weren't much bothered by the inconvenience of manoeuvring past other passengers across the four seats in a row, nor the step down into the footwell on the right-hand side. Plus it was handy having a run of seats for playing cards.

The unwary passenger downstairs who stood up forgetting the correspondingly low ceiling did cause merriment among us hard-hearted souls, though, as we stood on the platform before stepping off before the bus had stopped....

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Permalink Reply by StephenBln on October 23, 2016 at 11:37

London Transport also had a small fleet of Lowbridge buses. The AEC RLH type which worked on routes in Hackney, Harrow, Morden & Upminster in the Central Area and at Weybridge in the Country Area. They also had the low ceiling downstairs and the so-called 'lover's seats' upstairs.

The last day of the Hackney service in 1971:

The depth of the windows, or the height of the seats, can be clearly seen on the above shot. It wasn't possible to look straight out of the windows, when sat upstairs on RLHs.

The 178 used to run through the area that has now become the Olympic Park.

Many RLHs were bought up for further use after service in London.
I caught this one in California in 1980:

And working on today's 230 route in 1997:

The route number 230 had been the traditional home of RLHs at Harrow. That route was withdrawn in 1969, so it was decided to use the vehicle on the 1997 special service on the 1973 version of the 230.

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