This correspondence is like all my yesterdays... Sitting behind the driver on
those nice older busses as a child and thinking how it was clever the way he
waited for a car to start overtaking before he flipped on his trafficator,
stuck his great arm out the window and moved off - all in slow motion compared
to nowadays. The first flashing indicators were a real shock to my purist
ideas. Then there were our trolleys - built for South Africa but not exported
so they came with tinted windows and double back wheels and they accelerated so
fast that you fell over if not hanging on.
Before that I was just old enough for the last London trams which we went
on every week on a round trip that took in three busses, a river boat from the
Tower to Greenwich and also a trip across the river on the beautiful steam
powered Woolwich ferry. It was heaven for a five year old that ferry - going in
all directions with pistons flashing every which way. Last time (more recently)
we went over there it was a b great ship and lots of revving lorries and cars.
Back in the 50s it was all atmospherics and the only rush was mum dragging me
to catch the waiting 101 bus which then carried us past the royal docks towards
home.
Dave Croft <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
----- Original Message -----
From: "BARRY HOLLAND" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: <[email protected]>
Sent: Wednesday, February 07, 2007 11:05 AM
Subject: Re: [canals-list] Re: Subtle (or not so subtle) abuse was: Re: Boating
- the Fred Carneau way Pt 1>
>
> Brian Dominic <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: [Default] On Tue, 6 Feb 2007
> 10:55:56 +0000 (GMT), BARRY HOLLAND
> finished tucking into their plate of
> fish, chips and mushy peas. Wiping their mouth, they swiggged the last
> of their cup of tea, paid the bill and wrote::
>
>>Greatly enjoyed looking at these old buses.<snip>.
>
> I used to do the opposite: when I was travelling across Nottingham
> from junior school to home (I'd stayed at the school as I'd only got a
> year left when we moved out of the catchment area). I used to "drop
> off" the rear platform of the trolleybus as it slowed down to
> negotiate the overhead junction at the end of Broad Marsh.<snip>
>
> Sounds just as exciting, Brian. For some reason though, I can't picture
> trolley buses with an open-door arrangement as on the
> diesel ones. Mind you this is from someone who, at the age of 6 or 7 was
> absolutely gobsmacked to see one day that trolley buses
> had a driver! With child-like logic I reasoned that, if the wires went round
> the corner, then the bus must *surely* follow! :-))
> Barry
> Nb whenwewereyoung
I remember about 40 years ago it was common on the downhill part of the route
from Whiston into Saint Helens
that the Trolley Buses used to take the wide bend too near the curb & the
trolley came off the wires.
I cannot remember if the trolleybus could use gravity to get back on route or
if it needed towing!
Dave Croft
Warrington
http://oldengine.org/members/croft/homepage
http://community.webshots.com/user/crftdv
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