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There were 26 crews
at Winchester. There were also a few drivers
who worked the driver only services, a handful
of inspectors and the depot superintendent
who I would get to see when I got reported.
A couple of people ran the office, checking
our takings and paying out wages among other
things. In the garage there was a foreman
and his team including the cleaners. One
of these, an old guy who lived out in the
country with no electricity or running water,
used to carry a dirty rag everywhere. With
this he would clean your windscreen, wipe
oil from his hands and imaginary dust from
his mid-morning roll.
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| The
foreman would never believe you if you reported
a problem with a vehicle. He sent me out on
the road once with a bus that had a leaking
radiator. The engine overheated and eventually
packed up. Another time a driver complained
about his brakes. To demonstrate that there
was nothing wrong with the bus, the foreman
drove it from the garage into the bus station
and applied the brakes. The bus continued
out of the bus station and across the road.
Luckily the only casualties were a group of
drivers and conductors who suffered aching
sides. |
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| The
crew rota consisted of duty numbers 1 to 26
and two columns of names, one for the drivers
and the other for the conductors. Odd numbers
were early turns, even numbers were lates.
Drivers worked their way up the rota one week
at a time while conductors worked down. This
meant a different combination of drivers and
conductors each week but every six months
you worked the same duty with the same driver
as before. A crew would therefore work together
on the same journeys every day for a whole
week except for the day off which varied from
duty to duty. |
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| Saturdays
sometimes meant a variation, Sundays and Bank
Holidays always did. The days off, we worked
a six day week, were covered by what were
called 'relief weeks', one early week and
one late having a different duty each day.
This did not include Sunday as there were
fewer crews working on that day. It was easy
to check the rota to see what you would be
doing on any day or week in the future. |
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| Some
of the drivers were not keen on discovering
they had a new conductor with them while others
were very helpful. The Monday ritual was finding
out who I had this week and trying to guess
which type they were. Most were good. The
few who resented having someone new on the
back would ignore you all day and throw you
around the bus at every opportunity. |
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| Driver |
Conductor |
Duty |
Sunday |
Monday |
Tuesday |
Wednesday |
Thursday |
Friday |
Saturday |
| A Black |
D Green |
1 |
1 |
1 |
Off |
1 |
1 |
1 |
1 |
| B Brown |
E Pink |
2 |
Off |
2 |
2 |
2 |
2 |
2 |
2 |
| C Gray |
F White |
3R |
Off |
9 |
1 |
13 |
5 |
25 |
3 |
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| Odd
numbers were early turns, even numbers were
lates. The letter R after the duty number
indicates a relief week. |
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