| As a 'spare' or stand-by
conductor one morning, I was taken in the
inspectors van to Romsey. The inspector drove
off leaving me with the bus and half a dozen
or so passengers. |
 |
| I
checked the bus over, set the destination
indicator, climbed into the cab and started
up. We were already late and as I wondered
where the driver had got to a passenger came
round to the cab and asked what time I was
going to leave. I replied "as soon as
the driver gets here" only to be told
that he was not going to. It turned out that
his conductor had been in the habit of driving
the bus from the bus station until it reached
the stop near the driver's home. |
|
| Now I had broken a few
rules by then and, like a lot of conductors,
had driven empty buses for short distances
on quiet roads. But this was asking too much.
I stayed put and eventually the driver arrived
and took over. To say I was not popular hardly
covers it. |
|
| One evening, on a journey
from Romsey to Southampton, a grey police
Hillman Husky tried to overtake us as we drove
along the 'Mile Wall' which runs down one
side of Broadlands Estate. For some reason
my driver decided to race the van but it eventually
got past and made us stop. One policeman went
to talk to the driver and the other headed
my way. I was expecting trouble but it turned
out they were looking for someone who had
escaped from a remand centre. |
|
| Quite what they would
have made of me and another driver on our
hands and knees in the middle of Romsey Square,
in the snow at eleven o'clock at night I'm
not sure. We were looking for and found a
contact lens lost in a snowball fight. |
|