| We went through a stage
one winter where we were short of buses. The
solution was to hire some from neighbouring
operators. Southern Vectis was the favourite
as they had buses that they only used in the
summer. These buses had no heaters and we
often had to push them to get them started
as they had 12 volt electrical systems instead
of the normal 24 volts. They were also geared
for the island's hills and so had a low top
speed. |
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| When we could not get
enough buses from the Isle of Wight we had
to go further afield. |
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| We
tried not to use Wilts & Dorset buses
because they were red and the public confused
them with Corporation buses. I used one once
on a journey to Romsey. When I pulled up at
the Hants & Dorset bus stops in Shirley,
people ran from the Corporation stops and
then complained that we were not going their
way. |
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| One morning the only
bus left in the garage was a Royal Blue express
coach. We used the coach on a peak period
journey from Calshot. We left a lot of passengers
behind, partly because the coach had less
room than even a small single deck bus, but
also because some people flatly refused to
believe that we really were a number 59. |
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| My favourite episode
from this time was on a 36 to Calmore one
night for which we had a Bournemouth Corporation
bus. These buses were conspicuous for two
reasons. Firstly, they were yellow while buses
in Southampton were red or green. And then
there were the stairs. Bournemouth buses of
that period had an open rear platform and
doors at the front. A passenger who had been
to the pub got on at Maybush Corner and went
up the back stairs. Having just collected
a fare at the front, I went up the front stairs.
The man turned, fled down the rear stairs
and jumped off the bus. |
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