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Post by LK65EBO on Jun 25, 2021 21:34:44 GMT
I had a few different things:
- When Abellio still had the 235 I noticed that some E200s (61 reg to 13 reg) had a different place where the iBus display was (top middle) whereas the older E200s had them on the top right.
- I started noticing the new white blinds on TFs Enviro 200s.
- At a time when I didn't know what bus types, bus operators or garages were I noticed a change in bus for the 117 (when it went from Abellio to Metroline) and when they switched to white blinds.
- First time seeing a B5LH Gemini 3 (14 reg) on route 90.
- Seeing the Mercedes Benz Citaro demonstrator on the 235.
- Seeing an SP on the 116 (back when it was allocated DEs)
Apologies if this idea has already been done.
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Post by fg49 on Jun 25, 2021 23:28:23 GMT
For me personally: - The Darts across the 28, 39, 49, 156, 219, 239, 295, 319, 344 and 345 - the Allison whine started my interest. - My earliest double-decker memories come from a Metrobus on the 44 and an Olympian/Titan (please correct me) on the 319 - Reversing on a short LDP on route 345 at The Latchmere stop to get around a 319, my first time reversing on a bus. - The Solos on the C3  - The PDLs having different rear doors and rear light configurations. This carried onto all buses, especially rear doors, there was just something so fascinating about how they worked to me - My first time seeing a VE on the 49 confirmed me as a bus enthusiast for life (a little later, seeing an SP (one of SP1-8) on the 49 for the first time) |
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Post by vjaska on Jun 25, 2021 23:37:38 GMT
For me personally: - The Darts across the 28, 39, 49, 156, 219, 239, 295, 319, 344 and 345 - the Allison whine started my interest. - My earliest double-decker memories come from a Metrobus on the 44 and an Olympian/Titan (please correct me) on the 319 - Reversing on a short LDP on route 345 at The Latchmere stop to get around a 319, my first time reversing on a bus. - The Solos on the C3 - The PDLs having different rear doors and rear light configurations. This carried onto all buses, especially rear doors, there was just something so fascinating about how they worked to me - My first time seeing a VE on the 49 confirmed me as a bus enthusiast for life (a little later, seeing an SP (one of SP1-8) on the 49 for the first time) It would of been an Olympian on the 319 as BN had L's at that point  |
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Post by vjaska on Jun 25, 2021 23:42:21 GMT
What got me into buses was the Gardener 6LXB engine on the L's, M's & T's when I was growing up in the early 90's. Engine sounds was the main reason but the other one was one of my early rides as a child on the 45 sitting at the rear staring into the reversing mirror on the rear window. Also, the front bench seats were really cool to sit on and opening the front windows on buses which sadly was something that was lost when the low floor revolution happened. We've never had many single deck routes here but riding various LDP's on the 345 is another memory single deck wise.
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Post by ServerKing on Jun 26, 2021 2:20:50 GMT
I needed to get to West Ealing and it was too far to walk  |
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Post by VPL630 on Jun 26, 2021 7:17:38 GMT
Volvo Olympians on the 341 being absolutely ragged about late at night, me and my dad would go all over London on buses when younger to explore and normally we end up getting a late 341 home, later followed by the VNL's and TN/TNL's then growing up and exploring by myself, seeing how far I could get by bus and then gaining a better understanding of the different types of vehicles and researching using www.londonbusroutes.net/ to see what buses operated on what route and then going after such vehicles |
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Post by Dillon95 on Jun 26, 2021 11:02:10 GMT
Being on the autistic spectrum (Aspergers) I think! I was obsessed with trains as early as I can remember, and buses were a natural progression to that interest.
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Post by Deleted on Jun 26, 2021 13:26:41 GMT
Being on the autistic spectrum (Aspergers) I think! I was obsessed with trains as early as I can remember, and buses were a natural progression to that interest. Same with me, I have Asperger's. I remember liking buses and trains from a young age and being able to memorise all the stations on each underground line, whilst in the past few years I got to know more bus routes off by heart. |
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Post by LondonNorthern on Jun 26, 2021 13:45:49 GMT
For me it was hereditary
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Post by mkay315 on Jun 27, 2021 11:10:21 GMT
Volvo Olympians on the 341 being absolutely ragged about late at night, me and my dad would go all over London on buses when younger to explore and normally we end up getting a late 341 home, later followed by the VNL's and TN/TNL's then growing up and exploring by myself, seeing how far I could get by bus and then gaining a better understanding of the different types of vehicles and researching using www.londonbusroutes.net/ to see what buses operated on what route and then going after such vehicles I loved those S-LLO Olympians on the 341. The interior was unique as well as it had the same style of lights as a Palatine 2 bodied bus would have even though it was a Palatine 1 bus and I believe it was one of the first batch of buses that had the turquoise and purple moquette seats. I also remembered the LED bus stopping sign in red. |
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Post by redexpress on Jun 27, 2021 11:34:51 GMT
For me it was the London bus map that got me interested. As a child I was obsessed with maps, and particularly bus maps, but the all-London one (in the days when LT still produced them) was a work of art. If my dad went up to London for work and didn't bring back a bus map I'd probably sulk for a week 
Visiting London and riding the buses then got me interested in the actual vehicles, especially the Ms with their wonderful sounds. I loved the blinds in those days too, big clear informative boards that put provincial blinds to shame. London buses just seemed to be a cut above anything that you'd find in the rest of the country.
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Post by danorak on Jun 27, 2021 17:55:52 GMT
As my parents both worked, my grandad looked after me from time to time. As he had his free bus pass (not between 4pm & 7pm in those days!) and I was young enough to travel free, he would take me out for the day by bus to see London. Over time, I started to notice the differences between the types of vehicle we were on. I also started to be allowed to work out our route for the day, and spent hours poring over the latest map creating increasingly ambitious journeys. In 1983, it was '50 years of London Transport' so we went to a few garage open days and events and by then I was hooked. So I have my grandad to thank for my interest in buses, London and maps.
Today of course, a bit of the flavour has gone out of it. Routes are much shorter, traffic is worse and maps have all but disappeared. But I'm still on here, so...
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Post by danorak on Jun 27, 2021 19:12:08 GMT
As my parents both worked, my grandad looked after me from time to time. As he had his free bus pass (not between 4pm & 7pm in those days!) and I was young enough to travel free, he would take me out for the day by bus to see London. Over time, I started to notice the differences between the types of vehicle we were on. I also started to be allowed to work out our route for the day, and spent hours poring over the latest map creating increasingly ambitious journeys. In 1983, it was '50 years of London Transport' so we went to a few garage open days and events and by then I was hooked. So I have my grandad to thank for my interest in buses, London and maps. Today of course, a bit of the flavour has gone out of it. Routes are much shorter, traffic is worse and maps have all but disappeared. But I'm still on here, so... Writing this has just triggered a couple of other formative memories: 1979 was an earlier 'event' year (150 years of London's Buses) and we went to the Catford Garage open day. How could I have forgotten an open-top bus ride around the Catford one way system! And a Titan and Metrobus were exhibited on Blackheath as part of the long-ceased Blackheath Village Fayre. Also the peculiarity of offside boarding at the back of Lewisham Odeon that disappeared with the opening of the bus station. If only brains were like computers and I could delete all this stuff that's clogging my memory! |
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Post by greenboy on Jun 27, 2021 23:02:24 GMT
As my parents both worked, my grandad looked after me from time to time. As he had his free bus pass (not between 4pm & 7pm in those days!) and I was young enough to travel free, he would take me out for the day by bus to see London. Over time, I started to notice the differences between the types of vehicle we were on. I also started to be allowed to work out our route for the day, and spent hours poring over the latest map creating increasingly ambitious journeys. In 1983, it was '50 years of London Transport' so we went to a few garage open days and events and by then I was hooked. So I have my grandad to thank for my interest in buses, London and maps. Today of course, a bit of the flavour has gone out of it. Routes are much shorter, traffic is worse and maps have all but disappeared. But I'm still on here, so... Writing this has just triggered a couple of other formative memories: 1979 was an earlier 'event' year (150 years of London's Buses) and we went to the Catford Garage open day. How could I have forgotten an open-top bus ride around the Catford one way system! And a Titan and Metrobus were exhibited on Blackheath as part of the long-ceased Blackheath Village Fayre. Also the peculiarity of offside boarding at the back of Lewisham Odeon that disappeared with the opening of the bus station. If only brains were like computers and I could delete all this stuff that's clogging my memory! That brings back some memories, the offside boarding in Rennell Street. I don't really know what got me interested in buses, I remember going out with some school friends on a red rover. I'm still in touch with some of them but their interest in buses seems to have fizzled out a long time ago. |
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Post by ian on Jun 28, 2021 22:19:17 GMT
I was born in the mid 1960s. For me it was, I think, three main things. Firstly, the wonderful bus maps and the evolving routes and variations with suffixes, weekend differences etc. that I wanted to learn by heart, copy, change, plot route changes on and so on. Secondly, my Dad taking me on 'Red Bus Rovers' as they then were, and using the aforementioned maps I would plot the most outrageous ways around London: Mill Hill to Heathrow, Heathrow to Kingston and so on, winding right round to SE then NE and then eventually back to NW London. (My poor tolerant Dad!).
And finally, my parents always rather amusingly put my very earliest interest squarely down to the fact that I actually spent the first few years of my life in a house that was right next to and overlooked what was then a bus route terminus (of the 140 in Mill Hill). So I would sit in the garden staring at and be transfixed by these huge red, noisy machines with their airbrakes sounding, and my parents say some of my very earliest sounds were me attempting to mimic an RT bus on the 140. It is a fascination that has waxed and waned over 56 years but has never gone away. And I still find it amazingly useful to intuitively know most key routes across at least central London areas, and how to use buses as a 'life skill'.
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