Today's photo is of an old Bedford bus, in the livery of Railways Road Services from the 1950s, at Paraparaumu.
We are interested in people's stories of amusing or strange incidents from either driving or travelling on buses in NZ, whether they be rural, urban, suburban or school with a view to publishing a book of them. Photos of old buses are sought too. Send to our e-mail (on our main website and on the profile page here) by March 2011.
3 comments:
When ever we went to visit my Nana and Popa and my Great Grand parents (who lived with them) we would walk to the local store and catch the Raod Services bus into the township of Pukekohe. The old Bedford Bus we as children called the "Bone Shaker" simply because of the way it rattled and you could hear the coins bouncing in the drivers tray next to the ticket board with all the brightly colored tickets....
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Can someone tell me what they looked like on the inside? I'm writing a novel set in the sixties. It includes a journey on an old Bedford bus. I have an image of the upholstery - much the same as on the old trains but I'm not sure if this is accurate. Would love a response.
When I started working in Wellington in the early 1980's we had no real option (cars were expensive in comparison to wages) but to go by bus. Mind you nearly everyone did in Wainuiomata where I lived at the time. They were packed to the gunnals with people even standing in the door footwells, it was almost imtimate. We thought this was nothing though and health and safety was yet to be imagined. I think we all either dreaded or enjoyed the slow run over the Wainui side of the hill, cruising over at 10mph to the deafening scream of an overburdened monster. Coming back home we had the Lower Hutt side and that was a longer grind, we all did a collective sigh of relief at the top after the 5-10 mph slog. The bus was comfy enough, but the smokers definitely filled the whole cabin with their toxic fumes that had nowhere to go, so, in effect, we were all getting our daily dose no matter what. The sign on the ceiling of the bus advised that smokers were to smoke in the back half. Simpler times, simpler rules and in a way something that just had to be done at the time to earn a crust. Mind you, 5c got you a bit further back then.
In a way I miss them, they had a character all of their own, not like the ugly boxes that fill the streets these days. The single seat next to the driver was the icing on the cake if you managed to get it. The squeak and clatter of the doors closing and opening is a long lost memory now. The rails attached to the roof to hang on to, a vague memory of floor to ceiling rails too, and if you were lucky, some had thick leather loops hanging down from those rails to cling to. The seat over the rear axle faced inward from memory which gave a bit more room for those who had to stand. Some may care to correct these faded memories, but they're just that now.
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