My memories tell me that in the dim past London Buses where always registered in specific ranges of numbers dedicated to London Transport (though I may be remembering wrongly).
Post TfL and privatisation of many of the services, things have obviously changed quite a bit (though none of the buses seem to carry the (more) appropriate German, French, etc. registrations one might expect). ;-)
Though there are a few LTnn xxx registered vehicles, many carry registration numbers from all round the country.
I was surprised, however, to note a tranche of "Boris Buses" (New Routemaster) with registration numbers LTZ nnnn. Being intrigued, research took me to the builders (Wrightbus) who are based in Northern Ireland, which surprised me, but makes things a bit more understandable.
(not all Boris Buses have such plates).
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My memories tell me that in the dim past London Buses where always registered in specific ranges of numbers dedicated to London Transport (though I may be remembering wrongly).
Correct. Very useful to us nippers who were bus spotters. You quickly learnt which registration translated to which fleet number.
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who were bus spotters.
You learn something new every day. Never knew such a hobby existed. Genuine question do all forms of public transport have spotters?
Last edited by: sooty123 on Fri 15 Jan 16 at 15:51
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>> You learn something new every day. Never knew such a hobby existed. Genuine question do
>> all forms of public transport have spotters?
I think that must be a yes.
Bus spotters were very evident in London in last days of the old Routemasters.
Whenever I drive past the Rugby Truckstop on the A5 there are blokes who look like plane spotters peering through the fence, scribbling notes and taking pictures.
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They are Eddie Stobart spotters Bromp.
They even have their own fan club.
Pat
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Are they wearing luggage straps instead of belts?
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They usually buy, and wear the full ES uniform!
Pat
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Have you seen the ES pocket-watch advertised on TV?
Saw it last night, full pocket watch with silver plated chain, colour artwork of a named truck put together by a skilled craftsman.......... all of this for a wallet busting £2.99!!
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>>.......... all of this for a wallet busting £2.99!!
...fell off the back of a lorry?
;-)
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>> Are they wearing luggage straps instead of belts?
You remember the memo about Runfer's mirrors? There was another at the same time....
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> I think that must be a yes.
>>
>> Bus spotters were very evident in London in last days of the old Routemasters.
>>
>> Whenever I drive past the Rugby Truckstop on the A5 there are blokes who look like plane spotters peering through the fence, scribbling notes and taking pictures.
>>
Cheers, i never even knew they were about. I wonder if there are ferry spotters as well or even trams ?
I wonder what it is about public transport that attracts spotters, are there any that taxi firms spotters?
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I think its good to have a hobby, even better to have one that fascinates you.
I've never really got "spotting" myself, but I've always thought it must be quite a satisfying hobby to have.
I've tried most hobbies, including stamp collecting, spotting and various other collecting. I've never really found one that works for me though.
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>> I've tried most hobbies, including stamp collecting, spotting and various other collecting. I've never really found one that works for me though.
Next door neighbour in the Grove, a tough but agreeable Glaswegian, once said to me over a couple of large ones in the local: 'Drinking is my hobby, Armel.'
I found it strangely touching and vulnerable. Honest individuals are precious, even the ones who are pretty fly as he was.
Last edited by: Armel Coussine on Fri 15 Jan 16 at 17:42
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I very well remember back in the sixties that every other Routemaster in east London had the letters VLT on it's plate. Funny how that stuck in the mind.
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His usual companion, a hard-bitten, shy woman, kept up with him bravely but fell ill and died young. He was quite upset and sorry.
Women have smaller livers.
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>> Women have smaller livers.
>>
And less Bacon too.
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>> I've tried most hobbies, including stamp collecting, spotting and various other collecting. I've never really
>> found one that works for me though.
Train filming works for me on many levels. It ticks many of the required hobby boxes.
Its sociable and has a community (some of them are well sad tho), it requires effort, planning and foresight up front, the results can sometimes be pretty dramatic, and sometimes when they are you get a adoration and admiration - (admittedly mostly from the saddos previously mentioned)
Filming the scotsman last weekend was a classic box ticker, was a good weekend away and there was a real carnival atmosphere along the whole route.
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>> I've never really got "spotting" myself, but I've always thought it must be quite a
>> satisfying hobby to have.
Spent a lot of time between ages of 14 and 19 plane spotting. Got me out and about, met other people and learned a bit about human interaction - quite a few older spotters would now be recognised as on the autistic spectrum. Obviously before I could drive and buses were indirect and way beyond my pocket money so I cycled. Leeds airport is 682 feet AMSL and we lived on about the 450 contour so I got a lot fitter (and got the cycling bug too).
Gave up collecting reggies when touring cycle, drinking and women impinged on the scene.
Still happy to spend an hour or three in the sunshine in Sheldon Park (Birmingham) or round the Aeropark at East Midlands just watching planes come and go. Or dotwatching the stuff going over at home - FR24 though has removed the need for airband radio and guesswork to identify individual flights.
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> I could drive and buses were indirect and way beyond my pocket money so I cycled. Leeds airport is 682 feet AMSL and we lived on about the 450 contours so I got a lot fitter (and got the cycling bug too)
OT, i never know how they managed to make an airport which is so close to many people in the Leeds Bradford area so difficult to get to. I used to live up that way, always much easier and quicker to go to, the much further away, airport at Manchester.
Last edited by: sooty123 on Sat 16 Jan 16 at 14:12
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>> OT, i never know how they managed to make an airport which is so close
>> to many people in the Leeds Bradford area so difficult to get to.
First of all, if you started with a clean sheet of paper, you wouldn't put an airport on a fog prone plateau. Neither would you have what is, even after it was extended, a rather short and operationally compromised runway at 90 degrees to the prevailing wind.
There were plans in the sixties to replace it with a new airport on the flatter ground towards the plain of York. One or two other cities shifted their airports at time Belfast from Nutts Corner to Aldergrove and Glasgow from Renfrew to Abbotsinch. Former RAF Church Fenton has been mooted or similar change but it would be impossible today given privatisation etc.
Road access to Yeadon is another missed opportunity. The original route for the A1/M1 link eventually built from Lofthouse to Aberford was, in the seventies, planned to be Kirkhamgate to Dishforth going through the approach lights to the runway as the M1 does at East Midlands. Another project cancelled. There are some tweaks proposed now to improve access from the A65 at Rawdon lights, but it's not really a solution.
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> First of all, if you started with a clean sheet of paper, you wouldn't put
>> an airport on a fog prone plateau.
No but then many airports started off in less than ideal places. I think the road point is a good one the roads are awful to get there. A train station like at Manchester would be a good idea.
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Apparently Brussels airport's fog problems date from its origins as a military airfield during the occupation. The Germans asked the locals where they should build it - and took the advice they got.
Nice story anyway; I hope it's true.
Last edited by: WillDeBeest on Sat 16 Jan 16 at 17:46
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>> >> You learn something new every day. Never knew such a hobby existed. Genuine question
>> do
>> >> all forms of public transport have spotters?
>>
>> I think that must be a yes.
Oh yes. Definitely a yes. We had a bus rally near us once, Roads were jammed for hours. Tens of thousands of people turned up, and some of the buses were, to me, bog standard affairs.
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....aah, the Black Fives or 9Fs of the bus world.
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>> ....aah, the Black Fives or 9Fs of the bus world.
Nothing bog standard about a 9F. But its true, 5's need to come in pairs to be of interest.
I get much stick from the gricer material because I, mostly, refuse to film on preserved railways. If I want to see a caged leopard in a tiny cage I will go to a zoo.
Last edited by: Zero on Fri 15 Jan 16 at 19:38
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While it lasted, I was a member of the society attempting to turn the former St Albans Bus Station into a museum for buses. Attempt ultimately failed due to inability to attract sufficient funds. Site is now housing.
Shame really as there are some quite nice buses owned around here and filling the museum would not have been too difficult.
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Doesn't Ken Bruce own a collection of buses or have I dreamt that?
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Doesn't Ken Bruce own a collection of buses or have I dreamt that?
Dunno about a collection, but he did (and may still do) own a Routemaster.
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I was going to be sarky and suggest that escalators are a form of public transport nobody is interested in, but then I remembered I know more about them than is probably healthy and I always look to see the maker when getting on one, so decided not to post this.
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Lifts and escalators are fascinating pieces of kit. Alas fewer around now with style or heritage, but none the less worthy of interest.
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Many years ago on "The secret life of machines", Tim and Rex showed us how a lift mechanism worked by simply setting one up in a field. Was my kind of tv and I got interested in them from then on.
Oh look, here it is. Truly you can find anything on the Internet.
youtu.be/6Oo-Va-UP-8
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I love the paternoster lift, few around now tho.
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Hmm, you have to be brave to ride one, especially over the top.
Now knocked down, but the Maths tower at the University of Salford had them.
Last edited by: Slidingpillar on Fri 15 Jan 16 at 20:17
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Yes, the sudden darkness, the clanking of chains as you go over the apex, makes for better concentration next time! Aston Uni in Birmingham had them. Think replaced in 1984.
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>> I love the paternoster lift, few around now tho.
>>
Think the only one I've used was at the LSE (or possibly the University of London Union in Gower St.) many many moons ago when I went to a gig there. Can't remember who the hell way playing.
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...the largest Paternoster Lift system in the UK was (and I think still exists) in Sheffield University Arts Tower.
Rode it once, way back when....
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Hydraulic lifts were used at one time. Never knowingly came across them.
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>Hydraulic lifts were used at one time. Never knowingly came across them.
There is a fairly new one in a shopping precinct in Putney Two in fact.
Last edited by: Zero on Fri 15 Jan 16 at 20:40
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>> Lifts and escalators are fascinating pieces of kit. Alas fewer around now with style or
>> heritage, but none the less worthy of interest.
>>
I spotted a nice old lift in the Royal George hotel in Lancaster. It has the traditional mesh sliding doors that clang across, and the wooden outer door to stop people falling down the shaft.
Not alas the dial indicator in the lobby indicating which floor it's on, nor a man in uniform saying "Going up!". Strictly DIY.
I remember a school trip to Oxford and a modern continuous lift, with lots of compartments in a loop going continuously up, and down.
I don't know whether this kind still exist - it was a bit scary having to jump the step while it was moving, and one wondered what happened to the bits of people who slipped and got cut in half.
There was speculation as to what happened at the top and bottem - did the compartment turn upside down, or sidle sideways? Some brave souls tried it, and reported the latter was correct.
Last edited by: Cliff Pope on Mon 18 Jan 16 at 15:53
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>> I don't know whether this kind still exist -
...see "paternoster" mentioned just above....
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There was one of those continuous lifts at the headquarters of a large German company in Stuttgart I used to visit regularly.
If anyone uninitiated was curious about the "what happens at the top and bottom" the guys who worked there would pretend to demonstrate by going over the top and reappearing on the other side standing on their heads.
This was usually enough to scare anyone else off trying but as you rightly say, they didn't turn upside down at all but just shuffled sideways.
Another weird lift I've been in was at the Luxor hotel in Vegas. The building is in the shape of a pyramid and the lifts travel up the internal corners. When you are in one it's a weird sensation of moving up or down but sideways at the same time.
Last edited by: Runfer D'Hills on Mon 18 Jan 16 at 16:02
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>> If anyone uninitiated was curious about the "what happens at the top and bottom" the
>> guys who worked there would pretend to demonstrate by going over the top and reappearing
>> on the other side standing on their heads.
>>
>> This was usually enough to scare anyone else off trying but as you rightly say,
>> they didn't turn upside down at all but just shuffled sideways.
Yes they had some at one of the BEA or BOAC buildings at the maintenance base at Heathrow, and as apprentices we used to do that as well.
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>When you are in one it's a weird sensation of moving up or down but sideways at the same time.
With glass walls looking out over the casino floor below you.
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>> I don't know whether this kind still exist - it was a bit scary having
>> to jump the step while it was moving, and one wondered what happened to the
>> bits of people who slipped and got cut in half.
thats the paternoster type. After a bit of research there is still on in use (for star only) at Northwick Park Hospital.
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Used to enjoy the paternosters here when I was a student:
historicengland.org.uk/listing/the-list/list-entry/1411253
Sadly no longer there.
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You went to Uni in Birmingham?
Was it a three year or a four year sentence?
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We had a paternoster lift when I was at Newcastle University. Great as long as you timed it right.
Was taken out of service for a while after the death of a student using it.
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I remember using a paternoster lift during my University days, but I can't remember if it was one at my own university (Nottingham), my sister's (Birmingham), or my best mate's (Cambridge). Racking the old grey matter, penny might drop in April or May.
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...not Nottingham, I don't think, A.
The only building which might have had them is the Engineering Tower, and that most definitely didn't.
Apocryphally (and I might or might not have known some of the people involved), the conventional lift(s) were used to transport a mini to the top of the tower, and leave it there.
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Yes, you're probably right, TNE. I think it must have been the Brum ones which I remember. Thinking about it a bit more they were in a library and Nottingham library didn't have then I don't think. Not that I spent too much time in there, being a dedicated slacker. Never went in the engineering tower, I was a languages student.
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.....I never went in the Engineering block
(I was an Engineering student ;-) )
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>> I always look to see the maker when getting on one,
Waygood-Otis rings a distant cracked bell...
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....I noticed I was in one of Schindler's lifts the other day........
;-)
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I've always thought the Eddie Stobart spotters are a particularly sad bunch.
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>> I've always thought the Eddie Stobart spotters are a particularly sad bunch.
Indeed us Willie Betz spotters spit on them
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>> >> I've always thought the Eddie Stobart spotters are a particularly sad bunch.
>>
>> Indeed us Willie Betz spotters spit on them
>>
Not any knd of spotter but Mrs C will point out a Norbert Dentressangle when she sees one. Also she's a big fan of heavy plant. You should hear the squeaking when we go past a Quinto.
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SQ 4 TLB
>> Not any knd of spotter but Mrs C will point out a Norbert Dentressangle when
>> she sees one. Also she's a big fan of heavy plant. You should hear the
>> squeaking when we go past a Quinto.
Is it me or does there appear to be less Norberts on uk roads these days?
Last edited by: VxFan on Fri 15 Jan 16 at 23:29
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>>
>> Is it me or does there appear to be less Norberts on uk roads these
>> days?
>>
Certainly less Red Norbies round my way than ten years ago.
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>> his is why you don't see many Nobby Dressingtables now
>>
>> www.shdlogistics.com/news/norbert-dentressangle-disappears-from-roads-as-xpo-starts-marketing-push
>>
>> Pat
Wasn't aware of that. But why haven't I seen an explosion in the number of XPO logistics trucks?
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Do they trade as XPO or use one/several other brands?
The one that seems to have exploded onto scene recently is Werberer(?) - yellowish/cream curtain sides with a blue smiling sun logo.
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>> ...Waberer's".......
That's the badger!!!
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>>>> ...Waberer's".......<<
They used to Hungarocamion, and Willie Betz run a lot closer to home now than they did.
Pat
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>> Waygood-Otis rings a distant cracked bell...
One of theirs, dating I'd guess from twenties, was in a hotel in Scarborough we stayed in as kids.
Still see the odd plate in one for Express Lifts Northampton. Big local employer back in the day. The site's been housing for most of time I've lived here but the 'Northampton Lighthouse' lives on:
www.nationallifttower.co.uk/
Still showing coloured lights for Xmas when I drove past 90mins ago.
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>>but then I remembered I know more about them than is probably healthy
Fascinating. I once had far too much to do with them when I was working for The Schindler Group in Columbia.
That was when I found out that there were behavioural studies used when designing multi-elevatored buildings and that there is a whole theory of elevator behaviour.
e.g. if left to their own devices they will tend to group and hang out together.
Now, I was on a contract and had to know stuff, what's your excuse.
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e.g. if left to their own devices they will tend to group and hang out together.
Sounds rather like the Sirius Cybernetics Corporation's happy people transporters in the rather inaccurately named Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy trilogy (now up to six volumes...).
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As an armchair trainspotter I have started a collection of on-line photos of all the LMS Jubilee clss locos. They made 192 and I've got about 100 so far, including many I saw in the flesh in the 50s and 60s. I've recently got the rare one.
I don't type them in to Google but wait until they come up on an LMS forum I look at. I also have a collection of tax discs stuck on the cupboard doors in the workshop....SWM wouldn't let me use the kitchen cupboards.
Some of you lot on this thread have really bizarre interests. Me...I'm just normal...wibble wibble !
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...it seems I collect nutters on forums...........
Last edited by: tyrednemotional on Fri 15 Jan 16 at 22:57
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Perhaps container names next....Maersk seem to be most common but they do have different logos and sizes to add variety.
I wonder if there are any container spotters clubs .
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You mean you haven't got a copy of the container spotters guide?
www.ediblegeography.com/container-spotting/
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Wowsers !! Thanx CG....a whole new world has been opened up for me. When it's a bit warmer I'll be off the Goostrey Station with my camera.
I do find, when on the platform, that the Intermodal flats that come whistling past at speed are rather intimidating and sinister.......like being on a tall building , you seem drawn to try jumping on board !
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Right then can anyone top this type of spotting ?
www.pylons.org/
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The only thing left now is spotter spotting. You'll need to note the colour of their anoraks and whether they have a matching flask.
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Nah, can't be, he's smiling.
Edit - on the other hand it might just be wind.
;-)
Last edited by: Runfer D'Hills on Sat 16 Jan 16 at 14:32
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not me, my flask is black
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Armani?
Or Army and Navy...
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>> not me, my flask is black
>>
Also, that's a thin person.
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I am now a thin person. well thinner anyway, I have shed 10 kilos in less than a year. My BMI has moved from Obese, to only just overweight.
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Very good! Conversely I have put on 6lb over Christmas, so now feeling more lethargic and blobby at 12st 5. Shall have to Do Someth..oh forget it.
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TFL Bus Registration Numbers - Slidingpillar
