It was 27 years ago when I last walked through the gates into Ash Grove bus Garage in Hackney. I was only 19 years old and I was about to undergo 3 weeks of intensive training to become a London Bus driver.
The instructor drove us to a lay-by on the A12 in an old route-master and barked at me to get in the drivers seat and try not to ruin his upcoming retirement pension by steering us all into the bushes.
Memories of those old bone shakers came flooding back as I wandered around the depot trying to remember the layout 27 years earlier.
I had a lot of fun driving the route masters. When it rained, you could guarantee you would end up getting wet on the inside too. Wipers were often rendered useless as the rain would seep inside the windscreen and make it down to your feet which were usually frozen solid as the heaters hardly ever worked plus you could see the ground through cracks in the cab floor.
Indicating would give you repetitive strain injuries as the knob to indicate was on the dash and you had to stretch to reach it.
Climbing in and out of the cab was never a gracious affair. I once lost my footing climbing out at Victoria station and ended up sprawled out on the tarmac much to the bemusement of around 50 passengers who were patiently waiting to board upon my arrival.
Potholes were fun to. The driver seat didn’t have any of the modern day luxuries that today’s buses have such as lumbar support or springs et cetera. Run over a pothole and you could quite easily break your neck, put your back out or smash your fingers on the metal steering wheel.
I put most of my aches and pains I suffer from now down to those old dinosaurs.
When I joined the buses all those years ago London Transport had recently privatised the bus network into 12 separate companies. Ash Grove garage was part of London Forest. London Forest had four garages. Clapton, which is where I was to be based, Walthamstow which has now been turned into flats, Ash Grove and Leyton.
I’d only been with London Forest for about 6 months or so when a row broke out between management and what was then a very strong union. It was over tendering and pay. Anyway the end result was we were all ordered out on strike. The strike lasted 3 weeks. No buses ran out of those four garages.
I can’t remember what happened next or how but London Forest became obsolete and we were all taken under by one of the other companies called Leaside buses. Leaside were eventually taken over by Cowie and Cowie changed their name to Arriva.
Pictured below is RM5. You could almost guarantee you’d see someone taking a photo of this bus as you drive it around town on route 38. It’s one of the first production Routemasters. She was an old girl. Built in 1954. She was a pig to drive until they ripped the original engine out and put a new one in. Trouble is she never sounded the same again.
Yesterday’s visit to Ash Grove was different in that I was there on a minibus driving awareness and passenger safety course, organised by the charity I volunteer for.
Unfortunately I let my PCV license expire without renewing it. My bus driving days are well and truly over. But it was a big part of my life. One that changed my future but will always be a memorable past time.
#midas #ashgrove #londonbus #routemaster
THE WORLD I SEE 