London Banter - View Single Post - Poplar & East Ham Garage (was: Night Buses, Workmans Tickets (history question))

Alan Watkins · November 27th 03, 11:30 PM posted to uk.transport.london,uk.transport.buses

(Rizla Ranger UK) wrote in message . com...
That's great! Thanks very much Peter!

"peter" wrote
Poplar trolleybus depot (code PR) was operational electrically from June
1940 to November 1959 and sent out vehicles on routes:

567 Barking Broadway - Commercial Road - Smithfield (jointly
operated with WH West Ham depot)

569 North Woolwich - Commercial Road - Aldgate (peak hours only)

665 Barking Broadway - Commercial Road - Bloomsbury (jointly operated
with WH West Ham depot)

Don't know how many people worked there, but in terms of vehicle capacity
(149 trolleybuses) it was the third largest trolleybus depot in London.
Daily run-out needed 86 trolleys, so I guess that called for at least some
400 drivers and conductors ........... and a clippie was a conductress
rather than a conductor!

I can't help about those depots I'm afraid but I used to travel to
school on London trolleybuses from the junction with Broad Lane,
Tottenham, just up to Stamford Hill (just under two miles I
think)...fare in Old English money for a child was one a half pence (I
think). They were pretty reliable so far as I know except during a
power cut when they ended up stranded everywhere, sometimes in the
middle of the road.

I think I used to get service 649 (and also 549). 649 was (I believe)
the longest trolleybus route (Liverpool Street Station to Waltham
Cross).

One funny story is that at Broad Lane there were many wires because
some routes (from memory 623) "turned right" at the junction while my
trolley went straight on. The conductor on my bus had to get off the
platform, get across the road, and pull on a handle attached to a
trolley pole to "change the points" so they could go straight on
rather than being forced to turn right if the previous trolley had
done so.

One morning, the conductor got off, pulled on the handle but the
driver went off so quickly (their acceleration was phenomenal, at
least to a child) and left the conductor in the middle of the road.
Several people started hammering on the driver's window behind his cab
but he went about 600 yards up the road (pursued by an unamused
conductor) before he got the message.

I also remember the "pea souper" fogs of that time and recall seeing a
trolleybus conductor walking in front of the trolleybus with a burning
flare....London fogs WERE that thick in those days and killed millions
over the years.

Just old memories but I remember one of those fogs coming down very
badly. I lived 45 miles away from my school (at Billericay in Essex)
and I was allowed out of lessons early. It was already bad by 3 p.m.
and I managed to get to Broad Lane on a trolley going at almost
walking pace because the driver could not see anything in front of
him.

I then had to cross the road and wait for the City Coach Company bus
going to Southend which passed my home. Well, one turned up after
about half an hour and normally the journey from Tottenham to
Billericay took about one hour 20 minutes or thereabouts.

It took us almost three hours to get as far as Brentwood and we did
not get there until almost 7 p.m. At Brentwood (and I quite
understand it) the driver said; "I can't go any further. I am
absolutely exhausted". That left me and several others (plus
passengers at Brentwood) stranded on that particular bus. City then
brought round another bus saying it would go as far as Billericay and
eventually I got to Hunters Chase, Hutton (where we lived) about 8.30
p.m. to be met by my "frantic" mother who had rung my school and been
told I'd been allowed to leave just before 3 p.m!

Bonus: I got the day off school the next day. I can tell a very funny
fog story about my days "on the back" for Premier Travel, Cambridge,
if old memories are of interest.

I loved the trolleys in London and isn't it bizarre that in these days
of "environmental awareness" they fitted that perfectly.

Kind regards,
Alan M. Watkins