On The Buses

George Row, Northampton

It's Heritage Weekend, many buildings and places of interest in Northampton were open to the public, but the highlight for Robbie was the old buses. They were taking people on tours around the town via an assortment of interesting places. Robbie didn't seem to mind that some of the buses had never been used in Northampton or even Northamptonshire, but it mattered to me. It was nice to see a couple of our old red buses, but it would have been lovely to have seen one or two of our old green (county) buses. 

This is the bus that Robbie travelled on today

This bus is rather like the one that I used to catch to get home from school it brings back a few memories. I often travelled by bus in those days but I have probably only been on a bus about twice in the last twenty years. I don't really have good or bad memories of buses, they just took you to where you wanted to be and if you were very lucky they were on time. 


As a very young child, I often travelled on the bus to my aunt's house and back. I liked that because our journey took us past Castle Station and my aunt usually let us sit on the top deck so I could look out of the window and see everything going on at the station. There was much more going on in those days, and the bus paused at the traffic lights I could look across towards the goods yard. So I guess for me buses were just a means of seeing the things that I wanted to see!

This is the bus that took me home from school

A Northampton bus conductor

The conductor used to have a little machine with different coloured (and different priced) tickets on rolls, so when you paid your fare he or she just pushed a lever and produced the correct ticket. Most conductors were reasonably cheerful, but when someone decided to modernise the world and change to one man buses the drivers seemed to be as miserable as sin. I disliked one man (or should I say person) operated buses and for me that was when bus travel took a turn for the worse and became something to avoid if at all possible.

Northampton bus tickets

I lived and worked in Sheffield for a while in 1983 and I liked their buses very much because the drivers were not miserable and payment was simple. They had a hopper thing to drop your coins in and the ticket that was produced had an imprint of the coins that you had put in. As far as I recall it was called a videmat ticket machine. I haven't seen that system anywhere else but there again I don't go out of my way to travel by bus. 

So for those like Robbie who are interested in anything with wheels, here are some pictures of the other buses that were out and about in Northampton on Saturday. Robbie is so obsessed that he will be back 'on the buses' on Sunday

One Track Mind!

I forgot to mention that when we were in bed on Sunday morning, after Robbie's little gem about Argos he strayed onto the subject of trains. I was quiet for a few moments after his comment about the stretch mark, he really knows how to make me feel good! For some reason Robbie chose to fill the silence with a detailed account of the platform arrangements at Nottingham Station. He mentioned Sheffield and I commented that when I worked in Sheffield I used to travel there by train. He asked what route I took and I told him what I could remember, it was 1983 so I could hardly be expected to have total recall! Robbie insisted that I was mistaken about the route and he sat up and started to get out of bed. Talking more to himself than to me he said that he wondered if he had a timetable for 1983, and he was going to have a look. I fixed him with one of my best Paddington Bear stares and without a word he got back into bed and put his arm around me. With a tone of defeat in his voice he said he would look later. That man really does have a one track mind - a railway track!

A Rare Treat for Robbie 02.03.07

Robbie thought all his birthdays and Christmases had come at once yesterday, he met the Wild Woman and she refused to speak to him!! It must be one of the wonders of the modern world, the silencing of the Wild Woman must have done more to remedy noise pollution than all the legislation in the world. Let's just hope it is permanent.

Robbie had a brilliant day in Sheffield on Wednesday, Emily hated the university and said she wouldn't go there if they paid her. The facilities were grim and the staff she met were scary, but she did describe one of the students as legendary - somewhat more camp than Graham Norton apparently.

Robbie went to considerable trouble to cram three tram rides into his day and he could talk of little else when he got back, except of course his lunch, that was apparently another highlight of his day and he provided a detailed account of it when he got home.

Keeping Robbie in Line 28.02.07

Robbie had an early start today on an expedition to Sheffield to look at the University. He sent me a text to say that travelling in First Class on the HST was like a staff outing. He sent me a list of names of people he had met, it sounded like a line up of suspects from an Agatha Christie novel! If he met people he knew, I expect the fact that he was travelling with two pretty eighteen year olds will not have gone unnoticed. The answer is simple it takes two of them to keep him in line, Emily and her friend - also called Emily.