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Bus Stops

Bob Davis said:
Is'nt it strange that we were able to understand the sign and the words Bus Stop wherever they were and di not have to have a picture of a bus, to indicate what they were and now comes the serious question, fingers poised for the answer. Are the modern bus stop signs a legal requirement brought in by statute or are they just up by general agreement to take away the last vestiges of individuality from towns and countryside?

Bob
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Before anyone says EU, bus stops in Germany usually are yellow and have a large capital H for Haltestelle so it is not an EU regulation.
For a bit of fun look at

bus stop signs - Google Search

www.google.com
 
DavidGrain said:
Before anyone says EU, bus stops in Germany usually are yellow and have a large capital H for Haltestelle so it is not an EU regulation.
For a bit of fun look at

bus stop signs - Google Search

www.google.com
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I think its all about the non readers of the language! We have to use what are basically symbols or pictures. The same in the US we use pictures instead of words to show people. (my how complicated BUS is). It also seems sometimes that the sign maker is someone's brother in law.
 
DavidGrain said:
Before anyone says EU, bus stops in Germany usually are yellow and have a large capital H for Haltestelle so it is not an EU regulation.
For a bit of fun look at

bus stop signs - Google Search

www.google.com
Click to expand...
I think the design of UK bus stops is down to the local authority. Some authorities use a pictogram of a bus but Birmingham district doesn't. We seem to be in the process of changing from one with a small pictogram of a bus, front-on, in a circle, along with an 'n' in a circle to a design with triangles and diamonds, probably supposed to be a variant of 'WM'.
wmbusstop.jpg
 
Spargone said:
I think the design of UK bus stops is down to the local authority. Some authorities use a pictogram of a bus but Birmingham district doesn't. We seem to be in the process of changing from one with a small pictogram of a bus, front-on, in a circle, along with an 'n' in a circle to a design with triangles and diamonds, probably supposed to be a variant of 'WM'.
View attachment 138923
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Just a meaningless design, I suggest, to anyone not resident.
 
Bob Davis said:
Here we go again, somewhere in the system there was a Birmingham round bus stop but it was yellow, I think it is a wartime memory, it was not a tram or trolley bus stop. I am sure,as I can visualise it now.
Bob
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I think they were " football specials " There was one in Victoria Square in the mid 70s
 
In a post that I made on BHF some while ago, I referred to the yellow circular bus stops. I have never found out when they were introduced and when they were abandoned.
In the previous post (37) there are two blue with white request stops signs, The yellow one I remember was like that but yellow and black I believe. The white backgrounds with blue lettering (request) and red lettering (compulsory), these were a later introduction (1960's I think) which were more distinctive with direction of travel and route number. Earlier compulsory stops were red with white lettering. I never saw those football signs prior to 1954 so believe they were a 1960's style. Tramcar stops were rectangular re or blue with white lettering. Trolley bus stops were hexagonal but I cannot be sure of their colours. Presumably the same colours as those of buses.
 
Radiorails said:
In a post that I made on BHF some while ago, I referred to the yellow circular bus stops. I have never found out when they were introduced and when they were abandoned.
In the previous post (37) there are two blue with white request stops signs, The yellow one I remember was like that but yellow and black I believe. The white backgrounds with blue lettering (request) and red lettering (compulsory), these were a later introduction (1960's I think) which were more distinctive with direction of travel and route number. Earlier compulsory stops were red with white lettering. I never saw those football signs prior to 1954 so believe they were a 1960's style. Tramcar stops were rectangular re or blue with white lettering. Trolley bus stops were hexagonal but I cannot be sure of their colours. Presumably the same colours as those of buses.
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My memory is identical to yours, the very old pattern with black on a yellow background, but I am sure it was prior to the fifties. I can remember the red/blue on white, and the new shape bus stops, but never saw the yellow football ones or can remember any with route numbers on them.
Bob
 
Bob Davis said:
My memory is identical to yours, the very old pattern with black on a yellow background, but I am sure it was prior to the fifties. I can remember the red/blue on white, and the new shape bus stops, but never saw the yellow football ones or can remember any with route numbers on them.
Bob
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All the city centre bus stops had the route numbers on them as each route had its own stop in places like New Street, Corporation Street. Colmore Row etc.
 
DavidGrain said:
All the city centre bus stops had the route numbers on them as each route had its own stop in places like New Street, Corporation Street. Colmore Row etc.
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Sorry David I did not remember the City Centre ones, although in Old Mohawks recent 'they were caught in old photos' picture, the stop there had a number 4 on it and that was not in the City Centre, but thanks for that reminder, I remember the 5a round town, Victoria Square, New Street, Corporation Street, Bull Street and top of Snow Hill
Bob
 
As a youngster I was always curious why buses stopped when no one was alighting or boarding. However, by eight or nine years old I had realised - or maybe asked the conductor - so was thus 'in the know'. Two compulsory stops that I recall - although there we lots to be seen all over the city - was one on the Inner Circle 8 down that long hill between Pershore and Bristol Roads (i hope my memory hasn't failed with those place names but it was some 66 years ago) the other was in the narrowing of Wake Green Road as the bus travelled towards the roundabout at ColeBank Road and Swanshurst Lane. I gather that is now widened. There appears to be two reasons for compulsory stops: safety as illustrated in the examples quoted here and necessary for operating purposes.

1582194860478.png This type seems to have been a version between the original blue with white lettering and the later white with blue lettering. The illustration shows the earlier type of post where the disc was placed centrally on the post. The stage sign is self explanatory.
1582194860478.png1582195304207.png
The later style, portrayed in a photo by Kenneth Harris, shows the post being situated at the pavement edge which was less obstructive than the original style to pedestrians and prams. I assume that was the reason for their introduction, especially in the busy narrow pavements of the inner city streets.
Something rarely seen today, it seems, is this:- E&OE.
 
I find this an interesting photo which was posted by Raymond Nickolds on the Facebook page ‎OLD PHOTOS OF BIRMINGHAM AND THE BLACK COUNTRY. The photo is outside the West Smethwick tramway depot in Oldbury Road. To me that is an old style Birmingham Corporation bus stop but outside the city boundary and on a stretch of road which as far as I am aware was only ever served by the Midland Red tramway replacement services B86 and B87. The only reason that I can think of is that this was in 1939 at the end of this tramway service and BCT replaced all the tram stops with bus stop signs for the whole route as the replacement buses were a joint BCT/Midland Red service even if the BCT did not run this far out of the city.
1582200011709.png
 
The photo on post 43 is by R.T. Coxon who took many photos of the city's transport. It seems that the tram style stop plates were removed in the late summer of 1939 as they are visible in photographs in early and mid 1939. I am sure Davis is right on the money when he says they were all BCT even though outside the city boundary, it was as mentioned, a joint service with Midland Red. The Midland has a nationwide simple type of bus stop at the time. Another facet is that some BCT buses operated on the B84 - B87 (Smethwick/Oldbury/Dudley) services occasionally. This was a balancing arrangement in line with the agreement with the Midland Red. In fact BCT bus destination blinds did, it seems, carry those routes on the their blinds for use when needed. The Midland Red ran the occasional B82 (Bearwood) service.
The B prefix was due, I believe, to the Midland Red route system. That disappeared with the PTE.

The routes 70 series, from Snow Hill to West Bromwich and Dudley used West Bromwich signs I believe once outside the Birmingham boundary.
1582212836317.png
 
Thanks Alan for that reply. Back in the early 1960s I worked in Smethwick and I would see an occasional BCT bus on the High Street during my lunch break. Being used to seeing BCT buses where I lived it did not register with me at first, then I thought Hey Whats that doing here? It was on a service to St Pauls Road showing, I think, B85
 
Bob Davis said:
Here we go again, somewhere in the system there was a Birmingham round bus stop but it was yellow, I think it is a wartime memory, it was not a tram or trolley bus stop. I am sure,as I can visualise it now.
Bob
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I was wrong it was a tram stop, I quote from Robert Harley's Birmingham Tramways;
Page 188 Stopping Stations
iii Yellow Plates. "Cars stop here by request". Same as Blue Plates, but when passing these points and any cross roads adjoining, cars must be driven "Dead Slow"

This is from the Appendix on Rules for Tram Drivers
 
Hi,

Only just picked up on this thread but as we are talking Brush bodied Leylands I've attached a photo of a couple of them from my collection that show the curved edges that were needed to fit the plate under the cab as the width wasn't quite wide enough on this type of body.
Also I have a couple of request bus stops one with 'STAGE' that I thought may be of interest on the subject of bus stops.
 

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Grassy Bank said:
Hi,

Only just picked up on this thread but as we are talking Brush bodied Leylands I've attached a photo of a couple of them from my collection that show the curved edges that were needed to fit the plate under the cab as the width wasn't quite wide enough on this type of body.
Also I have a couple of request bus stops one with 'STAGE' that I thought may be of interest on the subject of bus stops.
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Grassy, thank you for reminding me about the bus stops. Took me a while to figure out what they meant. I remember one of my first dates coming back to Handsworth from the Odeon in Kingstanding alone late at night. I was at a request stop, saw the bus coming expected it to stop, it did not. Long walk home that night! Then there are stages, never really understood them only that it cost more! I was 14 when I walked home from Kingstanding one more time from the Odeon in Perry Barr to Oxill Rd (another date), finally I smartened up. Things were much simpler then couldn’t imagine my children at 14 coming home at mid night onFriday evening!
 
Grassy Bank said:
Hi,

Only just picked up on this thread but as we are talking Brush bodied Leylands I've attached a photo of a couple of them from my collection that show the curved edges that were needed to fit the plate under the cab as the width wasn't quite wide enough on this type of body.
Also I have a couple of request bus stops one with 'STAGE' that I thought may be of interest on the subject of bus stops.
Click to expand...
Concerning Brush bodied Leyland PD2's HOV 656 - 755 (1656 - 1755) it may that the first three of them carried their front registration plate beneath the radiator header rail when new. 1656 also had differences with handrails.
Incidentally the first 80 buses had their moquette incorrectly fitted being put on sideways.
 
great photos mark but alas i feel they all went for scrap because as i have said on numerous occasions the powers that be had no forward thinking with regards to saving our heritage having said that maybe one or two ended up at dolman st stores..we can only hope

lyn
 
Four years ago a member was looking for a particular forum pic of ladies at a bus stop. I searched and the early 1970s one below popped up. It wasn't the pic they wanted but I like it because somehow it reminds me of my younger days when I had just got married ... :)
oldMohawk said:
They've had a hard day in the office and just want to go home but is that No 21 bus going to stop for them?
index.php
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