Hello jennyann in vancouver,
who'd have thought that "bus tales" would be circumnavigating the globe, across the wild wastes of the Atlantic!....What a smashing story of the london bus..Where i live in the semi-rural wastes of Northamptonshire, i only know of a couple of ancient buses parked up in a half open barn near Towcester. I believe the owner passed away some years ago and they have been there since. I think an article appeared in "Practical Classics" about 12 yrs ago. They are, I believe, ex- Northampton buses. Incidentally, In Northampton's bus garage there hibernates a Daimler bus of 1940s vintage. I pass it most days in the course of my work but have yet to see it on the road.
I was touched by your thoughts of all those people who would have travelled on the London bus. I have similar thoughts on such matters regarding Birmingham buses. All those wind-blown souls who year in, year out, rode the Metro-Cammell. Cold rainy days, foggy days and nights and even quiet nights when only the crew were there to tell the tale picking away at a bag of fish and chips. Buses Packed solid with saturday shoppers, red hot summer evenings when the workers went home, and early morning runs starting out with just a couple of early birds and then increasing in passenger numbers until bursting. If a Bus could tell a tale or two it would make a fantasic autobiography. I am sure there are plenty of old timers on this forum who rode the Metro- Cammell for a living and could, if they chose to, tell us some really absorbing stories.
I can only speak of my own interests as a child living around buses and subsequently working on them as a youth. How times change though, nobody seems interested in buses any more, Maybe its the nature of the beast that is built for the job or maybe buses are just seen as a transport means, capturing little interest or imagination....Or maybe small boys have better things to do with their time. Who knows??????????.