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Route 1
Steven Oliver, Duns,
Borders, Scotland sent this reply to Eric Gold's comments about
the buses on Route 1:
Single Decker Buses
"Route
1 was, from its inception in 1919 until 1966, single-decked due to
the low railway bridges at Abbeymount, at the foot of Easter Road,
and at Crewe Toll. Work on these bridges allowed the route to be
converted to double-deck bus operation in summer 1966. The
lowered roadway at the Abbeymount railway bridge is a reminder of
this."
Leyland Tiger Cubs
"It’s likely that Eric would have been
travelling on one of the Leyland Tiger Cub/Weymann buses which
were synonymous with the route in the early sixties. There were
100 of these buses, in two batches of 50: 1-50 (SWS 1-50), new in
1959, and 51-100 (VSC 51-100) which were new in 1960/1. It was
not uncommon for these buses to get stuck on the route, due to
their lightweight construction.
Accidents
"Two of the first batch of Tiger Cubs were
written off in accidents during 1963. No.9 met its end after
running into the front of a chemists’ shop in Leith, while no.22
crashed through the railings one winter’s morning, at Regent Road
near to Jacob’s Ladder, and rolled down an embankment before
coming to rest against a wall.
The bus was actually off-service at the
time, returning to the depot and should not have been running that
way. Not surprisingly, its driver was fired. The front end of
no.22 lived on after the accident, as a static exhibit in the old
Waverley Market."
Leyland Tiger
Cubs Preserved
"When the 1 was double-decked in 1966, the
48 remaining Tiger Cubs from the first batch were sold to the
Northern Ireland Transport Board for further service. The second
batch lived on into the early years of the Lothian Region
Transport era, with the last of these buses bring withdrawn in
1978.
One of the first batch, No.13, is still
around as a shell somewhere in Northern Ireland. No.86 from the
second batch is preserved. Another bus from that batch, no.80,
was also preserved, but it was sadly destroyed by fire in 2007,
just as its lengthy restoration was nearing completion."
Bus
No.101
"As a footnote, the famous three-door single-decker bus, No.101,
also appeared on Route 1, but its length meant that it could only
be used on the outer (clockwise) circle.
A popular story is that no.101 also had another bus tailing it
whenever it ran in service, in case it broke down. This is only
partly true, as it did indeed have another bus tailing it, but
this was to accommodate the smokers, as smoking was banned on
no.101 itself."
Steven Oliver, Duns, Borders, Scotland: March
18, 2008 |
