The Red Book 1977 – A Review

fbb was “very excited” to purchase a scan of a LT Red Book for 1958 from Ian Armstrong of bus routes web site fame. He was so convulsed with awe and wonder that he bought a hard copy for 1977 to contrast and compare.

For most of its life, the book was strictly for LT staff only.

Much had happened with London’s iconic red buses in the 20 years or so that lay between the two similar-in-scope volumes.

But first, an apology. It has been quite tricky to get photograhs of this book – the pages tend to twang and the combination of print quality and faded page age has led to some poor efforts. But you will get the idea!

1958 –  Internal Phone numbers GONE

Everything is now BT!

Bell Punch becomes Gibson

And we no longer have the luxury of Fire Brigade numbers!

Index no change

Pleasingly, the index is still mammoth …

There is still no locality beginning with X!

Since the 1958 edition, however, Zoological Gardens has gained an explanatory “Regents Park”.

The timetables, shock horror, are now using the 24 hour clock and in increasing numbers show the full timetables where frequencies have been cut back, especially on Sundays.

… an even bigger shock to LT management today when everything runs “all the way”. Well it does unless “turned short” to regulate the service and infuriate the passengers!

Showing all journeys does make for some huge tables, especially when occasional and unpredictable journeys do not run all the way as with 27.

More Lettered Services

We see the early days of W for Wood Lane, H for Hampstead and E for Ealing …

… which enables us to sample the usual crackpot LT frequencies.

What daft thinking ever decided that a bus every 24 to 27 minutes was ever a sensible service to operate. Surely, make it every 30 min!

Red Arrow routes

We also have the Red Arrows …

Inter station bus

From something quite distinctive, by 1977 it has become a service that is all but moribund, operating on Sunday Night Monday Morning only.

The half-upper deck was to allow room for heavy luggage in the “boot”.

Night Services

These are now prefixed with letter N and some of them now operate on Saturday night and Sunday morning.

Holborn was the terminus of those Saturday night only trips on the N98 from Romford.

Oddities?

Again apologies for poor quality reproduction. Sightseeing tours were yet to proliferate into the vast business that they are today.

But the top two are weird. Wembley Stadium and Wimbledon Stadium “Special Services” are designed to operate for sporting events, but the rubric on the timetables says “will only ooerate if staff are available”.

Seems tough if you are expe9cting a bus!

Wimbledon Stadium was the home of greyhound racing …

…  and speedway.

Trolleybuses and Excursions GONE

Which provokes a challenging puzzle picture.

Where is this picture located?

Please Note : the final instalment from Lyme Regis should be published tomorrow.