1960s Torquay United team bus?

Yes, I remember the old bus/coach place on Torwood Street. Not having lived in Torquay for years, it's one of those places I can never remember what it is now. Back in the days of "proper" buses - when we were aged ten or eleven - Grey Cars was part of Devon General. Then it was re-branded as "Greenslades" since when, I think, the Grey Cars name has been bought and sold several times.

The registration of this vehice probably suggests it was a "fleet leader" (is that a legit bus term?). But did Stubbsey and the boys travel in it up the A303 and A38 take on all-comers?

Off to Exeter City in 1935 - who are ya?



[taken from the only bus book on my shelves - Devon General: Glory Days by Colin Morris]

Ah yes, I served my time on Devon General as well:

You're not far from the truth there Dave....

I became a DG driver at Newton Abbot in October 1973 after a summer conducting. I had come down to NA for a short holiday that summer and had met up with a great group of lads from the Midlands and up North in the pubs around town and the Torquay night clubs. None of us fancied going back and so we all packed up our jobs and found employment on the deckchairs, on the post and in my case and a couple of others on the buses as a seasonal conductor (I wasn't old enough to drive a bus you had to be 21 in those days) I'd got myself a couple of hippy girlfriends one lived at Poundsgate and the other on the North Cornish coast, and hey; they even both knew and got on with one another! Life was like that then

In my case I even neglected to return to London and clear my gear from my shared flat!

"Uniform" consisted of a grey denim jacket and whatever else one fancied wearing - which in my case was often just a pair of jeans and maybe a singlet.......................going "commando"could be quite handy if planning to stop off at Poundsgate en route to Boscastle In my little car bought in the Courtenay Arms one pay night off a drunk for a tenner - yes, a tenner!

At the end of the summer I was expecting to be laid off and had planned a move to Oslo (don't ask, another girlfriend) when DG said to me "you're twenty one this week, do you want to train to be a driver?" so I did.

The following summer there was some temporary work going on the coach side Royal Blue (the re-branding of Grey Cars due to Western National now owning Devon General) and I recall driving one such monster like the one in the photo on a scheduled route from Dartmouth all along the coast to Bournemouth. The gear box was a "crash gear" (no synchromesh, requiring exactly correct revs to make a successfull change, double de-clutching the lot) and if you missed a change at the bottom of one of those interminable hills on the Dorset coast, it meant stopping and beginning all over again in first gear! The accelerator was so damned heavy, sneaky use of the left foot was essential on long straight flats...... some guys used to wedge a wooden brake chock over it.

I well remember my first "entry" into the coach station at Bournemouth Winter Gardens...................no one had told me you had to lower the roof top ventilators that the passengers could open when it got hot and so there was a crashing and a shower of amber perspex as the top of the coach came in contact with the low roof and an over night stop for me whilst the damage was repaired. the B&B was a right dump and I remember I had to collect the lightbulb for my room from the landlady who had charged me a 50p deposit for the pleasure - the light bulb that is!

Excuse me! I was after Merse's time - a conductor on the Open Top services in 1980.

Yes, I admit, it was a slightly-delayed career option for me.

Years later I was in London and bumped into somebody. It was clear we knew each other - but we couldn't work out how.

After a good ten minutes he told me he had trained me at the "conductor's school" in the church hall at St Marychurch!

Ah yes, Long Eaton, the "minibus revolution" designed to provide a more flexible service and force those big nasty doubledeckers off the road.

Hmm....funny how these things go full circle. You can now take doubledeckers to South Molton, Holsworthy, Torrington, Beer, Hatherleigh and all manner of places.

And here are some "proper" buses carefully selected with particular users of this site in mind:







All taken from the excellent Devon General Glory Days published by Ian Allan.