Thinking back to our childhood days
most am sure have many happy memories . As a young boy at the village of Roose
south east Barrow, I soon found a real fascination with those large Double
Decker buses that took my family shopping on Saturday , or to Walney
beach or the Coast road overlooking Morecambe Bay, It was a social event, Mum
and Dad often met friends travelling into and back from the town centre.
It was perhaps little wonder that
two decades later during periods of leave from sea I would often spend time with
the newly formed Furness Transport Group , a collection of
dedicated enthusiasts who saw the potential in preserving some of the towns
buses before they were gone forever. This only brought more interest to
eventually obtain a licence and not only work but drive them. However after
leaving the sea for reasons I will come to in a later blog, and moving to
New Zealand I eventually found employment in the bus industry here on the
engineering side, and at that time was like stepping back 20 years. In issue 8 I
explained how I eventually took on a full time driving
job.
New Zealand Road Services operated
the countries largest fleet of coaches and buses in 1987. Deregulation had not
hit the industry hard as most services were just that-a service, not marketed
for tourism or backpackers . Much change was to come, but back then it was as
secure a job one could get. Here are some of those happy
days.
Lower Hutt near Wellington, had a
transport centre on smaller scale to that of Preston where all services
converged. One day the supervisor rushed into our canteen as I was enjoying my
break and asked me to go and cover a service that had failed to show. It was to
a place called NaeNae, I knew the place but it had two separate routes to get
there and I only knew one, and you guessed it was the other to be covered. I
loaded up -almost a full bus of shoppers and off we go, already 10 mins late and
trying to be confident with a brave face. About 5 minutes into the service I
noticed bus stops were not appearing and looking in the rear vision mirror could
see some passengers looking a little bemused , carry on for another few
minutes-still no bus stops and another look revealed a lot of smiling or amused
patrons. Nobody said a word until I made the next corner and drove into a cul de
sac at the back of Hutt Hospital. With that I calmly stopped, placed the
handbrake on and got out of my seat facing about 40 passengers and said "RIGHT,
WHO'S GOT THE MAP?" The whole bus erupted in laughter -they all knew I was
green on this run and one kind lady came forward to act as courier. Lesson?
never volunteer if not certain. The delayed service bus was caused by the driver
falling asleep at Petone the next town south of Lower
Hutt.
A few years later driving Inter City
services across the Rimutaka's. As I was descending towards Featherston the gear
box blew leaving me with a rather noisy coach stuck in 2nd gear. We crawled
slowly to the town, some two miles from the bottom of the hill and headed for
the railway station. Here I put my passengers onto the next train and awaited a
tow to Masterton thirty miles north.It was 2pm.
At 5.30pm help arrived , in the form
of a Bedford J flatdeck truck driven by the supervisor Ray. As the coach motor
could be run and had managed to disengage the transmission whilst I waited I had
air to feed the brakes so could be towed safely in neutral. A rope was
attached so I would be braking for both vehicles, this is quite safe for anyone
who has never driven large vehicles if no torsion bar is fitted providing speed
is kept down. Off we go and about thirty minutes later and getting
dark we reached the outskirts of Masterton. Now a few months earlier the
Waingawa River had flooded and caused the main bridge across it to the town to
drop , so the Army had come in and built a 'Bailey Bridge' -a temporary steel
structure to allow all traffic to cross on a one way system controlled by
traffic lights. As we approached the bridge the lights were on red , so I
was braking then they turned green and Ray driving the truck put his foot down
whilst I was still braking , this caused the rope to snap.
Ray carried on over the bridge
unaware we had parted company, I had no choice but to aim for the narrow bridge
and hope the momentum would keep me going across it and then pull in. It was
Friday night and traditionally at that time Friday nights were late night
shopping here. Traffic was very heavy coming out of Masterton and also a queue
behind me. Well I ran out of steam half way across. This blocked both lines of
traffic and the bridge so narrow I could not even get out of the door!!
All I could see was Ray disappearing into the distance. About
five minutes later with long queues either side, drivers blowing car horns,
waving fists and fingers at me, the tail lights of Rays truck were
seen reversing back to me. It was only then that other drivers realised what had
occurred and I was not taking a tea break or ran out of logbook hours. .
The rope firmly attached we headed for the workshops and home for tea.
Another story similar to this
follows soon where upon I was able to bring Wellington City traffic to a
complete standstill .
Instead of paintings, this week I
have placed a favourite photo of my father ,Walter Trickett on his visit
to New Zealand in 1988 with me at Masterton Road Service Depot. It was a special
time and the photo means alot to me.
I wish you all a very good week ,
until next time, take care.
Lancashire Re-United offers for sale and exclusive to this website prints of original artwork of Municipal Bus fleets , Railway Locos,Barrow Built ships & Company wagons by WALLACE TRICKETT who has VERY KINDLY given me the selling rights to these prints.Simply click on LANCASHIRE PRINTS to purchase these stunning memories of Lancashire'sroad transport heritage at the AMAZING price of JUST £9.99--each plus P&P -
PLEASE NOTE -due to production costs -These prints will not be sold without MOUNTS OR FRAMES
The LRU prints are COPYRIGHT of LANCASHIRE RE-UNITED & Wallace Trickett any infingement WILL result in LEGAL ACTION being taken
