One night many years ago probably around the late 70's, one of our drivers pulled up outside the depot in his car ready to start a late back shift. He picked up all his gear and proceeded to the rear of the depot to get his vehicle.

Our depot is a small one so at night there is no one around, it is also dark at the rear of the depot and a handy place for courting if you don’t want to be caught.

He jumped into his double deck bus and stared to drive out the depot, as he drove round the corner he picked up speed, then all of a sudden he heard voices, it was one of his co workers who had just finished his shift 30 mins ago and had went up the top rear of the double deck with his girlfriend. The driver slammed the brakes on and ran upstairs to find his co workers with a woman both half naked...

It was a funny event and everyone had a laugh about it,, after this happened there was a joke notice put up in the depot, " would any driver using a bus out the back of the depot for courting purposes please ensure a sign is placed on the bus window to alert any driver who requires the vehicle"..

As you can guess this never happened again...

To see Dan’s buses web site and a whole lot more visit

http://www.danmclean.co.uk/

My husband has story for thr fan club. He was working a minibus turn in Morecambe route number 5 which goes round Draycombe Court in Heysham. Its a narrow road only able to be negociated in one direction even though in theory its open for two way traffic. This day all the minibuses were off the road so he was allocated a Bristol VR double decker. He got as far as St. Johns Church and found a funeral in progress and the hearse blocking the road. A minibus he could have got past easily but no chance with a double decker. So he rang the controlloer and asked what to do. He was ordered to disrupt the funeral and shout in a big loud voice your blocking me in. However he knew the Vicar personally so he went in and unable to show disrespect he took part and when it was over came out. By that time the road was gridlocked in both directions solid so solid even Police couldn`t get through. It took about two hours to clear road and he was well late but Manager couldn`t discipline him as he would have had to discipline the Inspector as well so nothing more was said.

Thanks ANNE.



An Inspector has a nick-name within the bus spotting enthusiast circles of 'JUMPER' meaning he would always be jumping on
and off buses during his working day. Which goes back to my early days of spotting in the 60's.RobertI can remember them filming
On the Buses at Lordship lane on several occasions, but only as an interested bystander, but don't ask me what year it was,
my memory is not that good nowadays. As you know the garage used in OTB was the Eastern National Depot at Wood Green and was
the terminus for route 251, Southend to Wood Green, which was a limited stop service in the London area. One particular week
I finished work at Tottenham Garage about 4.30.p.m and was waiting at Bruce Grove for a bus up Lordship Lane where I lived
at the time. The buses on the 251's at the time were open platform double deckers and some people were in the habit of jumping
on at Bruce Grove as the bus slowed down to turn left from Tottenham High Road into Bruce Grove and this particular week the
same man had done it every day from Monday to Thursday, but on the Friday they had the first rear doored decker I'd seen on
the route and as it slowed down to turn left this man made his usual flying leap to get on, hit the door and fell back onto
the roadway and lay there in a heap.
Several of us ran to help him and as we assisted him onto the pavement all he said was "Blimey, that one was packed.
True story, believe it or not. I hope that is the sort of story you wanted, does it have to be related to the OTB program,
or will any bus story do? If so, I'll try to think of some more for you. Cheers for now, Fred.
(more stories like this wanted here at the fan club)