Other Operators: N–S

National Express provides long-distange coach services from London to the rest of Britain. The National Express brand was created in 1972 by the state-owned National Bus Company to bring together the express bus and coach services operated by the bus companies within the NBC group. The National Express network was largely a branding and management exercise, with services continuing to be operated by the individual companies. The National Express brand name first appeared on publicity during 1973-1974, and was then introduced onto vehicles during 1978.

Rick Squirrell writes, “From memory, the 851 was a Horsham–North Heath town run while the 852 was Horsham–Walliswood–Ockley–Forest Green, with several variations to meet local needs. I stress that is only from memory as I no longer have access to relevant timetables to confirm those details.

“I well recall visits to Horsham when the Carfax was an array of fascinating hardware. Southdown with their mix of Leylands, London Transport with mostly RT-types on the 405 and 414, Aldershot & District running in from Guildford with Dennis Lolines and saloons, Tillingbourne Valley (as they then were) running ex-London GS-class vehicles on a town route, North Downs running something small and unmarked (possibly a converted Ford) and the occasional interloper such as a Black & White Daimler Roadliner coach en route to Cheltenham. Those were the days and such was the scene in a ‘border town’. Crawley, East Grinstead and others were similarly colourful.”

This “E” plate likely came from Horsham or somewhere nearby, since the 851 and 852 were Horsham area routes. The North Downs name is actually two words, so the plate is technically incorrect.

North Downs’ route 853 was introduced in April 1969, running between Orpington and Croydon via Locksbottom, Coney Hall, Addington and Coombe Road. The number was chosen to fit into their existing series. The route initially ran every two hours but was increased to hourly and used a Ford Transit minibus. The route was tranferred from North Downs to Orpington & District in 1976, which in turn became Metrobus when O&D ceased operating in February 1981. Interestingly, the number 853 has been the basis of the similar route run for London Buses which today uses the number 353.

The first plate has the old-style numeral 8, with round loops instead of teardrop-shaped ones. The second “E” plate is unusual in its use of black instead of green for a non-LT operator. This was sometimes done in areas where London Transport was the minority operator, but in that case the other operator’s name was usually omitted.

Oxford’s route 70 was the service from Victoria to Oxford—replaced by route 290 and Green Line 790. It was the successor to the old Oxford–South Midland service.

It is very unusual to find “E” plates with numbers on a red background, although there are a few that exist. Interestingly, many of those that do are for Oxford services.

City of Oxford Motor Services Ltd. timetable book Nº 169, dated 31 May 1959, contains 176 pages and a fold-out route map inserted in the rear cover.

“Mr. J.R.G. Dell founded Rover Bus in 1928 following a period of service with the ‘Gleaner’ bus business of Dunham, Chesham. Mr. Dunham had been a driver with the London General Omnibus Company (Gleaner is an anagram of General) and established his own business which eventually passed to Chesham & District, and thus in turn to Amersham & District and thence London Transport Country Area route 316.
“The well-known independent operator in the Hemel Hempstead area ran the service between Hemel Hempstead Bus Station and Chesham Broadway. The direct route from Chesham to Hemel Hempstead via Whelpley Hill had been jointly operated with London Transport until 1964—a very rare instrance of a joint LT working—while the service via Boxmoor, Bovingdon, Flaunden, Latimer and Lye Green has always been a Rover operation. By February 1969, Rover was providing a daily service, generally hourly (two-hourly on Sundays) although not all journeys served Flaunden and Latimer. During 1986 the services became Hertforshire County Council routes 51 and 52.”

This is an astonishingly rare “E” plate as independent operator’s names are very difficult to find nowadays.

“Royal Blue was the premier express coach company in the South and West of England, with a network of routes stretching from Penzance to Margate and Bournemouth to London. Following initial development of tours and local services around Bournemouth and the New Forest in the horse drawn era, express coach services were instituted after the First World War. Royal Blue became part of the Tilling Group in 1935 and came under the management of the Western & Southern National Omnibus Companies (both now absorbed into First Group). Royal Blue routes were incorporated into the National Express network in the 1970s, and the Royal Blue name finally disappeared from service coaches in the late 1980s.”

Rick Squirrell adds: “Royal Blue Coaches timetables as recent as May 1977 show that they (and their National Express successors) stopped at ‘Staines LT Garage’ (‘LCBS Garage’ in more recent years) en route from London to Exeter and points west, which might be a likely source for this plate. In more recent NBC days (to at least 1978) with some duties worked by the former Timpsons garage at Rushey Green (Catford), there have been Catford–Exeter journeys with scheduled intermediate stops at East Croydon (Dingwall Road), Kingston (Clarence Street outbound/Wood Street inbound) and Guildford (Woodbridge Road). It is more than likely that these stops were plated ‘National Express’ rather than ‘Royal Blue’, but those routes formed part of the London–Devon–Cornwall operation nonetheless.”

In 1966 Southdown route 30 ran daily between Chelwood Gate (Red Lion) and Brighton (Pool Valley) via Chelwood Common, Danehill, Horsted Keynes, Lindfield, Burgess Hill and Hassocks.

This plate would have come from East Grinstead (or possibly as far out as Forest Row) in the days when the 30 was a Brighton–Haywards Heath–Forest Row–East Grinstead route, and which ran parallel with the 409 and Maidstone & District’s route 91 (later 291) between Forest Row and East Grinstead. (Route 36 was the more frequent Brighton–East Grinstead operation, but did not run via either Forest Row or Chelwood Common, instead via West Hoathly on a routing which became in part LCBS route 474 after Southdown abandoned it.)

Southdown 72 was a Horsham crosstown local town service from Comptons Lane (Hornbrook Estate) to The Common via Horsham station. The 89 was for many years the Horsham to Uckfield via Haywards Heath service, before the Haywards Heath–Uckfield section was run separately. The two routes shared common ground only between Horsham Carfax, the Station and Oakhill Road. London Transport would have only been responsible for the bus stops along North Road and at Horsham Station as Southdown placed their own flags at the Carfax.

This “E” plate will be from Horsham—likely the the Railway Station, or possibly from one of the three intermediate stops. It is produced on a sheet of aluminum.

These routes were local services in the Horsham area. Routes 73 and 73A were Horsham locals with slightly different routeings from Horsham Carfax to Davis Estate. There were some variations in the service they provided, but in 1967 route 73 ran between Merrifield Drive and Macleod Road via Horsham Carfax and Horsham Station. Route 73A is described below. The 75 was a Horsham–Coolham route with a few trips extended to Billingshurst; and the 78 was the Horsham–Balcombe–Handcross route which ran beyond Handcross on Wednesdays and Saturdays only. This extension was withdrawn around 1964 and the route then ran only to Handcross.

This plate came from Horsham: either the Carfax or the Railway Station, or possibly from one of the three intermediate stops. Other bus operators’ plates are always rather more unusual, but as far as I can tell, this plate is unique (apart from its pair on the other side of the stop) in that it displays four routes on it. I don’t believe I have ever seen another “E” plate with four routes shown in this way.

Route 73A was a Horsham local route running on Mondays to Saturdays between Davis Estate (Merrifield Drive) and Depot Road (Compton’s Lane) via Horsham Carfax and Horsham Station. Thanks go to Richard Bradley for supplying additional details about the 73 and 73A.

Southdown 132 ran from East Grinstead to Uckfield from 1971 until 1976 when it was renumbered 172. Prior to that it was part of Southdown service 92 to Eastbourne. It then ran as Metrobus route 261 until the end of 2005 when it became Eastbourne buses route 54 all the way to Eastbourne.

Southdown express services began in 1924, initially between Brighton and London (Lupus Street). It was a Southdown coach which was the first vehicle to enter Victoria Coach Station on 10 March 1932.

This “E” plate is likely to have come from a Sussex town, and might have been from Horsham again, or Crawley (including the County Oak depot which was north of the town and into LPTB territory), or indeed one of many other possible locations.

The SOUTHDOWN SUMMER EXPRESS SERVICES plate probably refers to the once-popular London–South Coast summer holiday camp destinations. It could equally could refer to one of the seasonal cross-country services which ran, such as Ramsgate–Crawley–Southsea, linking to the Isle of Wight ferries. One particularly unlikely sounding route ran on Summer weekends between Bletchingley and Bournemouth; others operated from East Grinstead (where at least Southdown had a garage at one time) to Totnes, Merstham to Folkestone, Horsham to Ramsgate or even Southsea to Southend through the Dartford Tunnel. All of these would have used London Transport Central and Country Area bus stops at some point, typically in Crawley, Horsham, Redhill or Reigate. There was also the procession from Victoria to holiday camps (such as Butlins) at Hayling Island, Bracklesham Bay, Selsey, Bognor Regis and Saltdean, all of which stopped in the outer suburbs: typically at Fulham, Richmond, Kingston and some also at Guildford.

This is another hand-lettered aluminum “E” plate. I don’t know why Southdown had so many (relatively speaking) as they were rather uncommon.

“Star Bus” was a very short-lived experimental service introduced by London Transport on 14th October 1972 using six DMSs (a shared allocation between Victoria [GM], Wandsworth [WD] and Walworth [WL] garages). The buses from Victoria garage were adorned with stick-on stars on the outside, and could be seen in the daytime on route 10A (which did not run during the evenings). It was designed to take people from the evening theatre shows to reach their cars at the Park Lane car park or Paddington Station, and provided a ten-minute service between 21.00 and midnight from Aldwych via Piccadilly Circus and Tottenham Court Road Station. The return journey from Paddington to Aldwych ran out of service. The service was reduced after just two weeks of operation and then worked by just three DMSs from Victoria garage. It was obviously not a success, as the service was withdrawn on 4th March 1973 after less than five months’ operation.

This is one of the most outstanding plates I have seen and is astonishingly rare. Just a handful of bus stops would have carried “E” plates and it was very short-lived, therefore a rare survivor. It is also unusual to find quotation marks on an “E” plate. The edge chips are caused by this being a very thick plate and therefore a tight fit in the bus stop runners. As with other express services, blue was the colour used for the background.