Early 1970s RT London Bus Driving Lesson, HD | Kinolibrary
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- Опубліковано 21 тра 2018
- Early 1970s RT London Bus Driving Lesson, HD from the Kinolibrary Archive Film Collections. To order the clip clean and high res or to find out more visit www.kinolibrary.com. Clip ref CHX847.
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EXT London, wet rainy day, red bus past, RT. INT bus, OTS trainee driver drives, man behind gives him instructions, bus driving instructor says 'easy on the gas!'. EXT bus slowly pulls out, along road, RT bus. INT bus, instructor says 'watch the bend'.
EXT wet grim road, people holding umbrellas, RT bus past 72 to Roehampton. Double decker bus with L Plates.
INT trainee bus driver sits in simulation bus, driving lesson, driving simulator. OTS driver in simulator, road projected on wall. Instructor tells trainee driver what to do.
EXT car park, hose spurting water to make road wet. RT bus along, skids past. Bus skidding, vars angles. Wet road.
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Passed in 1979. First class training, stays with you all your life.
As an inside staff bus mechanic for London Transport, I had my turn at Chiswick in 1976 aged 21.
I found that driving RT buses on the road, was a bit different than shunting buses in the garage.
Many of the bus instructors, were mostly fairly calm whilst on the road. Make a mistake though, and you would incur their wrath.
One instructor carried a long wooden pole on his bus. This was used to wallop the back of your drivers seat (Bloody Hard) should you incur his displeasure.
What with driving around 'Hyde Park Corner', and pedestrians who tried to scuttle across Oxford Street, it was quite an experience.
After a bit of road training, your name would be placed in the 'Skid Book' to give you a little taste of how a double decker bus performs while in an uncontrolled skid.
The Instructor, would brief you prior to the skid, by telling you to; "Fold both arms across your chest, and tuck your legs under the seat".
At the appropriate moment he would squeeze himself through the window behind you, swivel the steering wheel and yank the hand brake on.
He would also tell you when to remove your right foot off the accelerator pedal. (Gas pedal)
Should you be that foolish (as I certainly was) to put your right foot near the brake pedal, he would holler, "KEEP YOUR FOOT OFF THAT BLOODY BRAKE".
All in all it was an interesting experience. I was fortunate as an engineer after passing the test, to drive all the other types of buses at Chiswick. Some of them were brand new and had just been delivered. As my instructor said to me; "Don't bloody well bend any of these my lad, because we'll both be looking for new jobs". 😕
Ditto all of the above. I was a mechanic at West Ham garage. Picked my training bus up from Loughton Garage. My test started at Waterworks Corner, into the West End, finishing with the skid pan at Chiswick. 1976 age 21.
@@GerrySmith-tu6ti Cheers Gerry, funny enough I also had to report to Loughton garage when my turn came for driver training.
I must confess my driving instructor from that place acted like a Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde. He appeared friendly enough, at first but he soon revealed his true colours out on the road. He would shout, and holler at the top of his voice. I honestly believed that he was bonkers. All part of the 'knock them down to build them up' philosophy I suppose.
With regards to West Ham Greengate Street bus garage, that has been shut down and demolished a good few years now.
I was told that Big Harry Woods, day bus mechanic had passed away, and so has Trevor Watkins too. Trevor ended up as day foreman at Barking, and he lost his job sometime after privatisation. The higher Stagecoach management, told him to clear his desk and leave after failing a test for his own job.
I was on the shift that afternoon, when he left. We never heard from him again. Until we heard the news that he was dead. Terrible turn out.
Kind regards Jonnie.
Brilliant 🤩👍👌
Those RT’s were once the pride and joy, of what was London Transport.
I worked for London Transport, as a conductor ,a couple of weeks before joining the Army. Seen those double-deckers on the skid pan at Chiswick, but never thought that someday I would have the privilege of driving one. My Army unit took on the task of refurbishing an RT which was owned by some charity. I drove it from Essex to Hampshire via London's West End during rush hour. What an experience!
The RT's were beautiful looking vehicles
This brings back memories. My uncle used to work at Chiswick training school in the 70s and early 80s and I used to get to drive RTs, RMs, RMCs & DMSs there as a kid. I also had a go on what they used to call the 'simulbus', which is in this video. I remember being shown its workings behind the screen - there was a whole miniature town, navigated by a some kind of lens on an arm, which was back projected somehow as a silhouette on the screen (not sure exactly how it worked, but as a child it seemed like magic)
Lived in a Regent III for six years travelling around Australia. Loved the pre select and the gearbox whine. Oh how I wish I’d kept it. Next best thing were my three Merc 0305’s ex MTT (Transperth in Perth WA)
Happy days👍
The training was fantastic and first class, the best in the world !
Done my psv 1 in 1987. Not RT but Routemasters. 100% agree with previous comments. Best training ever . London Transport was tops .
That drift was amazing 😂
In '75 I did my training but there was no simulator, met up with the instructor at Hammersmith and shown the controls. As I had previous experience of pre select gears we were out on the road. After the first few minutes, the instructor would sit in the second seat from the front on the left, from there he could see both mirrors whilst observing the trainee.
I managed a go on that simulator at the 1983 open day, absolutely brilliant.
I trained at Chiswick in November 1978, but I enjoyed the skid pan experience but I couldn’t understand all the drama associated with it. Sitting in the cab was the safest place to be and almost as uneventful as sitting in an office swivel chair. The rear of the bus must have been the most exciting place to be, surely. Simon-Streatham Gararge (AK) badge number N114297. Almost retired.
I trained at Chiswick in 1973 on the RTs a real drivers bus in my opinion, no simulator during my course, my instructor was in his retirement year, the surname Thanish comes to mind. Went on to drive RMs- SMS DMS at Elmers End for five years great times, I could go on about the merits of LT at that time, you old time drivers conductors etc will understand, fond memories, thanks for the footage.
@@simonfarnham-8820 43 years on the buses? You must have seen a fair bit! Fair play to you.
seeing a double decker bus drift is something else
I drive these in Davis, CA with Unitrans. We've still got three going! Truly brilliant vehicles, an absolute joy to drive. It's so cool to see the old training process in action, thank you for this video
I'm training to be a bus driver in the western US and I've heard more than once a variation of that phrase "We don't know what's around that next corner til we get there!"
Good luck hope all goes well for you! I'm a London bus driver of 2 years.
@@nickroper7692wow! A bus driver of Two years -well done - I have never seen one quite so young to be a bus driver. I hope you have a booster seat to see over the steering wheel.😂
"This is a bus. But think of it as a phone box."
Hopefully not, given that people treated phone boxes as urinals in the 1970s.
When training to be a bus driver was just that. My dad worked for London transport on buses then the London Underground later on so 37 years.
At the skidpan scene I had visions of Blakey from On the Buses!
Friction burns fot Blakey 😂
Bloody marvelous to see such an old training film for bus driver training.😊
The real operators!!❤😊
When buses had to be driven, not just aimed. I would love a go in a RT.
You still have to drive it though. Too much of a stigma about automatic transmission. People think that automatic drivers don't drive as opposed to manual drivers. Automatic is the way forward. I drove Bristol RT on the 38 Hackney to Victoria route. They were horrible.
The RT was the first vehicle I ever drove at 16 years old my dad George Smith an LT driving instructor took me to North Weald air field and tort me how to drive happy days
I’d love to turn up and pretend I’d never driven a bus before 😂
That's not how I was taught ona r.t london bus from Chiswick . The instructor sat at the left side over the rear wheel and he could feel if you clipped the kerb and he could see you mirror with the same view as you had and could see how the left was doing. Started Monday passed Friday 1966
My dad did all of this to become a bus driver in the 60's. He drove both rt's and rm's and preferred the rm's
1970s VR?!
EDIT: I realized simulators have been around for a very long time. There is a tank simulator designed with the same purpose as the bus simulator, using a miniature map and a micro camera. This one on the other hand, I have no idea how it would give the illusion of an environment, but it sure doesn't look like a live camera feed.
Sounds like former racing driver Graham Hill on the commentary.
That skidpan looks awesome! I recently passed my PCV test without a skid in sight
when i passed my bus test in 1997, there were chiswick trained drivers at the garage where i worked. they had an 'N' on their bus driver badge. having an 'N' was seen as a status symbol 😂
I past my test at Chiswich in 1969 did 19 years with L.T would love to drive an R T again it was a drivers bus ,i dove 10 other type in that time ,
@@michaelclark9092 nice one, yeah, I would like to drive a route master, never driven one before
1970,s did my training ,six of us on the skid pan, two took one look and sod that went home,i loved it (if you tip the bus over you get a£5 )
Hammersmith Broadway, and the old Butterwick Bus station. Waited on a number 11 there many times.
Wonderful old piece of film going round Shepherds Bush green And the old Hammersmith Bus station. So sad that it was destroyed. Why didn't the top brass and the media attack John Major?
I recognize the area as being Shepherd Bush Green here in London that walkway Bridge has been demolished now.
I passed in Chiswick in 1971. I loved the RT but preferred the RF. There was no simulator but we did use the skidpan, hit the pan at no less than 30mph then the instructor would reach through, spin the steering wheel and pull on the handbrake, the sensation was worse for the other two drivers in the back as it pivoted from the front, but the rear travelled quite a distance, and we were charging towards the office block with parked buses either side. After that we learned cadence braking, no ABS in those days. Often the instructor would go upstairs and smoke a cigarette while we drove in circles so he could look in a ladies changing room on the second floor of a shop on Kensington High Street. I did not like the Routemaster, terrible bus though many people wax lyrical about it, the auto gearbox was dreadful and it would self change and cause the bus to jerk and shake the passengers about. It did have full power steering though.
The RF was a dream to drive. One of my rest routes was the 200 RF. The AEC RT was a much better bus than the RTL which had heavy steering.
The RF was smooth and quiet, I think that there may have been about 3 or 4 in our depot, but I did like the RT, there were varied steering stiffnesses, we all knew which were the good and which were the bad.@@rodduffy6138
Interesting RT based at Seven Kings in the rare livery with London Transport in White Lettering
I thought the bus might turn over. On the buses Stan Butler and Blakey, the bus was RM200 VLT200.
What ever happened to the bus simulator mock up as i would like a chance at having a wee shot of it.
I wonder how the simulator worked.
I had a go at a Chiswick Works open day. There was an actual model with streets and toy vehicles. There was a light on a beam, which shone the scene onto a screen. The model turned round, I guess connected to the accelerator/brake, and somehow changed direction from the steering. I was good enough they let me drive a real Routemaster in the yard. That was the first vehicle I drove - aged 14!!
Everything was looking good then lunacy happened in the end.
The skid pan used to be at Chiswick Bus Garage . Not for the faint -hearted .
Chiswick Works.
3:57 Kansei dorifto!
3:00 HOW TF DID THEY MANAGE TO DRIFT A BUS. A DOUBLE DECKER 20 TONNE BUS.
The gutter
I watched the footage about the Routemaster, and that weight "only" 7.5 tonnes empty.... That's less than 4 electric cars today.. They were really lightweight by use of all alluminium outside and monocoque construction.
bmw drivers who cant drive put them to the test
@@dancoulson6579 True
All i can think of watching this is On The Buses :D
How many gears it has? And what is it called for company name and its catalog?
3:08 - These use cross-ply tyres. I wonder if radial tyres would be as accommodating!
Fast&Furios London drift
Someone should take the portion from 3:03 onward and dub Deja Vu over it. 👀
Sorry but feeding the wheel just looks awkward and goofy
Having driven RT buses for many years ,as the bus had no power steering thats only only way you could steer it ,if you had a full bus, to go around a rounder bout you pushed your back into the seat and pushed and pulled the steering wheel if you let go it would spin back and could break your wrist ,that why you did not see many women bus drivers at that time .
That sounds like Michael Caine narrating. Can anyone confirm?
Sounds like Graham Hill to me. Much too posh to be Michael.
It bother me the way he turns the steering wheel. Why does he inch it bit by bit like that? Isn't the recommended method the hand over hand technique?
The RT had no power steering, so it was damn heavy to turn the wheel. A day driving a Routemaster was a lot different from a day on an RT. (I drove both types, from Chalk Farm, Hammersmith, and Mortlake garages). As well as that the instructors - at least the one I had - taught you the real old school method. I remember the UK Highway Code books in the 1960s and the police driving manuals where "hand over hand" technique seemed to be regarded almost like a sin.
All that skill now sadly gone. First class instructors teaching drivers to very high standards. It's all very different now unfortunately. Nothing changes for the better. Quality sacrificed in favour of saving a few £
Ken Livingstone hates this.
Why would Ken Hate this ???
@@SimonRML2456 He abolished the Routemaster in London in favour of trendy bendy busses.
@@mhl8396 TFL Went for bendies. A lot of people thought tri-axle double deckers would be better at moving crowds on the routes chosen for them
Turning that steering wheel seemed like a physical chore. God bless power steering.