Southdown PSV

[DRH]

Southdown PSV are subsumed into Metrobus (Brighton & Hove Bus & Coach Co) on Friday (1st September).  

Enviro200 6733 departs from Station Road East, Oxted on the circuitous 236 to East Grinstead which enters the old M&D area at Edenbridge.  Many but not all of the Southdown fleet have already had fleetnames removed.

30th August 2023

DRH

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[DerekJ]

The 236 has the distinction of crossing a county boundary three times during its journey, which passes from Surrey to Kent, back into Surrey then down into West Sussex at East Grinstead.

There is a fourth county - East Sussex - not far away, just down the road at Forest Row, where London Transport services once terminated.
The four counties nearly all meet at a point about a couple of miles east of East Grinstead, but Kent doesn't quite make it, as there is a short boundary of about a mile between Surrey and East Sussex that keeps Kent from making contact with West Sussex.

All of this has only been true since 1974, as a whole chunk of what had been East Sussex (called Mid Sussex, and containing East Grinstead, Burgess Hill and Haywards Heath as well as much of the present Bluebell Railway) was then handed over to West Sussex as part of local government reorganisation.  In the process it could be argued (and some have) that East Sussex rather lost out.

Derek J

[DRH]

Staying in Edenbridge and ex-M&D territory, the 231 and 233 routes from Tunbridge Wells continue to be run by Metrobus, having origins I think in the old M&D 93 but without the extension to Lingfield.  They are now joined by the ex-Southdown (PSV, not the real Southdown) 236 which I think originated with LT, although experts can probably elaborate. The Go Coach E1 town service has recently vanished although timetables are still displayed.  The town now has limited public transport facilities, at least by bus, although it has two railway stations, Edenbridge on the Uckfield line and Edenbridge Town on the Tonbridge - Redhill "military" line. 

On Saturday 2nd September, allocations to the 231 and 233, which normally sees 63 or 15-plate Enviro200's unusually included:

(1) Ex-Sheffield Community Transport short Enviro 200 6701 (SN65 OFG), liveried for Epsom town routes E9/E10 - seen in Edenbridge High Street.

(2) Fastway 100-branded Scania Omnicity 6632 (YN08 DFY) - seen pulling out of Bough Beech Road, Four Elms.

Of course, M&D had a small garage in Hever Road (closed long ago). However, a lesser claim to fame was that for many years Edenbridge was also host to the Almex Ticket Machine Co.'s Stenmar Works, in Station Road. The first General Manager was a Mr K Stenborg, from whence the name of the works appears to have been derived.    

The A.B. Almex concern (of Stockholm, Sweden) had begun a sales push in the UK in 1953 and Maidstone & District was the first big customer (for three machines!) in 1955, for use on OMO buses. It is believed that the West Yorkshire Road Car was in fact the very first UK user - they tried an Almex but only for one day.  Each machine then cost £100 for the "Minor" model and £106 18s 0d for the "Major" model.  M&D had four "Minors" (0002-0005). 0001 and the rest were "Majors". Among other differences, the "Minor" had a small roll magazine (600 tickets), as commonly supplied in some European countries; the "Major", a larger one (c1,100 tickets) and a return cancelling device.  The Almex machine had first been patented in 1945.

In the UK, Almex were initially based in Lewisham but the Edenbridge works was established in the early 1960s, perhaps to be close to what was for many years, their most important customer.

For those who have forgotten what they looked like (or are too young to have ever encountered them), here is an M&DMS Almex  - no.0052 - one of the early machines.  Bafflingly, at first, Almex did not mark the machine casing with the machine number; this followed then European practice. Evidently, someone at Postley Works had to get a paintbrush and tin of red paint out and carefully paint the number on the front. 

DRH

[Lew Finnis]

Why do refer to the Redhill to Tonbridge line as military when it was originally the South Eastern Railway's main line until the Sevenoaks cut-off was built?

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[Ian Robertson]

If anyone can make use of them, I have a carton of 100 pale yellow Almex ticket rolls, the majority in their original plastic-wrapped 5s.

[Neil Bays]

Sorry to be pedantic but Edenbridge is on the Redhill line and Edenbridge Town on the Uckfield line.

I've never heard the Redhill line being called the military line in my 37 years on the railway. We use to call it the old road.

Neil B

On Sunday, 3 September 2023 at 12:34:30 UTC+1 DRH wrote:

[DRH]

Was it not used by troop trains en route for Dover from camps in the Aldershot/Camberley area?

[DRH]

Ian : I could gladly use them. I'll drop you a line.

[DRH]

Sorry - got them the wrong way round.