East Kent in black and white

[JFO]

Seen by Marytn H. driving through Ashford's old Brunswick Road? Garage come Bus Station in Summer 1980 when approx four years old, was East Kent Plaxton Derwent bodied R1014 KFN332P on Route 518 to Wye, one of 20 Routes starting there acording to the Bus stop flag, and Martyn says he has no idea whether East Kent chose of their own volition to take these Fords, or whether the buses were foisted upon them from on high directly from NBC, while on another Kent holiday in July of 1979, an unidentifiable East Kent Marshall bodied AEC Reliance with one of East Kent's famed rebodied Reliances 520FN wearing National white parked behind, was seen in Canterbury bus station on Route 643 which the Flickr Community says was a City Service: https://www.flickr.com/photos/22455491@N02/12194272065/.

[Group_owner]

KFN 332P was at the original "Garage come Bus Station" as you describe it, which was at Station Road - not Brunswick Road, which is where the current Cobbs Wood garage is located.

Derek J

[JFO]

Thanks Derek, I did think Brunswick Road was a bit out of the way to be served by 20 Routes, even back then!

[DBJ]

There was no route 643. The driver can clearly be seen changing the number blind, probably from 649 (the Rough Common service) as all other 64x numbers were in Herne Bay. However, I'm less sure what it is being changed too - I'd stab a guess at a 603 to Faversham or a 650 to either the Uni or Thanington, but I can't remember if this ran from within the bus station or from the St Georges Lane or Rose Lane stops. But it almost certainly isn't going on the 604/605 to Whitstable, to the disappointment of the prospective passengers gathering here.

On Thursday, 19 November 2020 at 23:23:17 UTC JFO wrote:

[Neil Gow]

Why not on the 604/605? when I went to catch up with last of the batch in service 1715 in April 1981, that's exactly the route it was on.

[DBJ]

It's because of the sequence in which the numbers are being wound. It has arrived on a local - the Bus Station destination confirms that. I can't work out any sensible combination to get to 04 or 05 from the point shown. And also that this is the first place to set down when entering the bus station, as the coach has blocked the stand by the main building.  Plus from memory that the peak journeys were all double deck anyway. Squirrelled away somewhere I may have the car workings for the era for further clues.

[Group_owner]

I'd hazard a guess that the blind was being wound to (rather than from) 649, which at the time was the route to Rough Common, in peaks only, and included a regular single-deck working.  This came in as a 652 from Chartham (St Augustine's Hospital) and went out at 1610 on a 649, which departed from that stop as it was in the same general direction as a 604 via Whitstable Road.  1610 would have been about the right time of day for the picture.

I attach a diagram of the bus station layout at Canterbury, as it appeared on a map in one of the last timetable booklets issued in February 1980 shortly before everything went over to leaflets.

Derek J

[DBJ]

I did wonder if it had arrived as a 652, but memory was that this mostly displayed Canterbury rather than Bus Station on inward journeys, and  I'd completely forgotten that the 649 ran from within the bus station.

A perfect explanation Derek, thank you.