Jonathan Taylor and his partner Sarah Day journeyed to Warminster to experience a packed day of rides on a variety of current and former London buses – all raising money for charity
As I think I have said before, waiting in the rain at a bus stop as a child in the 1960s for a Routemaster to come along was the daily triumph of hope over experience. And then, instead of two buses arriving at once, two would sail past in the other direction. Eventually, at a time unrelated to the timetable on display at the bus stop, one would arrive. [wlm_nonmember][…]
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Don’t mess with the conductor (and risk being thrown off), just pay the fare and get off again at the right stop. Repeat on the return journey.
On Saturday 18 August, we drove to Warminster and parked in the very full station car park. We arrived at the starting point of the Imberbus service for the annual weekend-only event, courtesy of the Ministry of Defence, and there were no fewer than three waiting Routemasters to choose from, all with cheery drivers and conductors.
Everyone wanted to sit on the top deck, and there was the usual rush for the front seats. We set off, pulling in first and second, up the steep Sack Hill out of Warminster, through the MOD entrance checkpoint and out across the top of Salisbury Plain, strewn with old tank target carcasses (strictly out of bounds of course).
Twenty five minutes later, we were bowling in to the house-to-house army combat training area that used to be the picturesque thatched cottage village of Imber. It was requisitioned and its population evicted in 1943. Imber village and the surrounding land was then used to train American troops prior to D-Day in World War II.
That Saturday however, the shell of old Imber was bustling with people and buses. Teas were served in Grade 1-listed St.Giles’ church (a redundant church looked after by the Churches Conservation Trust). Staff from the Bath Bus Company (part of RATP) controlled the traffic and used several temporary bus stops. Bang in the centre of things, the London Transport Museum parked up their magnificent open-top double-decker World War I bus, fully fitted out as original, and slept-in as their home by the two-man crew responsible for it behind the front lines.
We bumped into an Ensignbus driver and conductor team, both fully into the period fun and part of the crew responsible for the Ensign RMs at the event. From Imber, the fleet of 19 closed and open-top Routemasters along with five modern buses (for mobility access) took very happy passengers to the Gore Cross Interchange and then to the villages of West Lavington, Market Lavington, Tilshead and Chitterne as well as Brazen Bottom and New Zealand Farm Camp. There were refreshments, or a pub, at most turning points and a chance to look at these villages.
Paul Sainthouse, Managing Director of Dawsongroup Bus and Coach, brought along two fine RMs and arrived posing (and acting) as a conductor on the back of one of them. His bus filled quickly and off it went. We looked around the beautiful and interesting St. Giles’ church, took some pictures and then caught the next RM going to Gore Cross and on to Tilshead for a spot of lunch at the Rose and Crown pub there.
‘This is great fun,’ I thought. Next stop was Chitterne for tea and very nice cakes.
When it was time to leave, our driver/conductor team turned out to be Andrew Wickham, Managing Director of Go South Coast and David Lee-Kong, Operations Director at the company. They asked two young GSC engineers to check the engine and we were away again. Andrew was in his element as conductor while David was putting his foot down on an open stretch of road. We were in safe hands (probably!).
Later, back at Gore Cross, the interchange was packed with people waiting to ride off in all directions. We jumped off our bus and met Andrew again just as Martijn Gilbert (recently Managing Director of Reading Buses) arrived, driving another RM. We all chatted briefly and Martijn met Andrew for the first time – who is about to be a colleague at Go-Ahead – as Martijn informed us this was his last weekend before heading north to start work as Managing Director of Go-North East on Monday 20 August.
We decided to take an open-top RM for the next leg of our trip and spotted the Lothian RM which came down from Edinburgh for the event. Others mainly came from London and the South, so the Lothian team really had gone well out of their way (or perhaps took a wrong turn in Glasgow), to be there.
We barrelled back along the road to Imber in a fantastic convoy of heritage and new buses. As we arrived, Paul arrived from the other direction and swapped roles to become driver.
Everyone on the bus back to Warminster had definitely had a wonderful day out. Senior industry people gave up their spare time to enjoy the heritage of the industry and help raise money for the Friends of St. Giles’ Church Imber and the Royal British Legion. A total of £12,100 was raised this year from running the services.
In case you think all this just happens as a loosely organised enthusiast’s get-together… all of the buses we used were bang on time (note the full service timetable). At Imber, behind a Lothian maintenance crew vehicle we cornered Scott Robertson (we guessed he must be Scottish). The handsome Scott told us that the Lothian crew brought their RM down on Friday, occasionally reaching speeds of 60 mph on the motorways.
With four or five stops on the way (Scott couldn’t remember exactly), the journey to Warminster had taken 12 hours. They were off to the British Motor Museum’s Buses Event in Gaydon on Sunday (19 August), then driving back up to Edinburgh on Monday and going straight back to work on Tuesday.
Scott, a fitter at Lothian’s Central Depot, has been with the company for 39 years and knows a thing or two about buses. I hope his colleagues at Lothian don’t give him too much stick for appearing in this article. He, and all the others who worked hard to organise this event (and do so every year) deserve recognition. Thousands of people had a wonderful day and saw parts of Wiltshire not normally open to the public. Money was raised for charity. The industry was at its best.
To view a clip from the event, visit: bit.ly/imberbus2018
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