Omnibus 152 - June 2003
Letters To 'Omnibus'
Stan Letts on the Dudley Dasher
I have just read Stan Letts's article on the web site (Omnibus 149, December 2001). The two Walsall Dennis Lolines and the full front Wolverhampton Guy came to us at Oldbury when Dudley refused to use them. I drove all three of them. I was one of only, I think, three drivers to drive the Guy, and, after the first day the only one who would drive the Lolines, being the last one to drive all three vehicles before they went for scrap.
The Guy was a lovely old vehicle and I thoroughly enjoyed using it. The Lolines were, shall we say, 'interesting'. I volunteered to drive them at every opportunity during the few days we had them. Luckily I was teamed with Freda Alcock for my guard that week, one of the old school and ex-FEDDs, who was happy to indulge me as she said working a Loline was like working a bad FEDD during the war and so was quite nostalgic. Of course we Oldbury drivers were full time professionals. (Ouch!! Sorry Stan.) We also had two Coventry Daimlers (215 & 225), great on the 'track' on a late night as they had no blinds and so no one realised they were an 86/87, you hardly picked anyone up all night.
Does anyone know what has happened to my old BCT Leyland PS2 2255? Before I moved to Spain, Waldron at Bromsgrove still had her, but when I first moved back I rented a house in Birmingham Road, Bromsgrove and saw Waldron's had gone.
One final question:- Do any of you lads know what was the starting date for the 201 route to Worlds End Lane? I was living in Lower White Road at the time and caught the very first service bus. It was an LD8, 4062 if I remember correctly. I am writing an article on it and would like to have the correct opening date. Maybe Stan might be the man to know, or Malcolm?
Sorry to hear about Maurice Newman. He was a smashing bloke and I was the first one in the movement to drive 2707 when he bought it; I collected it for him on my trade plates. Sadly we are all getting older and less able. I couldn't drive a bus now as I have got arthritis of the neck and upper spine, in part caused when the king pins in the steering on 6220 seized up on me on the Queens Head roundabout with a full load one morning on the 221. It took the engineers three weeks of heating them up to get them out.
John Berry
Northfield, Birmingham
