Sevenoaks Running Day

Sunday May 18th 2008

Prepared by Ian Smith, 5th June 2008.

Part Three: 404 to Otford and back (BN61)

Back at Sevenoaks Bus Station I was surprised to see BN61. It should have been nearly at Shoreham by now. It was about to depart on a shortened working to Otford. I readjusted my schedule and climbed aboard for the even briefer trip round the block to the stands of the bus station, passing RT3148 on the way.

Back in the bus station my seat behind the driver gave me a different view of the RT, while GS15 moved across in the background.

We set off for Otford, along past the war memorial and down towards St.John's. To my surprise we met Metrobus' OmniTown 616 labouring up the hill, presumably to turn right down to the station from the War Memorial.

We passed Bat & Ball and rattled along the road to Otford, where we twirled round the pond and pulled up at the bus-stop outside the church. Most passengers alighted to take photos, as did I. Unfortunately, changing film on the bus, I had missed engaging the film wind mechanism. So I got lots of pictures, but all on top of one another!. Laurie Akehurst, who conducted this trip, kindly sent me this picture to fill the gap.

BN61 at Otford Pond (Laurie Akehurst).

We climbed back aboard, and zoomed back into Sevenoaks.

413B to Chipstead and back (GS15)

One of the timetable surprises on the day was the appearance of GS15 on the 413B. Despite the number of GSs at nearby Dunton Green Garage, those were for the Knockholt-Orpington circular 471, with only rare appearances at Sevenoaks. But the closure of the Westerham branch railway in October 1961 brought a rare need. Chipstead's railway season ticket holders had no public transport to Sevenoaks Station, as the 413 route buses went via Bat & Ball. (Westerham, Brasted and Sundridge passengers could use the 403 or 705, according to class). So the 413B came into being for a month, the only variant of the 413 group to serve Tubs Hill Station. Now GS15 appeared sporting an original blind set!

I worked out that I had time for a rounder before my next trip, so went across to the parked bus just before it was due out, and asked for a ride. The bus immediately filled to its maximum of eight, and we departed.

We headed for the War Memorial, but this time turned left, to dive down the long hill of St.Botolph's Road. This delightful avenue took us to Sevenoaks Station, where we headed for Riverhead. There we turned left up Worships Hill along the A25, and continued along almost to the modern route interchange. But just before that we turned off into Chipstead, and worked our way eastwards through the delightful village. Lots of wisteria.

The old road on into Riverhead has a 6ft6in width restriction, so we turned right to pull up at the Witches Lane stop for a blind change. No lazy blind!

So we turned back onto the A25 to dip down to Riverhead, and headed east to Sevenoaks Station. Alan Charman buzzed past in RF429 on an off-route 404*. Was he off to Dunton Green for a bit of nostalgia? (* According to the programme, some 404 journeys did used to come this way - but why?). We continued up St.Botolph's Road, and along to the bus station.

Part Four: Lunch-break at Sevenoaks Bus Station

Photos by Ian Smith. Click on any of them for a larger picture.

Back to Ian's Bus-stop Part Two Part Four: Sevenoaks Bus Station