RT2494 purred past. This is the repatriated open-topper from Guernsey, where it was No14.
RF600 came in from the first morning trip to Holmbury St.Mary on the 412. While it unloaded on the ramp SNB340 came up from the bus-park to go out on a 425 trip westwards to Chilworth Station.
I heard the chuckling rattle of a Perkins diesel engine, so passed on my cone duty and went to join Peter Aves in GS2 as he came up the ramp. We loaded up at the bus-stop, taking a maximum load of twenty (including me). Yes, a GS seats 26, but today's passengers average thirteen stone rather than the ten stone of the 1950s, and there are some ferocious hills around Dorking. We twirled around the roundabout, and headed back into town. RF486 was at the dolly-stop by Dorking Halls, having returned from Reigate on the 439 and now embarking on the loop round through Holmwood and Newdigate, and Brockham for a second time, to arrive back at Dorking once more. We followed SNB340 up into Dorking, but it disappeared when we stopped at the White Horse.
We crawled through Dorking in a stream of cars, and wound round the one-way system past the old garage and bus-station (now housing), and out onto the A25 westbound. As we ground up the hill the cars ahead soon vanished, although there was a long tail behind us. We reminisced about pre-M25 days when this road was a perpetual traffic jam of lorries avoiding London but having difficulty on these hills.
We paused in Westcott to let the pent-up steam of traffic pass, then pressed on. We wound our way noisily up through the cutting, to Wotton, two hundred feet higher up, and paused again outside the pub.
A little further on we turned left off the main road up onto Abinger Common. More rock cuttings, only windier and narrower, with occasional overhangs. We ground on up the hill to Parkhurst Corner, another of the 1950s terminal points. It was a very green spot, with the junctions of narrow roads, towering trees and some very dense hedges. But there was the loom of expensive houses behind those hedges - some reason for the bus to come here.
We climbed back aboard, and ventured into territory untouched by LT buses since the 1950s - up the long road up Leith Hill. (The main 412 route turns right at Parkhurst Corner to descend to Hombury St.Mary).
We eventually arrived at Leylands Road, the old LT terminus. Not at the Leith Hill car-park. Not at the complex little road junction just south-west of the summit. But at the junction with a minor road (Leylands Road) half a kilometre short of the carpark, just over a kilometre from the summit. What was there? Well, nothing really, except a lot of trees. We speculated why LT ran a crew RF up here three times a day (weekdays only) in the 1950s. There really was not very much here at all, or between Parkhurst Corner and here. A mystery. Peter reversed into Leylands Road, and we alighted and took pictures.
It was soon time to head back, so Peter wound up the Dorking Station blinds and completed his turn. We set off back down the long hill to Parkhurst Corner and Wotton Hatch.
We created much less of a rolling traffic jam as we rolled down the hill into Westcott, but nevertheless we paused to let the traffic pass and for photos by the thatched bus shelter and dovecot.
We continued down into Dorking, and paused again outside the White Horse before terminating at Pippbrook.
Now I had a hole in my expected timetable: I had hoped to change onto BN61 at Dorking bus garage or Westcott, but the little Bristol had not made it today. A quick consultation of the timetable showed that I had time for a quick foray to Ranmore Common on GS2 in twenty minutes time. Now for a cup of tea...
All photos by Ian Smith. Click on most of them for a larger picture.
Back to Ian's Bus-stop
Part 1
Part 2
Part 4: 433 to Ranmore: GS2