GS: The Guy Special
	Prepared by Ian Smith

450 NF Dartford - Horns Cross - Greenhithe - Bean - High Cross - Betsham - Gravesend

452 NF Dartford - Horns Cross - Greenhithe - Bean - High Cross - Westwood - Fawkham - Fawkham Green - West Kingsdown

The 450 was the back-road route between Gravesend and Dartford. If you wanted speed you went by Greenline. If you wanted a direct, frequent bus service you went on the 480. But if you were prepared to spend a little time, and choose it carefully, you could go by the back-roads, for most of the way at least, in a GS. Northfleet replaced its sizeable fleet of Leyland Cubs in December 1953, and used its eight or so on the 450 and on a network of routes that sprawled southwards from Gravesend out over the difficult territory of the North Downs, connecting a series of respectable villages to Thameside, for work and shopping.

The 452 was something else. It was a Saturday only shopping route, stretching south from the 450 route along the path used by the weekday morning route 492, to Fawkham and West Kingsdown. It had been worked by a 10T10 Regal, but early 1954 it was officially replaced by a GS, the first large-saloon route to be so converted. At its northern end it turned left for Dartford - a much more substantial shopping target than Gravesend. It terminated at Dartford garage, but was not supplied from there. It too was a Northfleet route, and the GS required worked to Dartford as a 450, and worked back as such in the evening.

Most unusually these two GS routes met a trolleybus route: the 696 which terminated at Dartford.

GS2 operated along part of the 452 route during the Country Bus Rallies Running Day on 20th March 2005. On the way up the deeply rural Fawkham Valley a stop was made near Fawkham Church. A few minutes later the Portobello Inn on the old A20 was reached, and the blinds reset for a return journey. .

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