GS67

GS: The Guy Special

Prepared by Ian Smith

This page created 11th November 2003. Best on 800*600.

GS62 on 464 to Barrow Green Rd, Oxted

464 CM Holland - Oxted - Limpsfield - Crockham Hill - Hosey Common - Westerham
464 CM Holland - Pollards Oak - Hurst Green - Oxted Stn - Gordons Way
464 CM Holland - Pollards Oak - Limpsfield Schools
464 CM Staffhurst Wood - Holland - Oxted Stn - Chart
464 CM Oxted - Tatsfield - Chelsham (L.T.garage)
465 CM Holland - Oxted - Limpsfield - Chart- Crockham Hill - Edenbridge
485 CM Westerham - Hosey Common - Crockham Hill - Edenbridge
403 CM Westerham - Chelsham (L.T.garage)

GS62 was one of six GSs recreating routes on the 464 group on Sunday 21st September 2003, celebrating (a lttle early) fifty years since they started working from Chelsham). Here GS62 is heading for Barrow Green Road (Gordon's Way), one of Oxted's short workings.

The 464 group of routes connected Oxted, Westerham and Edenbridge, as well as providing town services for Oxted. Before the GS buses arrived in October 1953 the pattern of services had evolved with Leyland Cubs suppled by Chelsham garage.

The basic triangle - or star - of routes linked Crockham Hill, the rural nub of the group, with Chart, Oxted and Holland to the west, with Hosey Common and Westerham to the north, and Edenbridge to the south. One bus would operate each route in turn: 465 Holland to Edenbridge, 485 Edenbridge to Westerham, 464 Westerham to Holland, while another worked the group in the opposite sense. A short working from Holland through Oxted to Chart and back to Holland completed a cycle. Three buses maintained this "normal" service.

GS32 on 465 to Edenbridge, Holland GS62 on 485, Westerham, with RLH48

The various termini varied greatly in character: GS32 waits five minutes on the narrow estate road at Holland before heading for Edenbridge (Sept.2003), while (right) GS62 basks in the sun outside the bank and pubs in Westerham, before setting off for Chart and Oxted. (March 2000)

GS1 pauses outside the Carpenters Arms at Chart. Terminating buses actually stopped at the bus stop on the other side of the road, having come round the triangle by the official terminus at Chart Church. GS32 has reached The Star at the south end of Edenbridge.

GS1 at Chart GS32 on 465 at Edenbridge

464 map Then there were the schools buses. Holland and Hurst Green were large estates with very low car ownership in the fifties. There were schools at Limpsfield and Merle Common. In the peak school periods it took four packed GSs to work one timetabled journey from Holland! Some schools journeys missed out the detour through Oxted and worked direct from Holland through Pollards Oak to Limpsfield Common. Other buses served the school at Merle Common, beyond Holland, going on to turn at Staffhurst Wood - where there was nothing but a place to turn!

GS62 on 465 to Staffhurst Wood, Old Oxted

Some parts of the route were, indeed still are, very tight. Here GS62, heading
for Staffhurst Wood, meets GS32 running into Old Oxted, where it is just too
narrow between a high hedge and a tall kerb for two buses to pass. (Sept.2003)

Other short workings worked on from Oxted Station under the OTHER low bridge, up onto the lower slopes of the Downs at Barrow Green Road, reverse turning at Gordon's Way. This was primarily a commuters' home to station journey, and back in the evening. In the other direction these shorts worked to Pollards Oak via Old Oxted and Hurst Green, then doubled back through Hurst Green to turn at Holland. During the day Holland saw a GS every twenty minutes.

Eight Guys were needed for the peak service. During the day spare Guys were either kept in Oxted, or worked back in service up over the North Downs to Chelsham garage, some running via Tatsfield. The last bus of the day from Westerham ran back direct up Botley Hill to the garage as a 403, the only GS working on the route. Apart from this, the short workings operated as 464s.

GS62 at Hurst Green on evening 465 to Holland GS62 at Tatsfield on 403

GS62 runs past Hurst Green on an evening 465 to Holland (March 2000). At Tatsfield GS62, in company with SNC168, provides a previously impossible picture of a GS on the 403 garage run. (Sept.2003)
Between Old Oxted and Oxted Station the routes coexisted with another GS route, the 494 from East Grinstead to Oxted, which had some journeys projected on to Chart Church. The 410, worked for many years with RLH low-height buses due to the low bridge at Oxted Station, also coincided between Old Oxted and Limpsfield Common, then met with the 464/485 again in Westerham.

GS76 on 464 near Old Oxted GS62 on Limpsfield Chart

The frequency was high, and the GSs would cross each other en route, as GS32 is passing GS76 between Old Oxted and Hurst Green (Sept.2003). The scenery was fabulous, even in winter: GS62 crosses Limpsfield Chart (March 2000).
The group of routes was hard work. The main routes travelled along the Greensand Ridge across the Kent/Surrey border, and there were stiff climbs in several places, in particular up to Limpsfield Common, up to Crockham Hill from both sides, and up through Old Oxted. GSs are not the quietest of drives on a steep climb! The garage runs too involved the steep face of the North Downs, either by Titsey Hill or Botley Hill, and it was a long grind up the hill out of Chelsham in the mornings too. There were plenty of narrow bits, where you did not want to meet another bus - or milk tanker - coming the other way. But the scenery was magnificent on the long runs along the ridge or on the face of the Downs, and the woods along the Greensand ridge are a delight at all times of year.

GS13 on 464 to Westerhamd, Oxted Stn

That the routes beyond The Chart survived long during the fifties was a mystery, as they ran through sparsely populated countryside down to the outskirts of Westerham or Edenbridge, and Oxted and Edenbridge were directly connected by train. But survive they did, with a two-hour frequency on each route. The Oxted town workings thrived, with a bus every twenty minutes from Holland (every 15 on Saturdays). The pattern stayed much the same while the GSs were there. But in October 1962 RFs took over - mainly from the ex-Greenline bus conversions - providing a touch of extra quality to the Oxted group, but removing a touch of distinction.

GS13 was one of the original Oxted "Puppy Buses". Revisiting old haunts, it sits at the hub of the Oxted network: Oxted Station (West side) in September 2003.

The Chelsham requirement was for eight GS buses, but in LT's belt-and-braces approach in those days the original allocation was ten: GS1, 3, 6, 7, 9, 10, 11, 13, 14, and 15. The first four (GS1, 3, 6, 7) would stay there until displaced by RFs in 1962, as would GS11 apart from an early holiday at Dorking. The others rotated away. GS 47 came in October 1955 and stayed until 1960. The 1956 overhaul round saw significant changes, bringing in GS 4, 8, 38 as medium/long-term residents, and GS 37 and 40 for brief stays). Others visited briefly, to cover during overhauls: GS16 (July-December 1959); GS26 and GS51 (August-October 1959); GS27 (Nov-Dec 60).

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