GS67

GS: The Guy Special

Prepared by Ian Smith

This page created in Notepad, 12th November 2003, updated 24th July 2019.

852 CY Crawley - Ifield - Faygate - Horsham - Rowhook - Ewhurst
852A CY Three Bridges - Crawley - main road - Faygate
852 CY Crawley - Ifield - Faygate - Horsham (Carfax)

852 map

The 852 was generated in December 1954 when the Hants and Sussex operation went into liquidation. Some of the routes involved were operated by F.H.Kilner in the Horsham area, and London Transport very quickly replaced two of the routes by means of the 852 and 852A, linking Ewhurst through Horsham to Crawley and Three Bridges. Three GSs and an RT were applied to the pair of routes. But the exceedingly rural Horsham to Ewhurst section operated mostly outside the defined London Transport area, and local independent bus operators cried foul. So in May 1955 this section was cropped off, reverting to independent operation by Brown Motor Services. The 852A was now redundant, its Faygate to Three Bridges role adequately covered by the existing 434 and 473 (and from 1957 by the extended 405).
The Horsham to Crawley section of 852 remained, however, serving Ifield and Lambs Green as well as Faygate, complementing the main-road route, and the GSs operated it until it was withdrawn in October 1965.

GS76 at the George, Crawley GS76 at Horsham Station

In August 2003 I was invited to join GS76 on a trip along the original 852 route - or as close as traffic changes would allow. GS76 is seen in the early morning sunshine outside the George in Crawley, and again at Horsham Station.
The route wound out of Crawley into suburban Ifield. From there it ran out into the country along the lanes to Lambs Green, then south to pass Faygate station. A sprint down the main road took it towards Horsham, entering suburbia again at Roffey Corner. Business picked up again through suburban Horsham to Horsham Station, and on into the centre to Carfax.

GS76 at the Carfax, Horsham GS76 at the Carfax, Horsham

Horsham Carfax almost certainly looks smarter today than it did in the fifties and sixties..
From Horsham the original route headed out across the Sussex Weald. Beyond Broadbridge Heath it turned off the main road to Dorking and dived into a long green tunnel of trees. It emerged only occasionally - as it passed through straggling Rowhook. A brickworks provided a locus of employment-related traffic, then it was the green tunnel again to Ewhurst, another long straggling village. There it met up with two other GS routes: Dorking's 449 and Guildford's 448, although whether buses on any of the three routes ever met I do not know.

GS76 at Ewhurst, 852 GS62 at Ewhurst

Ewhurst: GS76 stands at the north end of the village in 2003, while GS62 comes up through the village a year earlier.

Allocation

The original three GS buses on the route were three taken from store, and previously unused: GS81-83. GS81 stayed until January 1959, but the the other two were not needed once the long arm to Ewhurst withered after five months. The route became a single bus allocation. GS12 took over as the regular bus in January 1959, and was there until October 1963. GS35 arrived shortly before that, in August 1963, and was in residence until January 1965, by which time GS12 had returned, to take the route through to its withdrawal in October 1965. Other GSs were at Crawley for short periods too, allowing the GS allocation to undertake capacity enhancements on the 434 to Crawley Down, or to cover for non-availability of the regular vehicle. 


GS12: Jan 59 - Oct 63, Nov 64 - Oct 65
GS15: Sep 64 - Nov 64
GS16: Dec 59 - Feb 60
GS20: Oct 62
GS21: Mar 65 - Apr 65
GS35: Aug 63 - Jan 64
GS39: loan from DS in 1965
GS51: Feb 60 - May 60
GS54: Mar 63 - Aug 63, Jan 64 - Sept64
GS57: Jan 63- ? (March?)
GS81: Dec 54 - Jan 59
GS82: Dec 54 - * 56
GS83: Dec 54 - * 55
GS84: May 60 - Jan 63
(N.B. This list may not be complete)

807 staff buses

Bus Stop GS GS Routes bus histories photo refs