Coventry Buses - past and present

Peter, I can assure you 100% of the veracity of what I said - when one lad rang three rings (as the bus went past the stop he wanted to get off at, in Warwick Avenue, in fact) the driver did an emergency stop, got out of his cab, and came back, grabbed the lad by his blazer, and was about to hit him. The conductor - who was halfway down the stairs when the lad rang the bell - jumped off, and stopped the driver actually hitting the lad, whom he then told in no uncertain terms, NEVER to press three rings unless it was a genuine emergency. The issue was even raised with the school, and I can remember Mr Shore reading the riot act out over it at morning assembly. I'm sorry, but that lad was standing on the platform of the bus when he rang the bell, almost directly in front of me - I was sitting on the rearmost of the sideways-on seats at the back. I was able to hang on, but several people were thrown out of their seats by the emergency stop. I was 14 or 15 at the time - it would have been 1960 - and my memory of it is crystal clear. It certainly wasn't the sort of thing you'd forget! I'm sorry, but that is exactly what I witnessed.

Thanks David

I have to agree with Keith. The conductors rang 4 bells when the bus was full. It was a common occurrence in rush hours when buses ran full.

If the internal combustion engine had not been invented, can you imagine travelling to work in one of these. The picture is from Whitby. The snag is that it needed two drivers, and is out of service one day in seven. Its performance matched the speed of the modern tour bus on the steep hills. "Hold tight now" I did say two drivers!

The last picture is of dear old "Elizabeth" of Whitby. She started life as a flatbed steam lorry and had bench seats added (on the flatbed) for shows. Later she was converted to a bus. She gives a great ride and pulls like a train up the hills! For more info on the Coventry Corporation buses, routes, bell signals, etc do have a look at the CCT-Society Corporation pages.

I don't want to flood our history site with pics from outside Coventry, but I recorded loads of pics of Elizabeth. I also had a trip aboard a petrol Bedford single deck tour bus. It was a good Whitby holiday that year, weather too. Hope all well with you.

Hi Mister D-Di I did some checking about this on the net. According to two bus websites the national codes were 3=full, 4=emergency; but what I remembered was accurate, the conductor ringing 3 times for an emergency stop, and the driver complying. 4 seems a bit bizarre, if you think about it; in an emergency you'd want to get the driver to respond in the shortest possible time, wouldn't you?

I used to have an argument with my mother, who had been a conductress in the early part of the war. I told her that the conductors rang three times to signal that the bus was full and she said that three meant an emergency stop. However, the conductors always rang three times for bus full, usually accompanied by sealing off the platform by extending a leather rope that was hooked on to the rear bulkhead across the platform to prevent would-be passengers from boarding. I have since spoken to ex-CCT crews who have confirmed that the signals were: For normal travel - 1 ring by anyone to stop at the next stop, two rings (by the conductor only) to start, three rings (by the conductor) to signal bus full, so that there was no obligation to stop at fare stages and four rings for an emergency stop (stop ASAP). For reversing - 2 rings to reverse and 1 ring to stop. Midland Red used a whistle for reversing.

I only remember 3 rings = emergency stop. I have a vague recollection that there was on older buses a piece of signwriting on, I think, the left hand bulkhead of the platform area saying about the emergency stop to ring 3 times. What would be interesting would be to ask the Tramways Museum what the codes were for trams, because there could have been a difference, with the changeover to buses after the Blitz causing confusion with crews. I'll see what I can do!

I did ask the Tramways Museum what bell codes for trams were. I received this answer this morning: Thank you for your enquiry. I've consulted with some of our experts and I have the following information for you . The tram conductor and driver did use a series of bell rings to communicate with each other. There wasn't a national system used by all tramway systems, but it does appear that in general one bell ring was for stop and two bell rings were for go. After this there were variations for each local system. In some cases three bells rings could mean 'car full up' or at other times it could mean 'emergency stop'. I hope this helps. Kind Regards Laura Waters Laura Waters Curator, Archive Collections The National Tramway Museum Crich Matlock Derbyshire DE4 5DP I think this confirms what I suspected, that there must have been some crews who were ex-tram in Coventry, post-war, and probably still stuck to what they had used previously (probably this happened elsewhere, too). What would be interesting and informative to discover now would be when the national bell codes that bus websites describe came into force. My bet is no earlier than 1960 (there was very little national automotive/transport legislation before 1960)- and this confusion would be a very good reason why they became standardised! So, I hope that peace might now return to us!

My Uncle was a driver on Coventry buses (as was my grandfather before him) and he used to refer to "3 bells" as being "full up". In other words - don't stop unless someone needs to get off (i.e. you hear 1 bell) I would have thought (although I offer no proof) that there would be a few more than 3 bells if it were an "emergency"

I don't dispute it, but don't forget that Coventry had trams till 1940, and when they could no longer be used, there must have been some very quick improvisation to get a transport system going again. Driving tests were suspended during the war and for a while after (can't remember when they reappeared, about 48, I think) so it would be logical that scratch bus crews had very little training, and tram crews probably had little more than a bit of tuition on how to drive a bus, and "off you go". Some of those crews must have been around in the 50s - even late 50s - and old habits die hard. I have a vague recollection of seeing text on older buses saying something like "in emergency ring 3 times" and "Penalty for misuse" near the platform bell push. It definitely wasn't on the 50s more streamlined Daimlers. I also have a recollection of seeing that same or similar text on at least one bus in a museum in much later years...possibly Carlton Colville, but I'm not sure. On your point "I would have thought (although I offer no proof) that there would be a few more than 3 bells if it were an "emergency"", I'd have thought that logically you'd want the least number of rings possible, so as not to delay the driver's acting on it in an emergency (i.e. if someone fell off the platform, say, you wouldn't want the bus to be stopping 25 or 30 yards further on, would you?) Maybe buses should have been fitted with a communication cord like trains!!! I reckon we need the old time machine fired up again!

I think you'd be hard pressed stopping any quicker than that even if you threw an anchor out the window!

And here was I, thinking that a harder thing was getting them to go!!! Unless you are standing forlornly at a stop, and then they didn't seem to have any brakes at all.....