Buses - so good they named them

[TeresaFoodie]

We have an absolutely fabulous bus service round here courtesy of Arriva.

Each bus is named!

I have never encountered this phenomena before but felt it needed a bit of research.

Here is a detailed list of the buses I see every 15 minutes pulling up outside my flat.

https://www.arrivabus.co.uk/globalasset ... is-who.pdf

I do like seeing Wink. Haven't seen him today but I bet he'll turn up later. I will wave! Dawn and John have been on the prowl, picking up appreciative passengers.

Do you have any public transport naming systems where you are, or am I just in a weird part of the world?

By the way, our bus drivers are always happy and polite! Well done Arriva, Wink, Dawn, John et al.

[PatsyMFagan]

I don't think London Transport name their buses, but Eddie Stobart does .... there are ES spotters out there as well as a 'fan' club

[StokeySue]

Well, if you can have A Streetcar Named Desire....

As well as a play and a film that was a real thing I believe in New Orleans they named the trams

It's a great idea though, well done Arriva Luton

Our local removals firm used to name their trucks
Not sure they still do

[Gruney]

I can't find anything to support this now, so I'm probably wrong - but when I was at school, I was told that "Desire" was a district of New Orleans, and was the destination of the streetcar - and therefore shown on the front of the tram.

[suffolk]

Here you are Gruney - your memory didn't deceive you

"... The Desire streetcar line was in service from 1920 to 1948, at the height of streetcar use in New Orleans. The line ran down Bourbon, through the Quarter, to Desire Street in the Bywater district, and back up to Canal. Blanche's route in the play—"They told me to take a streetcar named Desire, transfer to one called Cemeteries and ride six blocks and get off at—Elysian Fields!"—is allegorical, taking advantage of New Orleans' colorful street names...."

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portal:Tr ... ed_article .......... Scroll down to Article 8

[Gruney]

Thanks Suffs

[Seatallan]

Eddie Stobart does .... there are ES spotters out there as well as a 'fan' club

Indeed- I always look out for Eddies when we're traveling. I get quite excited when I see an Eddie in our neck of the woods (the main depot is in Carlisle). Not only that, but I know someone who had an Eddie named after them

[TeresaFoodie]

Fascinating stuff about Desire! Also Eddie. I haven't seen an Eddie in ages, but whenever I do see one I always look for the name.
Dawn just sailed past. Good old Dawn. I was making a cuppa out back earlier and heard a bus coming along. Dashed to the front in case it was Wink. Nope, John again. Wink must be having a day off.

[suffolk]

Wink must be having a day off.

Maybe he's having 40 winks?

[Catherine]

Fascinating stuff about Desire! Also Eddie. I haven't seen an Eddie in ages, but whenever I do see one I always look for the name.
Dawn just sailed past. Good old Dawn. I was making a cuppa out back earlier and heard a bus coming along. Dashed to the front in case it was Wink. Nope, John again. Wink must be having a day off.

You really need to get out more

[aero280]

I think that Arriva run buses around Watford. There's a bus called "Luther Blissett" that is on the route to South Oxhey. Luther was a forward for Watford FC on three occasions between 1975 & 1993. He also played for AC Milan and England.

[Chinchilla_lady]

IIRC he was also nicknamed Twizzle or was that another Watford FC player?

The buses round here have names too, but I'm blowed f I can remember a single one atm Oh, one is called Centurion.

[StokeySue]

Luther Blisset''s name was also adopted by an Italian writer's cooperative who wrote an historical thriller called Q - partly about Martin Luther, I didn't really get on with it
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Q-Luther-Blissett/dp/0099439832

We used to spot Eddie Stobart, but also Norbert Dentressangle, one goal for each spotted, see which won the match / journey
Apparently Norbert Dentressangle is a perfectly normal name in Artois

[Zosherooney]

I've got a green Ford Puma called Penny Pitstop Puma, Suff would know about that though !!!!

[TeresaFoodie]

Wink must be having a day off.

Maybe he's having 40 winks?

Probably. A much needed snooze! He's been a busy boy has Wink.

[Grasshopper]

Wink must be having a day off.

Maybe he's having 40 winks?

Grasshopper

[Amber]

Anyone else remember the old days of Norbert Dentressangle?

[aero280]

Is Willi Betz still about. I don't remember seeing one for a while. There's also a company that covers Europe called "Waberers"

[aero280]

I see that Waberers is Hungarian.

[TeresaFoodie]

Anyone else remember the old days of Norbert Dentressangle?

I do! We used to call them Norbrert Dontransonglay!

[Zosherooney]

I see those ND trucks from time to time. We have a local company called Herman Miller

[Suelle]

I've spent a lot of time hanging around railway stations, waiting for trains, over the last few months, and a lot of the railway carriages/engines have names - the most notable one I've remembered was 'Paul McGann'. I wonder what he did to get that honour?

[cyprusmoira]

In Cyprus the fuel tankers are named after sites in Occupied Northern Cyprus except for the Jet Fuel tankers, they are anonymous

[StokeySue]

Suelle, I've a feeling they might have used the names of all the Dr Who actors, but I can't find anything about it, just a faint memory of something to do with Sylvester McCoy.

[Suelle]

Suelle, I've a feeling they might have used the names of all the Dr Who actors, but I can't find anything about it, just a faint memory of something to do with Sylvester McCoy.

That sounds likely!

[earthmaiden]

You can probably find a website with all the names of your local buses ... such as this one for our local ones:

http://www.thamesdownbus.com/page.shtml ... ABOUT%20US

We went on King George V yesterday ... and four others whose names I didn't notice.

When the children were small, OH and his friends liked things to do with railways and we spent many happy hours trainspotting on picnics and things with other families. You tick off each one in a little book as you see it and the aim is to spot every one in the country (that was their excuse for boozy weekends away from their families to some rather remote parts of the country which we could ill afford ). There were a couple of really geeky guys amongst those who used it as an excuse. Once they had spotted every engine in the country they moved on to buses - sometimes if I go to the bus station I see them there still spotting buses - 30 years later. Nice that they've got a hobby.

You could start doing that with your local bus names if you could find a list Tezza.

[StokeySue]

Err, Tezza posted a link to the list in her first post

[Ratatouille]

Anyone else remember the old days of Norbert Dentressangle?

Ot Norbert disentangle as he was known to a friend's young family and, less politely, Norbert Centerdangle to ours!

[earthmaiden]

Err, Tezza posted a link to the list in her first post

Ooops .. I read it when I was half asleep - sorry!

[aero280]

Doncaster Council have announced the results of the public vote to choose names for their winter road gritting machines! I think the chosen names are better than Boaty McBoatface!

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-so ... e-42026485

[Luca]

Love it!

[StokeySue]

I like Brad Grit too

Doncaster Council seem to be on the ball - read the tree thread (note: the video clips may not show correctly on some mobile devices, but you will get the drift)

https://twitter.com/MyDoncaster/status/922847186316152833

[TeresaFoodie]

My Dad alerted me to David Plowie this morning.

I love Basil Salty.

[suffolk]

Sort of connected .... I once stayed in a seaside B&B called Salty Towers

[TeresaFoodie]

Totally unrelated...I once stayed in a b&b called Homeleigh Hotel and the whole place went down with pork food poisoning. Nothing 'homely' about that!