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The National Transport Museum in Howth, Co. Dublin is a fantastic place to visit for those of you
that are interested in transport of a bygone era. I certainly remember my early years using the bus and I have fond memories
of those times. Michael Errity from the 'Museum' and Syl Poleon from 'Team Conyngham Road Depot' have kindly allowed us to
use some photographs of 'buses from the past' , most of which are specifically related to Conyngham Road Depot.
| ARE YOU IN THIS PHOTOGRAPH? |
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| CONYNGHAM ROAD IN THE 'RARE OUL TIMES'. |
Do you recognise any of the faces ABOVE? Are you in the photograph?
The following information has been kindly supplied
by Gary Manahan.
The photo of the buses with the crowd in front
was taken on the occasion of the operation of the very open platform bus in Dublin. Over 1.000 of these front engine / rear entrance buses were operated by C.I.E.
from 1937 – 1982. When your garage operated RA138 in 1982 on its last day of service it brought to a historic
close the days of the buses with rear entrance in Dublin. This style of bus, the famous Routemaster, is being phased out in London this year, 23 years after
Dublin !
Examples of many of the buses in the photograph
are preserved both by the Transport Museum
in Howth, Co. Dublin,
and by private preservationists.
Parked alongside is R1, the very first double
deck bus of the Dublin United Tramways Company, is RA138. Next is a Standard Atlantean, built by C.I.E at Spa Road, next a Van Hool McArdle
Atlantean, and finally, the then new KD type Bombardier, built in Shannon The buses are lined up in the order of their age. R1 led the parade of buses
to Drimnagh and back, and the event appeared on the RTE news.
Conyngham Road has a very interesting history, and operated a number of buses which no other garage had.
A TRIP DOWN MEMORY LANE? CLICK THIS LINE.
These are what is called 'thumbnail' views of the photographs. I put them on the website this way so as to get all the
photos on the page without having to scroll too much. (That's my excuse anyway).
Many of these buses are gone to their 'graves'. However, as stated earlier, there are still some of these old type buses
in the National Transport Museum in Howth. It is well worth a visit to Howth to see how well preserved the buses are and how
much dedication is putinto keeping our heritage alive.
There are many websites dedicated to featuring information and photographs about buses new and old
and one of the best sites around, because of its professionalism and the many links it includes, is www.dublinbuses.com . To visit that site, click on the link below.
BUS, BUS, BUSES GALORE.
Fronts of buses, sides of buses, and rears of buses. Is there no end to the wonderment that people
have with buses? Some people say others look like the backs of buses, but what is so ugly about the backs of buses? I see
many a bus rear with some lovely full length advertisement often featuring beautiful women and men. You can't say the rears
of those buses are ugly? Ah come off it, those old sayings are outdated, aren't they?
While I'm at it, why don't I mention the official website of Dublin Bus. After all, that's why we are all here, isn't
it? I mean to say, how can we compare the old buses with the new buses if we don't have new buses to tell the difference.
What am I saying here...Sure you know what I mean. The Dublin Bus website is full of information about bus timetables, ticket
sales, tours and so on. So why don't you give them a visit and learn what's happening directly from the "horse's mouth", so
to speak.
Visit them at the link below.
Dublin Bus
Thanks again to Syl Poleon and Michael Errity for the wonderful photographs and perhaps viewers might
know more information than I do (non-existent really) about these old buses and drop me an email with information. The email
address is conynghamroad@dublinbus.org . Thanks for viewing and see you again some time.
*MORE PHOTOGRAPHS*
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