Service 251 1927-2000
by Chris Stewart
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This article by Chris Stewart commemorates the history of route 251
from 1927 until the final service on the 6th of May 2000.
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The Westcliff, Eastern National and later Thamesway
route 251 was directly descended from a service started on 27 May 1927 by
A H Young, trading as "The Empress Bus" and running from Wood Green to Southend,
terminating opposite the Kursaal. A limited company, New Empress Saloons
Ltd, was formed in July 1928, and later that year the City Motor Omnibus
Co Ltd bought a two-thirds share in it.
Although the New Empress name was
retained, vehicles were painted in the livery of City, who bought the remaining
shares in the company in 1932. The route was extended by City to Camden
Town and later Kentish Town, where a purpose-built garage and coach station
opened at Leighton Road in December 1929. At the same time City began operating
on an increased frequency to counter competition from Westcliff’s service
to Wood Green which began in July 1928, as an extension of their Southend
to Wickford service.
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This board was originally on the wall of the Regal Cinema in Chapel Street, Billericay.
Click on the photo for a larger picture.
Photo Chris Stewart |
Within a year, however, the two services were co-ordinated,
and following the acquisition of its London operations in 1934, City bought
out Westcliff’s share. This also gave City its first use of 725/7 Lordship
Lane, London N22 (better known as Wood Green depot), the company having
previously bought a garage at Tylers Avenue, Southend in 1930; these became
the route’s termini for very many years.
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The re-styled City Coach Company also built a new
Head Office and depot at Brentwood in 1938, having acquired a number of
operators in the area during 1936. Buses on the Southend to London service
1 continued to work through to Kentish Town until 1942, some through workings
being resumed in February 1946 until the section beyond Wood Green was finally
abandoned on 1 October 1947. There were a number of changes over the years
involving operations via Crays Hill and Ramsden Heath, too many to mention
here, but perhaps of greater operating significance was Blue Brick Bridge
in Shotgate.
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Leyland CUL804
Photo Heavers |
HVW214
Photo Vic Jones |
Leyland NVX170
Photo Heavers |
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A large number of double-deckers were delivered to City from
1947 onwards, but despite most of them having lowbridge (sunken gangway)
bodies they could still not pass under this bridge. As a result the route
was revised to run non-stop via Rettendon Turnpike and continued to do so
until June 1961, when lowering of the road at Shotgate enabled double-deckers
to take up their original route again; single-deckers continued to link
Wickford with Shotgate during the intervening period (with some through
workings to London in 1952-3), and indeed these short workings on the 251
persisted until the introduction of service 250 in June 1965. |
Daimler CVD6 NVX173
Photo Roy Marshall |
Leyland PD2 FJN202
Photo Unknown |
Leyland PD2 FJN206
Photo Unknown |
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With the acquisition of City by Westcliff in 1952,
the wheel had turned full circle back to 1928. The ex City vehicles gradually
gained Westcliff livery (two were in fact painted red, but the rest became
green), the last being repainted from brown and cream in 1955. The same
year, the parent Eastern National absorbed Westcliff, and with it the Wood
Green to Southend (Tylers Avenue) service which had been given route number
251, although this was never displayed on buses in the Westcliff era; from
City days to the 1980’s it was better known to its crews as the ‘Main Road’.
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NVX172, one of the 1949 Daimler CVD6s with Roberts bodywork, seen
here in 1960 in Southend
Photo Unknown |
FJN 205, seen
here in 1964 after finally being displaced to Southend local services
Photo SCT61 |
City’s famous pre-War 6-wheel single-decker Leyland
Tigers (the LT class) and later twin-steer Gnus, the semi-automatic Daimler
CVD6’s and variously-bodied Leyland PD1’s were joined in 1952 by FJN201-6,
the PD2’s ordered by City and delivered to Westcliff. Former Hicks all-Leyland
PD1’s MNO193/4 were allocated to Brentwood from 1953-55, gaining ‘City’
fleetnames as did some of Eastern National’s ECW-bodied Leyland PD1’s (MPU44-52)
which joined them from other depots on the 251.
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In 1954, a Bristol Lodekka (XVX27, complete with Westcliff fleetnames)
was allocated to Tyler’s Avenue (nominally allocated code TA), which was
maintained separately from the main Southend (SD) depot just for the 251
- a tradition which outlived Tyler’s Avenue itself, at least on paper.
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LD 977DHK in Brentwood High Street
in the late 50's
Photo Unknown |
LD 320GPU in Romford Market Place
circa 1956
Photo Unknown |
LD 268GVW carrying painted
advertisements for service 251 on the between decks panels
Photo F Church |
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LD’s began to appear on the route in greater numbers throughout the 1950’s,
a number of them carrying painted advertisements for the service on the
between decks panels. Some of the Leyland PD1’s moved to Braintree in
1955, a further ten went away in 1956-9 for conversion to open-top, mainly
at Southend, and the City Daimlers also moved to other depots (including
Hadleigh, Southend and Canvey).
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LEV917, pictured
in 1965, after conversion to open-top
Photo SCT61 |
236LNO at the
Seaway terminus in March 1965.
Photo SCT61 |
In 1959 the use of flat-floor 70-seat
LDL prototype 1541 (236LNO) gave an indication of what was to follow in
1960 when the first of the company’s FLF’s (the 80-99TVX batch) were allocated
to the route.
By 1962, the only City vehicles left on the 251 were the six FJN’s at
Brentwood; LD’s continued to interwork with FLF’s although by the late
1960’s the FLF’s had gained a virtual monopoly of normal through workings.
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Major service changes of 19 April 1964 had a considerable
impact on the 251, which was split into two with every other journey operating
via Basildon and Benfleet as a 151 giving a peak hour frequency of six buses
an hour on the common section (later reduced to four an hour all day). At
the end of July 1964, the former City Southend depot at Tyler’s Avenue was
finally closed and the terminus transferred to Seaway coach park until Central
Bus Station took its place. |
FLF VWC49,
on route 251 in Southend in October 1964.
Photo SCT61 |
FLF6LX 2887
Photo John Fryer |
FLF6LX 2929
Photo Bill Cansick |
FLF6LX 2894
Photo Bill Cansick |
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The last new batch of vehicles allocated
to the Wood Green services were the semi-automatic 31’ long FLF6LX’s of
1967/68; from 7 January 1968 the route in Tottenham was revised and at
the same time the former 30 from Chelmsford to Bow (incorporating as it
did part of Hillman’s service) became the 351 to Wood Green, sharing a
common section of road to Brentwood. Hence FLF6LX’s for the Wood Green
services were allocated to Basildon, Brentwood, Chelmsford, Hadleigh,
Southend and Wood Green (WG) depots; Canvey gained them as well when the
151 was diverted there on 4 April 1971. |
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The FLF6LX’s became synonymous with the 151/251,
on the latter until the closure of WG depot on 13 June 1981 and the introduction
of one-man operated VRT’s on the reduced Walthamstow to Southend service.
Occasional oddities could still be expected - including one memorable journey
on an FLF coach from Romford to Shenfield in the late 1960’s - and older
FLF’s (including Ty-phoo Tea advert 2790) continued to appear until quite
late on.
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FLF 2790
Photo Bill Cansick |
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As a reminder of how intense the service during this era, in 1974
there were 25 vehicles diagrammed for the Weekday 151/251 which had a 15-minute
frequency over the Wood Green to Billericay section. The earliest buses
out were at 05.47 simultaneously from Southend on the 251 and Wood Green
on the 151; even on Sundays there was a 23.38 into Wood Green (251) and
an 00.25 into Canvey (151). Very few of the vehicle workings returned the
buses to their home depot the same day, most being part of a pool. One man
operated vehicles first appeared in 1977, with one VRT working, and from
then until 1981 it was not unheard of to see both crew-operated and omo
VRT’s, RE’s and Leyland Nationals. |
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The 351 was cut back to Romford in April 1971 but
continued to work through to Wood Green on Sundays until February 1973,
whilst the 151 was withdrawn beyond Romford in June 1976 and by 1981 was
operating only from Basildon to Canvey; the 251, though, survived another
10 years operating from Walthamstow to Southend (by now Central Bus Station)
via Brentwood until another major round of changes affected it in 1991.
The Sunday service was withdrawn and tendered, from 6 September 1991 the
Brentwood to Southend section was withdrawn apart from a couple of peak
hour workings to Great Burstead or Wickford, and four months later (28 October
1991) it was extended from Brentwood to Basildon (with odd journeys to Wickford).
Finally from 28 June 1997 it was re-routed from Gidea Park to Basildon via
the Arterial (the old 2 route) and consequently no longer served Brentwood.
By now, the section beyond Romford had been diverted via Chadwell Heath
and Goodmayes instead of the traditional route from North Street to the
Eastern Avenue; the Billericay to Brentwood section became part of the 551.
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The 251 family had some other short-lived members, including the X51 Southend
to Oxford Circus which operated from Deregulation in 1986; and, much later,
the one return trip each day in Summer 1998 operated by Volvo coach 616
(N616APU) from Walthamstow to Southend via Brentwood as service 250. There
were also Southend Transport Fleetlines on both the 151 to Romford and 251
to Wickford at Christmas times in the 1970’s (as mentioned in more detail
in Richard Delahoy’s book). |
SCT Fleetline 380 covering route 251 on Boxing Day 1974.
Photo Richard Delahoy |
Two views of First Thamesway 4026 during the last two days of operation.
Photos Chris Stewart |
When W-registered VRT’s were introduced new to the
251 in 1981, few would have expected a similar age VRT and Y-registered
Olympians to still be working on it nearly 20 years later. Newer Olympians
came and went, and dwindling passenger numbers brought ever smaller vehicles
onto the route culminating in Mercedes minibuses. For some time, though,
there was one Monday to Friday double-deck working (a Bristol VRT until
ex Keighley & District Leyland Olympians were acquired in 1999) on the
251 which operated ‘dead’ from Brentwood off a schools duty to start from
Gallows Corner, regularly 4026 (FUM485Y) in the last few months. This bus
appropriately worked the very last 251 from Walthamstow to Basildon (due
out at 19.22 but somewhat late as a result of traffic, as well as photographers)
on Saturday 6 May 2000; by kind arrangement of First Thamesway, the last
day of this famous route was marked by the running of two double-deckers
whilst Bristol VRT 3109 (UAR599W) worked the last 551 from Walthamstow (having
also been the last bus to leave Brentwood showing ‘251’ on Friday 5 May). |
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With the withdrawal of the 251, the old route along
Eastern Avenue is served by First Thamesway only on Sundays and Bank Holidays
with the 2A from Basildon to Walthamstow, although this has much more in
common with the old 400 especially being a limited stop service. The Sunday
Brentwood to Southend 222, now run by NIBS (Nelson) midibuses also covers
the former 251 at the eastern end.
Sadly the tradition of the 9.25pm on
Sunday evenings from Southend to London, by which City guaranteed to get
you home provided that you were in the queue before departure time no matter
how many vehicles they had to call up, is never to be repeated. Old soldiers
never die, though, and from 8 May 2000 the 551 (itself curtailed to Romford)
was revised to run on a more direct route between Gallows Corner and Romford
(although via Gidea Park station) and renumbered 751, at least keeping alive
the spirit of the ‘City’ route over most of the Billericay to Romford section.
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