Pull cord activated next stop buzzers

[Campbelltown busboy]

There was a time about 50 or 60 years ago when people in Sydney and surrounds caught a bus would have to pull a cord to activate the buzzer to request the next stop. When did the button activated buzzer come in and when was a bus with a next cord pull stop requesting buzzer built

[boronia]

In DGT buses, buzzers were fitted up to the 1950s. Bells were used from the early 1950s,

IIRC, pull cords were used up to the Mk 1 Mercs?

[Campbelltown busboy]

Rowe had pull cords on the Volvo B58/56s and B58/61s that where delivered to the Campbelltown and Plimpton depots in the late 70s and early 80s

[thunderbird]

There was a time about 50 or 60 years ago when people in Sydney and surrounds caught a bus would have to pull a cord to activate the buzzer to request the next stop. When did the button activated buzzer come in and when was a bus with a next cord pull stop requesting buzzer built

Not just 50 or 60 years ago, I still remember as of 2003 being on Connex buses in region 10 that you had to pull the cord.

Much simpler to wire no doubt than electrical cables through every pole to a button.

[Campbelltown busboy]

There was a time about 50 or 60 years ago when people in Sydney and surrounds caught a bus would have to pull a cord to activate the buzzer to request the next stop. When did the button activated buzzer come in and when was a bus with a next cord pull stop requesting buzzer built

Not just 50 or 60 years ago, I still remember as of 2003 being on Connex buses in region 10 that you had to pull the cord.

Much simpler to wire no doubt than electrical cables through every pole to a button.

I caught the Rowe/Busways cord pull Volvos that I mentioned in a earlier post quite a few times between 2000 and 2004 then the ex King Bros O405 transfers happened witch saw those Volvos along with the later built B10Ms and MAN 16.240s get transferred upto the north coast

[J_Busworth]

When I was in the US over January and spent a lot of time catching buses, I was surprised to see pretty much all buses still had the pull cords. Even the newfangled electric buses had them in Colorado!

The buttons are certainly more aesthetically appealing, but I prefer the functionality of the pull cord.

[tonyp]

I seem to recall that in private buses the cord was attached to a buzzer and could be pulled any number of times (to the annoyance of the driver). In government buses it was attached to a bell and blue light and could only be pulled once. The conductor had a separate button to indicate the all-clear. On one trip I took, a passenger pulled the cord and the whole kaboodle separated from the ceiling for its entire length and fell to the floor in a mess of flailing cord and rattling support eyes. Those were the days.

[Xplorer]

i think a few Forest buses still have the cord

[boronia]

I seem to recall that in private buses the cord was attached to a buzzer and could be pulled any number of times (to the annoyance of the driver). In government buses it was attached to a bell and blue light and could only be pulled once. The conductor had a separate button to indicate the all-clear. On one trip I took, a passenger pulled the cord and the whole kaboodle separated from the ceiling for its entire length and fell to the floor in a mess of flailing cord and rattling support eyes. Those were the days.

Buzzers were fitted on deckers up to 2508. The bell/blue light came in with the power doors and new single deckers. The "conductors use only" buttons would cancel out the blue light. On singles, the driver also had a button to use when omo, but later the lights were wired to extinguish when the doors opened.

[crazyturbo76]

Earliest private buses I can think of from the top of my head that would have had stop buttons are the Bosnjak/Westbus B10Ms - the Mk IIIs definitely had them, maybe the later Mk IIs as well (unfortunately living in eastern Region 1, which before the arrival of low-floors was a sea of O405s, robbed me a chance to ride on them growing up), but looking at photos of the SBM's preserved Mk I B10M (ex m/o 7457) though I can see it has pull cords, so my theory is that the mid 80s would have been when the private operators started to make the switch.

[Campbelltown busboy]

Earliest private buses I can think of from the top of my head that would have had stop buttons are the Bosnjak/Westbus B10Ms - the Mk IIIs definitely had them, maybe the later Mk IIs as well (unfortunately living in eastern Region 1, which before the arrival of low-floors was a sea of O405s, robbed me a chance to ride on them growing up), but looking at photos of the SBM's preserved Mk I B10M (ex m/o 7457) though I can see it has pull cords, so my theory is that the mid 80s would have been when the private operators started to make the switch.

Back in the day Busways in the Macarthur area (region 15) had a small fleet of both varieties of Volvo B58s from the late 70s/early 80's with cords only where the later B10M built in the mid 80s had both cord and buttons from memory the B58s where based at Camden South and the B10Ms where based at Campbelltown. Where you young when the ex King Bros O405 invasion into Sydney happened in 2004/2005 witch pushed all the old B58s and B10Ms up north

[neilrex]

I recall a very annoying trip to Wamberal about 5 years ago.

I was sitting in the wheelchair area, for some reason. I rarely do. There was only about 4 people on the bus. On the pole near me, which was "chrome", not yellow, there were two buttons, which were mounted on the pole facing away from me, so I could not see what, if anything, was written on the button.

I pressed the lower button which I could reach without standing up. I did not know exactly where the next stop was, and the bus was being thrown about quite a lot because of speed and road conditions, and I had observed that people on the central coast rarely make any preparation to get off until the bus actually stops.

Anyway I pressed the button and saw the driver glance at me in the mirror, and then drive on past the next stop. When the bus came to the next stop about a kilometre down the road, he said to me, "that button is only for wheelchair users to get off". I don't know why he thought I pressed it, if I didn't want to get off ! It is not like I could have leant on it unintentionally.

[boronia]

A lot of wheelchair buttons are on the underside of the tip up seats where they are accesible to wheelchair users. Having them on a pole seems counter-productive.

But the under-seat buttons seem to a great temptation for toddlers in prams to play with!

[Linto63]

IIRC, pull cords were used up to the Mk 1 Mercs?

Buttons were introduced on two of the final batch of Leopards that were built with a number of experimental features and then rolled out with the introduction of the Mark 1 Mercs. Cords remained the norm on buses built for private operators well into the 1990s.

[Swift]

Canberra's AEC Swifts and Volvo B58s had an aluminium strip with a rubber strip in the middle that ran the length of the bus that activated a bell and blue light wherever you pushed in the rubber part. I recall a sign next to the light instructing passengers what to do.