Buses My Story

This story belongs to Seren

and her Bampi Alan.

Bampi is another word for grandad.

It's a tiny tale about Bampi Alan's life and his passion for old buses.

Wee!

Higher!

Hold on tight, now, Seren.

But now it's time for Bampi Alan

to take Seren on a journey of discovery

and share his stories of when he was younger.

He's showing Seren his collection of old toy buses.

Here's my bus collection, all different sizes.

How many buses do you think I've got here?

A couple of hundred.

There may be. We'll count 'em Monday and find out how many's here.

Do you still have your first toy bus?

The first one I ever had? Yeah, I've got that. Where is it, now?

Here it is. It's a bit battered now, of course.

The tyres are gone and whatever. It's old like me, see?

And that cost about 10p when that was new.

Which one is your favourite bus?

My favourite one is this one here, this orange one.

That was bought from a shop

and was specially painted up for me in these colours.

I love this bus. It's excellent.

Why are some of the buses in boxes?

I like to keep them in the box

so people don't play around with them and scratch them and things.

What's your favourite bus in my collection?

-Blue.

-The blue one?

Because it looks really cool.

When I was little, it was fun to go up to the bus stop

and wait for the bus to come

and try and guess which bus was coming today.

We'd get on the bus and the real excitement would be going upstairs

and sitting at the front

and seeing the people going past and the traffic.

A bus is a great way of getting lots of people from one place to another.

A long, long time ago, people would get to places on horseback.

After that, groups of people travelled

on a horse-drawn carriage called a coach.

And later came trams, that ran on tracks, like this one,

trains, and then buses.

Look at these old buses and the people waiting at the bus stop.

There are lots of buses and hardly any cars in this old film

because long ago, people would travel by bus all the time.

My earliest memory of going on the buses would be

going down the town with my mother.

I suppose I'd have been five or six.

In those days, we used to we used to have red double-decker buses

with a conductor on and a driver at the front,

and the conductor would come around and give you a ticket.

Ah, that's the ticket!

Let's find out what Bampi Alan and Seren

will be getting up to today.

How do you want to go to the bus museum? Walk, taxi or bus?

By a bus, of course!

-What type of bus?

-A bendy bus?

OK, let's go and catch a bendy bus.

A bendy bus is two single decker buses which are joined together

so that more passengers can fit on at the same time.

Some bendy buses can carry up to 100 people at a time. Wow!

Good morning, how are you today?

All right, how are you?

Where would you like to go?

I would like two returns to the Bus Museum, please.

-There it is.

-There's your ticket.

-Thank you.

-Thank you very much.

-Thank you very much.

Were your buses hard to drive?

Oh, very hard to drive, yes.

This bus is automatic,

so he puts it into gear and the bus does the rest.

All the gears change on their own.

The buses I used to drive, you had to change gear with a big handle.

Have you ever been on a bendy bus before?

I've never been on a bendy bus before, I must admit.

So, today is a nice treat, isn't it?

I've been on a bendy bus.

Have you? Where did you go?

To the sea.

Our museum started when myself and a few friends

decided that we'd have our own bus museum.

So, we looked for a space that was big enough

to hold the nine buses that we had at the time.

We found this space in Hafod in Swansea.

From that start of nine buses,

we have now got nearly 60 buses in our bus museum.

How exciting!

Bampi Alan and some of his friends actually own the Bus Museum

and he's taking Seren to see it.

A museum is a place you can visit

to see lots of different collections of things.

Bampi Alan's old buses are very old

and seeing old objects helps people understand

how things looked a long time ago.

I used to drive that bus when I was 21 years old.

I like that big red bus.

You like the big red one? This is a little short one. See it?

This one is half the size of that one.

-Do you think it's the baby of that one?

-Yeah.

Maybe not!

-That's even bigger.

-That's an even bigger bus.

A big, enormous bus, that, isn't it?

Here we are, Seren.

This old bus is the same age as me.

-It looks old and messy.

-What, like me, you mean?

-Yeah.

That's nice, isn't it?!

What we do with these old buses, as we did with mine,

is what we call restore them.

What does restore mean?

It means that we get new parts, and some old parts,

put them on this bus to make it look as good as new.

Wow, I've never seen so many red buses at the same time.

This is a very old bus. We used this bus for your mammy's wedding.

That was a special day.

It took all her wedding guests and Mummy and Daddy to the reception

and it brought them back home again afterwards.

Look at the old-fashioned curtains and seating.

Buses are great for getting lots of people

to the same place at the same time -

like weddings, football matches and school.

They're perfect for showing off our Olympic heroes and their medals

and they can also be used as restaurants, like this one.

Oh, look, this looks like it could be Bampi Alan's very own bus.

I bought this bus

because I used to drive it before your mother was born.

-Would you like to sit in the cab?

-Yes, please.

-OK, then.

Hup!

Mind your head.

-There we are. Do we like that?

-Yes.

-What do you notice in there?

-The steering wheel is big.

-The enormous wheel.

This is the handbrake, to stop from rolling away.

On the other side is to change the gears.

What are the pedals for?

The pedals make it stop and go.

The horn is on the end of that lever there. Press it.

HORN BEEPS

Bampi Alan used to work as a bus conductor, then a bus driver.

Look at this very old film of bus conductresses

doing the same job as Bampi Alan did.

In the old days, the bus driver sat inside a cab

and couldn't sell tickets,

so a bus conductor travelled on the bus to give out tickets.

This is the ticket machine I used.

This is how it works - to make a ticket come out,

first, you set the numbers to see what people want.

If it is a single to town, they just go like that and like that,

for the price that they want.

This one's for one and ninepence.

OK? You hold the little button, push it forward and out comes a ticket.

You rip it off and give them a ticket like that.

Your turn, Seren.

Oh, what a great conductor's uniform!

Tickets, please.

-I'd like a ticket to town, please.

-OK.

-How much is it?

-£1, please.

-Thank you, very much.

-Thank you. Bye-bye.

-Bye-bye.

-What do you think of this bus?

-It's cool because it's got no roof.

We used to go to the seaside on a bus like this.

-Do you want to go to the seaside?

-Yes, please.

-Shall we go now?

-Yes.

-OK.

-Where do you want to sit?

-That side.

-You want to sit that side?

-You sit there.

-I'll sit on this side.

-Do you like this bus better than the bendy bus?

-Yeah.

-Why?

Because it's got an open top.

-Do you think it always had an open top?

-Um... Yeah.

For the first year of its life it had a top on, like normal buses,

but they took the top off

so that people could go to the seaside like this today

and see the sun.

This place is called the Mumbles and this is the beach Bampi Alan

used to come to many years ago, when he was a little boy.

Going to the seaside is fun.

A trip to the seaside in an open top bus.

-What's missing?

-Ice cream!

-Ice cream.

Two ice creams, please.

I know how to say ice cream in Welsh.

Go on, then, say it.

Ga'i hufen ia, os gwelwch yn dda.

Thank you.

Oh, Bampi, you are silly!

I love being beside the seaside, do you?

Thank you, Bampi, for telling me stories about your buses.

No problem, Seren. Can you remember the special things we did together?

I liked it when I was a bus conductress with the ticket machines.

You showed me your toy bus collection.

I saw your first ever toy bus that your mummy gave you.

We went on a local bendy bus and you told me stories about your bus.

I sat in the driver's cab of your bus

and I got all dressed up

and I became a bus conductress, selling tickets.

We looked at an old messy bus that you are restoring

and it's as old as you.

We saw the special bus

that took the guests to Mummy and Daddy's wedding.

We went on a lovely bus with no roof to the seaside.

And we had the best ice cream in the whole of Wales!

And what was your favourite part of the day?

Going on the open top bus.

What was your favourite part of the day?

Spending my time with you.

What a fabulous heap of fun!

That was Seren and Bampi Alan's tiny tale

about Bampi Alan's love of buses.

Now that Bampi Alan has shared his story with Seren,

it's time for Seren to start her own story.

Do you know someone with a story to share?