I crossed the street. Further along Eddie Knorn was climbing aboard SNB312 after conversing with Mike Dawes on RMC1476. I walked along and spoke to Mike. He was going to Hemel Hempstead as a 330, despite what his bus-blinds indicated. I had been intending to do that in two hours time, but when I checked my timetable I realised that I had intended to be on the departed SNB! I climbed aboard the RMC. Mike slid open his window to the saloon (a relic of the days when LT used them as driver-trainers), and asked if I would navigate for him. The two gentlemen in the seat behind him kindly moved elsewhere, and I took up the position. Mike handed over the map, and we were off. We were pointing the wrong way, of course, so the first thing was the familiar section down to St.Albans City Station.
After exchanging the exhibition load it was back up Victoria Street to the city, so that we were heading north on St.Peters Street. RMC1513 was loading on the opposite side for a 341 trip to Hatfield Station.
After that I was busy, as Mike no longer knew the way. We turned left at the roundabout onto Catherine Street, and wiggled our way down to meet - and cross - the old A5. A narrow street took us to the old Roman settlement of Verulamium at St.Michaels, where we crossed the Ver and squeezed up the old street to the church, and out onto the Hemel Hempstead main road. We ground up the hill to the roundabout at the top, then picked up speed along the two miles to pass under the M10 and over the M25. Then the speed came down on the approaches to Hemel Hempstead. The main road emptied us onto a dual carriageway (the A414), and we hustled along towards the town centre. But nothing is simple on the 330. At the next roundabout we turned left off the main road, and promptly turned right down narrow but steep St.Albans Hill. We dropped down into the Gade Valley, and swung right at the bottom to run along past the old canal-side buildings towards the New Town centre. There we met the magic roundabout. You know, the either-way round big roundabout dotted with mini-roundabouts. All right when you know it, information overload when you don't. We turned off one mini-roundabout too soon. So the immediate right turn was not the right one. We went on to the next roundabout, half a mile further on. We crossed the Grand Union Canal, turned at the roundabout, and returned, like Florence, to the magic roundabout. This time I got it correct. Then first right! Under there? (A pedestrian overbridge). Are you sure? Yes! (correct road name, no height warning signs). We turned. No crunchy noises from overhead. Relief. We crossed the River Gade again, and turned left along the back wall of the shopping centre to reach the bus station. It seems that Hemel Hempstead was built firmly according to the "lets shove a tatty bit of concrete out the back and call it a bus station" philosophy of the 1960s. But time for a short break before the journey back.
We shared the barren space with another of Centrebus' Darts (578).
Then we retraced our route to St.Albans. (No, not the mistake). We set off alongside the Gade. What an attractive feature of the town centre this could have been, except that the 1960s planners chose to turn their backs on it. We passed under the footbridge again, and went anti-clockwise round the magic roundabout just for the fun of it. We found the correct exit, and headed out of town. St.Albans Hill was a struggle. Down into first gear. But then we were out onto the dual carriageaway, then right onto the A4147 towards St.Albans. We found the turn for Verulamium, (No Entry, except for buses), and eased down the tight road through the village (St.Michaels) to the bottom. Mike paused for a minute or so at the bus-stop for the benefit of photographers, although by now (1330) the light was very flat.
We wiggled through to the old A5, where Mike manage to squeeze us out through the traffic to the mini-rounabout, and left up the hill towards the garage end of St.Peters Street. We were a through working to Hatfield (Comet), so we were quickly away, down the hill to City Station, then on out onto the Hatfeld Road. We made steady progress along through the straggling St.Albans suburbs. It was not until Hatfield Airfield and the University of Hertfordshire with its de Havilland buildings hove into view that the penny dropped in my mind as to why the terminal point was called the Comet. We swung round the big roundabout on the edge of Hatfield and pulled up at the stop. The presence of the works also explains why this was a terminal point, too.
We headed back west to St.Albans. I alighted in St.Peters Street and consulted my timetable. What could I reasonably do in the next hour? RMC1476, having been up to the garage, went back past me on the way to Hatfield Station as a 341; RT3254 was taking a rest; RT3871 was on the station shuttle.
RF48 was standing waiting for a 304 trip to How Wood. That seemed like a good idea...
Photos by Ian Smith. Click on any of them for a larger picture.
Back to Ian's Bus-stop
Part One
Part Five
Part Seven: RF48 on route 304