Behindthecurtain

Great Link Dunk! Never seen it before.. When flying was special

Raldal

I remember the days of the West London Air Terminal;transferring the baggage trailer to airside (and it sometimes the contents being loaded on the wrong aircraft ;waiting for passengers as the bus had got caught in a traffic jam;wondering why ,when manifesting the flight why it was so empty - until you remembered to add on the passengers who had checked in at WLAT (details being passed via telephone/telex after check in there had closed).... Those were the good old days before baggage IDs,security checks etc and when all airlines still helped each other out.

Swiss Tony

Ah, but given you're allegedly 3x my age , the story should be 3x more interesting!

Tripophile

[QUOTE=Betteronacamel;20408042]

BOAC would have been in the old Imperial Airways Building by Victoria Station which is now occupied by the NAO. There is/was still quite a bit of Art Deco airline architectual features on the building.


I have worked in the former Imperial Airways Empire Terminal on Buckingham Palace Road. The Art Deco aspects of the building still exist and the statue "Speed wings over the world" by Eric Broadbent sits proudly above the crescent shaped entrance to the building.
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fi...n_-_020504.jpg

WHBM

There are many recollections above of the old BEA West London Air Terminal, but the OP was writing about BOAC. They had the original building, built in the late 1930s (hence all the Art Deco stuff) for Imperial Airways at the west end of Buckingham Palace Road. It was retained as the BA longhaul terminal long after the BOAC/BEA merger - the buses from here went to T3 whereas the ones from WLAT went to T1. As others say, the building is now the National Audit Office, nicely fitted out inside in partial period style. Here it is today. The curved road entrance in and out here was where the bus waited. As I recall it, the check-in and ticketing area was up above, up an escalator.

http://maps.google.co.uk/?ll=51.4920...5.41,,0,-13.25

The buses which ran out to Heathrow were of course replaced from time to time, but during the 1960s-70s BOAC and then BA used a fleet of Leyland Atlantean double-deckers, which had special large luggage areas at the rear, built in 1966, which ran to the end of the bus service in 1978 when the Piccadilly Line opened. One of these buses has been preserved by enthusiasts and is still around - many will have seen it doing a cameo role in the great "To Fly To Serve" BA TV ad of a few months ago, when it was placed in front of the BOAC VC10 at Duxford museum. Here's the bus, LYF307D. They were maintained by BOAC themselves at their road transport base at Heathrow.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/48828195@N07/6168693921/

Brief mention was made of the equivalent TWA service, whose office was at the other end of Buckingham Palace Road. They also had customised Leyland Atlanteans double-deckers, in their case operated under contract by a coach company, Halls of Hounslow, in TWA livery. The body was built by a Leeds busbuilder, Roe's, and as they only bought a few they used the standard bodywork design that Leeds Corporation buses used ! Here's one taken long ago

http://www.flickr.com/photos/megaanorak/6127875631/

OK, final one for the bus buffs, here is a photo gallery of a large number of BOAC, BEA and BA buses from long ago. These should set people off for an evening of reminiscing ! Who can remember those passenger trailers pulled by articulated trucks, used for airside transfers to the aircraft ?

http://psv-circle.org.uk/JCW231.htm

uk1

I remember being allocated 4 seats ( or was it 6 ) around a table at the front of a flight.

dunk

Almost certainly a Trident ?

(A friend who works with 'old people' tells me reminiscence therapy is very good for those suffering with Alzheimer's ... )

uk1

I can't remember.

tooblue

Thanks WHBM. Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! ^

Those links were spot on. You've led me out of Fading Memory Lane and into the Land of Sharp Recollection. I can't wait to have that dream again. This time I'll get the colours right too.

WHBM

It's obviously before 1962 because there are two trams in Argyle Street in the background. By the cars parked (notably the Jaguar MK VII) I would say about 1955.

The coach in front of the Glasgow Air Terminal appears to be not a BEA one, but one of the BOAC Commer ones of the period which ran from there to Prestwick. A lucky few are off on a Stratocruiser overnight to New York.

missdimeaner

Unless I've gone completely senile, I can remember BA using WLAT in 1978 when I had my first flight on a 747 (LHR-ORD), but on our next flight the service had gone.

NeverFirst

Bring back Paddington check-in counters!

WHBM

No, senility is happily absent, that is when it closed up. 31 March 1979 was when the West London Terminal bus link finally ran. The Piccadilly Line had extended to Heathrow in December 1977, and usage of the buses just fell away after that. The fact that both the short and long haul town terminals were quite a hike from the nearest Underground stations, and at Gloucester Road, the one nearest to WLAT, you were likely stepping off an Underground train now going to Heathrow anyway, contributed.

Although I have to say that the WLAT bus put you off at T1, going to Chicago you would have to walk across to T3. It was the one from Buckingham Palace Road that went direct to T3. However, if Kensington was more convenient than somewhere halfway between Victoria and Chelsea, that was fine. I seem to recall that quite a lot of the passengers on the "Overseas" bus were heading for European flights but had arrived by long distance coach at the Victoria Coach Station, which faced the old BOAC terminal across the road.

dunk

You have a far better memory than me .. or perhaps it's the senility setting in I worked there for two years from Sept 1978 and can't remember them operating at all. I do recall that security was rubbish and it was possible to access the offices via the then deserted check-in area on those occasions when my ID card had been left at home.

I fondly remember the staff restaurant (best bacon sarnies ever) and the social club and bar, where I celebrated a very drunken 19th birthday

HilFly

I remember riding out to Heathrow on one of these from somewhere near Euston Station. It was after the tube to LHR opened because I absolutely hated the tube ride and took this instead next time I flew to/from LHR.