This is a fairly local bus so caught the 1000 train to Thornton Heath where I arrived at 1013 and walked to Nursery Road along the High Street. This road is at the eastern end of the High Street and until 1990 this route was known as the 194B to Shrublands which was created in 27/2/63, presumably this was when the estate was built.
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| Arriva T167 awaiting time to leave from layover in Zion Road |
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| Starting point for route 198 in 1964, 7 routes started here |
As usual I missed a bus by less than a minute so had to wait from 1018 until 1031 for Arriva T167 to pull up from its layover point. The roads were relatively quiet and so it was only two minutes later when we were at Thornton Heath railway station.
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| Thornton Heath clock tower |
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| Arriva London's T1 at Thornton Heath bus garage |
At 1039 the bus halted at Thornton Heath bus garage near the 'pond' for the drivers to exchange. On the opposite site of the road was T1, the first of their Alexander Dennis Tridents of which there were 193 in the first batch. At 1042 the bus was back on its way and we were not held up by the roadworks at the end of Mayday Road and sailed on past the site of Croydon General Hospital which is now Harris Invictus Academy. This part of the route I have already covered three times on the No 60, 64 and 109. At 1051 we reached West Croydon station and after a stop in Poplar Walk it was 1059 when we reached East Croydon railway station.
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| At East Croydon station where I have previously stopped on the No 119 and 194 |
The bus then follows the route of the No 194 to Shirley, but whereas the No 194 turns right at Shirley library the 198 carries straight on down Wickham Road until turning right at Bridle Road. Here in March 2020 I took a photo of the 198 from the 194 saying it wouldn't be long before I would be on the bus opposite. 18 months later unfortunately I couldn't quite replicate the shot from the other bus.
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| A No 194 bus emerged just before we got to Bridle Road so I was unable to replicate the photo I took in March 2020 |
The bus travelled all the way up Bridle Road before swinging SE into the Shrublands Estate. The bus does a one way circuit of the estate before terminating at Brambles Close. We reached here at 1123, 52 minutes after departure. The timetable at Nursery Road had said it would take 50 minutes so we kept pretty much to time.
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| Typical 1960s housing of the Shrublands Estate |
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| Arriva London's T2 at the terminus of the route |
Here I snapped T2 and quickly boarded it to return towards Croydon. By so doing I traversed the remainder of the route until it regains Bridle Road having departed at 1131.
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| My return mount |
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| From the back of T2 my outbound mount |
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| Completing the loop around Shrublands Estate with Bridle Road in distance |
I disembarked at the Whitgift Centre and caught a No 410 home arriving at 1215, only 2 1/4 hours since initially catching the train from Waddon railway station.
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| The photo of a No198 from March 2020 |
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