Old Pictures or Videos of North Dublin

The other long distance route inherited from GNR was the 33. Perhaps this route had more unique characteristics than any of the other routes reviewed. For example
- it was the only route in the Dublin City Services timetable that had some journeys departing from Busaras, what were essentially mixed city and provincial trips
- it was mixed double deck and single deck
- it used AEC Regents with platform doors, which never displayed the route number
- buses were based at two different railway stations
- it had short unnumbered workings to two railway stations.

At the time of the takeover in October 1958, the Skerries to Dublin service was operated by four double deckers, Regent 3s 293, 295, 297 and 304. 293/5/7 dated from 1948, while 304 was a larger bus, with an extra row of seats, and dated from 1954. 293 was based in Rush and Lusk station, the rest in Skerries station, along with Regal 4 338. The Regal worked what were essentially provincial runs, connecting Skerries with Drogheda, and also some Dublin to Drogheda services. There were also Dublin to Drogheda/Dundalk journeys via Skerries with Regals that were not locally based i.e. Dundalk based buses. And the Skerries based double deckers, when they arrived in Dublin city, did some services on other GNR routes to Howth, Strand Rd. and Hole-in-the-wall (what were to become the 31, 31a and 29a). Regent 2 287 was based in Donabate for the Portrane to Donabate and to Swords services.

When the fleet was integrated, 287, 293, 295 and 297 were moved to Summerhill and continued with their same duties. 302 also went to Summerhill, replacing 304 on Skerries duties. 338 went to Clontarf, but was replaced in Skerries by another single decker.

Around the end of 1960, or early in 1961, The ARs were taken off the Skerries route and replaced by R700s, from the R707 - 735 batch. R726 was the Rush based bus. Like the 41, the 33 was an early R900 route, with R906 - 908 originally allocated. But, like the 41, they were deemed unsuitable, and were replaced by RAs (probably RA86 - 90 batch) a couple of years later. 33 went Atlantean with D370s when new in 1970.

Photographs of Regents are plenty, but shots of Titans on the 33 are hard to find. The original CIE publicity photo of an R900 was taken of R906 at Santry Stadium on route 33, but I do not have access to that photo. I have never seen a photo of a standard R on the 33.

Changes to the route happened over time. In 1963, with OPO coming on provincial single deckers, it was decided to cease running provincial buses via Skerries. After protests to maintain the link, some route 33 journeys (now all double deck, and all to/from Eden Quay rather than Busaras) were extended to Balbriggan, and times to connect with provincial buses to/from Drogheda. Right up to the mid 70s, the last bus from Drogheda only went as far as Balbriggan, and connected with a 33 to city via Skerries.

Use of route 33 buses on other ex-GNR routes had stopped completely once the new timetable came in 1963, but may in fact have ceased earlier.

CIE added one morning journey (0720 from Skerries) with a Summerhill based bus in 1961, but apart from this all route 33 scheduled trips were run by the outbased buses until the 1970s. The exception would have been extras provided for summer seaside trips.



Rear view of Regent 2 285 at Eden Quay dressed for Skerries. This bus, new in late 1946, was the first of four that facilitated conversion of the Skerries route to double deck. It later served in Ballyshannon and in Donabate and was withdrawn at end of 1960. These buses were early in getting platform doors.



293 also in Eden Quay, and also dressed for Skerries. Of the 10 city Regent 3s delivered in 1948 (289 - 298), three were later given platform doors (293/5/7) and these always worked Skerries. In later years, 293 was based at Rush and Lusk station. It passed to Summerhill, was used on peak journeys on cross-city routes such as 19 after it came off the 33 route, and quietly disappeared from the fleet in mid 60s.




297 parked at Eden Quay, no doubt between Skerries runs. This bus was withdrawn from service early, probably soon after being taken off the Skerries route in winter 60/61, and was used on the skidpan in Broadstone.



304 at the then Skerries terminus in Strand St. This photo probably dates from between 1955 and 1958 when this bus was based in Skerries. It ended up in Clontarf after the takeover and worked the 29 until 1967.




302 replaced 304 in Skerries in CIE days, and worked the Skerries route until winter 1960/61. Although only eight years old, its use became quite marginal at that stage. It did peak runs on Summerhill cross-city routes in the early/mid 60s, and had been fitted with CIE destination display, including all routes. In later years, it did peak runs on route 40 to Finglas. It was the last AEC in Dublin service, being withdrawn in September 1967.




RA73 on route 33 at Eden Quay would have been typical of the route in the late 60s.



This was the official photograph of R900s when new and was used in trade publications. Taken in the early days of R900 operation in late 1964, R906 is on a 33 to Balbriggan at Santry Stadium. R906/7/8 were officially allocated to the 33 when new, following R901 - 905 on the 41. But official allocations were not followed once all the R900s were in, and these buses were taken off the 33 after a couple of years. R906 moved to Phibsboro in 1971 with all the R900s for the 40s, and then to Clontarf in 1973.

Three timetable pages follow to give the full picture of workings in North County Dublin, with unnumbered services connecting to railway stations at Skerries, Rush and Lusk and Donabate, as well as unnumbered Portrane to Swords (now 33b).



33 weekday timetable, showing the Dundalk journeys starting at Busaras; also some short workings to Rush.



Worth noting on this page are:
- Sunday workings via Loughshinney were church services
- Skerries town and station was allegedly the shortest bus route in the Dublin system
- Portrane to Donabate was full of footnotes, both for the routing taken in Portrane, and also for days of operation.Some journeys were different on Wednesday, as there was a lunchtime train that ran on Wed and Sat only.



Every journey on Portrane to Swords had a footnote! It was not a frequent service, only four on weekdays and two on Saturday and Sunday. The Rush station service also had a Wednesday only journey. Local Rush station services continued down through the town to the harbour.