For those interested in old buses (and coaches)

[Johann Marsbar]

9 minutes ago, Enterprisingwestern said:

 

Great pic.

That actual bus is nowadays preserved, and its a Regent 3!

 

Mike.

 

There is a booklet that thas just been published about that vehicle and the others of that particular batch as well called "116 and the Roe Pullman AEC Regents" as I received an advertising flyer about it in inside one of my Christmas cards!

[Enterprisingwestern]

7 minutes ago, Johann Marsbar said:

 

There is a booklet that thas just been published about that vehicle and the others of that particular batch as well called "116 and the Roe Pullman AEC Regents" as I received an advertising flyer about it in inside one of my Christmas cards!

 

Could you post a link please, I used to be actively involved with the old thing and would like the book.

 

Mike.

[Johann Marsbar]

38 minutes ago, Enterprisingwestern said:

 

Could you post a link please, I used to be actively involved with the old thing and would like the book.

 

Mike.

It's a privately published booklet by Paul Fox of "Tinker Lane Transport Productions" so I don't really want to post the chaps address & contact details on here - I'll send you a direct message with all the information.....

[Rugd1022]

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Busmansholiday]

On 02/01/2023 at 04:41, Derek 19B said:

 Photo of a Sheffield Transport Regal II with its freshly painted advertisement on the side . Located in Pond street bus station with Sheffield midland as a back ground . The photo popped up on a football forum.

 

Happy new year

 

Derek

 

On 02/01/2023 at 06:57, Enterprisingwestern said:

 

Great pic.

That actual bus is nowadays preserved, and its a Regent 3!

 

Mike.

If you want to be pedantic it's actually photographed in Harmer Lane.

[leopardml2341]

On 22/11/2022 at 22:20, BrushVeteran said:

We 'borrowed' six of these at Oxford in June 1982 whilst our brand new B51 ECW Leopards were returned to Lowestoft for body strengthening. The gear linkages were all knackered as I found out whilst on a local service one evening................much to the amusement of my passengers listening to my expletives over the gearbox noise! Other than that thy were quite tidy and managed to race up and down to London when required.

 

 

Sister vehicles to the one I restored - hence my RMweb username 🙂

[Enterprisingwestern]

3 hours ago, Busmansholiday said:

 

If you want to be pedantic it's actually photographed in Harmer Lane.

 

I would hardly call that pedantry, more geographical correctitude!

 

Mike.

[Derek 19B]

Not sure it’s on Harmer Lane as Harmer lane runs from Sheaf street to pond street (or did in my day ) The Regent 3 is parallel to sheaf street.There was bus parking both sides of Harmer lane. The photo of the Regent 3 is obviously posted. Not sure what the coach is doing , the other STD bus just in view could be on Hamer lane .

Leyland Atlantean on waingate just by the new castle market ( looking at the traffic mid 60s) the castle market has been demolished in the last few years.

[Busmansholiday]

2 hours ago, Derek 19B said:

Not sure it’s on Harmer Lane as Harmer lane runs from Sheaf street to pond street (or did in my day ) The Regent 3 is parallel to sheaf street.

It's Harmer Lane, here's a Google Street view of it today (ish), note the entrance arch to the "Midland" in the back ground.

Which is visible in the pic of 116.

 

Anyway, have a picture of the Castle Markets (mine I've posted elsewhere on the web).

 

[Rugd1022]

''Go wash your German bands, your boat race too, comb your Barnet fair we've got a lot to do, put on your Dickie dirt and your Peckham Rye, 'cause time's soon hurrying by...''

 

 

 

 

[PhilJ W]

Coach travel 1950's.

 

[Johann Marsbar]

30 years ago this weekend, a group of us headed up to the Eastern Transport Collection storage site near Attleborough to have a look at this.....

 

 

Being satisfied with it's condition, a deal was done and it duly turned up at our Museum the following Saturday.

 

Fast forward a few years, and it currently looks like this........

 

[petethemole]

Anybody got £30k to spare for a bit of Southampton Corporation Transport heritage?

 

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/185727665867?hash=item2b3e3b46cb:g:USwAAOSwNlVjuLAO&amdata=enc%3AAQAHAAAAoCpv1eVRzGMJtc%2FjHelSBFgkau1XfWOiDFsOYOWPaN5LzypHgIy1shqqlRnRofO3o2odM5gezHhTXmUtx1oUhtijK3QyW3wdS%2FzSLSrwR8owIeaNAvHup%2Ff9v8OFWpE%2FeI1iAaPAiqEN11GQxn7MxFTpwOOgeui9eSGNVQt5g%2B0nlwq52bmkjPbyMFrvv7

Edited January 8, 2023 by petethemole

[Johann Marsbar]

36 minutes ago, petethemole said:

Anybody got £30k to spare for a bit of Southampton Corporation Transport heritage?

 

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/185727665867?hash=item2b3e3b46cb:g:USwAAOSwNlVjuLAO&amdata=enc%3AAQAHAAAAoCpv1eVRzGMJtc%2FjHelSBFgkau1XfWOiDFsOYOWPaN5LzypHgIy1shqqlRnRofO3o2odM5gezHhTXmUtx1oUhtijK3QyW3wdS%2FzSLSrwR8owIeaNAvHup%2Ff9v8OFWpE%2FeI1iAaPAiqEN11GQxn7MxFTpwOOgeui9eSGNVQt5g%2B0nlwq52bmkjPbyMFrvv7

 

There seem to be a few buses on the market of late, though whether they will actually realise the prices being asked in the current climate is anyones guess.

The former Blue Safety Coaches (Ipswich) 1931Gilford that appeared in an episode of Dads Army is apparently on the market for something like £40K and the Buckland Omnibus (Suffolk), ex Accrington Dennis (1929) was advertised and then put up for auction (along with his 1966 Bristol MW) last year - neither of them getting anywhere near the sale or even the reserve price.

[Gwiwer]

I suspect that along with many others the owners of these often much-loved and well cared-for vehicles find money is on short supply and are hoping to cash in on their investments.  It won't bring them nearly as much as they hoped for unless someone with a surprise pot of gold comes along out of the blue.  

 

Prices are falling where ever  you look as interest rates and inflation rises.  Homes, boats, heritage vehicles, even the everyday private car.  All are coming on the market in increasing numbers and realising ever-lower prices if they sell at all.  

 

Owning an old bus (or train, boat or other item) is not a cheap business and never has been.  The purchase price is only the start of a never-ending money-pit.  Let us hope that none of these vehicles is lost for ever.  

[37114]

4 hours ago, petethemole said:

Anybody got £30k to spare for a bit of Southampton Corporation Transport heritage?

 

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/185727665867?hash=item2b3e3b46cb:g:USwAAOSwNlVjuLAO&amdata=enc%3AAQAHAAAAoCpv1eVRzGMJtc%2FjHelSBFgkau1XfWOiDFsOYOWPaN5LzypHgIy1shqqlRnRofO3o2odM5gezHhTXmUtx1oUhtijK3QyW3wdS%2FzSLSrwR8owIeaNAvHup%2Ff9v8OFWpE%2FeI1iAaPAiqEN11GQxn7MxFTpwOOgeui9eSGNVQt5g%2B0nlwq52bmkjPbyMFrvv7

It looks lovely, hopefully stays in Preservation in UK rather than being exported or converted to a mobile cocktail bar..

[stewartingram]

6 hours ago, Johann Marsbar said:

30 years ago this weekend, a group of us headed up to the Eastern Transport Collection storage site near Attleborough to have a look at this.....

 

 

Being satisfied with it's condition, a deal was done and it duly turned up at our Museum the following Saturday.

 

Fast forward a few years, and it currently looks like this........

 

Lovely job! Same old story from me though - shame its not a proper ECOC livery. (But it is only a coat of paint).

 

[Johann Marsbar]

13 minutes ago, stewartingram said:

Lovely job! Same old story from me though - shame its not a proper ECOC livery. (But it is only a coat of paint).

 

 

Our Dennis Ace, Bristol L, Bristol K, Bristol LS and Bristol MW are all painted in traditional ECOC colour schemes so it was decided to paint the LFS to represent the NBC era as it was an important part of the "story".

Not sure what the Leyland National will go into as and when it's ever restored - most probably one of the "privatised" EC schemes, and then there is the Scania single decker which is in First colours but stored off-site.

The open-top Tilling-Stevens double decker will be restored in Eastern Counties Road Car colours and then there are still the ADC, a Tilling-Stevens single decker and a pre-war Bristol L to worry about at some stage......🙂

[Rugd1022]

Swanbourne Goods Yard on the Bletchley - Bicester line...

 

 

 

[RANGERS]

4 hours ago, Rugd1022 said:

Swanbourne Goods Yard on the Bletchley - Bicester line...

 

 

 

A Duple Midland/ Willowbrook DP body on what looks like a Ford R192, not a great combination for a service bus and an abortion of a coach. It didn’t have a lot going for it though it looks to have found it’s place some 50 years down the line.

 

Im amazed it’s lasted this long, longevity wasn’t a feature of latter day Willowbrook bodies, they were truly awful examples of the coachbuilders craft.

[Enterprisingwestern]

1 hour ago, RANGERS said:

A Duple Midland/ Willowbrook DP body on what looks like a Ford R192, not a great combination for a service bus and an abortion of a coach. It didn’t have a lot going for it though it looks to have found it’s place some 50 years down the line.

 

Im amazed it’s lasted this long, longevity wasn’t a feature of latter day Willowbrook bodies, they were truly awful examples of the coachbuilders craft.

 

Ford Transit on steroids.

 

Mike.

[wagonbasher]

PMT Bristol RE PVT207L (currently owned by Potteries Omnibus Preservation Society) attended the funeral last week of Clem Smith at Eccleshall Parish Church Near Stafford

 

 

 

Clem had interests in railways and buses and for years Clem was secretary of the Stafford Railway Circle and potteries Omnibus Preservation Society POPS.  Clems first choice would have been PMT 766EVT but cuerrently off the road.  766 is an Atlantean and Clem wrote Potteries Atlanteans:  

 

worth £1.75 of anyone's money.

 

Note EVT 766 on the front cover,  In my teenage years I had many days away with POPS attending rallies with 766 or PMT PD2 466.

 

Photographs by David Hughes

 

Andy

[Gwiwer]

On 08/01/2023 at 13:25, Johann Marsbar said:

Fast forward a few years, and it currently looks like this........

The side advert was for an NBC product which offered "unlimited" travel.  Except it didn't.  

 

Initially priced at £2.40 it soon rose to £2.97.  An odd amount, perhaps, except that it could be issued readily by the many ticket machines of the time which didn't have fare values above 99p.  3x99p tickets = 1x£2.97 National Wanderbus ticket.  

 

You could buy them on the bus if the conductor knew how to issue them.  Which in the earlier days wasn't a given as they were a new product forced upon sometimes unwilling but by then corporately-managed operators.  Some had their own products which were somewhat cheaper and really didn't want to promote anything else.  Or you could buy one from a company office in which case it was a long thin card strip akin to the emergency tickets used by many operators but with "National Wanderbus" printed on the face rather than "Emergency Ticket". 

 

Southdown, M&D and East Kent had a joint ticketing arrangement whereby their own Wanderbus ticket was 60p (later 80p) and valid on almost all routes after 09.30 / all day at weekends.  They really weren't keen on trying to sell something very much more expensive which was going to benefit very few people.  True a NW ticket could be used on London Country buses and most Green Line routes (not the 727) but 60p was all that was needed to get you from Margate to Fareham with a vast choice of routes along the way.  Hants & Dorset came on board with Southdown a little later and in order to accommodate the then-new jointly-operated X16 (as it once was - it became the X71 and is now the X4) Portsmouth - Southampton route.  That meant what was by then an 80p ticket could get you from Margate to Swanage - if the day was long enough!  Why pay £2.97?  

 

Additional confusion arose when the south coast operators introduced an anytime version of their Wanderbus ticket; you could use it from first bus on a weekday for £2 instead of 80p.  Weekly versions were also introduced.  I had trouble convincing a Southdown conductor to issue one - luckily there was a promotional poster above my seat advertising it.  I had even more difficulty persuading an East Kent conductor to accept it - he had never heard of a £2 Wanderbus and insisted they were 80p.  But again there was a poster nearby on the bus so full marks to the publicity teams at both operators.  

 

Back to the NW product.  In the south you could use them on almost any NBC route (except the aforementioned Green Line 727 whose maximum single fare from Crawley to Luton Airport was already above £3) but the farther north you went the fewer routes you could use them on.  By the time you reached Cumberland or Yorkshire they were not valid on the majority of inter-urban routes at all.  My sister managed to get from Worthing to Nottingham for £2.97 in her student days with some very careful planning and an awful lot of buses including Green Line routes across central London.  So they did have their uses.  I ordered one from Southdown's head office once as I was living in London (so unable to buy one locally) and wasn't comfortable about being able to buy one on my first bus.  I used one of Maidstone & District's network of "SeaBus" holiday routes from Thamesmead to Margate (!!) as the first leg of a round-the-south trip which took me through Dover, Hastings and Brighton to reach Worthing late in the evening.  Any by way of the open-top Minnis Bay - Pegwell Bay route 69 featuring East Kent's AEC Regent fully-fronted open-toppers, the twice-daily Dover - Hastings route which now runs hourly and some sterling work over the cliffs from Eastbourne to Brighton by a heavily-loaded Queen Mary PD3.  

 

Those were the days.  

[Johann Marsbar]

9 hours ago, Gwiwer said:

The side advert was for an NBC product which offered "unlimited" travel.  Except it didn't.  

 

Initially priced at £2.40 it soon rose to £2.97.  An odd amount, perhaps, except that it could be issued readily by the many ticket machines of the time which didn't have fare values above 99p.  3x99p tickets = 1x£2.97 National Wanderbus ticket.  

 

You could buy them on the bus if the conductor knew how to issue them.  Which in the earlier days wasn't a given as they were a new product forced upon sometimes unwilling but by then corporately-managed operators.  Some had their own products which were somewhat cheaper and really didn't want to promote anything else.  Or you could buy one from a company office in which case it was a long thin card strip akin to the emergency tickets used by many operators but with "National Wanderbus" printed on the face rather than "Emergency Ticket". 

 

Southdown, M&D and East Kent had a joint ticketing arrangement whereby their own Wanderbus ticket was 60p (later 80p) and valid on almost all routes after 09.30 / all day at weekends.  They really weren't keen on trying to sell something very much more expensive which was going to benefit very few people.  True a NW ticket could be used on London Country buses and most Green Line routes (not the 727) but 60p was all that was needed to get you from Margate to Fareham with a vast choice of routes along the way.  Hants & Dorset came on board with Southdown a little later and in order to accommodate the then-new jointly-operated X16 (as it once was - it became the X71 and is now the X4) Portsmouth - Southampton route.  That meant what was by then an 80p ticket could get you from Margate to Swanage - if the day was long enough!  Why pay £2.97?  

 

Additional confusion arose when the south coast operators introduced an anytime version of their Wanderbus ticket; you could use it from first bus on a weekday for £2 instead of 80p.  Weekly versions were also introduced.  I had trouble convincing a Southdown conductor to issue one - luckily there was a promotional poster above my seat advertising it.  I had even more difficulty persuading an East Kent conductor to accept it - he had never heard of a £2 Wanderbus and insisted they were 80p.  But again there was a poster nearby on the bus so full marks to the publicity teams at both operators.  

 

Back to the NW product.  In the south you could use them on almost any NBC route (except the aforementioned Green Line 727 whose maximum single fare from Crawley to Luton Airport was already above £3) but the farther north you went the fewer routes you could use them on.  By the time you reached Cumberland or Yorkshire they were not valid on the majority of inter-urban routes at all.  My sister managed to get from Worthing to Nottingham for £2.97 in her student days with some very careful planning and an awful lot of buses including Green Line routes across central London.  So they did have their uses.  I ordered one from Southdown's head office once as I was living in London (so unable to buy one locally) and wasn't comfortable about being able to buy one on my first bus.  I used one of Maidstone & District's network of "SeaBus" holiday routes from Thamesmead to Margate (!!) as the first leg of a round-the-south trip which took me through Dover, Hastings and Brighton to reach Worthing late in the evening.  Any by way of the open-top Minnis Bay - Pegwell Bay route 69 featuring East Kent's AEC Regent fully-fronted open-toppers, the twice-daily Dover - Hastings route which now runs hourly and some sterling work over the cliffs from Eastbourne to Brighton by a heavily-loaded Queen Mary PD3.  

 

Those were the days.  

 

Eastern Counties had their own version of a system rover, the "Anywhere Ticket" - and they had a decent sized netwoek ro use it on at that time as well......

 

 

The "Wanderbus Ticket" ended up replacing those by the mid 1980's.

[John M Upton]

Just unearthed a Instamatic print I had never scanned up until now:

Crawley Bus Station circa 1989 or early 1990.  Where BTL19 on the right is around about where Millies Cookies in the County Mall Shopping Centre is now whilst TL14 on the left is somewhere around about a jewellers front window...

 

TL14 was an example of the dire B51 type ECW Coach Body (a rare dud from the Lowestoft builder) whilst BTL19 on the right was one of many Berkhof coaches that saw off a lot of the older NBC era coaching stock on Green Line and Airport services.

 

Both on Leyland Tiger chassis with the usual Park Royal/Roe Atlanteans and a solitary Leyland National in attendance.