For those interested in old buses (and coaches)

[Gwiwer]

8 hours ago, PhilJ W said:

I was present at the very last RT in service on the 62. My then girlfriend lived in Barking and we were returning to her place the bus (87) had to make its way past the throngs outside Barking garage. I was not permitted to join them however.😒

I was among the throng. 
 

Somewhat previously I had been aboard the last Sunday-only 62 to Creekmouth Power Station and the final weekday working to the Remploy Works. Both had been single-trip oddballs. 
 

Having spent the final evening of all-day service riding the full 65-minute (iirc) length of the 62 the night before I was hoping for a ride on the very last RT-worked one of all. 
 

A huge queue had already formed at the starting point in Barkingside. Barkingside to Barking might sound like a short urban trip but the truth was very different. The route took the least-direct route between two points which are not adjacent in any case. It includes the rural hop over Hog Hill, a remnant of Hainault Forest for example. 
 

There are 56 seats on an RT bus. Someone - I never knew who - had the foresight to organise things by issuing raffle tickets. I was nowhere near the lucky first 56 in line although two friends who had come up from Southampton fared better and enjoyed the trip. 
 

Instead I made for Barking Garage and in doing so also managed the short rounder out to the Gascoigne Estate terminus and back on a service bus. 
 

The festivities grew in intensity as the final trip in from Barkingside drew ever closer. It ran straight into the garage through the crowds who - despite garage security’s attempts to prevent it - then thronged the bus and the garage. 
 

I later rode the entire route there and back on one of the cavalcade buses. And then it was all over. Routemasters ran the 62 and the crowds in Barking and well-wishers along the entire route faded away.
 

I still have the souvenir ticket and medallion issued to those who rode the RT Farewell cavalcade.
 

45 years later, a longer interval than the lifespan of many buses, I was still riding RTs at running days. The oldest ones are now  a mere 85 years old. 
 

RT3148 seen at Godstone Green during a Country Bus Running Day based on East Grinstead on 23rd April 2023.  There’s not a lot to suggest it wasn’t 60 years earlier when RTs worked the 409 daily. 
 

 

Edited January 2 by Gwiwer

[Johann Marsbar]

The end of December 1983 saw the end of crew operation on Eastern Counties services in the Norwich area and 40 years ago this coming Sunday, the Eastern Counties Omnibus Society operated a farewell tour of Norwich using a couple of the then redundant Bristol FLF double deckers.

Four of us travelled up from Ipswich by car to take part, so a few photos from the day are shown below......

 

 

 

[stewartingram]

Lovely buses, an operator sorely missed, but sadly not 'proper' ECOC buses (try LKH or even LFS, and the real livery!)

[Johann Marsbar]

43 minutes ago, stewartingram said:

Lovely buses, an operator sorely missed, but sadly not 'proper' ECOC buses (try LKH or even LFS, and the real livery!)

 

You want to go back further than that to the original Eastern Counties Road Car Co, formed in Ipswich in 1919....

 

 

We've got an original lower deck saloon.......(temporarily resting on a pre-war Bristol L chassis, before anyone asks)

 

 

...and we obtained this fully operational T-S chassis a couple of years back....

 

 

Work will be starting in the next few months to rebuild it all into a fully functioning ECRC early 1920's Tilling-Stevens open top double decker!   (Back on solid tyres all round as well.....)

 

We do have a pre-war ECOC Bristol L body to go with that L chassis as well, so one day this might even be restored.......

 

[Darius43]

This may already have been posted here.  If so, here it is again.

 

Cheers

 

Darius

[russ p]

On 05/01/2024 at 08:55, Johann Marsbar said:

The end of December 1983 saw the end of crew operation on Eastern Counties services in the Norwich area and 40 years ago this coming Sunday, the Eastern Counties Omnibus Society operated a farewell tour of Norwich using a couple of the then redundant Bristol FLF double deckers.

Four of us travelled up from Ipswich by car to take part, so a few photos from the day are shown below......

 

 

 

 

They seem from a long gone era but were only 17 years old at the time. Where were the pictures taken ?

[Rugd1022]

On 02/01/2024 at 21:55, Gwiwer said:

I was among the throng. 
 

Somewhat previously I had been aboard the last Sunday-only 62 to Creekmouth Power Station and the final weekday working to the Remploy Works. Both had been single-trip oddballs. 
 

Having spent the final evening of all-day service riding the full 65-minute (iirc) length of the 62 the night before I was hoping for a ride on the very last RT-worked one of all. 
 

A huge queue had already formed at the starting point in Barkingside. Barkingside to Barking might sound like a short urban trip but the truth was very different. The route took the least-direct route between two points which are not adjacent in any case. It includes the rural hop over Hog Hill, a remnant of Hainault Forest for example. 
 

There are 56 seats on an RT bus. Someone - I never knew who - had the foresight to organise things by issuing raffle tickets. I was nowhere near the lucky first 56 in line although two friends who had come up from Southampton fared better and enjoyed the trip. 
 

Instead I made for Barking Garage and in doing so also managed the short rounder out to the Gascoigne Estate terminus and back on a service bus. 
 

The festivities grew in intensity as the final trip in from Barkingside drew ever closer. It ran straight into the garage through the crowds who - despite garage security’s attempts to prevent it - then thronged the bus and the garage. 
 

I later rode the entire route there and back on one of the cavalcade buses. And then it was all over. Routemasters ran the 62 and the crowds in Barking and well-wishers along the entire route faded away.
 

I still have the souvenir ticket and medallion issued to those who rode the RT Farewell cavalcade.
 

45 years later, a longer interval than the lifespan of many buses, I was still riding RTs at running days. The oldest ones are now  a mere 85 years old. 
 

RT3148 seen at Godstone Green during a Country Bus Running Day based on East Grinstead on 23rd April 2023.  There’s not a lot to suggest it wasn’t 60 years earlier when RTs worked the 409 daily. 
 

 

 

There's something very homely and 'right' about those two photos... lovely stuff!

[Johann Marsbar]

39 minutes ago, russ p said:

 

They seem from a long gone era but were only 17 years old at the time. Where were the pictures taken ?

 

I was going to say I haven't got a clue after 40 years, but I just checked my slide logbook and I actually wrote them down, though one is a bit generalised!

 

First picture was taken in Ruskin Road, Norwich, the second was a more vague "Costessey" - though that road junction was obviously a recognised ECOC route terminal, and the last one was taken outside "The Whiffler" pub, which we had a "lunch break" at.   That's now a 'spoons establishment, but I'm guessing it may have been a Norwich Brewery house at that time. It must have had some Real Ale on as I don't expect they would have stopped there otherwise!

[Rugd1022]

Photo by Malcolm Keeley / Derek Potter : Hassops Road, Beeches Estate, Great Barr, 1957...

 

[osbornsmodels]

Trawling through the last 30 or so pages there are some very interesting photos but I may be wrong but there seem to be none of the beautiful and unique City of Oxford Motor Services (pre NBC red). I wonder why not?

[Mike_Walker]

No doubt Graham Waring will be along with a selection.  In the meantime may I offer...

 

306, 306MFC, a 1962 AEC-PRV 'Bridgemaster' 2B3RA with Park Royal LD43/29F body at Gloucester Green bus station, Oxford.  1 July 1968

[Johann Marsbar]

I can do you a VR........in 1985 as a "Heritage scheme"

 

 

...and I think that's the only example of that livery I've ever photographed! 

[osbornsmodels]

thanks for the pictures. They bring back memories but none of a 52 to blackbird Leys that is some modern invention!

Only a #1 went (or 5) went to Cowley .

The buses didn't go to the Railway forecourt when I was a schoolboy but the #1 started from outside the front of the old LMS train Shed. It was a penny halpenny half fare to the Cowley Swan stop (in 1958). A  superb livery don't you think

[Gwiwer]

A superb livery but one which took forever to apply in the paint shop.  Three colours plus the lining each of which would have had to be dry before the next could go on.  At least a week per vehicle if not more.  

 

Back in the day such things could be better afforded.  And a decent paint job lasted far longer than today's vinyl "skins" ever will.  A bus with a 20-year lifespan would arrive shiny and new and perhaps only receive a full repaint once or twice in its life.  

 

When I was more closely connected to such things it was decided that the Southdown coach livery, previously two shades of green using a darker skirt, would be simplified to just the lighter shade all over.  That meant vehicles could be in and out of Portslade Works in under a week.  It was also cheaper.  When a goodly proportion of the coach fleet was largely only employed on summer weekend work they could afford to do that.  But tying up a front-line coach over a weekend to have its dark skirt applied had become an expensive luxury.  

 

Not long after that the instruction was received to paint everything plain white.  That's another story.  

[PhilJ W]

1 hour ago, Gwiwer said:

A superb livery but one which took forever to apply in the paint shop.  Three colours plus the lining each of which would have had to be dry before the next could go on.  At least a week per vehicle if not more.  

 

Back in the day such things could be better afforded.  And a decent paint job lasted far longer than today's vinyl "skins" ever will.  A bus with a 20-year lifespan would arrive shiny and new and perhaps only receive a full repaint once or twice in its life.  

 

When I was more closely connected to such things it was decided that the Southdown coach livery, previously two shades of green using a darker skirt, would be simplified to just the lighter shade all over.  That meant vehicles could be in and out of Portslade Works in under a week.  It was also cheaper.  When a goodly proportion of the coach fleet was largely only employed on summer weekend work they could afford to do that.  But tying up a front-line coach over a weekend to have its dark skirt applied had become an expensive luxury.  

 

Not long after that the instruction was received to paint everything plain white.  That's another story.  

Our local bus operator, First Essex had several of their modern fleet painted in the colours of previous operators. One was in the elaborate pre-war Westcliff-on-Sea livery which IMHO didn't sit to well on a modern bus. 

[Johann Marsbar]

13 minutes ago, PhilJ W said:

Our local bus operator, First Essex had several of their modern fleet painted in the colours of previous operators. One was in the elaborate pre-war Westcliff-on-Sea livery which IMHO didn't sit to well on a modern bus. 

 

Compare and contrast......

 

[Derek 19B]

Personally I always preferred Sheffield Transport colours, Photo by Sheffield Newspapers

New Bridgemasters

 

 

[PhilJ W]

By contrast the best livery was the Tilling Coach livery, mostly cream with Tilling green tween decks band, in fact I thought it looked better on the modern bus than on the Bristol FLF's.

[BrushVeteran]

18 hours ago, Mike_Walker said:

No doubt Graham Waring will be along with a selection.  In the meantime may I offer...

 

306, 306MFC, a 1962 AEC-PRV 'Bridgemaster' 2B3RA with Park Royal LD43/29F body at Gloucester Green bus station, Oxford.  1 July 1968

Well if you insist Mike!

A small selection of former City of Oxford buses that still exist today belonging to a small group of us known as Cherwell Bus Preservation Group. The AEC Regent V with Hants & Dorset fleetnames is in its former Provincial paint scheme and shows it back in its former home at Cowley Road bus depot upon arrival from H&D at Southampton in 1975................and it still isn't anywhere near finished yet having owned it now for almost fifty years! It was transferred to Gosport & Fareham (Provincial) in 1970. The liveries depicted show the eventual progression from the original tri-colour scheme to a short lived simplified two colour livery before NBC rec and white dominated the fleet. As a matter of interest there are still around thirty or so red buses running for Oxford Bus Company (the successor to City of Oxford Motor Services) in various permutations of red but these are due to disappear within the next few months as the all electric Streetdeck Electroliner fleet wipes out the last of the modern hybrid or plain diesel vehicles so I'm please to provide a representation of the old schemes.

[BrushVeteran]

A couple of Oxford's new Streetdeck Electroliners fleet. Ninety one of these will be coming in over the next year!

The Stagecoach Oxford City fleet will contribute fifty five ADL Electric E40EV's in a similar livery scheme!

[osbornsmodels]

I don't ever recall the livery on fleet #332 so what year was that applied? I don't think it sits well, do you? Nice to see a few background shots of the old Cowley Rd. garage side on.

[BrushVeteran]

22 minutes ago, osbornsmodels said:

I don't ever recall the livery on fleet #332 so what year was that applied? I don't think it sits well, do you? Nice to see a few background shots of the old Cowley Rd. garage side on.

332 was the first repaint into the two colour scheme in April 1970, the first vehicles actually receiving this livery fron new being the three diverted Bristol VR's from Southern Vectis also in April 1970. The first NBC poppy red repaints started in November 1972 so the two colour scheme was vert short-lived although 157 vehicles received it including five Bridgemasters.

The image I previously put up of 332 was after its repaint in preservation in 1983 so I have uploaded the 1970 images of 332 and 902.

[pH]

On 05/01/2024 at 01:22, stewartingram said:

Lovely buses, an operator sorely missed, but sadly not 'proper' ECOC buses (try LKH or even LFS, and the real livery!)

I don’t know LKHs, but I do know, as a conductor, I would always prefer a front-door Lodekka over a rear-door one despite the extra passenger capacity. The driver could keep an eye on the door (though in the end it was your responsibility) and it wasn’t as draughty as an open platform, rear door bus.
 

In 1979-1982, I played football on a Cambridge area team with an Eastern Counties mechanic. He was still bemoaning the loss of the FLFs (he called them ‘Fluffs’) to the Scottish Bus Group in the 1973 swap for VRTs.

[stewartingram]

LKH is the ECOC class designation - basically a Bristol halfcab/open platform bus. There were both 7'6" and 8' wide versions, all being highbridge versions. The LK version was the lowbridge version.

LFS was the 'modern' Lodekka (earlier versions were LKD. Ithink the main difference was the air suspension on the FS chassis, as well as some body modifications but still to the same basic style. And of course they were still front engine/rer entrance (open or closed). There was also a small class of LFL version which were 30' long.

[40F]

The original liveried photos on the older buses certainly bring back memories for me, as I either saw them or travelled on them. The ex Oxford Regent V must have been sold to Provincial and I certainly remember travelling on that one to school when I lived in Oxford. Keep them coming.

Edited January 22 by 40F