BUSWORLD PHOTOGRAPHY

I AM CHRISTOPHER LEACH THE ARTIST. I started this blog so that I can share with everyone my vast collection of transport photographs showing a personal and nostalgic view of the industry with images that span some 45 years taking in the U.K and some of Europe. I have no darkroom and so rather than being the perfectionist after tidying them up I upload the images warts and all, and even those that won't scan squarely or are scratched. In a way it adds age and character. You are all free to download these for your personal use but please remember I still own them and you are not just free to use them without prior permission for any knd of publishing. Click on images to enlarge them and if you want to see more leave your comments or visit my website for the mother-site with galleries including those Buses & Girls: PICTUREWORLD

Monday 29 June 2015

West Yorkshire PTE Leyland Tiger Duple Bus A671KUM

West Yorkshire PTE bought a batch of twenty-two of these attractive Duple bodied Leyland Tigers 1651-1672. No. 1671 was seen helping to break the monotony of the Leyland Olympian in Leeds as the PTE and West Riding had plenty with Roe and ECW bodies respectively.

Sunday 28 June 2015

A Bit of London Sightseeing: Ensign Metroliner 376

Taking pictures of people taking pictures at Trafalgar Square.They might not have much good for the hard graft of National Express work but the not unpleasant looking MCW Metroliner double-deck coaches like Ensign 376 with so much upstairs seating were the ideal tool for London Sightseeing in the Nineties.

Friday 26 June 2015

Smith's of Sittingbourne B46XKJ

I used to enjoy going down  to the Thames Embankment in London for as the afternoon progressed visiting tour coaches were joined by a stream of commuter coaches to gather the armada of office workers such as B46XKJ a Plaxton Paramount 3500 bodied Leyland Tiger in the attractive black, white and grey colours of Smith of Sittingbourne heading for North Kent.

Sunday 21 June 2015

DPH501T in High Wycombe

I think Chiltern Bus was a part of Luton and District, if not it was still London Country NW where this former London Country B-Series Leyland National came from with the split.

Friday 19 June 2015

Home & Away players at Exeter

I have a theory that unless one has a special vantage point it is usually hard to get more than eight buses in a shot and usually just enough of some of them to identify them. I think my eye was drawn to the interesting mix of former Exeter Corporation Leylands and Devon General NBC types rather than the coaches. But despite the familiar Plaxton bodywork it is a nice Seventies snapshot of Plaxton Panorama and Supreme styles and not only did Devon General have narrow Bristol LH's such as the one at the top Roman City provided us with a still new normal width version of this not so common combination.

Thursday 18 June 2015

Rapides Bleus

It's busy tranfers day and 41-CO-2B.Corsicatours Setra S212S waits at the airport for another group of holiday punters to arrive.

Monday 15 June 2015

A Little Red Ladybird of a Car

The landscape, traffic and vehicles themselves have changed a lot since the seemingly more Bohemian Days of the little friendly Citroen 2CV. As you can see from this view in Exeter someone still loves them and I wonder whether like the other major car makers they might be tempted to bring out a new high-tech version or would that be too much of a contradiction? Strangely enough just like the Stagecoach Enviro double-decker look how angular cars have become and fashions come around again for the little French classic might look quaint but it doesn't look too out of place.

Sunday 14 June 2015

D157 YDO Wright Bodied Bedford

I don't like putting poor quality images on here but there can be exceptions like the chance to show this very rare Wright bodied Bedford coach seen  heading off one of the service areas back on to the M6 in Cheshire.

Saturday 13 June 2015

DUH 77V: Warstone's Leopard in Wolverhampton

Warstone's Green Bus Service was famed for even more exotic machines but the East Lancs bodied Leopard was well represented like DUH 77V which came from Rhymney Valley.

Saturday 6 June 2015

London Buses Titan T399

London Buses Leyland Titan T399 pauses at trafalgar Square before heading down Whitehall and on to Victoria and then Pimlico. The 24 bus route is notable as LT did it's trials with 30ft Routemasters on this service and as a strategy  Cowie's winning of the tender was the birthplace of the giant Arriva.

Friday 5 June 2015

Crosville Bristol RE ELL 530 in Chester

Favourites of mine amongst the many Bristol ECW products were these rather attractive RE coaches like green and white  PTF 719L seen in Chester. However even though it's previous owner had the red version of NBC livery I think this one only stayed long enough to carry full white coach colours but that is just a guess. One one the nice things about the Crosville numbering system it's letters ELL 530 included the maker of the engine in this instance Leyland.

Tuesday 2 June 2015

Claribels V385 KYV

Following Deregulation there was a proliferation of small bus companies that sprung up in our cities trying to grab a share of the more profitable work. Birmingham was no exception and whilst many ran used stock Claribels ran new buses too like this Optare.