Halls Coaches: Harrington AEC

I don't know a great deal about Halls Coaches but there was a W. Hall trading in Biddulph and obviously they were fairly local to Stoke-on-Trent because as well as being fairly familiar three of their coaches attended an open-day and bus rally staged at the now closed large PMT garage at Clough Street in Hanley and held at the end of the Eighties by POTS. What I do know is they must have had a soft spot for AEC and the coaches attending were all Reliances including the two seen here fitted with that elegant classic the Grenadier. ABO 145B was one of six delivered to Western Welsh in 1964 as touring coaches. I see from my old Ian Allan Bus Fleets (South Wales) that from this batch Nos.144-149, I only needed still to spot 145 and 149 when I finished. When I did it I always felt some justification including earlier owners when I 'copped' another bus but could not move my sighting forward to the next owner as that would be really cheating. I guess if I were a young teenager again those Arriva, First and Stagecoach buses would be much much more attractive to me if I were collecting their numbers, but sadly we have to grow up I'm afraid, even Me. So Western Welsh No.145 will just have to stay blank rather than being underlined because the past is the past. People do spot preserved buses but I cannot see the point as it's hardly very challenging, it's rather more like going fishing and then throwing in a hand-grenade if they won't bite!