PHR829 Former Silver Star Tiger Cub

Not one of my best I'm afraid as it's another old Ilford Sporty photo from my boarding school days when I used to go off hitch-hiking spotting buses on Sundays. Traces of the old Silver Star of Porton Down could still be seen in 1966 at the main Salisbury depot of Wilts and Dorset including three Harrington bodied Tiger Cub DP's

Stroud Valleys visit Swindon

In the 90's I saw this bus in it's unusual Stroud Valleys livery a few hours earlier in Cheltenham and caught up with it again as it started it's return trip from it's destination to Swindon. With their windscreens designed to match the ninety 'London Country' RP class Park Royal bodied AEC Reliance Greenline coaches these Roe bodied Leyland Olympians delivered new to Bristol Omnibus and of course London Country were easy to spot alongside the more usual standard ECW version.

She may be ugly but she's still my baby!

Actually I tend to prefer the monsters of the highway to the neat boxes on wheels and especially when they add a sense of place. This Scania being scrubbed at the garage of Koge Touristfart in 1982 is Danish right down to it's unsuspecting appeal to our schoolboy humour.

Scruffy Northern Routemaster FPT 594C 2124

I always had a fascination for Northern General as during my youth it's area around Tyneside was well beyond my usual jaunts. Sadly by the time I was up there regularly with work it had become scruffy even by NBC standards. Not only had this once proud Routemaster FPT594C No.2124 been stripped of all brightness one felt it might not be safe to ride as the curb in Newcastle seemed to be in use as the hand-brake.

Limfjords Ruterne in Thisted

In Denmark once outside Copenhagen there was a wealth of tiny family run bus operators operating often one basic but quite long route and whose services were now highly regulated and requiring modern vehicles like this DAB Leyland of Limfjords Ruterne seen in Thisted in Jutland in 1982.

Road traffic accidents or to use police jargon RTA's however trivial always seem to attract onlookers especially if the police are involved. Saturday Morning used to be good for seeing calling coaches and Smiths Happiway Spencers WED 987S picks it's way through the confusion outside Stafford's old Infirmary as it edges closer to Holland in the late Eighties.

Shearings National in Warrington

When Shearings started running buses if appearances were anything to go by it looked promising. As well as buying new Tigers and Lynx's there were a number of second-hand Nationals including RBU 182R looking rather attractive in that cheerful orange and yellow as it arrived in Warrington.

I'm not sure if I like the current bright Bennett's purple more than this former more subtle two-tone brown. In truth neither is likely to go on my favourite list. In the old days though Bennett of Cotes Heath had a habit of buying unusual coaches like this early Eighties Wright of Ballymena Contour bodied Bedford seen in Stafford. It was a type that never went into production and instead Wright made a name for themselves building distinctive looking quality service buses.

Feel the heat on Ios

When I was on holiday there in the Eighties there were only three buses working on the small arid island of Ios taking the visitors to the best local beaches. Not surprisingly I took snaps of the same buses more than once including this attractive Hino but getting them in interesting views too is my way of making up a 'holiday album'. I thought this was a good posting today as here in the UK the sun has not been out long enough for us to enjoy any road dust in our eyes yet.

Bending it's way from Holland to Stafford

Maybe they don't want to see the canal, the tulips or the ducks in the Sow swimming happily amongst the discarded supermarket trolleys but coaches from Holland have never been a regular sight in Stafford. An interesting exception was this Jonckheere Bermuda bodied DAF beni-coach seen one Saturday in 1980.

RN 8502

Believe it or not it's getting on for thirty years since I went to Portugal in 1984 so I hope you don't expect me to remember exactly where I took this atmospheric view of Utic bodied AEC of RN 8502. Of course had it been an English holiday I would have remembered it as it would have been the only day the sun came out. I'm only jesting of course as even though we get plenty of wet and grey stuff we do enjoy decent long periods of good weather sometimes.

Early-Retirement looming in Wrexham

A lot of the older bus drivers who were set in their ways resisted the chance to earn better ways doing 'opo' believing that it wasn't work the extra burden, and no doubt many as I'm sure this driver in Wrexham did preferred the more civilised half-cab buses he drove throughout his career. By this time in Autumn 1981 sadly time was fast running out not just here in North Wales but at other fast diminishing outposts of the trusty old Bristol Lodekka like DFB 154 4224 FM..

Snell's of Newton Abbott

One of the best known coach companies in Devon is Snell's of Newton Abbott who operated this attractive Duple 425 coach seen at Plymouth.

Les Rapides D'Alsace

A very attractive Setra from France seen whilst on a visit to Berlin.