Western Nationa Mercedesl Hoppa C981 GCV.

Maybe not enough years have passed yet for us to feel any nostalgia for the 'Minibus Revolution' that swept through the bus industry but I certainly miss that West Country Sunshine down in Plymouth

EBV87S: Blackpool Bank Holiday Sunday

With the prospect of rain imminent it looks like the day trippers are fed-up with Blackpool already and it isn't even lunchtime. In those days Flyde still had it's Atlanteans like smart Northern Counties EBV87S as did Blackpool itself and even a fleet of London Routemasters so even though it might have been a good idea to leave the bucket and spade at home there will still plenty for the transport enthusiast to enjoy and they hardly notice the weather .

The Ambassador Sends his Compliments

By the end of the Eighties the Plaxton bodied Volvo B10M had become the norm for National Express work. Having said that there were a few Scania's too and of course the odd dwindling newer example of the Leyland Tiger like this one G109 HNG belonging to Ambassador leaving Victoria Coach Station for Cromer. Ambassador was by now a dated and meaningless sort of name once embraced by often two-bit coach firms to make their coaches sound posh and luxurious. However I  like the idea of some diplomat's female staff wearing a tight but not too short dress and expensive stockings busy  dishing out champagne and Ferrero Rocher to the pensioners with their boiled sweets or back-packers with their crisps and bottle of pop on the boring journey to Norfolk.

1521: Welcome to Berlin

In the Eighties BVG the Berlin bus operator had a smart blue and gold painted fleet of MAN buses which in theory did most of the journeys on the Number Nine service from the Zoo to Tegal airport. It was not very fast as the business people and tourists had to mingle with others doing a short hop and it could get very congested with all the luggage too. Of course on did mind all that hassle when they were arrival but on the return trip it was annoying.

Midland Red Willowbrook 003 Leyland BVP800V

One of Midland Red's Leyland Leopards with unpopular Willowbrook 003 bodywork was seen at Coventry Pool Meadow with another Leopard of Harry Shaw in the background.

Laurel & Hans in Berlin

There is budget coach travel and then there is real budget coach travel. This firm whose name escapes me with it's collection of elderly ECW bodied Bristol FLF's and then VR's used to do trips to Europe for I imagine young back-packers. Of course having to cross the Channel makes a lot of these capitals like Berlin seem a lot further away than they are but I'm sure I would have a sore bum and be looking forwards to a good nights sleep after a six-hundred mile ride on this old former Eastern Scottish decker LFS 285F.

Driver Training in Steglitz

After Reunification Berlin needed a number of extra buses I expect to replace the BVB East Berlin Ikarus fleet. Tenders were also put out to contractors too which I imagine this Mercedes-Benz belonged as it had a Berlin registration.

D502 LNA: A Big Orange Lynx is a Lemon

Not a particularly juicy one though and I wonder how effective the wipers were on this Lynx when one side was wrapped around the front pillar. After Greater Manchester was split into two and sold off it is interesting to see how they fared. As usual Stagecoach modernised with ruthless efficiency but for the enthusiast at least First was the most interesting as older types bellowed  and rattled on in various shades of orange or grey. 1402 from Bolton was at the end of it's long run to Manchester Airport on what is now the car park for Terminal One, somewhere most days I had to hurry in and out of in ten-minutes flat otherwise my employer had to pay. Obviously Greater Manchester was not smitten with this bus realising it was something of a lemon and only bought a trial batch of five buses.

RM 450: There Will Always Be An England

Let's hope so for along with so-called Invisible Earnings like Banking and those multinationals who choose to keep their factory production here, the Royal Family and it's positive effect on the tourist industry is a great money spinner for the U.K. Even the trusty Routemaster is such a huge icon we can't quite get rid of them and despite the stickers RM 450 still looked very smart in London Coaches livery here at the end of the Eighties as it made stately progress along Whitehall.

Kutter bodied Pollarbus in Copenhagen

Finland on the fringes of Northern Europe and close to Russia is a country most of us don't get to partly perhaps because it's expensive and much of the year cold but it did have some interesting coach bodybuilders which could be enjoyed as they often appeared in Copenhagen like this example by Kutter.

LRC 344K. Trent Bristol RE at Matlock

In the last year of it's existence North Western turned back to it's old favorite the Bristol. These included a number of ECW bodied RE's and some went to Trent who took over the running at Buxton and here at Matlock. 

Southend Olympian B557 ATX in Knightsbridge

A damp Autumn day in the late Eighties and things had certainly changed since my bus heyday in the Sixties. Then the only real change year on year was an influx of new vehicles but everything else more of less remained constant and so who would have believed that Southend Transport who were then operating Massey bodied Leyland Titans plus Lowlanders and Reading with Dennis Lolines would be a couple of decades further on be running double-deck buses on limited stop services right across the Capital once the tightly regulated domain of London Transport.. In the Southend fleet this East Lancs bodied Leyland Olympian had come from Cardiff and was pictured stuck in early- evening traffic along Knightsbridge.

Anyone for a Flyvest?

I don't think there are legions of bus enthusiasts in every country and I've had little interest from Denmark for my photos which is a pity as I have a sizeable archive from the Eighties and Nineties. In those days there was a wealth of long established Independents sometimes perhaps doing one long trunk route between towns on Jutland or as here in the North Copehagen suburbs doing urban routes under licence to their local 'PTE' HT. A feaure of these small operators was how many of them used the colour of their buses as the trading name. Not surprisingly this firm was called 'Da Blau Busser' but at least it was easier to remember than it's proper title Therkildsen.  The bus was a common combination a Aabeneraa bodied Volvo B10M.

Lincoln City Relince in Blackpool

In it's later years especially as the NBC favored the Leopard over the Reliance in the UK it was perhaps only because London Country still wanted this AEC for it's Green Line duties which kept it on the order books. These coaches were leased  through Arlington the dealer but the good thing about that was when the contract expired smaller AEC fans had an easily affordable source of mid-life coaches. One of the less obvious purchasers was Lincoln who bought this Plaxton example for a National Express contract.

Ende-Stop! Anhalter Bahnhof

Once this was one of Berlin's finest, the Anhalter Bahnhof and whose comings and goings included Adolf Hitler whose bunker was nearby just across the Berlin Wall. After the war it became the property of the East Germans who blew later it up and by the Eighties it was only used as car park and it's frontage an impressive short journey lay-by for buses.

Bassetts Allsorts KCW75N

I suppose as we get older that thing that made a trip to town on a Saturday Afternoon dwindles, but even now it is still a little bit special with a different lot of people we might see or someone nice we haven't bumped into for ages. As for buses though today every day is very much the same but that wouldn't be so bad if we were still treated to a smart Bassetts Duple bodied Leopard like KCW75N. Life moves on and apart from liveries I think the full-size offerings from the big groups by far outshine those excuse for a PSV, the minibus. Coming up behind is a Happy Days Plaxton Supreme bodied Ford RUJ 341R which came from Allerton of Bywater whilst the Bassetts vehicle was one of many from it's favorite source W. Robinson of Great Harwood.

Yelloway's XNE188S at Taunton

Those were the days, a time when I could go directly from Stafford to see my mother near Plymouth riding on one of Yelloway's superb AEC Reliance coaches which a decent pause for lunch on the way at Bristol where I could top up on local bus photos. There was also time to hop off for photos too like here at Taunton.