Aldershot & District 462 EOT

Some buses have a more authentic feel than others and the one at Alton came complete with it's on traffic congestion as everyone starting thinking about heading for home. This Alexander bodied Dennis Loline bus must have been retained as a trainer for I have a picture of her taken through the fence at Reading in my black and white Eighties days.

Lynx with the Past: Piers of the Realm

Sadly one type does all right whilst the other is all at sea which is a pity as I'm sure most of us here in Britain love our Victorian seaside piers. When one thinks BL built the Mini Metro it's surprising that the Leyland Royal Tiger was as good as it was. But like this crumbling pier in Brighton it needed money spending on it to put it right.

334 CRW: Meet Rodney

Playbus is not a very auspicious end for such a noble bus as this former MCW bodied Coventry City Daimler of about 1963 but on the other hand it sometimes gives the vehicle a few more years to get noticed by preservationists and I'm sure it's this one I rode on at the Aston Manor farewell event and very nicely it was presented too.

H667 GPF: London & Country brings the countryside to London

Like many later East-Lancs products these buses built on Leyland, Dennis and Volvo chassis for Drawline were not terribly beautiful. But for me somehow  the London and Country buses looked just right as was the two-tone green livery which along with the others was a refreshing change from all those legions of red buses in London.

AAP 650T: Brighton Sophistication

Seaside Resorts have a reputation for being rather tacky, not all of them of course and  Brighton can pride itself on being cosmopolitan too with it's affluent 'London-on-Sea' image drawing in a more sophisticated resident. This Brighton and Hove Bristol VR with it's bright fairly simple livery and neat traditional lettering was a credit to the town. Imaginatively updated I still think these old liveries preserving the spirit of the past employing proper primary colours are still the best and like other well presented things most pleasing to the eye

Are you absolutely sure this is Prague?

Well of course it is but it is not something you should take for granted as unlike the historic Renault buses that gave Paris it's strange vintage 1930's feel or the big red Routemaster that goes with the mini-skirts and commercialisation of the 'Union Jack' if Sixties Swinging  London these rather businesslike Tatra trams have operated all over the former Communist Block, and not only that but often almost in the same colours. Naturally being a city icon the Prague examples tend to be some of the smartest . Ugliness was almost a trademark in the Communist East so by their standards someone rather let the side down as although still rather functional these these Tatra had a welcoming elegance.

D92 CFA: A Budget Bus Indeed

A budget bus indeed and at the time some might think hardly worth the film film but as you can see from this view at the back of M&S in Stafford as usual I get my money's-worth and one day people will admire the way I managed to capture all this nostalgia from the 1990's and indeed 'cut price' Budget Bus was gone again almost before one realised it had arrived. Of course my patch is not the Taj Mahal of even Trafalgar Square but of course many many others will have pressed the shutter to freeze images of those.

Leicester Form London Transport Metro-Scania Metropolitan MD 6

With a history of good maintenance former Leicester buses readily found new homes with other operators including fellow Municipals. But when the price was right they bought a few used buses themselves including some former London Metropolitan double-deckers a type already in service here as the city had in an effort to distance themselves from Leyland had built up a large fleet of these sophisticated Anglo-Swedish MCW-Scania buses including single-deckers.

1564 Merseybus AN68 Leyland Atlantean PKB 564M

At the time of it's demise Liverpool Corporation was buying Alexander bodied Leyland Atlantean AN68 buses and these remained the normal choice during the PTE era as well. Even on a bright winter's day my black and white photo seems to make everything seem much greyer than it was, but the colour of these buses didn't help brighten a run-down Eighties Merseyside.

Pilkington's Volvo National PIB 5820: A bit of a Fib Eh?

Most of us know a Leyland National when they see one even if it carries a Volvo badge. Perhaps it was one of the many that had it's nails-in-a-tin sounding Leyland 510 engine replaced by something more loved. But of course one would have to dig further to find what the original identity of Pilkington's PIB 5823 was as it strode through Blackburn.

Memories of Bretonside: Westward VWX350X

I'm not sure Plymouth will be quite the same now that the mighty Stagecoach is replacing all the faded and rather old First Barbi liveried buses in Plymouth. Of course the changes since Western National days have been gradual and even though the decline of Bretonside Bus Station has been a slow one it has always been with us as a landmark and facility. Now sadly run down In the far off days of the Nineties it was still a hive of activity and not only a bit of a sun-trap but an excellent place for a bit of bus photography. A stalwart of the period was the Shearings coach with it's winning Van-Hool Volvo B10M combination but even though stylistically looking a bit dated the former Wallace Arnold Bova still looked quite classy in subtle Westward greys.

Bendybuses Outside London T95 JHN

Since they were first tried in the Eighties in the UK articulated buses and coaches have failed to take off in a big way suffering from a bad press and legislation like motorway speed restrictions.. Stagecoach saw their appeal on speedy longer trunk routes including this rather attractive Jonckheere bodied Volvo on a long run to Grimsby from Sheffield.