Bearing a registration which once graced a Brighton and Hove Lodekka was this quite smart Plaxton bodied Leyland Tiger of Road Car, better known as the former Lincolnshire. It was seen in it's latter days before the firm was sold to Yorkshire Traction if it had not already happened and then on to the even hungry Stagecoach. Well away from it's usual haunts it was enjoying a summer shower in Tavistock on the edge of Dartmoor in 1999 or 2000 on an Airdale Tours charter.
The Coachlink brand came to Lincs Road Car with Traction Group ownership, I believe LRC having previously used the "Lincolnshire Express" brand and a bright orange(!) livery for those coaches not still in NBC's National Express, National Holidays or green "Venetian blind" liveries.
ReplyDeleteStagecoach didn't get their hands on Traction Group until quite late, 2005 or 2006, when the owner of Traction Group (Frank Carter) decided it was time to retire and sold up.
I'm not sure when LRC's coaching activities ceased; I think it was before the Stagecoach takeover, but for much of the first decade of this century I'd lost interest in the UK bus scene so wasn't paying any attention.
I think Frank Carter did the right thing don't you Ross.
ReplyDeleteOh, yes. Always better to get out while the going's good, and if he had stayed and struggled on he would have found himself having to deal with all the fall out of the English National Concessionary Pass farce. I'm sure he considers himself well out of it!
ReplyDeleteI've just Googled to see if he's still alive, which he appears to be, and apparently he was awarded an OBE in 2014 for services to business and charity. He was 75 then, so hopefully he's still hale and hearty and enjoying his retirement.