BUSWORLD PHOTOGRAPHY
I AM CHRISTOPHER LEACH THE ARTIST. I started this blog so that I can share with everyone my vast collection of transport photographs showing a personal and nostalgic view of the industry with images that span some 45 years taking in the U.K and some of Europe. I have no darkroom and so rather than being the perfectionist after tidying them up I upload the images warts and all, and even those that won't scan squarely or are scratched. In a way it adds age and character. You are all free to download these for your personal use but please remember I still own them and you are not just free to use them without prior permission for any knd of publishing. Click on images to enlarge them and if you want to see more leave your comments or visit my website for the mother-site with galleries including those Buses & Girls: PICTUREWORLD
Monday, 30 October 2017
Saturday, 28 October 2017
Eastbourne Leyland Panther
Eastbourne was one of the bodybuilder East-Lancs loyal customers and although mainly a double-deck fleet it bought some Leyland Panthers and a Daimler Roadliner. Of interest is the old post office telephones Morris Minor van for these were a popular buy with the less wealthy motorist. In my hitch-hiking days I rode in quite a few as they were common and I remember one owner complaining that he was always being pulled up by the police for impromptu road checks.
Wednesday, 25 October 2017
Remember Atlas Express?
I don't think the tour operator who owned this chunky and angular coach seen in Trieste had anything to do with the parcel carrier once a familiar sight in the UK. I had forgotten about them till now but I seem to recall they had green 7.5ton vans with a map of the world on the sides. As well as Mercedes coaches we are treated to an interesting mix of Fiats so prevalent in Italy.
Tuesday, 24 October 2017
With Miramare a scruffy Deregulated Leyland Fleetline
Deregulation flooded the market with numerous new bus operators and some made an effort to turn out smart buses such as Black Prince which was one of the best. But also to be found working in Leeds was this very scruffy former West Milands PTE Leyland Fleetline with MCW bodywork owned by the little known operator called Miramare.
Monday, 23 October 2017
Trent Bristol RELL at Derby
I rather liked the old bus station in Derby as it always busy and could boast a good selection of vehicles. There was a good mix here with a Marshall bodied Bristol RELL that Trent gained as part of the break-up of North Western. Also to be seen was a National Mark1 and a 2, and one of the ECW bodied Atlanteans that wasn't lost in the garage fire, and from the little I can see of it I guess a Willowbrook bodied Leopard.
Sunday, 22 October 2017
Open Top and Open Top's
It's perhaps fortunate that the average tourist isn't interested in buses as if they were all enthusiasts there would be hardly anyone on the former LT Fleetline of London Pride instead they would all be packed like sardines on the former East Kent Park-Royal bodied AEC Regent run by enthusiasts with Big Bus. Perhaps it's a good thing that the champion of the minibus Harry Blundred who sadly died recently didn't go into this market as he would have had open-top Transits with standees falling on to your lap lol as you went passed Big Ben..
Saturday, 21 October 2017
My Efe Collection: Some Southern & western National
When I started collecting model buses I thought I would just get one example from each operator. Of course it doesn't work like that and whether it be plenty of choice or just a subconscious bias I do tend to have several from certain fleets. I have had more exposure to this firm than the other BTC companies and if one counts Royal Blue as well I have accumulated eight vehicles. I expect too that my enthusiasm for certain favourites is also shared by others so the likes of EFE follow our whims to make sales. One of my earliest child bus memories was going to Newquay with my mother and riding on a pre-war Bristol K5G open-topper which took us back to our hotel along the cliffs at Newquay. Also seen there was one of the Bristol LS coaches like the one at the end, so I had to have one of those. That holiday also sticks in my mind as I put my head out the window of the carriage on the single track line from Par and got a painful soot smut in my eye from the little tank engine as it chuffed it's way down to the coast.
Bee Line Metrobus in Stockport
One thing to be said about the Eighties bus scene it was certainly colourful. Red and yellow seemed to be a popular combination as can been seen here on a former West Midlands MCW Metrobus at Stockport. Operated in Bee Line livery it certainly looked better than in it's parent North Western most memorable 'jazzy' scheme.
Friday, 20 October 2017
National Express Jonckheere Rapide Coach
In the Eighties National Express tried to impose what they called the 'Expressliner' a Volvo B10M with Plaxton bodywork on to it's contractors. Thankfully not all did and the idea was dropped so we could still find a bit of variety at least. Amongst the more exotics was a Volvo B10M with imported Jonckheere bodywork. Some designs one goes off but with the passage of time I've grown quite fond of them and they had a good reputation for quality too. A nice touch is the way the National Express stripes on the bodywork seem to mirrors the slats of the front grill. I'm not sure who owned it, but S.U.T had some of this batch at least. A338 YDT was killing time on the London Embankment.
Thursday, 19 October 2017
Wednesday, 18 October 2017
Monday, 16 October 2017
Crosville Trainer 616 LFM Must be Tea-Break
I missed the half-cab buses when those outside London quickly disappeared from the streets. But a few hung on as driver trainers like this Crosville Lodekka standing outside Warrington Bus Station whilst they all had a cuppa I expect. After all they all have to learn how to drink tea and read the paper so that they never have to commit that sin of leaving on time lol. Many of these trainers moved around the country but this was once DLG 6 not to be mistaken for DLB 967 which was 616 HFM.
Saturday, 14 October 2017
Thursday, 12 October 2017
Wilts & Dorset Olympian A903 JPR
A Wilts and Dorset coach-seated Leyland Olympian arrives in Bristol having made the long hilly journey up from Salisbury. I liked this spot at the entrance of Marlborough Street Bus Station and could usually cope with the bright sublight ahead but it's harder to get definition with a mostly white bus.
Wednesday, 11 October 2017
Travel West Midlands Enviro to Druids Heath on the 50 Service
I haven't had it many years but my well used Cannon G12 camera seems to have finally packed up with a shutter software problem so it's nice in a way that the last photo I took with it was a good one of an Enviro double-decker in Moseley on the even on Sundays very frequent 50 Service. Thankfully I have a spare G12 but I am not out of the woods yet as that one was playing up too.
Monday, 9 October 2017
New Volvo Bus at Neuchatel
In the late-Seventies Swiss towns and cities had to abandon their traditional colours for a corporate orange livery but thankfully the idea was dropped and most returned to their old colours or took the opportunity to change it to something new. Apart from the addition of the white relief these were the traditional hues at Neuchatel but applied in a modern way as seen on this still new Volvo in the Nineties.
Friday, 6 October 2017
Chesterfield National2 at Pond Street, Sheffield
Chesterfield buses used to be green and cream but after privatisation adopted this mainly blue and yellow livery. As well as National2's like this there were Series Ones, Dennis Falcons and maybe the odd surviving Leyland Panther. Sheffield's sky-line in this view of Pond Street is dominated by recent architecture and it does look rather boxy and unwelcoming, a bit like the bus station really as bus enthusiasts with cameras weren't welcome here.
Thursday, 5 October 2017
Arrowbrook in Chester
Busy Chester in 2015 and with just a month to go it seems all are ready for Christmas. Even the shade of green on the Arrowbrook Alexander 400 bodied Volvo looks a bit like Xmas wrapping paper. I'm sure though non-Welsh speakers might struggle with the destination on the Arriva Optare they might as well have written it in Chinese.
Wednesday, 4 October 2017
Tuesday, 3 October 2017
London Buses M 1287 B287 WUL
I am probably over simplifying it here but generally one found more of London Buses Leyland Titans in the South and East whilst like this example, there were more Metrobuses in the North and West. In the long gone Sixties one had a good idea how far out from the centre of London one had reached as firstly the RTW's dwindled away, then the RTL's leaving just red RT's and RF's and of course pockets of Routemaster routes as the trolleybuses they replaced came a good way out too.
Monday, 2 October 2017
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