Stroud Valleys National in Cheltenham

 This Stroud Valleys Leyland National didn't look too out of place amongst Cheltenham's Edwardian architecture.

The Midland Red Bus Home D7 4126

 Till the late the Sixties the Midland Red garage at Stafford was almost exclusively double-deck with a large number of D7's especially from the first 100 4078-4177. Displaying the wrong service number instead of S98 No.4126 is resting after making the climb up to The Crown at Hyde Lea. Once it reaches the Top of the World on the Newport Road it will change to an S88 and continue to Castle Church. Buses which managed to spend their whole lives at just one garage were a rarity and this was one of them.

A Kind of Nationalism NHA 265M

 In the old days when we still used film, when we got our prints back from the high-street processors they were often quite poor and rather disappointing and this was no exception. Thanks to digital software it's nice to be able to put some life colour and detail back into these views especially when they were as good as this for it certainly makes me feel nostalgic for Stafford as it was. I reckon it was taken in about 1982 when the town was full of Leyland Nationals and numerically the first 265 spent most of it's life here mainly on the town services.  

Flying The Ensign

 Bus dealerships and scrapyards hold a certain fascination for bus enthusiasts and especially when viewed from outside. I regularly had to drive passed the large Ensign premises at Purfleet. I am sure the old East Kent Guy Arab converted to open-top had a bright future but I cannot say the same for the Wast Midlands East-Lancs bodied Daimler Fleetline 4462 TOE462N ordered by Coventry Corporation on former LT DMS Fleetline OJD 449R but you never know.  

A Manchester Routemaster 136 CLT

 After Deregulation it seemed everyone in the business found an excuse to buy some iconic Routemasters. I think Manchester bought eight with Leyland engines but London Transport was not happy that they blatantly ran them in the same red and with a similar LT roundel. One has to admit former RM 1136 does looked rather smart as it headed towards West Didsbury. This is not the first time they operated them in the city as in the Sixties RM1414 was loaned for evaluation, but it was probably just out of curiousity as by then the future was already accepted to be rear-engined. 

South Wales Hestair Duple 425 131 999BCY

A one-off with South Wales was this quite rare Hestair Duple 425 to National Express Rapide specification. No doubt 131 with it's cherished registration 999BCY was a familiar sight at Heathrow Airport as it regularly passed through travelling up to London. .
 

Not A Pigeon OR A Dove: Vision BJ11-DUV

 Vision Bus had quite a presence in Bolton with a good assortment of vehicles. These included some Wright bodied Volvo B9TL's from First Capital

Job Done! Ipswich TRY 121H

Initially at least when Ipswich bought four ECW bodied Bristol RELL buses off Leicester they didn't really need to paint them. All they had to do was paint over the maroon band and paint it green. 

Wilts & Dorset Roe Bodied Olympian

 The Privatised Wilts and Dorset bought a number of used Leyland Olympians including this example in Bournemouth with a less common Roe body that had been new to London Country as LR45, and then part of the North East after the LCBs was split-up. 

Skibby Rejser in Roskilde

 In Denmark there was still that feeling of catching the village bus as many long established family owned independents operated one or two routes from there like this Skibby Rejser DAB-Leyland about to make the return trip from Roskilde.

Arriva VDL 3784 in Stafford

 Arriva buses in Stafford used to be a very familiar sight but not so much these days. Even though like this bus which has come in from Telford the service terminates at Earl Street so the buses can only really be seen going passed the sttion and the park. That's rather a pity as I rather like their bodied Wright bodied VDL's like 3784. 

Frormer Glenton AEC Reliance EUU 117J

 In Summer Blackpool could offer a fascinating assortment of buses along with so many visiting coaches. Some were very unusual like this former Glenton AEC Reliance with a rare centre-entrance body built to their specification for touring..

Warstone's (Green BUs) Leyland Atlantean No.9 UET-678S

 In the Eighties and Nineties Wolverhampton was alive with interesting Independents with Warstone's Green Bus being the most interesting. As time went on it's fleet became a lot more modern but nevertheless in it's old-fashioned dark green and yellow livery and graphics buses like this quite modern looking former South Yorkshire PTE Alexander bodied Atlantean still had a curious vintage look about them.

Reviving the old East Kent

 The best liveries have a timeless appeal and this East Kent Plaxton Paramount bodied Leyland Tiger standing on the London Embankment looked particularly pleasing and smart in an updated version of it's traditional colours which had been swallowed up by the NBC till now. No.8641 had been FKK-841Y. 

The Snowdon Hoppa!

 A most unusual vehicle in National Express livery was this Iveco minibus No. MCF277 Reg. F77 CJC belonging to Crosville Wales (Cymru). Having arrived with London on the blind it was in reality just doing a feeder to meet the London coach at Shrewsbury and then returning to Pwllheli.

Esjberg Ice-Cream Girl looking Cool

 In Britain we are currently experiencing extremely hot weath in the region of 33'c, and it reminds me of when I arrived in Demnark off the ferry at Esjberg in 1986. It was hot and humid and people were trying to stop the sweat going in their eyes. Then along came a very cool loooking blond girl with her ice-cream. As usual out of town buses depart outside the railway station and a fairly new DAB-Leyland of Strandgaad is on the bus stand for Varde and Skjern a bit further up the Jutland coast. That evening there was a very loud thumder storm.

Midland Red Leyland National 626 in Banbury

 The Seventies and here the Eighties is far enough away for us now to feel nostalgia for the NBC and even it's ubiquitous Leyland National. That applies even more so to them when they were nicely turned out in suitable surroundings like Midland Red 626 here in Banbury where they were still pleasingly using the old 'BMMO' B for 'Banbury Town Service' prefix.

Harrow Buses M1455 E455 SON at Heathrow

 As it carries a Birmingham registration it would be easy to surmise that this MCW Metrobus Mk2 with Harrow Buses at Heathrow was a West Midlands surplus bus but in fact they were new. One of the many slightly odd things at happened during that busy period towards the end of the Eighties.

Bristol City-Line Olympian-Roe

 Before I start blogging again I just want to make sure the posts are displaying properly and this City-Clipper 9528 looks okay.

Wythall and I: Dismount and Start Again: Welcome Back

I'm pleased that this my old Busworld Photography blog is still live on Blogger and that a few people still visit and leave messages. Those who want to visit will be pleased to know I plan to start posting on here again. I always liked the look of the pages so I am not going to change anything much, but I do have a lot of new images to post especially as I now have a really good scanner to bring to life the old monochrome negatives which have sat in a suitcase for thirty-eight years. 

I grew up in Midland Red country and I am still fond of BMMO buses and coaches and I particularly like the buses built before the lightweight era like this solid S12 belonging to the Wythall Transport Museum.