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
Friday, 17 October 2025
An Eastern Counties Ambassador at Norwich
One of my favourite places for bus photography was Norwich especially as it was a late Bristol Lowdekka stronghold. Also it had an interesting large bus station on a slope with a good sized bus garage attached. One thing I liked about the Tilling Group and firms like Eastern Counties was the way it built attractive bus stations in brick with good facilities and kept them clean and smart even in the normally less proud cost-cutting NBC era. In that respect it often outshone parts of the BET Group like Nortern General which even in some important locations seemed to have rows of sad concrete and or cast-iron shelters, but of course that might have been on the part of the Authority which owned the land and provided the facilities. Perhaps it's worth mentioning too that standards were different in a grirrt working class town whereas Norwich was considered to be the unspoken capital of East Anglia I guess. Probably the only drawback here buswise was being at it's heart one only really saw Eastern Counties buses even if in the NBC era it was by another name. Now called Ambassador one of it's coaches a Duple Dominant bodied Leyland Leopard makes a call on it's way up to Great Yarmouth.
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2 comments:
The 79x series were Eastern Counties' "Eastline" limited stop services, similar to the Midland Red companies' "Midland Express" services. Ambassador Travel was at the time ECOC's coaching unit, later hived off into a separate company for privatisation. I think the 790 came from Cambridge.
So, what you have caught on camera is a National Express liveried coach with Ambassador Travel fleetnames operating an Eastern Counties 'Eastline' service. I think that's what would today be called a branding failure!
I don't suppose any of the passengers cared, though, except that they may have thought a National Express coach was a step up from the usual (otherwise identical) red-and-white DP-liveried coach.
Thanks Ross, yes those bland names were very forgettable.
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