Hvide or White Bus to Helsingør Volvo B57-60 VBK/Karsen No.6

 One of my favourite Independents in Denmark was Hvide or in English the White Bus based at  Hørsholm. Some of the buses on this 188 route which followed the coastal road up to Helsinger from Klampenborg were branded 'Strand Buses'. It operated DAB-Leyland, Volvo and I even saw an AEC at the garage. Here in 1982 now ten years old we can see how good B57-60  VBK/Karsen bodied No.6 bus looked in that livery. 

HT 448 DAB-Leyland in Copenhagen

My latest scanner doesn't scan colour prints as well as black and white and some of them look a bit too rich. However it can make for s nice enlarged postcard look and who doesn't want to see a street-scene of an HT DAB-Leyland in Copenhagen.
 

Niels Søndergaard Sørensen, Vorgod

This is one of the many places in Denmark where I stopped for half an hour or so to catch the the various liveries of the lovely danish buses. I thing this Aabenraa bodied Volvo B9-60 of the family firm called Sondergaard  meaning in English 'South Farm' and was probably at the Herning on it's short journey to Videbaek. It was new in 1983 and after leaving Denmark in 2004 and ran in Poland till 2009 

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.

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.

DSB Volvo 719 on Kolding Town Service 4 to Strandhuse

Kolding seemed to be a a very typical Danish town and when photographed in the Eighties this Aabenraa bodied Volvo was also very typical of the almost 600 strong DSB railways fleet which despite seeming quite widespread had buses based in about twelve locations. The bus here was on a town service which a few years earlier when I came in 1979 was still worked by fairly  elderly cream painted DAB-Leylands as the town still had it's own bus service. However despite DSB being almost totally Volvo the twenty-six buses allocated here included a few of the twenty DABs which made up the rest of the fleet.

Ben's Turistbusser: The Line of Duty

Sticking an ugly service indicator on the roof of this beautifully styled Bova is rather like putting a rack and ladders on an E-type Jaguar. But the traditional Danish livery style and heavy signwritting didn't make it like a nice bed-mate either more like a catapillar on your pillow. It was from the village of Østbirk and might have actually been owned by Bent's Turistbusser.

Hjørring Privatbaner DAB Bus in Aalborg

In Denmark 'pravatbaner' (private bus) didn't mean the same as it might in the UK. This was one the Independent operators one came across everywhere and particularly in Jutland, all with modern vehicles and in a whole variety of different liveries. The unrelieved sandstone orange colour on this DAB Leyland at Aalborg was not typical though but quite smart, and other Independent buses can be also be seen in the background as there were links to all the nearby small towns and large villages as well as Blokhus on the windswept west coast with it's fine sandy beaches and famous for it's giant sand dunes.

Ballerup 53

Just as in Britain the bus scene has totally changed in Denmark since the Eighties. Not only would I get hopelessly lost in those Copenhagen suburbs each place would no longer reward me with different operators and even unusual buses like these Van-Hool bodied Volvos at Ballerup.

tylstrup Rutebiler Scania

An impressive Danish bus was this Scania with a Ringstead body built in that town. Of course as elsewhere here buses are operated under the owners name, but also common is by their colour and also as here by the large village they come from like this one which was taking a break in Aalborg before returning home north to Tystrup in 1982.

Hvide Busser at Klampenborg St.

Denmark used to be awash with independent bus operators and this included within the Copenhagen area where some were quite big. Those the biggest however found themselves taken over by HT their 'PTE' but others remained with a decent sized fleet of buses. Hvide Busser was an example of this and it ran some AEC's when I first visited it in 1982 but by the time I took this they were running newer more normal Volvo B10M's like this example at Klampenborg Station.  Often operators were known by the colour of it's buses and hvide is as you can probably guess white.

Peddle-Power in Copenhahen HT 1583

Not only is the flat landscape around the Danish capital flat and ideal for cyclists they are not a hurrying lycra-clad race apart in their ray-bands and tinted goggle sunglasses at war with all motorists and even humble pedestrians as they assert 'peddle-power', instead they are normal people like the rest of us and indeed going stark naked above the shoulders feeling the wind in their hair and the sun on their face. Crossing the Amager Bridge in Copenhagen can be most pleasant in Summer but when those cold easterly winds blow it's another matter and I would much rather be on one of the now long gone DAB bodied HT Scanias which stood out from the rest of the fleet.

Thorkils of Koge at Roskilde

                                                                         A Danish Leyland-DAB

HT Scania 1682

In Eighties Leyland lost it's grip on some of it's key customers like the Danish HT of Copenhagen where as well as Volvo which it had always vied with Scania started to take chunks too. Looking very much like one of the former DAB Leylands was one of those swedish buses dating from about 1984-5. 

Minerva Rundfart Volvo in Copenhagen

A rather typical European coach from the Sixties was by this time in 1982 an elderly Aabenraa bodied Volvo belonging to Minerva Rundfart with it's endless rows of small side windows and probubly dated from about 1967-68. Indeed it looked in original condition too with it's traditional neat letting and understated subtle traditional livery. By this time most tourist coaches in Copenhagen were fairly modern in bright liveries so I wonder if there was a bus enthusiast at work here for this sound looking vehicle should have been preserved.

Skibby Rejser Setra in Roskilde

Because of it's museum for them and connections with the Vikings this arguably makes Roskilde perhaps after Copenhagen the best known town in Denmark. It was certainly memorable as a bus location as it was just on the fringe of the conurbation's PTE HT area, but as well as a DSB dark red railways route from Ringstead where there was an outpost, it could boast a number of Independents. Most used the usual DAB's and Volvo B10M's but Skibby Rejser from the village of the same name coach boast this smart Setra.

HT DAB 2054 in Copenhagen

It must be an age thing but often when I visit a place it's the oldest buses that catch my eye and gain affection. These DAB Leylands were nicely rounded and some dated from 1964 with examples still in service in 1982 from 1967. However 2054 was one of the last examples of this family of similar buses dating from October 1972 which went as far as 2058. However some had a bit more time as thy were being repainted.

Edelskov Ford Plaxton in Copehagen

When I grew up Britin seemed to dominate half of the world with it's bus exports now it's the other way around I'm afraid. But in he Eighties Ford nand Plaxton found a market for it's products in Denmark where they would have been quite cheap and ideal for the low speeds allowed and flat terrain. Edelskov was one of the local tour operators in Copenhagen.

New Month: A New BUS in Roskilde

When buses had a bit more chrome red paint and polished wheel-trims I was a bit of sucker for brand new ones. As it is the first of the month I thought I would add one and in this instance it is a Roskilde Turisttrafik DAB Leyland. These DAB's looked more like Leyland's than many Leylands did . I probably have not loved them so much in later years if I had to operate them but I was a Leyland fan till the end, it was just the sounds and the traditional image of zoo animals and of course big cats and badges. 

Parks of Hamilton in Copenhagen

A cyclist passes a pausing Van-Hool B10M of Parks in Copenhagen on a Global Tours contract. As you can see there was no health and safety paranoia here, indeed the cyclist doesn't even need to watch where he is going. Another Volvo this time of HT passes but as you can imagine they get used to errant cyclists.