The Only Diamonds on display at Walsall Street Market?

Some towns I like more than others and as for Walsall it seems to have something missing, everything seems pushed together or apart like the bus stations and there is no obvious physical heart which says to the visitor I've arrived I'm here. Many of our poorer towns particularly in the north are mixed ethnic and very multi-cultural these days and I admire the way all the people mix and just get on with their lives. It's never boring here either and there are still a few bus operators to be seen at Bradford Place including Diamond with it's distinctive dark blue livery.

Blackburn GUY CBV 433: Two Faces of Modernism

Blackpool with it's tacky bling might still have it's tower which can be seen from miles away but even humble Morecambe has it's architectural treasure the magnificent Art-Deco Midland Hotel. Having just passed it on the recent Ribble Enthusiasts Running Day was this Blackburn Guy with Crossley bodywork which had been restored to original condition. When built in 1949 this Manchester  streamlined styling was considered state of the art in some town halls especially after the austere wartime utility buses but it looked rather ugly on this Arab111 especially as it's over decorative lining-out belonged in the past on the old tramcars it replaced.

Oh la la! Going Top-Less in Brighton

I suppose after Blackpool the town of Brighton must be Britain's best known holiday resort but there are many and the nice thing is they are all different. Brighton and Hove with it's royal connections aspires to be a little bit posh but fails but being the favourite resort for Londoners makes up for it by being a little bit cosmopolitan and certainly bohemian in the 'Swinging London' King's Road sort of way. Blackpool had Ribble buses and Brighton Southdown both interesting fleets which were associated very much with Leylands in BET days but as elsewhere within the later NBC years had to buy Bristol VR's. But even under the NBC both were able to take some Atlanteans and whereas Southdown got rid of theirs quite quickly for more Bristols Ribble managed to just buy a few and stick to the now reliable and better AN68.  TNJ 994S might look like it has a fairly standard ECW body  but it was in fact a convertible to open-top. I suppose by this time even open-toppers had to be modern enough to do all year round 'OPO' but I think we all preferred the resorts when the most ancient buses like old-donkeys were given an easy retirement gently cruising along the promenade. Oh well it was not all bad for here at least on the South Coast they managed to keep one or two.

Signs of the Time

I'm afraid many of our towns are starting to look a bit like the Amazon Jungle as the advertising and brand names reach out trying to grab more of the available light. Add to these the mass of often confusing road signs and other bits of street furniture that make pedestrians feel like second rate citizens compared to the much more important car. So the bus home is a bit of a Diamond like YT51 EAO in Bilston when it takes the more sensible shoppers home for a welcome cup of tea and to reflect on all the things we forgot to get because they couldn't remember the name.

You can't kill off a name like Crosville

If I were to go back in time I would never for a moment believe things that have happened around me. Who would have thought that someone with a love for period Crosville buses would set up a working and heritage company with that name in Weston super Mare of all places. Good luck to them and I can't wait to see Midland Red AD2's, S8, and S13's trundling around Skipton, or ancient Blackpool trams in Bilston. On a more serious note Heritage and tourism is one of the things that keeps parts of the UK alive today now that we hardly make anything any more and yes I'm glad I'm old enough to remember these Bristol L's etc...

NMB 70P Monochrome all weather photography

The freedoms of digital photography and glorious colour have made bus photography much more simple but it is no way nearly as versatile as black and white where one could be more expressionistic and capture the romance of the seasons where the same colour  image might usually suggest it was better not to bother. Here the grey tones beautifully portray the delicious misery of a wet day making us still want to be there to enjoy damp socks surrounded by much more fitting chocolate brown Chester buses including Dennis Dominators and this short Leopard with it's rare but attractive Northern Counties bodywork.

You had to go to London to see these and of course Blackpool

Blackpool is so well known for it's fleet of fabulous still operational historic trams and older buses that elsewhere had almost all gone plus an individualistic buying policy that once typified the progress Municipal fleets. Hardly surprising then that these short lived little Handybus minibuses like E570 OCW are so easily forgotten. At one time as in much of Lancashire the mighty Leyland Motors ruled here but with it's gradual demise a new favourite supplier came along in the shape of Optare. Even though it now has very little in common with the old Leyland it is one of it's few surviving children as the company was born when the former Charles Roe bodybuilding business in Leeds was privatised with the sell off of British Leyland that had swallowed up the proper Leyland. Optare quickly evolved into a manufacturer of modern but not over-sophisticated operator friendly complete buses. This seaside town has bought a number of it's single-decker ranges and especially the splendid Delta, but now probably forgotten were these eye-catching early minibuses based on a VW which even though not successful showed that minibuses need not look like bread vans. This model was quickly killed off when Optare took over the bus busness of MCW and instead put it's efforts into that manufacturer's to become very successful Metrorider which rather looked like this tiddlers bigger brother. So it was to become something of a rarity only really be found in small numbers in parts of fashionable London and of course here running alongside the trams and other gems here in Blackpool by the sea.

My kind of town: A Saurer DUK in Lugano

Ask the millionaires who live there and they will agree that it's very nice with it's mild climate and laid-back Italian vibe. For those others who use public transport sadly the Lugano trolleybuses have gone but the Postato Bus Station is the busiest in switzerland. Sadly it no longer plays host to Swiss vehicles like this Tuscher bodied 1971 Saurer DUK.

PRESTON BUS STAION MUST NOT BE DEMOLOSHED

The Sixties was a time when we destroyed our Victorian heritage to replace it with nasty tarmac, concrete and low quality high-rise living. Few modern cathedrals to living were built in that era so this bold beautiful statement of local civic pride must not be lost to future generations. The present Preston Council say that the bus station is in the wrong place and has become shabby and draughty, but I'm sure a few thousand spent on improvements would pale into insignificance compared to the cost of erecting such a huge structure today. Also local residents have voted it their favourite building in the town so as usual the powers that be have their own agenda and do not care about it's real importance. Not only is this really fine cutting-edge architecture it needs to be saved too as is about time in Britain we changed our attitude to public transport to something more positive as they do in Europe. Once it's gone I dread to think what will go in it's place, probably another thrown up 'twee village style' red brick folly of a shopping centre with it's fake clock tower and litter fountain. If it happens I don't want to go there again for sure. Whatever happens Preston Bus has gone as another former Municipal falls to the competitive muscle of Stagecoach. At one time like Ribble who were also based here the Corporation had almost only Leyland buses but by the Nineties after production had ceased their numbers were being thinned but as you can see here plenty of buses like 1980 Alexander bodied Leyland Atlantean AN68 UHG 141V still looked extremely smart. Indeed no bus is really pretty but it was a lot nicer than the tall faceless ugly motel it hid maybe warning us of what to expect on this hallowed site.

Walking Home

This is called Bridge Foot in Warrington where traffic from the South enters the town via a bridge across the wide River Mersey. As a girl makes her way home on a Saturday Afternoon one of the town's Network-Warrington Wright bodied VDL single-deckers waits for the lights to change as it approaches the town centre. Once the Mersey was the boundry between the counties of Lancashire and Cheshire but following the reorganisation in 1974 the very Lancashire town of Warrington became firmly in Cheshire. I do quite like Warrington but part of it is because my Grandfather who was a businessman made a lot of his money here as a maltster and from the brewing industry.

Interesting Bus Towns: Hereford:

Traditionally one could always see Red and White buses in Hereford where they met the all-red or red and black Midland Red, the greens and creams of Yeoman's and the brown and red of Wye Valley with it's elegant half-cab coaches and Bedford OB's and small old-fashioned village-petrol-pump-style garage right behind the bus station. Red and White came in from places like Tredegar and Monmouth and even due-west marking it's boundary from that of the huge Birmingham giant with it's BMMO buses to Hay-on-Wye where they met a maroon Western Welsh Tiger Cub bound for Brecon. Even the giant 'Tiling-Green' Bristol Omnibus just about reached here too from Gloucester. In the Eighties Red and White were still coming here but instead of a sturdy pre-Nationalisation ornate double-deck Duple bodied Guy Arab or newer BTC smartly turned out FS Lowdekka one was more likely to see something more like this rather well used looking Plaxton bodied Leyland Leopard on the long x49 Service to Cardiff. However certain things remained from the olden days to remind us of more interesting times and a good example was how this operator not too long ago devolved again from being a part of National Welsh prior to denationalisation still managed to retain the numbering system that went back many years, U-standing for underfloor-engined-single-decker and D for dual-purpose semi-coach. Of course Red and White became a part of the huge Stagecoach and Hereford close to the welsh border still marks it's boundary, but go east and their empire goes almost uninterrupted all the way across to the other side of Cambridge in the heart of East Anglia. Interesting, I will have to do more little features on those interesting border towns where different operator's met.