Porto Leyland Royal Tiger Worldmaster 501 in 1984

Shaken to pieces on these stone sets every day a number of these 1960's Leyland Worldmasters in Porto were rebodied by the same builder Salvador Caetano in the Eighties but No.501 was an unlucky one. However it wasn't tragic as I was told this particular bus stayed in service and since has been preserved.

H.Espihito Santo in Porto

A hot afternoon in Porto in 1984 and two buses of J.Espihito Santo (excuse my spelling) are waiting to depart. Both have local bodywork by UTIC but the Leyland was a lot newer than the AEC and looked very British with it's Leyland National2 windscreen.

Porto 97

Two Lancia trolleybuses in Porto in 1984.

Railway Bus in Porto

In Portugal the state railway operated a few buses as well including this Volvo seen in Porto.

Moreira, Gomes e Costas

Seen in Porto in 1984 was this very smart very new Utic bodied Leyland which could boast a very low registration number NC 0008.

A hot and busy Porto

An unorthodox bus picture from Portugal where Iveco trolleybus 165 vies to catch the eye with all the other distractions in this bustling city view.

RN 4887: Market Day in Caldas Portugal

1984 was still a good time to visit Portugal as there were still plenty of British buses albeit with a local flavour to be enjoyed. RN was their equivalent of our NBC and it's orange and white buses really stood out. Somehow Manchester's similar initial PTE SELNEC livery never looked quite so good maybe it was just the lack of sunshine and light soft stonework to set it off. Nearly all the fleet seemed to have UTIC bodywork on Leyland or more commonly AEC chassis.

Lancia Utec bodied Trolleybus 22 in Porto

This single-deck trolleybus seen in Porto in the 80's might look quite British but was in in fact a Lancia as were most of the later trolleybuses in Portugal if not all.

Rebodied Royal TigerWorldmaster 488 in Porto

Older bus types used to be a lot more rugged than today but as for bodywork that was a different matter as in the UK corrosion was a serious headache whilst in places lie Portugal with indifferent road surfaces and cobbled streets bodies shook to bits and buses like this Leyland Worldmaster were rebodied. As for the conductors on the Porto trolleybuses they had a lot more to do than just take fares!

All jammed up in Portugal

I don't  think I know where this Caetano bodied Setra might have been photographed in Portugal it was 1984 but I'm sure someone will know where it is with that grand building as a backdrop.

MAN Tour Coach from Portugal

At first I thought this was a leftover from my holiday in Portugal then I noticed all the unexciting mucky yellow Trebants and the odd Wartborg so I realised this must be the old East Berlin before The Berlin Wall finally tumbled.

Volvo Coach in Portugal

Seen in Portugal in 1984 this Volvo coach reminds me of those attractive bodies which came out of Holland and Belgium in the late Sixties. Indeed at first glance it could almost be mistaken for a Van-Hool but I expect it just a local product.

At Porto: Portugal Railway Guy No.7

The Railway buses in Portugal had unusually painted fronts maybe to mimic the locomotives and it reminds me of a British livery in the Sixties for a UK operation called Zebra. But despite the familiar Utic body this was not an AEC,  or even Leyland, it was the far less common Guy.

RN 6701: Rush Hour in Lisbon

In Portugal in 1984 many comuters still used public transport even if it did mean having to stand on an overcrowded bus like the RN Utic bodied AEC.

RN 8502

Believe it or not it's getting on for thirty years since I went to Portugal in 1984 so I hope you don't expect me to remember exactly where I took this atmospheric view of Utic bodied AEC of RN 8502. Of course had it been an English holiday I would have remembered it as it would have been the only day the sun came out. I'm only jesting of course as even though we get plenty of wet and grey stuff we do enjoy decent long periods of good weather sometimes.

Porto what a wonderful place with very British looking Lancia trolleybuses, a Sixties department store sitting happily beside a Gaudiesque Art Nouveau front cinema and of course that baking heat.

Not surprisingly serious tourists take notes so they know what and where they took their photos and especially on a Cosmos coach tour with it's numerous stops each day. But for me that doesn't spoil this 1984 shot too much of a smartly turned out RN 4440, a Utic bodied AEC taken at a typical town square with it's municipal flower beds of lush exotic plants and no doubt small gentle fountain.

Porto 62 & 468

Despite it's very British look this Porto trolleybus bound loading for Gondomar was an Italian Lancia with bodywork by Dalfra. No. 468 was one of several late-Sixties built Leyland Worldmasters that was rebodied in the early Eighties by Utic. It was nice that they were fond enough of them to put the old Leyland badges on to the new bodies.

Proudly displaying old Leopard Badge in Porto

I think we could all do with a bit of sunshine and warmth so here is a colourful Portuguese Utic bodied Leyland rumbling over the hot dusty cobbled sets in Porto in 1984.

RN 8030 in Evora

The orange and cream RN livery looks far more suited to sunny Portugal than the wet street of Greater Manchester where it soon looked grubby and down at heal on SELNEC and GMT buses. One of the nicest places is the historic fortified town of Evora in whose narrow streets could be seen some smart elderly buses like this Utic bodied Leyland Royal Tiger Worldmaster that had recently been absorbed into RN.