Shearings Grand Tourer

Even though I don't dislike the current Shearings inky-blue livery which is a lot more distinctive than the old cream colours with some lettering, I was certainly sad to see the demise of those unmistakable Wallace Arnold Volvos when the two big coaching names merged. But I had often admired the Shearings/WA Grand Tourer coaches as they trundled down the M6 going in the opposite direction at weekends for they seem to have a definite WA feel about them. Fortunately I was able to catch a photo of one of them resting at the Bristol, Gordano Services when I was heading away to Devon in August.

Midland Red over the hump-back bridges at Doxey: 1979 Bus Photography, new inspiration

As a youngster and through the Sixties I was 'bus mad' but the changes brought about by the 1968 Transport Act stopped me in my tracks for with the new regime came the death of much of the bus scene as I had known it. The new National Bus Company in particular turned the colours of old bus companies with fine traditions into a kind of unappetising dollup of school food, one version pea-green and the other looking like weak tomato soup. I also hated those grey wheels so I gave up photography for ten years, but two things restored my interest. Firstly I wanted to catch some images of the last of the half-cabs before they were gone and including in 1979 as funny as it may sound now the fast dissappearing London Routemaster!. But the other discovery was much more significant, it was a book by Ray Stenning called 'A National Bus Company Album'. Not only did the book write more about the places and the world the buses worked in it included interesting illustrations from the best bus photographers each with their own distinctive style. My favourite by far was Tom Moore but this now historically interesting shot of Midland Red National 525 heading back towards Stafford Town Centre on the Doxey Road is pure Tony Moyes. Indeed whenever I find a nice spot and wait for the bus that never seems to come I always think he would have been more organised than me. As for the view, even though the old railway bridge in the background over the main West Coast Line with it's sharp bend turning across the main gate of the Universal Grinding Wheel Company is still there, the other bridge the one I was standing on and which once with the other span formed a kind of giant roller coaster took you over the now long time closed Uttoxeter Branch Line. It too is no longer in use and stands beside a new bit of flat road like some stranded ancient monument. What's more significant even the trackside landmark, the once large Henry Venables timber yard has moved and the vast site is now an upmarket housing development big enough to get lost in but boring enough not to notice.

Return to Bern: My Childhood was Frozen in Aspic

One of the things I most liked about Switzerland when I returned in 1989 was how little had changed since my schooldays there between 1963-65 and particularly the transport scene in Bern the Capital. Indeed loud FBW buses dating back to 1959 were still pounding along the streets and of course many of the trams and trailers were very much older. This FBW articulated bus dates from 1967 but in this view looks somewhat older. I picked my time to return to Switzerland well for not only have all the Saurer and FBW buses and trolleybuses pretty well gone everything in now in new brighter colours. Maybe the younger people like it but I'm sorry I don't think I could face Bern again now that the city trams, trolleys and motor-buses are painted a kind of harsh fluorescent red.

Wolverhampton Bilston Street Bus Park

Whilst the Bilston Road Garage was being rebuilt many Wolverhampton buses were parked on a tarmaced compound nearby and most of them in this view are naturally Guy Arabs of different vintages

It's OKay: OK Travel in Newcastle

Black and white photography is much more suitable than colour for poor weather conditions like this, just so as long as there is enough available light. Instead of producing dreary pale images one can do something with the views to catch the mood. It really does look miserable in Newcastle on Tyne and only the sight again of old favourites including OK Travel with a Leyland Tiger that lift the spirit enough to wish we were there.

'South Lancashire' Today: North Western' Tomorrow

Until 1929 in the days when it operated trams Lancashire United Transport was known as South Lancashire, but with the coming of trolleybuses it acquired it's more familar name. Even though by the early Nineties LUT was long dead another quite different South Lancashire Transport had been born operating in the same LUT St Helens and Leigh areas. Like many other of the little up-starts this operator eventually fell into the hands of the big boys, in this instance North Western part of Arriva. But till then ran buses in an attractive dark blue and yellow livery like this Cummins engined Alexander bodied Leyland Tiger which was new to Timeline.

A 'Single' to Wolverhampton

Although this view of the bus station in Wolverhampton was taken two years ago it still illustrates the single-deckers one might see there. All these Optare Excels belonging to WMPTE are allocated here and the Arriva former Timeline garage at Shifnal. houses several of the unusual East-Lancs bodied Dennis Falcon bought in the Midland Red North (Drawline) days. One is inclined to say that buses these days look very much the same but in reality as you can see they can be very different, maybe it is those diverse liveries and type variety that is sometimes lacking.

Old buses in Locarno

The favourable warm mild climate enjoyed in the Swiss Canton of Ticino attracts a good number of retired people. Until the Mid-Seventies vehicles carried a larger number-plate at the front and this 1990 view of a smart Mercedes taken in Locarno would suggest free from winter salt corrosion this was a good place for buses to live out their dotage too,

Maidstone & District

After Privatisation M & D never quite dropped the mostly Leaf green based livery it inherited from the National Bus Company and some vehicles never got a much needed face lift like No.2151 a Duple-bodied Leyland Leopard coach doing what it had been doing most days of it's life picking up commuters at London's busy Victoria.

Leigh Bus Station 1980

Leigh is situated half-way between Manchester and Liverpool close to the A580 East Lancs Road and lies at the heart of what was once Lancashire United Territory. At one time before it became a part of Greater Manchester, Leigh had a small fleet of about sixty blue and cream buses which were mostly double-deck. Because of height restrictions at the Holden Road garage all these were of the lowheight or lowbridge variety like this East-Lancs bodied AEC Ronown seen at the Bus Station in it's orange and cream Greater-Manchester PTE days beside a typical attractive Northern Counties bodied Guy Arab belonging to Lancashire United.

Bova Futura

Parts of Switzerland are still very traditional in their ways and deeply Conservative like the high undulating area in the East close to the Austrian Border. Pictured in the mountains and waiting for the low cloud to lift was a modern looking Bova Futura Coach belonging to Graf of Buchs which is a small town down in the valley on the border with Litchenstein not too far from where the shot was taken in the pretty little village of Urnasch.

North Western AEC Reliance

In 1963 North Western took delivery of 35 thirty-six-foot-long AEC Reliances with Willowbrook bodywork and twenty of them were smart dual-purpose machines like No.933 seen at Blackpool with a Burlingham Seagull bodied Tiger Cub parked behind it at the Coliseum Bus Station. Nicknamed a 'Banana-Split' in Summer 1967 this bus had worked a Seaside-Special Express service linking South Manchester, Altrincham and Urmston, starting at Sharston..