Leicester: Metro Scanias

Leicester City Transport took first the sophisticated Anglo-Swedish Metro-Cammell based Metro-Scania single-decker and then the double-deck Metropolitan in a big way before seeing the error of it's ways and buying sensibly and British again with the Gardner-Powered Dennis Dominator and Lancet. They may have been costly to run and not totally reliable but the way these buses effortlessly swished along on an air-suspended ride was a joy to behold.

Quenching that thirst on Berlin's Kurfirstendam

Thirsty or not, one of the pleasures of visiting great cities is drinking whether it be enjoying a night on the town or just sitting watching the world go by. No doubt like millions of visitors before them these girls enjoy the magic of Berlin's most fashionable street. Of course double-deckers still amble along here too but for as long as I can remember the 9 Route taking them back to Tegel Airport or as it is today 109 has always been worked by single-deckers even if the extra axle is a more recent innovation.

Three-axle Cataeno Levante: National Express

Even though I say it myself this is not a bad photo at all considering it was taken through the window of another bus as it waited to depart for Tavistock from Plymouth Bretonside. Apart from the obvious I cannot tell you a great deal more about No.7094

A Ribble to dribble over: Potteries Running Day

Along with Southdown on the South Coast, Ribble in the North West was probably everyone's favourite large BET Company. I'm not too crazy about bus rallies as they lack an element of reality, but not only does each one produce something interesting to see, at their best we are offered a wealth of nostalgic bus rides too. One I will remember for some time was on this former Ribble East-Lancs bodied Leyland PD1 Titan 'White Lady' coach which almost effortlessly and in comfort took us out over the hills to Cheadle and back from the Gladstone Pottery Museum in Longton. Here we can see a profile of it's Art-Deco inspired styling whilst in the background is an example from the best know of the former Tilling Group coach operators 'Royal Blue' whose ECW bodied Bristol LS vehicles like No.2200 of 1957 ran down the A30 and other main roads between London and the West Country.

Happy Days: York Races

The late-Eighties and a party of regular punters from my local Bookmakers was going to York Races for the day, and so I went along too but of course to photograph the local buses in the city and not to do anything silly like drink and lose money on the horses. However I was still able to avail myself of some corporate hospitality and enjoy the atmosphere surrounded by some interesting rides. Parked on the grass our Happy Days of Woodeaves Neoplan double-decker makes an interesting contrast with the rather less pretty Gypsy Queen, Willowbrook Spacecar bodied Bedford from the small seven vehicle fleet of G & M Cox of Langley Park in Durham. I bet they just got beer and sandwiches with not a glass of champagne or sliced cucumber in sight. Happy Days had a pair of these Auwaeter Neoplan H77D double-deck coaches delivered in 1987 159-160 with an interesting pair of Registrations 18 XWC and XWC 18 which I feel must have caused a mix-up at times.

Bolton: A Lancashire United Daimler Fleeline

Like many operators Lancashire United did not convert to rear-engined double-deckers straight away in the early Sixties just buying a few alongside it's tried and trusted no-nonsense Guy Arabs. The modern Daimler Fleetline buses carried similar styled Northern Counties bodywork and although they looked a bit heavy from the rear I feel this was one of the most pleasingly proportioned early designs for these buses. In 1962 and the following year LUT took six of these buses 97-102 and 137-142.

Lisbon: A slow bumpy ride over the cobbles

Seen heading a slow convoy through the hot evening rush-hour in Lisbon was what I imagine was this UTIC bodied AEC belonging Barraqueiro and numbered 146.

Euston Station: The greens of London & Country

The driver of this otherwise quite smart looking Leyland Titan must have thought his change was rattling and clattering a bit more than usual, but before he arrived at Greenwich across the Thames in South London there might well have been a terrible crashing and breaking of glass as the front bulk-head windows collapse inwards. This bus was formerly T167 in the London Transport fleet whilst behind it is the less sophisticated ECW Olympian built for provincial operators with less exacting standards but which London also bought once Titan production ceased. The Titan dated from 1980 whilst the Olympian was from about 1985.

Tittensor: A Taste of Winter Chill

At least the yellow driver-training livery stands out and adds a bit of cheer as PMT Willowbrook bodied leyland Leopard passes through Tittensor heading towards Stone on a horrible wet and snowy day back in the winter of 1979-80. In the background is the large premises of Bassetts of Tittensor, once also a well known PSV operator bus now it sadly only concerntrates on the main haulage side of the business. These ten Leylands and another ten outwardly similar AEC Reliances were PMT's first 36ft long single-deck buses in 1962.

The Original London Sightseeing Tour: Let there be sunshine

I often do my posts to reflect the weather and the mood it puts me in, but today with snow and rain outside the window and it's still only October maybe something more cheerful might not go amiss. Also I admit even though I have the views available I tend to ignore certain parts of the country like those very non-Northern buses in the London area. So as an attempt to put matters right here is a familiar enough looking London Routemaster busy at work as part of the LT coach fleet working the open-top tourist tour in the Nineties. A better look will reveal that this RMA as it was called was somewhat unusual in having a front-entrance with power-doors rather than the usual open rear platform. It must have carried quite a number of tourists in it's time as RMA 65 the final one built of the class were formerly equipped to pull luggage trailers to and from London Airport from the West London Air terminal in the Cromwell Road. I think the terminal was closed some time in the Seventies and these extra and not too elderly Routemasters were transferred to the main red fleet. Despite their lean years and comparatively easy former lives I expect because they were so non-standard by London standards trade union opposition led to them being relegated to rather unglamorous work like becoming rather scruffy driver-training buses where like with the former Greenline RMC coaches their manual-semi-automatic gears would be useful for learners. Also their short-length was unattractive to LT but as you can see the Eighties saw a boom in tourism and a few like this smartly turned out example were reborn at a time when older Routemasters were being withdrawn to show off London could still parade these fine buses at their familiar throbbing AEC-engined best.

Mid Warwickshire: Daimler Fleetline-Willowbrook

Mid-Warwickshire was one of those concerns that wasn't with us for long, less than ten years in fact, but unlike many others that quickly came and went later following the green shoots of deregulation this firm was quite memorable as not only did it come at a time in the Seventies when new bus operators of any interest entering the market were not so common it ran an interesting fleet of buses and coaches in an area to the South East of Birmingham based near Meridan a village reputed to be at the centre of England. Also of interest was that when it started running it's first a Meridan to Solinull service in 1973 it had the honour of being the sole Independent Company running a bus route in the West Midlands County, something that is hard to imagine today. As well as at Water Orton nearby one could usually find a number of buses parked on the large muddy and pot-holed parking area at the side of the Lincoln Farm Transport Cafe including this one, one of it's best know vehicles a rare 36ft-long Willowbrook bodied Daimler Fleetline single-decker that came from the Road Transport Training Board a non-p.s.v. operator. The fleet included some of the very late examples of the AEC Reliance coach as well these older buses. Altogether there were about about thirty vehicles and the livery was maroon and black or maroon and dark blue.

Lugano: Titchy Mercedes in Ticino

Lugano had an interesting trolleybus fleet and of course buses too including this small Mercedes that looks like it may have been No.51 pictured busy loading for Cornaredo outside the main railway station high up above the town in 1990. Traditionally transport undertakings in Switzerland liked grey or silver roofs but that gave way to the rather brighter cream as a second colour in the Sixties and Seventies but I rather liked the subtle blue and grey still used here in Lugano and although this bus was quite old a more modern application can be seen looking very smart on the newer normal sized Mercedes 0407 next to it.