Lausanne: Just keeping out of the rain

Lausanne on a wet September day in 1990 with a NAW trolleybus and passing girls.

Ailsa in Kirkaldy

I always had a soft spot for Scottish Bus Group member Fife with it's well presented red and cream fleet of buses. In the Seventies and Eighties much of Britain might have been under the grip of the NBC spell with it's Bristol VR's and Nationals, but here north of the Border there was a nice mix of more traditional former BET, BTC and very Scottish products like the Volvo Ailsa and of course Alexander bodywork. The R-Series of bodywork seemed to suit the Ailsa and it's successor the Citybus best of all.

Newcastle: Aye Pet, they must pay the bus drivers well...

....they all shop at Marks and Spencer. I expect the canny one's who took their free or discounted shares when the industry was privatised and then who sold them off at the right time certainly did, perhaps being able to pay off their mortgages too. At this time of Deregulation in an ironic twist it was the middle managers who re-mortgaged their properties to grab a stake in the Privisation process who grabbed a far far greater windfall. Even though all the buses in the line-up are all in Newcastle PTE yellow they don't all carry the same names as the first two buses were from the NBC but had carried Tyneside yellow as part of their operating agreement.

Denmark: Running between the islands

With the exception of mainland Jutland above Germany where Aarhus is  the largest city with in the Eighties a population of 250.000, the rest of Denmark is a series of big and samall islands and moving between them made the country seem a lot bigger. Today many are connected by spectacular modern bridges but as seen here a trip to Copenhagen via the ferry at Ebeltoft would have added 1.40mins on to the journey of this Ahidskau DAB Leyland in 1982. It even took five hours to get to Copenhagen by train which was far quicker and to get from the top of Jutland on a Sondergaards Rutebiler to the capital would have taken a bottom numbing nine-hours!.

Utic-AEC: Enjoying the Sun

I'm not quite sure where I took this one in portugal in 1984 but it was a darned sight warmer there than it is here at the moment.

More snow: Maidstone 1968

Well I think this snow was turning to slush but who cares when here are two of Maidstone and District finest buses from the fifties. Firstly one of a batch of thirty-six vehicles delivered in 1951 this Leyland PD2/12 carried a Farrington body and some of these survived till 1970. Slightly newer but looking rather more modern was this even more elegant Park Royal AEC Regent V of 1956, one of fourteen similar buses in the fleet. These older buses were preferred on M & D's longer country routes like the 5 Service from Maidstone to Hastings which took almost two and a half-hours. The rear-engined Atlanteans and Fleetlines on the other hand tended to be found working on more urban routes such as as around Tonbridge and Tunbridge Wells and particularly Hastings and the Medway Towns. It was not until 1957 that this operator made an effort start matching registrations with fleet numbers and as the AEC's numbers ran from DH 476 to 489 carrying registrations VKR 468-481. It was easy to confused forgetting as to which was which especially in the following years when some sort coordination became the general rule.

A Swedish Hedenism: Snow and Ice

No doubt buses like this Volvo with the registration OME 678 seen in Gothenborg early in 1986 had a good heater to keep out the winter chill as it nears it's terminus called Heden in the city.

Arriva Leylands in the snow

It doesn't seem that long ago since we last had a decent amount of snow here in the English Midlands but it must be as there were still plenty of Leylands still in service with Arriva here in Stafford towards the end of the Nineties. Towards the end of their lives various types seem to have been centred here including Leyland National2's, former North Western (Ribble) Duple Dominant Leopard coaches, the East-Lancs rebodied Tigers like this example and the Lynx, particularly the former Stevenson's stock. Before rebodying No.1740 AAX 590A was formerly a National Express coach with a Duple Laser body that came from Rhonnda in 1993. No.1013 H408 YMA was one of a pair bought by Stevenson's from The Wright Company of Wrexham in 1994. The other Lynx in the background was one of several well used examples that came from West Riding which was also swept-up as part of Arriva. Also just visible is a Dennis Dart, the chassis type which now makes up the whole Stafford allocation if one doesn't include a handful of Mercedes-Benz minibuses.

Badgerline Swiftlink

Two Badgerline double-deckers head off out of Bristol in the Eighties. Most NBC Leyland Olympians had ECW bodies but some for one or two operators including London Country and Bristol Omnibus had a Roe version of the body which was easily identified by it's more rounded windscreen. Also on a 'Swift Link' limited stop service but to Bath where this small batch of MCW Metrobuses bought for evaluation was based was one of the five.

What bad winter weather?

Yesterday no buses went out on the streets of London because of the icey conditions. As you can see a bit of snow doesn't bother them in Switzerland, indeed if they don't get plenty of the white stuff it spells disaster for the economy. Alpine winters tend to be cold and crisp but in North East Switzerland they get more of the grey miserable English days but a lot colder. Still an enjoyable ride on one of St Gallen's Saurer RH buses might warm the spirit such as this 1983 Ramseier & Jenzer example.

Preston Leyland Atlantean

It seems as though yet another of the few remaining former Municipal operators has finally fallen, this time Preston to it's old adversary Stagecoach who have done much to make sure it was not making decent profits in recent times. Not surprisingly like Ribble who also had it's headquarters in the town this operator was traditionally a very Leyland Motors stronghold. The town built up a large fleet of Atlanteans with either East-Lancs or like this example Alexander bodywork. Their numbers ran from 101 to 177 and No.102 must have dated from 1975 or 1976. At least for the time being it would appeal Stagecoach intends to keep the depot at Deepdale Road.

A green Bristol Omnibus working for Midland Red in Stafford

In NBC years Midland Red probably because it still ran a number of now non-standard homemade BMMO buses was particularly dogged with maintanance problems resulting in a shortage of servicable vehicles. In 1979 Stafford Garage used some borrowed Leyland National buses from the nearby PMT plus this leaf-green example that came all the way from Bristol Omnibus.