A smart Mercedes 0405 in Biel

In Switzerland during the Eighties it seemed hard to get away from these rather reliable Mercedes-Benz 0405, still it was nice to see them in all the Swiss local authority colours and this example in Biel looked rather smart. No doubt most of these buses will have gone now and been replaced by even greater numbers of the Citaro.

Deiniolen Motors

There must have been getting towards eighty to one-hundred of these attractive single-deck bodies built by Saro and Ribble took the largest quantity with forty delivered in 1953-4. Nearly all were delivered to BET Companies on the light Leyland Tiger Cub Chassis and buses went to other northern operators within the BET Group such at Northern General, Yorkshire Traction, East Midland and Trent too. This one of the former Ribble buses No.412 looked rather out of place a decade or so after it's sisters had been withdrawn and scrapped as it mingled with leaf green painted National B-Series buses of Crosville in Bangor. Still it should have felt at home as the former Saunders Roe factory where it was built was just over the Menai Straights on the Island of Anglesea. Having survived into the Eighties it is a shame this bus with local connections wasn't preserved too as it seems only one example, another bus from this Ribble batch has been saved as a representation of this popular type.

RN 8109: A Bigger One

As you can see I obviously liked the Utic Leyland-DAB's as I took two views of RN 8109 in Evora, however I don't suppose I realised it was the same bus on the second occasion.

Indria Ghandi: Friday Thirteenth

I might have shown this one before, but this bus from Berlin's last delievery of these Mercedes OM 407 buses delivered in 1984 seemed to have had a nasty bump or I am tempted to wonder whether it might because of it's age been used for some crash tests. Still I don't suppose it would have remained on the road much longer anyway when this view was taken at the large garage in the former East of the city about ten years ago.

Friday Thirteenth: Gillingham Kent

On this auspicious day, Friday Thirteenth I look through my files looking for bus mishaps and breakdowns. Today I've found you quite an interesting view of a failed Bova belonging to National London and based not too far away at the old Timpson's coach depot in Catford. The location is the large Maidstone and District garage at Gillingham. Of interest though is the breakdown vehicle for as spotters of London Transport will no doubt recall in the back of their Ian Allan ABC British Bus Fleets were pages of these service vehicle, most were rather mundane like this Ford D-Series but others in green livery for all manner of duties including gully emptying were far more historic and lurked in sheds and Underground Railway Depots. Indeed trying to spot these too was one of the reasons cited for trying to sneak around bus garages as some of them ventured out hardly more than the bevy of tantalising dusty withdrawn RT's or RTL's stored down at the back which if we didn't get them on that occasion they would be gone altogether soon.

Viking: York City Tour

Once the open-top double-decker was very much a feature of the seaside holiday where a few lucky old stalwarts with their roofs missing slowly trundled along the promenade during the short Summer Season and then were tucked away out of the wet and cold in the corner of the garage perhaps covered in dust sheets. But by the mid-Nineties in many of our inland towns and cities with a historical interest they seemed to mushroom in various liveries as entrepreneurs tried to muscle in on the tourist cash. Some of these open-toppers were even brand new but as at the seaside most were otherwise time-expired buses. Former United Counties No.811 of 1974 had travelled far from home having forsaken it's roof and green livery and the humdrum towns of Biggleswade and Kettering which had been it's home for the Viking settlement of York further north.

Derby: Olives and Tulips

Unlike the wonderfully colourful Barton whose magnificent curved-screened lowbridge AEC Regent is seen passing, Derby Corporation's olive green and cream buses were about as conservative as you could get. Amongst this group of early Post-War Brush bodied vehicles hiding behind the tulips though is a rather fine Foden PVD6 0f 1951.

First Bus in Beersheba

I'm sorry I haven't posted anything from Israel for a while so here is a rather utilitarian looking Leyland Royal Tiger bus working in the dust and the heat of the large inland desert town of Beersheva which might be notable for it's University but I can tell you with more certainly that it had a good sized bus station too. In the early Eighties when this view was taken the sprawling First Group empire of buses and trains was still just a twinkle in some corporate accountant's eye but I'm sure this bus is wearing the budget First Group colours Barbi Bargain luxury Travel. Okay this bus looked old and might even have dated back to the late-Fifties but there were still plenty of old Leylands not much newer than this running about in the less depressing TAN red and cream they pinched from Prague Trams or Halton (LOL).

Wadham Stringer Vanguard: Bedford YMT

Former Maidstone Corporation buses seemed to get scattered far and wide during the Eighties and not only did a number of it's Massey bodied Leyland Atlanteans enter service with Stevenson's of Spath bringing them into Stafford on the Uttoxeter route from time to time, equally unusual buses for a Municipal Operator had been these sixty-one seater Wadham Stringer Vanguard bodied Bedford YMT buses, a more basic lightweight type normally associated with our armed-forces. However despite their rather functional appearance they were not unattractive and I was glad I photographed a couple of them during their short stay with Happy Days of Woodseaves at the end of the Eighties.

No it's not Sunday in Reading

In the early Eighties a bit like with Doctor Beeching and the railways the National Bus Company undertook a nationwide survey of it's network. Of course the effects of the Market Analysis Project (MAP) did not necessitate the pulling up of the roads as well but it did rid a lot of fleets of all their slightly older more interesting buses. Alder Valley was a good example as the former typical BTC Bristol/ECW operator Thames Valley merged with it's more charismatic former BET Group neighbour Aldershot and District. But after MAP there were no AEC Reliance buses or the locally Guildford built Dennis Loline left. Instead it was just the poppy-red Bristol VR, white Leopard Coaches and of course the ubiquitous National. The collection area for unwanted stock was the large yard beside Lower Thorne Street Garage with Bristol RE's very much in evidence.

Utic Leyland 8109 in Evora

A Keighley & District:: Olympian Roe

I'm not quite sure if I loved or loathed this rather odd grey, light blue, red and white livery carried by the former West Yorkshire Keighley Depot buses, my opinion being swayed very much in it's favour as this operator was part of the celebrated Blazefield group of companies, the enthusiast's favourite. It certainly looked good on this still smart Leeds built Roe bodied bus that had returned home having been new to London and Country in leaf-green as LR64 before it's break-up after which it became part of the London Country North East fleet.