If you haven't guessed this is Slagelse

Anyway I think it's Slagelse where I photographed this Volvo Aabenraa. I was watching something on TV about Documentary photographers out in the street, the desert or out on the road. Some might think my bus photography is rather mindless but I love recording things the way they are even if it's a bleak empty station yard with just a passing girl to give it some life. This could not be Britain as there is no litter and as for bicycles they're just something you try to nudge off the road.

Vandereyken

Not surprisingly Copenhagen attracts a wealth of visiting coaches from all over Europe, the most common of course being from Germany and fellow Scandinavian countries. I imagine there are a few from the nearby former Communist Block too which is not too far away but I guess if it's expensive for us it's a tad bit even more expensive for the shopping. Amongst the coaches I saw when I was there in the Eighties was this rather impressive and smart Panoramic LAG bodied Volvo Turbo coach from Belgium working for a holiday company and pictured outside the railway station.

Coventry No.2 becomes 2Y

Not surprising as Daimler buses were built in the city Coventry Corporation ran little else really with the exception of with much public outcry a large batch of twenty-two Leyland Atlanteans for evaluation in 1964. Another twenty-two Fleetlines purchased at the same time, as one would expect won the day and many more followed but perhaps my favourites were these well rounded East Lancs bodied examples with deep windows which probably was one of the best designs for the type. Following the two types of Willowbrook bodied Leyland and Daimler of 1964-5, a new Number-One started a new series in 1966 and after absorption into the West Midlands PTA No.2 became 2Y as Coventry buses received this letter so they wouldn't be confused with 2N at Wolverhampton, 2L at Walsall and 2H at West Bromwich.

Iveco Demonstrator

Iveco have yet to make a big impact into the British bus market but in the mid-Nineties it was obviously trying to woo local operator Thames Transit where in all white this Alexander bodied bus was working a Sunday service in Oxford.

Two Volvos in Porto

The Evening Rush-Hour in Porto as in the Summer heat intending passengers have to keep to the narrow pavement as the buses taking them home thud their way passed over the cobbles down beside the railway station.

Ellen Smith

Two stalwarts from the mid-Sixties languish at the side of the Ellen Smith Garage at Wardlesworth near Rochdale in the early Eighties. Both are Leyland Leopards one with a Plaxton Panorama body whilst Harrington Grenadier CDK 448C lived on as a diecast EFE model for collectors. At the back are even earlier Tiger Cubs and maybe the odd AEC Reliance too from this well known thirteen vehicle fleet.

Stafford: It's been a long Winter

Yes because it started so early and at times was so cold it has seemed a particularly long winter in Britain this time. However despite the poor conditions it is still possible to take some interesting pictures like this First Group Scania loading at Stafford Station on the frequent service to Hanley. After Deregulation the First Group bought out the PMT (Potteries Motor Traction) who once before the Seventies had an extensive network of routes of largely rural routes to the north of the town plus a cross-town joint service with Midland Red using an Atlantean and even had a small seven bus garage here. Today it just comes into town with this the traditional main trunk service updated going via Newcastle instead of Soke and worked by eight of these rather impressive Swedish buses.

Lausanne: TL Auto-Ecole

One thing that has always baffled me is how is one supposed to watch the road and the pretty girls at the same time as there's nothing about it in the Highway Code. One solution is to find an excuse to stop so that you can have a better look. TL of Lausanne has always had a good variety of buses ranging from giant artics to midibuses. Apart from being a Volvo No.332 was a typical Swiss bus but despite it fine appearance I suspect because of the dated grill actually was from the Seventies when seen two Decades later in the early Nineties.

Franklin's Coaches: AEC Swift

I used to see Frankin's Coaches when I used to have to make a call for GEC at Borehamwood just north of London where they operated a lunchtime works contract. In a smart blue livery was this AEC Swift that once ran for East Kent seen in 1982

Tamworth's Big one's: Not a Pig it's a Volvo

The Northern Ireland bus bodybuilder Wright of Ballymena certainly builds some stunning looking well put together buses but I feel slightly uneasy wondering how they might appear once the get old and neglected. In my local Arriva area apart from in and around Leicester double-deckers are few and far between and new ones even more so. However with an important corridor into Birmingham, Tamworth garage has a batch of these very impressive Volvo's for it's five-buses-an-hour City Linx route. At one time batches of buses were shared out between garages but today they are usually nearly all earmarked for specific services with local authority backing. This is a good thing as operator's like Arriva are obliged to provide a proper service which includes buses right through the evening and even a reasonable service on Sundays. Without this how can people be persuaded to live without the flexibility of car travel.

Bournemouth: Sunshine and an Oympian View

Bournemouth Yellow Buses bought some Leyland Olympians with rather strange looking Marshall bodywork and which with this 'smiley face' and playground colour combination make me wonder as if like some surreal dream it had not in fact escaped from a children's merry-go-round. Of course these twenty buses were not as famous as the much more attractive and long lived Daimler Fleetlines which were far more popular than these ungainly beasts.

Georgia is always on my mind

Next to the beach at Neviot in the Sinai during the Israeli Occupation was a nice place to spend your retirement if you were an old American Bus. The bodywork on these old buses looked like a hut so why not use it as one.