Don't look at the bus: Ipswich Falcon

East Lancashire Coachbuilders took functional ugliness to such an extreme it almost became pleasant. Secretly for once I quite admire these unusual quirky add-on designs to the more common equivalent unremarkable jelly-mould profile usually seen. No doubt Ipswich's well maintained and attractive green and cream livery did much to give these cut-and-fold bodied Dennis Falcons of about 1981 a bit more quality

A Pleasant Afternoon in Heaton Park

No day out on the buses would be complete without some artistic Jowitt style buses and girls shots as I really enjoy this kind of atmospheric photography and especially when it gives a more truthful account of something that can be very artificial like assorted buses lined up on the grass trying to bring back the past. I think it's best to see them as a kind of transport carnival or meeting point and focus for old friends and try not to be too purist which I tended to do previously.

Wash and brush-up

Sorry about the imperfections but I took this through a bus window last year on evening at Plymouth Bretonside Bus Station as a Swiss coach driver of Twerenbold prepared his smart Bova coach for the next day's adventure.

Wigan Melverley Street Garage

Buying mostly Massey and Northern Counties bodied Leyland buses Wigan used to have one of the most splendid fleets in Lancashire. Many years later in the Nineties Leyland's were still here but the Greater Manchester North Atlanteans allocated here were looking rather shabby and the once proud Corporation Melverley Garage looked decidedly unloved dirty and neglected. Indeed the whole scene is a bit depressing not helped in part by the glazed red brick of backyard out-houses giving the impression that it never stops raining. By this time GMT had been split in two ready for privatisation with First Group taking 'North' and Stagecoach 'South'. I've heard that this garage is to close shortly.

Blackburn Atlantean in Darwen

Darwen had a small fleet of red and cream buses but in the Seventies amid fears of being swallowed up into Greater Manchester PTE it decided to merge with it's much bigger neighbour Blackburn just up the road. Sadly in Lancashire of the twenty-seven Municipals to be found in the Sixties only two remain, Blackpool which merged with Lytham St. Annes and Rossendale which had been Rawtenstall before it took nearby Haslington under it's wing in the Sixties. There are another two survivor's of course, Halton (formerley Widnes) and Warrington but following boundary changes in the Seventies they are now in Cheshire.

More from Porto

A forward-control lightweight chassis I'm not sure what make of vehicle this is but it reminds me a bit of a Wadham-Stringer bodied Bedford they supplied to the British Army at about that time in the Eighties.

Liskeys Leopard at Looe

This smart Plaxton bodied Leyland Leopard was seen beside the harbour at the pretty Cornish fishing village of Looe. By then in service with Liskey it had started life with Sampson of Cheshunt.

Beacon Bus in Tavistock

One of the former First Western National drivers who had moved to Devon and who was working from Tavistock told me one reason he enjoyed the job was the lovely little town and travelling through beautiful countryside. True Tavistock is on the edge of Dartmoor but as First cuts back more of it's rural network their buses will become more confined to the built-up areas as Independents take up the unprofitable tendered rural routes. Most of the Plymouth routes terminated at Tavistock but till recently the old hourly 86 Service went right on over the moor to serve Okehampton to the north. But now that very pretty section is operated by Beacon Bus who was using this new Optare bus in June, and with this another of their long routes cut the local First Bus drivers find themselves more and more confined to the usual more busy routes heading down into traffic-congested Plymouth.

Proctors: Day-Out in London

It's always nice to photograph local coaches when we see then further afaield like Proctors of Hanley then not very old Scania Van-Hool coach at Trafalgar Square in the 90's. I think they still own HIL7620 as I'm sure I saw it recently in all-white.

What do Liverpool and Berlin have in common?

Well according to my brother they are the two cheapest cities to live in Western Europe or something like that. Once thing is certain though as in both of them with stretched budgets transport struggles to make ends meet. The traditional operator BVG in Berlin of course has a monopoly whereas with deregulation and Privatisation the elderly fleet of mostly former Liverpool Atlanteans had to see off a multitude of have a go independents. Some didn't last long but others prospered and CMT built up a large fleet of about one-hundred and mostly well presented second-hand National buses like this. Liverpool's fine Lime Street Station with it's elegant roof-line like a rainbow is still there of course but CMT who had merged with GTL gave Stagecoach a much desired foothold in this Arriva dominated city. As one might expect with Stagecoach, had this elderly bus still been in service at the time of the takeover it would have been quickly replaced. However it would not have looked out of place in Stagecoach colours as during it's rapid expansion in the Eighties and Nineties it had gobbled up United Counties including Wellingborough Garage who had ran it as No.555.

Bulach: Modern Post Buses

No doubt things have moved on since I took this view at Bulach north of Zurich in 2000. The P-Reg letters on the Post-Office owned Post Buses have gone of course but the Mercedes Citaro has come to symbolise the modern yellow fleet and no doubt others in Switzerland. On the other hand I think the ugly Neoplans are on their way out.

Today I might not be able to pick up the girls.....

But at least I have my bus pass so I can travel free which is some consolation at least. They use dedicated buses on the Stafford-Newport-Wellington-Telford 481 Service but occasionally others appear like this similar Wright bodied VDL 2636 from Wellington Garage.