Saturday Afternoon in Stafford

When I was a teenager in Stafford the place to hang about was outside Boots the chemist in the Market Square which has a canopy so one can avoid the inevitable rain-drops as well. It seems in the Eighties the youngsters had moved down to Marks and Spencers as they were obviously upwardly mobile. However life might be short and sweet for the unwary because buses like PMT ECW bodied Leyland Olympian No.739 had to do a shap turn here as they headed for the X60 terminus at the railway station. If the sun was not strong enough at least the bus exhaust got those white English legs brown.

Love in Lausanne

Of all the Swiss cities Lausanne seems to have the most spirit and it does feel the most French too. It seems to be full of not quite beautiful but still very attractive women and the men who fall in love with them. As for me on a quick visit I try to catch some of the mood and of course the trolleybuses of all ages as the scuttle by like here as FBW  No 684 which dated from the early Seventies headed for the Port De Pully in 1990.

National Express: Would the future bring single or double-deck coaches?

In the Eighties interest reappeared in the concept of the double-deck coach for long-distance express services. Leyland had already suppled the National Bus Company with a fleet of ECW bodied double-deck semi-coaches for commuter routes into London and MCW having already built three-axle double-deckers for the Far East came up with a high capacity vehicle for National Express. Sadly from what I was told is they were a bit slow and not very popular with the crews. It's a pity as they were rather attractive in a subtle way, but the double-deck coach concept has never really taken off here due to a number of nasty accidents that have stolen the newspaper headlines. I think I was about to board Wessex B221 VHW going as far as Bristol on my way home, and I travelled on the more sprightly YEL 96X too as later Drawline it's new owners transferred it to Midland Red North where it was allocated to my local Stafford garage.

A Setra town bus in Yverdon

I'm not sure what TPYG stands for but I can guess that some of it is Transports Public Yverdon, a Swiss operator that obviously liked Setra's.

A Day at the Seaside: Scarborough

Following an icon of the age the Ford Sierra, a Duple Dominiant bodied AEC Reliance of Gordon Collins was seen heading along the long breezy seafront at Scarborough in 1989.

Driver Training in the Worcestershire Countryside

This short Marshall bodied Leyland Leopard came to Midland Red from Stratford Blue after the latter was absorbed by the National Bus Company. By the time I took this photo  it was as a yellow trainer with Midland Red West, but a hint to it's first owner was the Warwickshire registration and it's number 2059 having been SB No. 59. Fortunately after it was withdrawn this bus was secured for preservation.

Odd buses from the Seventies

People cite the MCW Orion and it's lightweight contemporaries of the Fifties and Sixties as being the paragon of bad proportion and ugliness. Well I feel after making rather elegant bodies in the Sixties on the rear-engined double-decker Northen Counties lost it's way somewhat in the design department till the advent of the Manchester Standard's which became a kind of timeless classic. What didn't seem to help was the way operator's chose a mix of modern curved and very plain glass at the front. The slab-like livery chosen by Fylde didn't help either with No.77's already top-heavy front.

Damsel and the Dragon

Soon all the normal service double-deckers of the BVG in Berlin will be these giant three-axle MAN Dragon buses like this new one seen in 2007 at The Zoo. Even though they lack the character of the older types we should be glad of them as a few years ago it looked as though the city might be quietly turning it's back on this fine traditional mode of transport.

A MAN in Delemont

The Swiss Post Bus fleet under the PTT didn't operate a large number of MAN buses but they found a nitch providing some smaller midi-range buses like this very smart example seen in the Jura town of Delemont. Also now you know what violinist Nigel Kennedy used to do when he had no work playing the violin! This bus of 1993-4 would shortly join the main PTT fleet as another PAH local contractor (Posthalter) Mercay sold out taking the small local allocation of Mercedes-Benz 0405 buses from about eight buses to twenty-five and bringing in a lot more variety.

Sunshine and Cloud in Blackpool

Well at least it wasn't raining and not too bright for photography either in Blackpool in the days when there were still plenty of Atlanteans and other Leyland buses to see. The Fylde buses of Lytham St Annes buses down the road were before too long to become part of the enlarged Blackpool fleet to give them more muscle in the face of competition in the fickle Deregulated market of the Nineties. Their biggest preditor was Stagecoach whose infamous stripes would soon adorn ECW bodied Olympian 2113 bound for Burnley in the east at the other end of Lancashire on the long 152 Service.

London Victoria: Wessex coach 143 in from Bristol

Once there were mostly Leyland, Bristol and older AEC coaches coaches working for National Express. But after the National Bus Company operators were sold off Volvo's became the norm the some years but there were plenty of exceptions like this Plaxton bodied Scania of Wessex seen basking in the sunshine at Victoria Coach Station in London.

RN 9554

A then recent Utic bodied Leyland of RN loads at Monte Gordo for Faro in 1984.