Lothian Leylands

In 2009 eighty-years of Leyland operation ended at Edinburgh as Lothian Transport withdrew the last of it's Alexander R-Type bodied Olympians. When I took this view in the Nineties there were still plenty of Leylands to be found including these rather attractive Atlanteans like AN68 No.636 GSC636X.

Manchester's Olympian Coaches

Greater Manchester PTE had a number of Northern Counties bodied Leyland Olympian and Metrobuses fitted with coach seats for private hire and longer services. I thought the livery was rather attractive and still looked good even when it had aged like the buildings here in the middle of Manchester. No.3265 D265JVR carries the deopt letters BY for Bury and you can see from it's sides that it was now part of the First Group's 'Greater Manchester North' fleet whilst Stagecoach took charge of services and garages to the south of the city.

In those days in the Seventies the busy and often slow The Head of the Valleys trunk road in Wales carrying all the heavy traffic from Port Talbot and Swansea was not all dual-carriageway unlike today and all you saw was belting rain and bleeting sheep. Being stupid they used to wander in the road and I heard a story about one that was run-over in the night and being very messy nobody on this occasion would move the corpse off and it slowly got pounded into the tarmac creating a new bump. As you can see today the sheep might be just the same at  Merthyr Tydfil but unlike the coal and steel lorries of my day, eight-leg Fodens and Atkinson Borderers those clean white-goods trucks have got a whole lot bigger but sure some might say not always better.

Noddy Holder might love Christmas!

But it's no much fun doing your Christmas Shopping when it cold, miserable and yesterday's snow turns to slush and your trouser-bottoms and feet get soaked. Still in the winter of 1981-82 in my little town one could enjoy the roar of those National Mk2's which at least sounded like real Leyland Buses again. No.807 was the first of five at Stafford which were later joined by 812-814 from Shrewsbury and finally Tamworth's 823-825.

At Montreux VMCV Trolleybus No.10

The main route and perhaps only route worked by these eighteen Saurer trolleybuses dating from 1956-58 not surprisingly was that which gave the system it's title WMVC running 12.8km along the shores of Lake Geneva from Vevey to Montreux and beyond to Villeneuve. After giving forty years of service these rather fine machines were replaced by the same number of low-floor Van-Hool/ Kiepe articulated (gelenkobusse) vehicles.

Railway Owned Guy Bus in Porto

In Portugal as well as being able to see railway owned buses at Porto these included relatively uncommon Guy's like No.7 whose familiar shaped Utic body looked  strange in white stripes.

Caroline Seagull

Looking at the registration number of this coach belonging to the Norfolk operator Caroline Seagull it would be easy to be tricked into thinking it was a former East Kent AEC Reliance as that operator had some old Park Royal bodied express coach rebodied by Plaxton. However I imagine somewhere along the line the rebodied AEC's went for scrap and similarly Plaxton Elite bodied Ford coaches took their 'cherished' marques instead which was a pity. 536FN was seen enjoying a summer day in London resting on the Thames Embankment.

Yorkshire Woollen District-West Riding Alexander T-Type

Alexander T-Type bodies were not very common outside Scotland but as well as somewhat surprisingly Eastern Counties having a few more could be found in Yorkshire and along with Traction, West Riding-YWD had eleven too. This view was taken at Birstall perhaps and the lightly loaded Leopard would encounter deeper snows than this over the Pennines.

Foggy day in Hinckley

Midland Red South was quick to paint it's dual-purpose Leyland Leopards into bus livery and probably No.216 had been reseated as it was classed B49F. It was seen in Hinckley not far from the A5 on a foggy day..

All change at Potsdam

At first the signs of change were quite slow after Reunification in Germany as firstly the girls start to think about getting a new look. As for the buses the old Ikarus stalwarts started to appear in new more colourful liveries and were joined by not just some new buses but many secondhand examples like the Mercedes-Benz articulated bus in the background.

Things can only get better

People still go on about horrible the lightweight 'Orion' family were. Apart from those rattles draughts and steamed-up windows they never bothered me and seeing them everyday was living in paradise compared to the most nasty souless monstrosities called a Minibus. Amongst the worst of the breed this unsophisticated Dodge was not even as nippy as a bread van being the sort of thing British Gas park outside your house when annoyingly digging up the road. As you see I've found a different little gem in this view taken in Manchester of 1889 D889MDB.

Maidstone & District 5422

Until the late Sixties Southdown, Maidstone and District's nextdoor neighbour was a bit of an exception having a fleet of not just interesting buses but of a proudly turned out high specification too. Although M&D had a lot of the more unusual and good quality to enjoy it had it's fair share of the cheap and cheerful including these 'rattle-box' lightweight MCW bodied Leyland PD2/12 buses of 1954. Indeed many of the earlier much loved thirty-six rugged Leyland Farrington bodied examples of 1951 outlived them some still looking smart and running till 1970. However unlike some DH422 RKP903 lasted long enough at Maidstone to receive it's new computerised fleet-number that was introduced in Autumn 1967.