L510 BNX: City Pigeons

Believe it or not amongst my many perversions, err I mean talents I can boast to being a published poet. In my little book by Outposts 'The Magic 88' there was also one called 'City Pigeon' and if you get sick of looking at the East-Lancs bodied MRN Dennis Dart or Gazza on the side the Metrobus you can count the pesky things festooning the ledges with their droppings on Wolverhampton's Victorian buildings.

7 WTJ: Not so common Viewmaster in Birmingham

In June 1990 this smartly turned out but top heavy looking Plaxton Viewmaster bodied Tiger of Welsh Independent Brodyr Williams was about to turn into Digbeth Coach Station at a time when busy Fridays traditionally brought in some unexpected variety for us enthusiasts.

L646 LEU: Every wonder why the bus gets there first?

A long queue of traffic quickly builds up behind this First Group Northern Counties bodied Volvo Olympian still in Bristol Cityline colours as it heads down the Gloucester Road into the city. These were the last generation of buses before the merger with Alexander but I never found them as attractive as the less fussy Manchester Standards which preceded them.

Metrobus MK2 2520 picks up in Pelsall

My era was pre-NBC and the PTE's but there are many buses since then I got to like very much such as the West Midland Travel Metrobuses like No.2520 picking up a healthy load bound for Walsall seen in Pelsall a village famed for perhaps having the last old-fashioned 'fingerpost' road sign in England with hands at the tip pointing the way. No doubt the highways department would love to rip it out but when these things slip through the net long enough they become listed as historic sites.

NMB 70P Monochrome all weather photography

The freedoms of digital photography and glorious colour have made bus photography much more simple but it is no way nearly as versatile as black and white where one could be more expressionistic and capture the romance of the seasons where the same colour  image might usually suggest it was better not to bother. Here the grey tones beautifully portray the delicious misery of a wet day making us still want to be there to enjoy damp socks surrounded by much more fitting chocolate brown Chester buses including Dennis Dominators and this short Leopard with it's rare but attractive Northern Counties bodywork.

Edgware Road: Some can park where they like!

I was going to say one wouldn't get away for more than a minute or two parking on a monitored bus stop on the main Edgeware Road today but the observant will see the Audi is indeed being ticketed. However it will not be paid as the tell-tale flags on the dash indicate that the unconcerned selfish driver probably has Diplomatic Immunity and if they respond at all the poor and needy in some Third World Country will have to cough up through their taxes. Still recording day to day situations like this gave me an excuse to photograph a rather less interesting than most Gold Line Mercedes-Benz minibus F629 XMS.

Pre-Barbie First Group buses offer variety in Halifax

One of the interesting things about the First Group before everything became much more grey was the wealth of operator and even local liveries as seen on former West Yorkshire PTE buses. Of these the also glimpsed brighter Halifax version with the Alexander Dash body was the nicest with not shown here Bradford's dreary blue and red being horrid. Seen here on a Plaxton bodied Scania I think, the usual combination G460JYG 1460 from the Huddersfield base was somewhere in the middle being okay.

497: One familiar Danish Railway bus in Roskilde

Sadly after the United Kingdom deregulated it's bus industry in the Eighties other countries in Europe followed suit with sell-offs and reforms. A good example was Denmark where as well as numerous small Independents that have gone the once large and familar DSB railway bus operation was broken up and sold off. Looking unmistakable in it's all over red livery was this Aabeneraa bodied Volvo so typical of the Eighties and early Nineties seen in Roskilde.

Former Leicester Leyland PD3 in Rugeley

Blue Bus Service ran one of the former Leicester East-Lancs bodied Leyland PD3's on local service in Rugeley.

Bolton Corporation Leyland TD1 WH 1553

Of the many transport events held each Summer the final big one in November staged at the Lincolnshire Road Transport Museum is not only one of the best for rides these include a number of proper mouth watering vintage buses like this classic all-Leyland from 1929. As well as an open staircase at the back these buses had what become known as a Piano front as the upper deck resembled an upright-piano. Unfortunately the queues for rides were quite long but as people stood back to let the less auspicious rides go I  contented myself with a front upstairs ride for almost an hour heading out into the countryside to Saxilby on a flat-fronted Lincolnshire Roadcar ECW bodied Bristol VR.

Trolleybus 791: Bustling Lausanne

Lausanne is probably the most multi-national city in what was a very conservative Switzerland. But Europe has changed a great deal since I took this in the mid-Nineties. NAW was set up by Mercedes to build Swiss specification buses and trolleybuses at the old Saurer works and one would hardly guess from No.791.

Only the best for us: Silver Service EPM122V

National Express seems to have much of the long distance market sown up but following Deregulation, Independents keen to expand and even Municipals wanted to have a good. Silver Service operated this Lincman branded former Green Line AEC Reliance on it's Mansfield to Liverpool service.