PMT Minibus C126VRE Masquerading at Red Rider

Rather like Stevensons also of North Staffordshire, the Privitised PMT also expanded into new areas nearby. With a local division called Red Rider that sounded rather like something more intriguing like a highwayman of old or even someones CB-Radio call sign in reality it presented us with things like this not so exciting Mercedes Minibus bound for the lovely sounding Gorton Market- Now how Manchester is that!

Rawtenstall All-Leyland PD2 No.19 RTC 823

It's fortunate in our novice days many of us didn't quite stick to the rule book and took correct photos Flickr and Blogger would be a duller place without unusual views. It is impossible to balance the contrast on this one taken in Accrington in 1967 but because I just wanted to take a photo regardless of the shadows ensures it  has an innocent endearing narrative quality.

Berlin Wedding: Car Fumes & Nicotine

A wide Berlin thoroughfare in the Wedding District in 1990 and where as one might expect the hair gelled back HB smoker in the flowery shirt always gets the beautiful blond. They were a top selling brand but only seasoned smokers will tell you if they really do taste like a soft pencil.I never did find the nearby BVG Muller Str Garage from which 3652 worked from.

GUP 931N: United biggest user of the Bristol LHL

As well as the highly populated industrial conurbations near the coast where the background VR was ideal, in the North East much of the United area was rural and it could boast the NBC's largest fleet of small Bristol LHL's with well over 200.  Typical was GUP931N No.1629 seen in Darlington with an ECW body as was usually the case.

SWG 1-14 Giessen: Some are just banal?

People often ask us why we like buses and occasionally I just photograph them because they are there like this very ordinary M.A.N seen at the terminus on the outskirts of Giessen which is a very ordinary provincial German town. But to put it another way, if I don't who will and every bus deserves at least a photo because someone somewhere will like it hopefully.

DTC 740J. Lancashire United Seddon

In later years double-deckers the Lancashire United fleet seemed fairly well standardised but that didn't apply to single-deckers as there were Leyland Leopards and Tiger Cubs, Bristols and even fairly uncommon Seddons like Plaxton bodied 392 DTC740J. I've a feeling this might be near Swinton Garage but I might be mistaken

L207LDV: Harry Blundred's little mini-bus Empire

As older bus enthusiasts we all tend to live a bit in the past but judging by the lack of pictures here on Flickr few mourn the passing of the 'Minibus Revolution'  when even the humble bread van became the ultimate transport solution to some. Harry Blundred was the best known advocate flooding Pompey and South Devon and parts of East London  with the often unsuitable things. There were even dual-entrance Iveco Transits like this and had his eccentric empire not tumbled we might almost have seen the double-decker version a  Ford Transit too! Fortunately when Stagecoach took over the more sensible mix of types reamerged but not too surprisingly some of the newer oddities lingered on long enough to carry those also not too missed Stagecoach Stripes.

C888 FON: WMPTE Metrobus in Walsall Corporation Blue

West Midlands Travel celebrated it's Municipal heritage by painting buses from the various areas in their former colours. They made a good job of it too and we can see that the Metrobus Mk2 would have looked rather attractive in the unmistakable old Walsall Corporation colours of mid-blue with yellow beading.

B79 WUV: Selkent Leyland Titan T1079

With it's tall buildings the streets are usually more likely to be in shadow than bathed in sunlight. This of course can detract from picture quality but it would be boring if we just found a good spot to take photos from an stood there a long time. Also of course like this scene opposite the Vicotria Apollo Cinema there is just as likely to be something of interest.

Lincolnshire or Roadcar what's in a name?

By the time I took this photo of Lincolnshire Leyland National 2828 in Lincoln the Privatised company had become known as Roadcar, maybe it hoped to expand beyond it's traditional Lincolnshire area but as far as I know it never really did, eventually getting snapped up by Yorkshire Traction. But think had it been the other way around YTC might have become known as 'Traction' or even of course it's nickname 'Tracky'. At least thankfully Lincolnshire never became 'Roady'. lol

FUA 375Y: Wallace Arnold Bova Europa

Some Wallace Arnold tours used to call in at the sprawling village of Penkridge at  lunchtime for a bit of refreshment, and the angular lines of the first generation of the Bovas certainly suited their chunky graphics and livery. The Europa of which WA had fourteen gave way to the much more stylish Futura. I wouldn't pop down there for a top-up, fuel has gone up a tad bit since the Eighties and there would be no point planning to park your truck at the most famous landmark 'The Sunset Cafe' either because that has long gone as have most of the lorries which hurry passed on the busy M6 almost within earshot. Indeed even that most familiar and pleasing sight a Warstone's 'Green Bus' elderly Leyland is very much the past. But believe it or not people still flock here from far and wide as there is a twice weekly traditional outdoor market.

Think, when did you last see an 0405?

Well actually just yesterday as National Express West Midlands still run them in Wolverhampton as they even reached the UK. Being 'N-Reg' they are getting very old but it is not that long ago that they were still running Mark1 Metrobuses so they don't give up lightly on good buses. But once they were everywhere in Germany but now I imagine they are scarce in the wealthy EEC countries finding new homes a few years ago in the less prosperous economies to the East and in the Balkans still trying to catch up and unable to afford new ones yet. Of course we took these rather square Mercedes-Benz buses very much for granted but my friend at the Die Post in Switzerland told me they were a very reliable bus and yes I quite miss them as they were pleasing to ride on. Fortunately unlike many buses today at least they came in different colours too and this yellow example was seen close to the Bahnhof in Dresden in about  1996.