SYT gets bought out by First Bus

Under positive guidance from the local Labour Council South Yorkshire PTE set out to be a good example of how bus services could charge low fares and run modern passenger friendly buses. But with Deregulation it had to be sold off and ended up with an operator with a poor reputation First Bus. Yet to be repainted and still looking smart was this Wright bodied Volvo one of a fleet of low-floor buses the PTE had bought.

ROX 658Y WMPTE Metrobus with the Rotunda

Birmingham was bathed in bright sunshine when I took this shot of a West Midlands Metrobus with the Rotunda in the background, a more durable landmark in this city which is constantly changing. We are now more aware of Victorian buildings that deserve to be saved but the Rotunda so symbolishes the concrete underpass Birmingham of the Sixties and early-Seventies it should be preserved as an important landmark of it's time, the other one that springs to mind as being of national importance is the magnificently bold and brutal Preston Bus Station.

Springtime at Shugborough

A Staffordshire  springtime Sunday Morning outing to Shugborough Hall nearby with my girlfriend at the time. Lesley was interesting and indeed the dream package for she worked as a psychiatric nurse but was not just excited about naturism and nude swimming but also used to dress in a leather one-piece and was in an all-girl motorcycle group. better still didn't mind posing in front of some Volvo B10M coaches for me both with Plaxton bodywork. The East Kent coach was the oldest and shows even if it still had a late NBC feel how easily it's pleasant dark red and cream livery could be updated. Much liked Bakers of Biddulph from the top of the county was fairly local and it's coach also a 3500 carried a later paramount body. I suppose these British bodies looked a bit conservative in their day but seem a lot more pleasing on the eye today as I find a some modern coaches look really hideous more like futuristic spaceships than nice traditional buses.

6316 HA Midland Red D9 at Stafford

Even as a schoolboy I managed to take some decent photos despite having a pretty primitive camera. For a young spotter a brand new  Midland Red D9 was something to behold with all it's bright red paint and untarnished metalwork including a bit extra on  this still shiny bus as it had beading around the wheel arches as can be seen here. I checked out 5315 at Markfield and it still had fibre-glass wings and so I think 5316 at Stafford was the first one maybe. 5317 also at Stafford was the same but a few numerically later ones retained the earlier wings and the inconsistency was perhaps typical of Midland Red and although it was far from true it could almost be argued that no two BMMO's were the same.

N602 APU Thamesway City Saver Plaxton Volvo

Belonging to Thamesway in bright orange and yellow City Saver livery for the Southend to London service was this Plaxton bodied Volvo at Victoria.

A York Bus Rarity REL 402R.

Following Deregulation well known for it's quality coach fleet it might seem odd to see a York Brothers service bus. But in the past it did indeed run buses even double-deckers including an all-Leyland PD2. But Leylands were a rarity, which makes this rebodied Leopard even more interesting. It's new Plaxton Bustler was not common either on a PSV either nore usually found on white painted MOD vehicles and the like. It had started life with Shamrock and Rambler as a futuristic looking but not very sound Willowbrook Spacecar body. York had been an AEC advocate in the past and by 1986 just one remained in this Northampton based fleet, the rest being  Ford, Setra and Volvo.

Brighton: A bit of a dog!

By the end of the Sixties bus operators were finding life tougher. New single-deckers built for 'OPO' like this Brighton Corporation Marshall bodied Leyland Panther introduced to help cut costs from falling passenger numbers only saddled them with expensive mechanical problems and more debt. These early rear-engined saloons were even more troublesome than the less than perfect Atlantean and Fleetlines but at least when those appeared on the scene firms could revert back to trusty old-fashioned half-cabs for a few more years but by 1968 there were fewer options and firms had to make do with new underdeveloped  technology. Even the basset hound looks unimpressed.

The Post Bus to La Locle

In many Swiss towns whatever the weather and indeed even when there is an inch of snow lol just like clockwork yellow post buses are there patiently waiting outside the station for the busy express trains to arrive. Even though it is quite a decent size Neuchatel was only served by the one route seen here to La Locle using one of the now much missed Saurer RH buses. As a government body the PTT had special status with certain privileges for vehicles carrying the 'post horn'  like having the right of way on Swiss Passes. Also it was a cosy relationship with railways for if there was room they used to have their stands  right next to the railway platforms, but rather like Britain and Brexit once the post office was devolved not only did they lose their very own P-Reg numbers for cantonal plates the post bus became a more humble affair having and the stands were moved further away as was already the case here.

Oh la la! Going Top-Less in Brighton

I suppose after Blackpool the town of Brighton must be Britain's best known holiday resort but there are many and the nice thing is they are all different. Brighton and Hove with it's royal connections aspires to be a little bit posh but fails but being the favourite resort for Londoners makes up for it by being a little bit cosmopolitan and certainly bohemian in the 'Swinging London' King's Road sort of way. Blackpool had Ribble buses and Brighton Southdown both interesting fleets which were associated very much with Leylands in BET days but as elsewhere within the later NBC years had to buy Bristol VR's. But even under the NBC both were able to take some Atlanteans and whereas Southdown got rid of theirs quite quickly for more Bristols Ribble managed to just buy a few and stick to the now reliable and better AN68.  TNJ 994S might look like it has a fairly standard ECW body  but it was in fact a convertible to open-top. I suppose by this time even open-toppers had to be modern enough to do all year round 'OPO' but I think we all preferred the resorts when the most ancient buses like old-donkeys were given an easy retirement gently cruising along the promenade. Oh well it was not all bad for here at least on the South Coast they managed to keep one or two.

If Willam Shakespeare was alive today he'd white a ode to this Coney Island

People go to Spalding for the Bulb Festival at tulip time but I don't suppose visitors come to Stratford on Avon to see the plentiful traffic cones. They have become one of those things that sum up modern heaving Britain today as just their presence means either annoying road diversions or slow going often for miles and miles. However all the other motorists seemed happy enough to follow B124 UUD a City of Oxford Plaxton Paramount bodied Leyland Tiger in smart City Link livery as it threaded it's way through on the long limited-stop X50 service which linked Birmingham to Oxford via Stratford.

Saturday Morning in Geneva

When I used to take my short winter break in Switzerland there was often a bit of time to kill in Geneva and despite being saddled with a bit of luggage there was always a bit going on outside the station to photograph. By this time in the late Nineties all the Sauer-Leylands had gone aprobably the last of the FBW and Saurer buses too. Mercedes bought out the Swiss bus chassis builders which is why they became commonplace ie this 0405, and even though the trolleybus might have a Hess body the rest of it might have been a NAW used for local spec Mercedes buses built at the old Saurer factory at Arbon.

East London Scania at Trafalgar square

A still new looking Northern Counties bodied Scania of East London on Docklands Service D11 leads a procession of buses through Whitehall and approaches Trafalgar Square. Without any obvious branding it had probably yet to succumb to ever expanding Stagecoach ownership.