East Berlin: If It's a bus or coach it's an Ikarus

 I complain because some of my colour prints came back with the wrong colouring, but I'm afraid there's nothing much one could do about those taken in East Berlin as the air was so fogged with pollutant from burning brown coal the air was thick with it. No doubt in the same way we miss the smell of the steam railway and industry older people in that part of the city must miss their smells too. Ikarus supplied most of the buses for much of the Eastern Block and they came in all sizes and even as a not too convincing luxury coach.

I Spy With My Little Eye

 Yes there's certainly plenty to see in this view I took of Chester from the City Wall  as Northern Counties Daimler Fleetline CFM 86S approaches nearing the end of it's journey to the town hall terminus.

West Midland Travel Leyland Fleetline WDA924T at Coventry Pool Meadow

 Not quite ready to load for it's journey to the Walsgrave Hospital in Coventry POOL MEadow BUs Station was 6924 one of the last batch of Fleelines delivered to West Midlands PTE and bore attractive MCW bodywork.

All Of A Rush on London Bridge

  It must be mid-afternoon as the shadows are already lengthening on London Bridge as the commuters start making their way home. In the background a Red Arrow National GUW465W 2 LS465 overtakes what I think is B15 Titan T932 A932SYE.

Stroud Valleys National in Cheltenham

 This Stroud Valleys Leyland National didn't look too out of place amongst Cheltenham's Edwardian architecture.

The Midland Red Bus Home D7 4126

 Till the late the Sixties the Midland Red garage at Stafford was almost exclusively double-deck with a large number of D7's especially from the first 100 4078-4177. Displaying the wrong service number instead of S98 No.4126 is resting after making the climb up to The Crown at Hyde Lea. Once it reaches the Top of the World on the Newport Road it will change to an S88 and continue to Castle Church. Buses which managed to spend their whole lives at just one garage were a rarity and this was one of them.

A Kind of Nationalism NHA 265M

 In the old days when we still used film, when we got our prints back from the high-street processors they were often quite poor and rather disappointing and this was no exception. Thanks to digital software it's nice to be able to put some life colour and detail back into these views especially when they were as good as this for it certainly makes me feel nostalgic for Stafford as it was. I reckon it was taken in about 1982 when the town was full of Leyland Nationals and numerically the first 265 spent most of it's life here mainly on the town services.  

Flying The Ensign

 Bus dealerships and scrapyards hold a certain fascination for bus enthusiasts and especially when viewed from outside. I regularly had to drive passed the large Ensign premises at Purfleet. I am sure the old East Kent Guy Arab converted to open-top had a bright future but I cannot say the same for the Wast Midlands East-Lancs bodied Daimler Fleetline 4462 TOE462N ordered by Coventry Corporation on former LT DMS Fleetline OJD 449R but you never know.  

A Manchester Routemaster 136 CLT

 After Deregulation it seemed everyone in the business found an excuse to buy some iconic Routemasters. I think Manchester bought eight with Leyland engines but London Transport was not happy that they blatantly ran them in the same red and with a similar LT roundel. One has to admit former RM 1136 does looked rather smart as it headed towards West Didsbury. This is not the first time they operated them in the city as in the Sixties RM1414 was loaned for evaluation, but it was probably just out of curiousity as by then the future was already accepted to be rear-engined. 

South Wales Hestair Duple 425 131 999BCY

A one-off with South Wales was this quite rare Hestair Duple 425 to National Express Rapide specification. No doubt 131 with it's cherished registration 999BCY was a familiar sight at Heathrow Airport as it regularly passed through travelling up to London. .
 

Not A Pigeon OR A Dove: Vision BJ11-DUV

 Vision Bus had quite a presence in Bolton with a good assortment of vehicles. These included some Wright bodied Volvo B9TL's from First Capital

Job Done! Ipswich TRY 121H

Initially at least when Ipswich bought four ECW bodied Bristol RELL buses off Leicester they didn't really need to paint them. All they had to do was paint over the maroon band and paint it green.