Almost time for Switzerland

As winter the cold weather and the thought of snow approaches I think about Switzerland again as after Christmas was the time when I took a holiday there. Sion is one of my favourite places as it was one of the few places I managed to take a proper look at a decent number of PTT Regie fleet during my schooldays nearby in Vaud. In the Sixties many of the buses were FBW C40U Alpenwagens but there were older bonneted Saurer's too but these were a far cry from the sophisticated Saurer RH's to be seen in the Eighties and Nineties. P24412 and P24416 were amongst the last Saurer's built in 1985 as both Saurer and FBW sold out to Mercedes-Benz who continued the Swiss tradition with hybrids under the marque NAW from Arbon.

East Yourkshire 535

After Privitisation some former BET and BTC operators tried to use their former pre-NBC colours albeit usually in a modified way. The way East Yorkshire added it's old dark blue  to it's coach livery was both rather attractive and a pleasant tribute to it's past. ECW bodied Leyland Olympian No  535 reg. B535WAT  was pictured at Scarborough.

Soames Travel

Not only has the former Leyland empire gone including of course AEC, Guy, Daimler and Albion. But the once very common Ford and Bedford coaches associated with the Independent operator have gone too. Plaxton bodied Soames Executive NJU 382P positively gleamed in the sun when I caught this view of it in Ipswich during the Eighties.

George Ewer's Grey Green Coaches

As they say oak trees grow from tiny acorns and when the car dealership Cowie bought out the London coach operator George Ewer it quickly found it's way into the much more challenging yet rewarding Deregulated bus market. A few years later the slightly bigger Cowie Group changed it's name to Arriva, but few would have guessed anything so unlikely as this mushrooming effect looming when I photographed examples of Grey Green's then standard choice of Leyland and Bedford chassis in about 1983. Like other important Leyland strongholds as well as the new Tiger an upmarket Royal Tiger Doyen or two was tried but without gaining any orders as like many others once content with buying the trusted Leopard the less reliable and poorly thought out Tiger was one spanner in the works too many as the sensible way to proceed was with ultra reliable Volvo. It's just such a pity coaches like Doyen A839 SYR seen at Stamford Hill Depot weren't as good as they looked whilst the also popular Duple bodied Bedford YYL 793T was also nearing the end of it's breed.

Lunch Break: Inside the tram works at Boavista

Lots of beautiful old fashioned 'hands-on' heavy engineering lies beneath these historic trams in Lisbon. I get more excited by the sounds and smells of this world but I do love it when it fires up someones imagination or brings back heroic memories of sore knuckles and sweat.

A Daimler Fleetline in coventry

This style of East Lancs bodywork on the Daimler Fleetline appeared on buses of Warrington and Coventry but in an odd sort of unusual proportions 'East Lancs' way I found it quite attractive. CKV 2D was No.2 in the Coventry fleet but after the formation of the West Midlands PTA a local Y suffix was added so all the various fleets didn't need to be renumbered. The last letter was chosen instead of the first as three of the five towns started with W.

A conductor operated Metrobus on the 73

Normally at the time when this view of MCW Metrobus M1299 was taken in the mid-Nineties the cross-London 73 Route was still operated by Routemaster buses and no doubt that is why there was a conductor on this working. The bus was now owned by Leaside who used a swan for it's motif whilst the bus B299 WUL was coincidentally bound for The Swan pub in Tottenham.

Southport Driver Training bus

A former Southport Corporation driver training bus outside the garage at Blowick. Thankfully a few former PSV's like this red and cream bus managed to escape the horrible Merseyside PTE verona-green. Southport was regarded as one of the nicest Corporation fleets in the country. Even though the red and cream buses have gone a reminder of the good old days can be seen on the street as the town still paints it's lamp posts in those colours.

Bankekinds Scania in Berlin

I admit that I don't know a great deal about Continental coachbuilders except perhaps being able to spot a nice vehicle when I see one like this Swedish Scania in Berlin.

Kinch: One bus and a lot of bags

Kinch added a lot of extra colour to the deregulation scene on the Nottingham-Loughborough-Leicester corridor with it's nicely turned out blue and yellow buses including this former London Titan CUL 176V.

A Gliderways glides into Stafford

Not my best shot but when I was at Stafford Art School visiting some girls at the top floor of the now demolished Camden Place I took one or two views against the light of buses coming along the Wolverhampton Road including what to some is the 'Holy grail', a superb Gliderways! Even the name seems to sum up those Fifties Harrington bodies with that unforgettable dorsal-fine above the rear window. However the final products from Harrington of Hove near Brighton were their finest, the Cavalier and the slightly more 'racy' Grenadier as seen here on  Leyland Leopard 6911HA of 1963. Sadly they stopped building in 1966.

London: Picking up the Commuters

Deregulation of local express services into London removing the Green Line monopoly. It made the commuter pick-up points like The Embankment an interesting place to be, and buses like this smart Metrobus Lynx were well worth a photo.