Rain Greets Ellen Smith at Bretonside

Some wet weather greets these Lancashire folk as B887 WRJ their Ellen Smith Plaxton bodied Leyland Tiger arrives at Plymouth Bretonside and is told where to park. The attendant left this job but would still have greeted the coach day-trippers as he got a job plying for trade down at the Barbican for the boats out to the naval dockyard. Growing a big bushy beard and with his strong west country accent he was ideally placed for the role down at the waterside.

A bit of Inspector Morse Code

A Stratford Blue Leyland Leopard with Plaxton bodywork  in Oxford being passed by a different type of Leyland but bearing an equally iconic name and although I rarely watched it I expect Inspector Morse on the box drank Morrells Oxford Ales helping bringing those culture vulture tourists to the fine city. At this time I'm not sure if the X50 still went all the way to Birmngham but it certainly did in NBC days.

Grant doored Leopard at Barnsley Station

In the new order of Leyland Nationals, Bristol VR's and even Fords, at least the NBC adopted the trusty Leyland Leopard as it's standard coach chassis and no doubt Yorkshire Traction like a number of former BET operators was pleased about this as they had always been keen buyers of the type. As well as all-white coaches YTC was one of a number of operators who had Plaxton Supreme bodied examples with bus grant doors in a more pleasing red and white livery. No.153 was among later additions to the NBC fold in Barnsley, a National2 and an ECW bodied Leyland Olympian.

No not Pere UBU, it's Crosville's UBU 72N a Seddon

 If you don't know who Pere Ubu was he was an outrageous character invented by the writer Alfred Jarry and based on a former schoolmaster, but I suspect many more will know it as a rock band from Cleveland Ohio.

When the NBC sprang into life and  dictated it's standard vehicle policy the Leyland National had yet to materialise and consequently  the in-house state owned Bristol and ECW were hardly in a position to suppy the significantly enlarged fleet now that it was stealing former BET Group orders off AEC, Daimler and Leyland, and its bodybuilders like Alexander and Willowbrook too. I think some would have been glad of the work during this difficult period  but as well as heaven forbid the introduction on a large scale of lightweights from Ford it went to Seddon and ordered one-hundred not very popular Seddon RU's for Crosville. Everything about the NBC was cheap and cheerful and these Gardner powered buses must have looked like a good substitute for the now doomed Bristol RE. As well as the main batch Crosville acquired a former demonstrator which it numbered SPG 699 and allocated to Chester.

First Potteries Omnicity

Very typical of the First Potteries fleet are these Scanias whose wheel trims rattle noisily as they go past but the Omnicity bodies are quite eye catching. First hasn't tried to shake off it's 'Barbi' image but at least this application seen in Hanley is quite cheerful compared to all that grey they used to use.

Sauer Post Bus at Chur for Laax

Because of winter sports I expect many of you will be more familiar with Swiss place names like the ski village of Laax than the decent sized valley town of Chur where the bus goes from. I'm afraid it is a few years since Saurer RH's ventured up there and I imagine snow-boarding was still in it's infancy when this was taken in 1990. Most of the PTT examples of this bus bore their own body-style but twenty like P25649 built by R&J in 1982 had a style more akin to those supplied to it's contractors. However it was easy to tell them apart as on those the lower front panel was left black.

Potteries Buses on Merseyside

Like a number of former NBC companies PMT tried to spread it's wings and expand following deregulation. It bought into nearby Crosville buying it's operations in Cheshire and on Merseyside. Because their livery was so distinctive and 'local' it's buses which found their way into the West Midlands too looked rather strange and out of place to my mind like this former Crosville VR in Liverpool WDM 348R.

A Rare ECW bodied Leopard with Greater Manchester AJA 361L

In this view of a rare type of ECW body to be found on a Leyland Leopard the people of Glossop don't look particularly inspired just glum. Greater Manchester PTE had a few of these service-coaches for  private hire, airport work and more normal duties like this run to Simmondley. North Western Road Car had small garage here which I expect was it's allocation albeit a sub-depot of Thameside.

Roe Dalesman 242 CRF of Greatrex of Stafford

I spent some of the New Year picking the best and more importantly scanning the most interesting of these old beginners photography  Ilford Sporti photos. With square negatives it was not easy to get much closer than this to take this two coach view of the Roe Dalesman bodied AEC Reliance of Greatrex of Stafford 242 CRF. However boring as they might have been in their day the frontal treatment of the Duple Yeoman body on a Thames has made them a bit of a favorite of mine and much nicer than the much more plain contemporary Bedford. 168 HBF looked quite new so I imagine this was taken in about 1963. After the heavyweight era ended this firm turned to the Commer but I haven't changed my mind boring old Fords were favorites for much of the Sixties and Seventies.

Reading Transport Leyland Titan RMO 78Y

Most PTE's at least tried the Leyland Titan but  London Buses was it's only real buyer apart from Reading Transport. It's much more widespread less sophisticated sister from Leyland the Olympian was not only a lot cheaper operators could choose their regular bodybuilder and special requirements too whereas the Titan was a complete package rather like the National and built with London in mind.

Now North Western, Ribble Atlantean RTF 637M

I'm not sure if I lived the livery chosen for the North Western used again this time for the former Ribble buses in the Merseyside and South Lancs area. Probably the neat type-face saved it and these Park Royal bodied Atlanteans seen in Liverpool looked rather attractive and probably not much worse than the former NBC poppy-red.

Albion Nimbus in Yeovil 933 NYB

Over Christmas I re-scanned the best of my inferior old  Ilford Sporti prints trying to make them presentable. Many weren't up to it but I've saved a few of them when they are of the less Everyday. The Albion Nimbus was very very common especially with Independents but Hutchinson and Cornelius of South Petherton ran 933 NYB with Harrington bodywork which strongly resembled the Maidstone and District batch.