A Setra town bus in Yverdon

I'm not sure what TPYG stands for but I can guess that some of it is Transports Public Yverdon, a Swiss operator that obviously liked Setra's.

A Day at the Seaside: Scarborough

Following an icon of the age the Ford Sierra, a Duple Dominiant bodied AEC Reliance of Gordon Collins was seen heading along the long breezy seafront at Scarborough in 1989.

Driver Training in the Worcestershire Countryside

This short Marshall bodied Leyland Leopard came to Midland Red from Stratford Blue after the latter was absorbed by the National Bus Company. By the time I took this photo  it was as a yellow trainer with Midland Red West, but a hint to it's first owner was the Warwickshire registration and it's number 2059 having been SB No. 59. Fortunately after it was withdrawn this bus was secured for preservation.

Odd buses from the Seventies

People cite the MCW Orion and it's lightweight contemporaries of the Fifties and Sixties as being the paragon of bad proportion and ugliness. Well I feel after making rather elegant bodies in the Sixties on the rear-engined double-decker Northen Counties lost it's way somewhat in the design department till the advent of the Manchester Standard's which became a kind of timeless classic. What didn't seem to help was the way operator's chose a mix of modern curved and very plain glass at the front. The slab-like livery chosen by Fylde didn't help either with No.77's already top-heavy front.

Damsel and the Dragon

Soon all the normal service double-deckers of the BVG in Berlin will be these giant three-axle MAN Dragon buses like this new one seen in 2007 at The Zoo. Even though they lack the character of the older types we should be glad of them as a few years ago it looked as though the city might be quietly turning it's back on this fine traditional mode of transport.

A MAN in Delemont

The Swiss Post Bus fleet under the PTT didn't operate a large number of MAN buses but they found a nitch providing some smaller midi-range buses like this very smart example seen in the Jura town of Delemont. Also now you know what violinist Nigel Kennedy used to do when he had no work playing the violin! This bus of 1993-4 would shortly join the main PTT fleet as another PAH local contractor (Posthalter) Mercay sold out taking the small local allocation of Mercedes-Benz 0405 buses from about eight buses to twenty-five and bringing in a lot more variety.

Sunshine and Cloud in Blackpool

Well at least it wasn't raining and not too bright for photography either in Blackpool in the days when there were still plenty of Atlanteans and other Leyland buses to see. The Fylde buses of Lytham St Annes buses down the road were before too long to become part of the enlarged Blackpool fleet to give them more muscle in the face of competition in the fickle Deregulated market of the Nineties. Their biggest preditor was Stagecoach whose infamous stripes would soon adorn ECW bodied Olympian 2113 bound for Burnley in the east at the other end of Lancashire on the long 152 Service.