Every Easter WA arrived like that first Cookoo of Spring

It's some time since I last heard the distant call of the Cookoo and Spring is colder and more empty now it's arrival is no longer greeted with that first Wallace Arnold tour trundling through my town. When the new owner's of both did away with WA in favour of Shearings more modern corporate image they denied us of a big chunk of history. After-all with so much changed had you returned in the 90's which other once familiar big coaching name could you have still seen wherever you went in the UK from the more stable pre NBC-PTA Sixties. With about 250 buses and coaches Wallace Arnold I feel was Britain's largest Independent after West Riding, Lancashire United and Barton, operating in Yorkshire but also with depots in London and Devon etc

Old buses for Lancashire United

Stagecoach didn't do very well in North-East Lancashire and sold it's former Ribble and Burnley and Pendle operations to Lancashire United of Blazefield Holdings. The new owners were willing to invest in new vehicles and as part of the deal Stagecoach passed to them a number of elderly buses including Atlanteans, Olympians and as seen here in Blackburn a former Ribble ECW bodied Bristol VR.

Pfeiffer R eisen in Marberg

Once this style of Setra coach and paint-job was commonplace in Germany and although by today's standards rather dated it still looks attractive

Dress to Impress

Rock-Chic-Punk? I'm not quite sure what it is and I'm not sure if she's got it quite right either as the knitted pink wrist-bands don't quite go with the shades, bare tum, studded belt and fishnet. But this is Berlin a city where almost anything goes.

Handyrider in Wolverhampton

In a way it's not such a bad thing that enthusiasts are excluded from bus garages and often made to feel unwelcome to photograph in busy bus stations as there are far more interesting places to take pictures. As you can see out there are not only still the sort of soot coloured churches that might excite L.S.Lowry even the sun shines occasionally in Wolverhampton where still in Rossendale Transport livery a former Handyrider Dennis Dart climbs up into the city centre. As it has a Birmingham registration I think this must be an early Carlyle body as opposed the earliest forty that were Duple Dartline's.

A cold day in Chester

Despite it being quite bright everyone was well wrapped up with warm coats and scarfs in this 1982 view of lovely Chester once home to at least two of Crosville's 100 Seddon RU buses bought as an economy measure like SPG 800 numerically the last. The letter S stood for single, P for bodybuilder Pennine and G for Gardner powered. However as elsewhere they were not a great success and Seddon's entry into the then Leyland dominated bus market never took off despite this big order. As an alternative to the NBC tailored Leyland National some operators like City of Chester instead stuck to the reliable and more straightforward Leopard for it's single deck needs in the mid-Seventies like Duple bodied No.86..

Lancashire United in Wigan

Once Wigan had a fine fleet of Corporation buses and was also served by Ribble and Lancashire United. Shortly after this picture was taken this locally built Northern Counties bodied Daimler Fleetline of the latter would with the rest of the fleet join Wigan's buses in the orange and cream fleet of Greater Manchester. No.499 was working one of the LUT trunk routes to the other end of it's area at Bolton, the 559 having traditionally been the 59