Halls: Harrington Grenadiers on Parade

A POPS rally at PMT's long since closed  Hanley Clough Street Garage in the mid Eighties.Local Potteries concern Hall's Coaches turned up with no less than three AEC Reliance Coaches including the former Western Welsh 145 a Harrington Grenadier and even nicer KTC 330C.

Lost Liveries: First Bradford

When the First Group adopted it's Barbi colours for the entine bus fleet a number of attractive liveries were lost and a few shockers too. One of the least attractive was that found on Bradford's buses, and at that time towards the end of the Nineties on plentiful Olympians which I'm sure making those once familiar Gardner engine sounds we are starting to miss.

Royal Blue paused at Yeovil

Yeovil Station September 1966 when I started at a new school in Somerset, another view taken with my primitive Ilford Sporty camera of Royal Blue Bristol LS 2214. This was the nearest town but once I have exhausted the bike rides my weekend day out explorations thumbing-it took me as far as Plymouth, Cheltenham, Reading, and Portsmouth. With a cheeky smile and a college-scarf around your neck it was so easy to hitch-hike in those days when the world was perceived as a safer more friendly place.

The bus to Douro

Another gem from Porto for my Portuguese friends.

Western National 86 Plymouth to Barnstable

This Dennis Dart was photographed in the days when Western National still ran from Plymouth to Okehampton and the N.Devon coast. But life must be more dull today for the Tavistock drivers who rarely stray beyond the various less pretty runs in to Plymouth. As elsewhere the often quite pleasing individual First company liveries have been replaced by a corporate greyness. Also gone is the traditional looking garage over the road here in Tavistock.

A view of the Seafront at Brighton

I couldn't get a nearside view of this Southdown VR beacause of a rubbish skip so I moved over an took the Brighton seafront instead which was even better. These ECW bodied Bristol VR's like 594,  TNJ 994S had removable roofs for open-top work in the summer

A National Express Bova

The various contractors brought with them some much needed vehicle variety to National Express in the Eighties. Amongst the delights were these at the time rather futuristic looking Bova's like VWX 370X operated by Wallace Arnold on it's foray into express work. They were a partner in the British Coachways consortium which was formed to rival National Express but it failed not helped by poor facilities like the open-air car park London terminus at King's Cross which was not a patch well-appointed central Victoria Coach Station. So Wallace Arnold's interest mean't it got involved in Rapide work for a while.