Wonderful Copenhagen 1979

Another view from my 1979 trip is of a very smart one year old Leyland-DAB in the centre of Copenhagen with another one going the opposite way.

1979 Copenhagen HT Volvo 887

I must admit I tended to look down on this rather square Aabenraa bodied Volvo's in the Copenhagen fleet of HT as they lacked the character of the earlier well rounded Leyland-DAB BL1-2 Series buses that reminded me of Leyland Panthers bck home. The last of those DAB's was No.510 quickly followed by the first of these in 1970. However as you can see No.887 was still only one year old in 1979 and I came to rather like them as they made a distinctive 'whine'.

Bern 701: A bit of a one off?

I'm not an expert on the trams of Bern but from the outside at least No.701 stood out as being different and I expect it must have been the prototype for the next generation.

Happy Days of Woodseaves

With Deregulation Happy Days Coaches of Woodseaves near Stafford reminded us of it's former days as G.H Austin when it started buying second-hand buses again. As before most were Leylands but a couple of rare sixty-one seat high-capacity  Wadham Stringer bodied Bedford YMT's appeared from Maidstone Borough Council including TKM 111X. To be truthful thses buses and usually shorther were not exactly rare as the British Forces and other none PSV users had them but they were ceratinly not common as a service bus.

Lisbon: Follow that Tram!

The rebodied and like this rather newer trams in the Lisbon fleet seemed to lack the character of the older rolling stock of up to fifty-years their senior. These single ended 'open plan' trams of nos 283-304 and 306-322 with bus seating dated from between 1954-57 weighed almost ten-tonnes and carried 26 seated passengers and the same number of standees.

Our mild Devon Riviera

In the bright sunlight with it's solid white buildings and palm trees Torquay can seem a bit exotic. But despite the racy Stagecoach stripes this  Bristol VR is as conservative as ladies who take afternoon tea. LWU468V is working one of the best known local routes, the 12 to St Marychurch.

High Stakes: London Transport's 8387 buses and the Numbers Game

A spotter who is sick of London is sick of it!

 

But it was certainly an exciting prospect for me when we first came to stay for our yearly short-week holiday in the Sixties. Even when my parents rested their aching feet at the Ivenhoe nearby I was posted notebook in hand on this corner of Gt Russell Street. That was a long time ago and it was 1962, no RM's on the 73, just RM 4** series on the 127 and very early double-digit ones from Poplar on the 23 crossing towards Holborn. Of course I was still a bit too young to dally with the likes of Christime Keeler and Mandy Rice Davis so instead reluctantly I had daily wonderful Red Rover adventures and I filled no less than sixty-three pages and 'copped' someting like 1500 buses that week.Some going and especially when by the end of the week I must have seen the one's coming passed the hotel far more than just once crossing them off the list.