MIKE'S BUS PAGES

AFTERLIVES

 

This page is intended to showcase old buses, from London and elsewhere, in most cases after after they have been sold by their original owners and go on to have afterlives performing non stage-carriage work. Several images previously posted to other pages are being drawn onto this new one

 

 

 

Many will recognise the location here as Reading in the trolleybus era. This passing ex-LT RT3 (RT1180?) was sold seemingly before 1960 and is here on staff bus duties for A.W.R.E. I recall that the livery was grey & blue. But who knows what A.W.R.E. stands for?

Answer: ATOMIC WEAPONS RESEARCH ESTABLISHMENT!! There were sights connected with this then perhaps more important activity at Aldermaston and Harwell, both in the county of Berkshire

 

---ooo000ooo---

 

 

Here, back in 1983 a redundant unidentified Leyland National serves out its time as a mobile branch of the former Midland Bank. Hands up anyone who does not immediately recognise its location!

It is of course Goathland which, for the long running classic TV series Heartbeat, doubles as Aidensfield. The row of shops (and the sheep!) often seen in the series can be recognised in the background and foreground

 

 

 

Another ex-Londoner . This RTL, seen at Mill Hill in the early seventies was in use by Roydonian Coaches, probably on schools and contract work

 

 

 

 

.......and these two old Huddersfield trolleybuses were seen ending their lives 'conveniently' at a Biggin Hill Air Show. I think there were at one time actually six of them owned and operated by Epsom & Ewell Council. (always came in useful for the Derby no doubt) One, I'm not sure which, did get saved for preservation initially and was kept at Sandtoft until quite recently. Sadly the site is quite exposed and during strong winds a few years ago the ageing bodywork collapsed and could not be saved so now only the chassis exists

 

---ooo000ooo---

 

CONTRACTORS TRANSPORT

 

The 1960s was the golden era for seeking out and photographing buses discarded by the original owners and in use for transporting muddy booted construction workers about to and from their sites. Here's a few such vehicles that my camera found. Nowadays they are far less common as most building tradesmen can afford their own cars! Perhaps I should turn my attention to the agricultural sector where large numbers of EC nationals work and are often transported in this way. I have a few more from this era however and will add them in due course.

 

 

GCD40, seen c. 1966 was formerly with Southdown Motor Services. It was a pre-war leyland TD that had been rebodied after the end of hostilities. Another of this type GCD48 has fared much better in preservation

 

 

 

So dirty you can hardly read the registration number to identify it, however it was CJG972 and early post-war Leyland PD1 that formerly served the seaside resorts of the south-east with the East Kent Road Car Company

 

 

Eagre Construction Company ran this AEC Regal that was formerly in the ownership of City of Oxford Motor Services, and, at this time, substantially still in that operators attractive livery. Although my attempts to photograph them were unsuccessful I recall that the Eagre Company earlier (c.1962-3) ran some elderly looking Regals with KAL registrations which marked them out as being formerly with East Midland Motor Services

 

 

 

Not quite in focus this one but nevertheless worthy of inclusion. An ex Birkenhead Corporation Massey bodied Leyland PD1, apparently out of use at Banfields Coaches premises, the former Nunhead (AH) LT garage in South London

 

 

 

 

 

 

Photographed a long time ago c.1961/2 this former Southdown coach looked all too modern to be relegated to contractor work. I think it was a Leyland Olympic of the early 1950s

 

 

RC9685 was an AEC Regal that had been rebodied in full-front style in the ownership of Trent Motor Traction. It's not around anymore, then neither is the famous name store behind in this Manchester 1964 view

 

 

It is well known that a number of ex-London buses found their way to the European mainland in the aftermath of WWII. Most were probably scrapped quite quickly but STL1692, above was a late LT withdrawal and could not have got to Europe before late 1954. It was found a decade later in a yard adjacent to major rebuilding of the main line railway station in Brussels. It was a mess room only and had no engine or radiator.

 

---ooo000ooo---

 

 

Knightswood Coaches of Watford had ex RT191 in 1966. A bus with this number survives today in preservation

 

 

Not many ex-London RTLs could claim to fly, which is what former RTL1217 was said to do at the Midland Festival of Steam c. 1968. With its wings temporarily detached it waits its turn, however I recall that it did not actually perform

 

 

 

WFW11J was a re-registered Leyland PD2 being used c1969 as a transport around Woburn Wild Animal Kingdom. I wonder if the zebras actually thought it was one of them! It has been suggested that it was ex Jersey Motor Transport which would account for its re-registration

 

 

There were not many successful open-top conversions of ex-London RT's however this one looked the part in the ownership of London's Capital Radio station

 

 

RT2960 ending its days ignominiously as a burger bar

 

 

 

This RT was espied on the outskirts of Lille France in 1983. I think it was RT4712

 

 

...and this was standing next to it (with identical registration!) Thanks are due to Andrew Colebourne for advising that this was former Eastbourne Corporation JJK262 which was apparently rallied in the UK like this in the 1970s

 

 

Ex-LT RTL1115 ended its days as a mobile showroom for Sperry & Hutchinson, owners of the S&H Pink Stamps Trading Stamps concern, a somewhat less widespread rival to Green Shield in the 1960s

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Seen at a Northamptonshire steam rally a few years ago was former RML2300 operating corporate and catering services under the guise of CHUDBUS! As far as I can recall this had a Scania powerplant when I saw it. To my mind Routemasters cease to be Routemasters when they have such changes made to them, at least from a preservation point of view, though this would have  mattered little to its owners commercial concerns.

 

Back in 1961 Southend Airport was not the important hub that it is today, although hardy souls braved DC3's and HP Hermes or Vikings to get them to Jersey or France as can be seen by the boarding queues in the background. For non-flyers there was a chance to have an airport tour in this retired corporation Massey bodied Daimler

 

 

 

Can't exactly remember where I snapped this but think it was Doncaster in 1964.MPU 33, an ex Eastern National Bristol L, in fact one of the coach versions, is seen with its complement of contract workers on board. The fleet number

EIBB0302E (this sounds more like an inventory number!) is rather odd - anyone know who owned this bus??

 

 

Former London Transport Country Services GS47 was converted to a mobile first aid post for the St Johns Ambulance London Transport Corps

 

 

 

 

...........and here's another, this time the former GS6 which in the late 1960s was providing staff transport for Top Rank employees working at its motorway service station,  probably M2, but I'm not sure of that now. Just look at the car park - how much emptier could it be?

 

 

 

 

 

 

A few years ago there was a television programme hosted by presenter Philip Schofield about peoples memories etc and someone asked Where is the 'Summer Holiday' bus?. I contacted the programme the next day to tell them that it was long since scrapped and agreed to send them a copy of this photo which I did but they never used it or returned to the subject. It was former RT2305 which is seen c.1969 in the yard of H&C Coaches of Garston Watford where it spent its last days languishing as a mess room for drivers and staff. For the film it bore the strange registratioin WLB991 which I actually saw a couple of years later on a Ford Consul in the Kensal Rise area - how I wished I had got my camera at the time! I actually was allowed inside and shared a brew with some of the staff. I went upstairs and saw where Cliff 'slept' - the crude partitioning was all still in place. 

 

Actually about three buses were used in the filming but RT2305 was the mainstay. If you doubt that it was the actual bus, observe the white filler patch on the door pillar. Watch the film and see what happens to Melvyn Hayes as he hastily boards the moving bus to get away from angry peasants