ODDS & ENDS

 

Well, there's bound to be some things now and again that don't quite fit into any of the other pages and here's the place for them. Heaven knows what might end up here, but on the bus front contractors vehicles, school transport, playbuses, hospitality buses, mobile shops, mobile home conversions, buses in scrapyards etc come to mind. Take a look at the selection that follows this little bit of opening nonsense. If you have anything you can tell about the subject matter please use the guestbook and record it................

 

 here's something a bit different to kick this page off

 

 

PRETTIEST BUS SHELTER!

 

 

Not something that one usually associates with any semblence of beauty or attractiveness, but I spotted this in summer 2007 on the A39 in North Devon between Bideford and Clovelly at a place called Fairy Cross. Apparently built as a form of memorial to the Manager of a nearby farm, it is served by only a handful of buses each day so I couldn't wait for one to come along.

 I don't think they come any nicer than this (let's hope the vandals leave it be) but do you know better. Get in touch via the guest book to discuss if you are aware of anything to trump it.

 

 

 

 

Perhaps this is a close runner - thankfully now preserved at Carlton Colville, a true art-deco masterpiece from Lowestoft. It apparently weighs about 130 tons and was removed in one piece, apart from the roof which was skillfully rebuilt on site

 

 

.......and it gets even more odd!

 

 

Well, In addition to being his office and his workshop, the bicycle is also his personal transport. I haven't seen one of these for decades in the UK - Knifegrinder at work in Lisbon 1984

 

 

 

. Don't think I've got any more shots of these but if any turn up this is where I'll put them

 

 

 

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A rather ignominious retirement for RT2960. I can't remember where and when I photographed it but I'll bet it's not still around in this role today

 

 

Seen at a School event in north-west london about twenty-five years ago - one of the few successful open-top conversions of former LT RT types

 

 

A hospitality bus of a rather different kind, former RML2300 as CHUDBUS (?) was seen at a Northants steam rally a couple of years ago. To my mind Routemasters ceased to be Routemasters when, though obviously necessary, they started to mess around by replacing engines & transmissions. I can't see the point of preserving examples when they have got to this stage. This one had, I think, a Scania power plant when I saw it 

 

IS THIS THE FUTURE - A BUS NOT DEPENDENT ON FOSSIL FUELS?

 

 

Mercedes Citaro Hydrogen Fuel Cell Bus on view at the Cobham Open Day a couple of years ago

 

 

Seddon  was for many years a minor player in the British bus market. In the demonstration park at the Commercial Motor Show in , I believe, 1972 was their 'Inter

Urban' model. I don't think many were sold. 

 

 

This former RT was parked near Lille in 1983 - I could not identify it

 

 

Behind it was this Regent V, I thought possibly ex East Kent, but I was never sure.

 

Thanks to Andrew Colebourne for pointing out that this was most likely ex Eastbourne Corporation JJK262 which he says was rallied in the UK like this in the 1970s 

 

 

At a safari park somewhere in the 1970s - can't remember where. This Leyland PD2 is of unknown (to me) origin as I wlould think it has been re-registered as WFW11J. Can anyone identify it? It has been suggested that it might be ex JMT. I wonder if the zebras really did think it was one of them?

 

THE WIMPEY BUS MYSTERY?

 

 

Well! - can anyone identify this? - seen in Manchester c.1964 working for a then well known building & civil engineering contractor. It is registered RC9685 and that stylish tin front definitely has a 'Regent' badge on it, not Regal as one might expect. This is a Derby area registration dating from, I think, c.1947-48, so if it was an AEC double-decker whose was it - Trent, Midland General, Derby CT? - and who built that stylish bodywork. Surely it had another  (more appropriate) life like this before it fell to transporting muddy booted construction workers about - Answer via the Guestbook if you know.

More information - gleaned from another website, it seems that this was in fact one of about twenty rebodied c 1958 by Willowbrook for Trent. This source states that they were AEC Regals

 

 

 

 

 

Northampton Corporation 190 was retained as a trainer until about 1981 but sold off just for the engine and scrapped!

 

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Here's one that 'got away' - It is known that a sizeable number of redundant London and other UK buses found their way onto mainland Europe in the 1940s/1950s, presumably intended for scrap, This one, at least, survived,  probably almost as long there as it had been in LT service. It  was STL1692 in use (albeit only as a messroom - no engine or radiator) by a contractor for the rebuilding of the main line railway station in Brussels Belgium. It was seen there in September 1964. On this visit I also saw six ex Birmingham Daimler COG5s in a field at Haarlbeke (?) near the railway line from Ostend to Ghent.

 

..............................and here's a couple more

 

 

Saw this in deepest Devon about 1972 on our way to visit the Colin Shears Collection. It's an early GreenLine T. Sadly, although it looks eminently saveable by todays standards and a lot of the useful bits of the engine are still in situ nothing was done at the time and I heard that it was shortly afterwards destroyed by fire.

 

NB See updated information from Seb Marshall in guestbook re: above

 

 

............and here's one that, sadly, definitely did not make it.  'Tunnel' bodied STL1871 (1937) was the subject of a brave preservation attempt by a private individual who acquired it from Mulleys Motorways in the early to mid 1960s. I personally got involved regularly for a while in helping to maintain this and, looking back without the inexperience of youth, it is possible to recall just why it became a losing battle. Resources of the owner were limited, undercover accommodation very difficult to find and mostly impossible to afford and the bodywork, desdpite its appearance here, was in an appalling state -  the ride was sometimes a worrying experience. There was considerable movement in its ash frame which had lost much of its integrity and the whole thing needed a total rebuild, perhaps unsurprisingly, for it was then already getting on for three times as old as its designed lifespan. Coupled with significant mechanical shortcomings all this led to its eventual demise. Today, of course it would be safeguarded and funds to restore it, though considerable, would eventually be found.

 

 

 

On the outskirts of Dublin in 1966. Was it a Dublin City tram? The last of those ran in 1949  I believe. It looked rescuable so was it eventually preserved? It shows fleet number 112.

 

 

.....and here's one that was eventually saved - thanks to the efforts of the late Prince Marshall this ex-Tilling ST of 1930 was rescued in 1965 from its resting place in a Hitchin Scrapyard, where it is seen the previous year. Its history over the past 35 years is well known - today it is owned by the London Bus Preservation Trust and resides at Cobham

 

 

...........and on her first day in  London Vintage Bus service in March 1972

 

 

........and here's one that came back although it didn't go anywhere far once back in UK. I remember a few years ago there was a TV programme about nostalgia and peoples memories hosted by presenter Philip Schofield and someone asked 'Where is the 'Summer Holiday' Bus. I contacted the programme office the next day and agreed to send them a colour print of this ( I also captured it on 6x6 transparency) which I did but they never returned to the subject or used it. It was RT2305 which is seen here languishing in the yard of  H& C Coaches of Garston Watford where it spent its last days as a mess room for the drivers. At at least two others were used for the filming.but 2305 was however the mainstay and the one the 'boys' supposedly converted for their sleeping accommodation. For the film it bore the odd registration WLB991 which co-incidentally I actually observed in Kensal Rise London on a Ford Consul car a few years later. How I wish I 'd got my camera with me at the time!

Look carefully at the door pillar and observe the white filler patch. If you doubt that this was the actual film bus watch the film and see what happens as Hank Marvin ( or was it Melvin Hayes?)  jumps aboard when escaping from angry peasants.

 

SERVICE FLEETS

 

The vehicles used by engineering and maintenance departments of public transport operators are worthy of a paragraph of their own, although I took only a few such shots so will include some of them here over time. Quite often the vehicles, at least the larger ones, were conversions from redundant time expired buses which added to their interest. At least one detailed book has been written on the subject of London Transport's Central Distribution Service fleet which includedd all sorts of adapted vehicles for engineering and training and communication tasks but those of other operators were none the less interesting.

 

 

 

Braving the atrocious weather of 1st January 1962 this  London Transport Stores Lorry is at rest at Stonebridge on its penultimate day as a trolleybus depot. Presumably it has delivered stores and equipment associated with the changeover to diesel bus operation that will take place after traffic on the next day. It was a conversion using the AEC Regal  chassis of a former 'T' class GreenLine Coach from the early 1930s

 

 

 

 

SCHOOL BUSES

 

One has to be a mite careful nowadays when photographing these which is a shame because there are some interesting vehicles about including a whole generation of purpose built 'yellow perils' hailing from such places as Turkey - local ones to me are BMC's. To start this off here's one I saw in Stratford-upon-Avon a few years ago. I think it was an ex-Greenline vehicle

 

 

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FUNICULARS, CLIFF RAILWAYS ETC

These are far more popular and numerous on mainland Europe - there are not many in the UK. I thought it best to keep them separate from the Railways page so this is where they will end up.

 

Undoubtedly the best, and not for the feint hearted, this 500+ foot riser has connected the North Devon towns of Lynton and Lynmouth since late Victorian times. 55 years ago when the latter was devastated by floods it kept on working and made a major contribution to the rescue efforts. It even enabled HRH The Duke of Edinburgh to visit the scene of the disaster and be taken away safely afterwards It has an unblemished safety record going back well over a hundred years.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

JUST NEEDS WRAPPING

A dull day look at the exterior area of the Eastern Coachworks factory - September 1962. In these pre VR and RE days production was apparently heavily into bodying the new FLF's as can be seen here. I think this may have been a Saturday as there did not appear to be a lot of activity, although some light work was underway on one or two of the vehicles shown. It is interesting to note that I simply walked through the factory gates wielding my camera and wandered around the area in front of the building. Nowadays there would be high barbed wire topped fences, CCTV and a security presence at the gate at least!

 

 

At the head of this line-up EOO587 is awaiting its time to take up its identity as Eastern National 2745. It was a 6B version

 

 

242MNN was destined for Midland General and is presumably in their non-standard blue/cream colours although I cannot remember

 

Thanks to 'John' for his  Guestbook message and to Paul Chambers via e-mail stating that 242MNN was delivered to Mansfield & District not Midland General and would therefore have been in that operators green/cream colours

 

 

Showing the fleet number DX150 identifies this as awaiting registration 274 BWU for West Yorkshire Road Car Co. Although it looks like an FLF this is an FS6B. Unlike the others depicted here it is of conventional rear platform entrance configuration.

 

 

510 OHU is destined for a life pounding the streets of Avon for  the Bristol Omnibus Company. Both this and WYRC DX150 above have the Cave-Brown-Cave heating and ventilation system fitted

 

 

542 BBL was Thames Valley Traction Co 874, another FLF6B

 

Late in 1961 I was told about a film by Kodak called Tri-X. At 400 ASA is was fast for irs time and was my saviour when flash photographing the last rites of London's trolleybuses at stages 13/14. However in terms of grain and defintion it was then truly abominable, at least as developed by my local chemist and I should not have used it for anything in daylight thereafter. These pictures are not therefore as well defined as I would have wished.