Old bus photos

Category: Articles

  • One door or two?

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    This article was originally published on the “Omnibuses Blogspot” site in 2008. That site disappeared a few years later (although some pages can still be seen on the “Wayback Machine“), and although the site principally covered current affairs in the bus industry, this article included an historical perspective. The sixty years mentioned in the introduction…

  • Yorkshire Woollen District Tigers and Arabs

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    When new, the Willowbrook bodied PS2s (697-725) and OPD2s (728-733) of Yorkshire Woollen District were painted in the old livery of maroon with cream bands above and below the windows. (The maroon was not quite the standard shade). They were unusual in that they were fully lined out with black edging to the cream and…

  • Front entrance and rear engined Routemasters

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    The front entranced Routemaster RMF1254 was unique in London and after being banned by the unions it was sold to Northern General who were the only provincial operator of Routemasters. All of Northern Generals Routemasters were built more or less to the same specification as RMF1254 except they had Leyland O.600 9.8 litre engines. When…

  • Midland General AEC Regent II/Weymann

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    Until I was about 5 we lived in Nottingham. At that time (the early 1950s) Nottingham City Transport was dominated by pre-selector AEC Regents (including quite a lot of pre-war ones). These were fine in their way – but the transmission music of a pre-selector was quite different from the Mark II crash gearbox. We…

  • York in the 1950’s

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    I grew up in York in the 1950’s; it was quite a good town to observe different bus operators. In addition to the major local operator – West Yorkshire, who also ran the city’s local services (York-West Yorkshire) – several other companies had services into York: East Yorkshire, (Leeds to Bridlington and Hull), West Riding,…

  • Early Post-War Bus Bodies

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    It is fascinating how wide spread were bodies that I thought were in the minority in the early post-war boom. Roberts was one of these. They have featured on your site a number of times – but not yet a Sheffield Regent III. The Nottingham Regent IIIs are the only 8′ wide examples that I…

  • Samuel Ledgards ex London Transport “Sutton Depot” Daimler CWA6s

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    Here are some happy reminiscences from personal experience on a class of Daimler vehicles which hold a very special place in Samuel Ledgard history. During 1953/4 no less than twenty four London Transport Daimler CWA6s were purchased. Two of these, GYL 291 and HGF 805, are not part of this account and so “may leave…

  • Monday at The Moorfield, Kid ??

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    Every Thursday at Bondgate Mr. Jack Tapscott would publish the following week’s work for the two garages at Otley and Ilkley including, as far as was possible in advance, any rest day working and overtime. Jack’s typing may admittedly have left a lot to be desired, but the accuracy of the weekly A4 page was…

  • The Brooklands School Bus

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    In 1954 when I was 5, we moved from Nottingham to Long Eaton, about 7 miles to south west. At the age of 8 I transferred from the infants school which was about 2 minutes walk from home to Brooklands junior school, which was about a mile away. In those days it was very common…

  • New Years Day out in Winchester

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    What does Ebenezer do for New Year? He goes to bed early so that he can get to Winchester for 08:30 on New Year’s Day. Family commitments kept me in Sheffield until New Year’s day until the death of my mother about three years ago. A ‘Friends of King Alfred bus’ virgin until then, I…