The page for enthusiasts in the Oxford Chilterns Area - News from you and news for you - pictures too  ~~~~   The page for enthusiasts in the Oxford Chilterns Area - News from you and news for you - pictures too  ~~~~   The page for enthusiasts in the Oxford Chilterns Area - News from you and news for you - pictures too  

News Page
Concessionary Travel, Buses in the Landscape, Running Days and Historical articles

Issue 287
(OBP-500)
Friday 1st May 2009
(next update week ending May 16th 2009)

this section published Monday, 11th May 2009

Now in our 11th year

Visit the "OXFORD & CHILTERN BUS PAGE " Archives from October 2002

Visit the "OXFORD BUS PAGE" Archive 1998 - 2002

Please note that any comments made in this news page are those of the Editors' and in no way constitute 
any official points of view from the bus companies mentioned,  or indeed any other official body. 
As a news page we reserve the right to make valid comments as seen from an editorial point of view.

If you wish to be included on a mailing list where I will advise of any mid-week news please let me know
malcolmhc@aol.com

To see the pictures full size just click on the thumbnail

Concessionary Travel, Buses in the Landscape, Running Days and Historical articles

including:
A day out on a Concessionary Pass with Marcus Lapthorn
Dorset possibilities from Ken Aveyard
Buses in the Landscape in Cumbria, Eire and London
Running Day at Slough - first pictures
RM5 relaunched by Arriva at The LT Museum
Binders Yard by Gavin Francis
and more on those Wycombe Olympians with pictures of 5827 and 5828

Concessionary Travel

After various bits of news and rumours, the Government has confirmed that the English National Pass Scheme is here to stay. However one wonders for how long companies and local authorities can maintain funding?

From Marcus Lapthorn

"A friend and I had a most interesting day on Tuesday 14 April. Our agenda was as follows and everything ran to time!" 

Dep Faringdon @ 0950 on Stagecoach route 66 to Oxford Frideswide Square, arrived 1027

Dep Oxford Frideswide Square @ 1028 on Arriva route 280 to Aylesbury, arrived 1200

Dep Aylesbury @ 1300 on Woottens 'Tiger Line' Leyland to Hemel Hempstead Rail Station, arrived 1408

Dep Hemel Hempstead Rail Station @ 1427 on Southern journey to Milton Keynes arrived 1500. (Although this is a Southern working from East Croydon, the rolling stock provided was one of the 'on loan' London Midland EMU's that have pantographs and third rail pick up shoes.)

Dep Milton Keynes @ 1515 on Stagecoach route X5 to Oxford, arrived George St 1625. (The driver insisted that we all got off as he did not drop off in Gloucester Green but he then drove into GG whilst passengers trailed their luggage around to catch connecting coaches! (Seems crazy to me!)

Dep Oxford @ 1645 on Stagecoach route 66 to Faringdon, arrived 1730.

The only transport cost was a £7 single concessionary rail ticket. 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

From Ken Aveyard, Traveline Data Coordinator Dorset.

"Just dipped in to the site and caught up on the latest updates.

Regarding tourist services - the intention is to exclude the city sightseeing type of services where seats are bookable, but which are registered as stage carriage by nature of their multi stop hop on and off facilities.

With regard to local bus services operated by open top buses, they will continue to be fully accessible to English National Pass holders as they are basically local bus services using buses with the roof removed.

So for any of your readers coming to Poole or Bournemouth, the open top service to Swan age across the Sandbanks Ferry should be open top from the late May bank holiday, with hopefully brand new Darwen Visionaires due later this year."

This information from Ken is much appreciated and will I hope prove useful to readers. Ed.

Buses in the Landscape

From Douglas Spencer

"I thought that your readers might be interested in the attached for the ‘Buses in the Landscape’ feature. We have full permission to post."


Leyland Tiger Cub PSUC1/2 WSK509 (604197) / Alexander C41F (6093) New Sep 1960 as Alexander PD177.
 seen on the Annual Classic Commercial Vehicle Rally between Brough and Kirkby Stephen, Cumbria - Easter 2009
Picture by and © Dave Gothard

"Typical example of a Scottish “dual purpose” country bus to 1950s design. The Alexander companies bought almost 300 Leyland Tiger Cubs between 1954 and 1964, the last being withdrawn in 1979. This one is fitted with a Leyland O.350 engine of 5.76 litres capacity and Albion 5-speed constant-mesh (“crash”) gearbox. New to W. Alexander & Sons in 1960 as fleet number PD177 and operated in the Fife area until 1975. Operated on the trunk routes of the day such as the 23 (Glasgow - St Andrews) and 355 (Leven - Dundee). After use by Alexander it became a “berrybus” used by a farmer to transport raspberry pickers in the Dundee area. Purchased from a dealer at Carnoustie in a very run down condition in 1990 and after extensive restoration work is now presented in original livery. Much mechanical work has been done to the vehicle including a complete engine reconditioning carried out by its owners."

I remember driving Leyland Tiger Cubs of both North Western (Melba Motors) and Ribble during the early sixties. They were then widely used and often appeared on quite long distance services, even from the north west to London. They were noisy hard riding little coaches and one sometimes struggled to get over places like Shap and Beattock when a full load was being carried. The crash gear box on the 4 speed/twin speed rear axles was also fun, especially embarrassing if one missed the change. The five speed Albion gearbox models were somewhat different and also had a pleasant sound to the gearbox, something totally missing on the earlier variety. When one is driving one of the modern Volvo or Scania coaches of present times, it is hard to remember what hard work those old coaches were, no power steering, however the compensation was that passengers had much lighter baggage in those days, generally one small case per person, unlike today when you feel that you could take up residence in some of the portmanteaus carried by modern day travellers.

From Keith Shayshutt

"Two submissions for Buses in the Landscape with two Bus Eireann outstation photos from deepest Co. Cavan. One is VC21 at Cavantymahon, Tunnyduff and the other is MH8 at Edrans outstation with wind power in the background."

 

 

From Julian Walker 

"Here is my batch of submissions for "Buses in the Landscape"."


A First Marshall-bodied Dart DML41729 in Parnell Road, Bow.


Fairfield Road, Bow. An East London Alexander-bodied Trident enters Bow Garage at the end of a run from Victoria. The bridge in the foreground now carries the Docklands Light Railway.


Travel London Dart DP114 on route 100 amongst the former warehouses in Wapping, now converted to luxury flats for City workers.
The photo was taken on 20th September 2004, a week after Travel London took over the contract for the route.


East London Trident 18266 on route 277 in Lauriston Road, South Hackney. This was formerly a trolleybus route and, before that, a tram route.

That's the lot - for now. I've got a load of bus photographs on my Flickr webpage, amongst other things.

The link is: http://www.flickr.com/photos/wirewiping/  Please feel free to have a look.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Other contributions 


Buses in the Landscape - The Lake District Stagecoach NW 17015 on the 599 - 17th April 2009 by R Davies.

Running Days

Slough 2009

The first pictures from this event were received from Gavin Francis. Doubtless more will follow.


RF673 sets off an early working from High Wycombe. Gavin Francis.


RML2412 was on the second working from Wycombe, this time to Windsor. Gavin Francis.

RM5 is launched at The London Transport Museum.

Following a lengthy restoration by Arriva, RM5 took part in the HCVS Brighton Run on 3rd May 2009 and was displayed at The London Transport Museum on 8-10 May. Thereafter it will join the Arriva Heritage fleet with eight other Routemasters.


Three pictures of RM5 taken by Gavin Francis.

For further information go to this link: http://www.theheritagefleet.com/events/display/events/108

Binders Yard by Gavin Francis

Gavin visited Binders Yard on Sunday 10th May and found several interesting items in the Ward Jones yards.


A long way from home, this Devon General low height Atlantean was in for work as was RML2277. Gavin Francis.


This early nineties M, nr 737 looked rather past its best. Gavin Francis.


Gain wondered what the origins of this bus were, well you can read about it at the link hereunder.
http://www.trinityhigh.co.uk/transport/return_to_northampton.htm

One presumes this bus is also with Ward Jones for attention.

Kevin Lane writes . . . No267, the doyen of the Northampton Daimlers is seen here sweeping into the ‘town’ side of Northampton’s Greyfriars bus station at around the same time as the previous picture.  Not only was no267 (JVV267G) the last Northampton CVG6, it was the last CVG6 of all and would have been the last traditional half-cab built ever, had it not been for a handful of Leyland PD3s and the odd Bristol FLF. No267 along with nos261/6 survived the cull of 1980/1 and indeed lasted longer in service than the 1973 Daimler Fleetline single-deckers (see below)  No266 was withdrawn in 1984 to start a new life as a community toy library, whilst no261 finished in 1986 passing to the Langborough Volunteer Bureau, Redcar and subsequently into preservation. The cosseted 267 however was fully repainted in 1985 and re-upholstered in moquette. It was for many years retained for special duties and is today in the care of the Northampton 154 group.
Cobham's TD heading towards Walton.

Visits etc

Gez writes "We have got a trip organised for the Stagecoach depots in Warwickshire on June 6th may be of interest, Ken Pitt our new visits co-ordinator has penned some details."

I think one may have to join to group to be included. Ed.

THE GREAT BRITAIN BUS GROUP 

Ken Pitt,
Visits Co-Ordinator,
52, Loxley Close,
REDDITCH,
Worcestershire. B98 9JG.

April 2009

I have pleasure in announcing details of The Group’s first Bus Tour and Depot Visit, named “The Warwickshire Wanderer”, which will take place on SATURDAY JUNE 6th.

The Tour will start from COVENTRY RAIL STATION at 1000hrs, and will visit Depots at NUNEATON, RUGBY, LEAMINGTON and STRATFORD, prior to returning to COVENTRY by 1730hrs. It is hoped to arrange brief stops at NUNEATON BUS STATION, and also NatEx WM Depot at COVENTRY. The vehicle will be provided by Stagecoach Warwickshire from Stratford Depot, and a lunch (or spotting !!) break will be taken allowed in RUGBY Town Centre.

The fare is £15.00, and all are welcome. Please detach the Booking Form and send with Cheque (and s.a.e. please) to Ken Pitt at  the above address.

The running of subsequent trips depends on the success of this one, so I hope that you will support us and come along. For this trip we are grateful to Clive Jones, Commercial Manager of Stagecoach Warwickshire at Rugby for all arrangements made. I expect that HV Vests will be required – if you have one bring it along, if not it should be possible to loan on he day. If you have any queries please do not hesitate to contact me – 01527 591195.

= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =  = = = =

GBBG TRIP – 6th JUNE 2009

I wish to book    tickets for the above Trip & enclose a Cheque / Postal Order for £      , payable to GBBG.

Name           ______________________            Contact Phone ________________

Address         ______________________

                   ______________________

                   ______________________

Reference      ______________________      )      Details inserted by GBBG

Received       _______________________    )

PLEASE RETAIN THIS RECEIPT & PRODUCE ON THE TRIP

Historical items

Mark Self writes about a coach he owns

Bristol LHS Duple Dominant 6804 VC 

Just to put you in the picture. The little Bristol LHS belongs me! (Mark Self (Roadliner Passenger Transport))  

It is in fact a 35 seat version - one of two ever made. 

We acquired it May 2008 from Kevin Newport Minibuses, Chapel Lane, Knockin Heath, OSWESTRY, SY10 8ED. 

It still regularly appears on tour!


Bristol LHS Duple Dominant 6804 VC - Mark Self

Julian Walker writes about Olympian C228CFC ex Oxford

228 and all that - Regarding the above vehicle it was recorded as withdrawn by Arriva Southend in January/February 2009, this was in Bus Fayre magazine.

The G-VWL series two are reported with Alpine 230,232. 233 was scrapped after an accident a few years ago now, not sure of the status of the others in this batch, but 235 was last in Luton.


5828 (228) in her latter days at High Wycombe and in Arriva colours but made ready for Swann FM branding on 11th August 2002. Picture by Malcolm Crowe.


The same bus, seen later in the year at Amersham out station parking area by this time with full branding - 1st November 2002. M Crowe.


..................... and finally one for the record - 5827 in an Olympian line up at High Wycombe on 3rd March 2002.  M Crowe.

New Thames Valley history from Paul Lacey


 

Paul's latest volume in his comprehensive work on Thames Valley will soon be available.

Paul Lacey is pleased to announce the completion of his latest and long-awaited book:

A HISTORY OF THE THAMES VALLEY TRACTION CO. LTD., 1946 ~ 1960

224 A4 pages, perfect bound in laminated covers, with 544 half-tone illustrations, full fleet list, service fleet list, route map, and appendices covering livery details, background to Newbury & District and South Midland, as well as allocations of vehicles, working arrangements and premises. A highly detailed and evocative account of all aspects of the Thames Valley activities, with the experience of over 40 years of research, fully illustrated with almost all unpublished photos

Retail Price: £25  Order your copy NOW direct for just £20!

Please quote the OCBP when ordering

Other titles currently available: 

A History of the Thames Valley Traction Co. Ltd., 1920 – 1930

Retail Price: £15                                                     Special Offer Price: £5

A History of the Thames Valley Traction Co. Ltd., 1931 – 1945

Retail Price: £25                                                     Special Offer Price: £5

Thackray’s Way – A Family in Road Transport

Retail Price: £10                                                     Special Offer Price: £5

50 Years of South Midland, 1921 – 1970           Written by David Flitton

Retail Price: £11                                                      Special Offer Price: £5 

Offer prices apply to orders placed with the new volume only. Send to:

Paul Lacey, 17 Sparrow Close, Woosehill, Wokingham, Berkshire, RG41 3HT, cheque payable to Paul Lacey  -(post & packing inclusive). 

If you live locally and prefer to collect, please call on 0118 979 4097 to arrange a mutually convenient time to visit (please do not just turn up!).  

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