This collection shows my attempts at Marsden Models and Tiny resins. I try to add to the kit upon completion whether it be weathering, altered bodies, or quirky conversions. There is lots of scope to go beyond the basic kit as my resin building friends have shown me.

This collection shows my attempts at Little Bus Company resins. I try to add to the kit upon completion whether it be weathering, altered bodies, or quirky conversions. There is lots of scope to go beyond the basic kit as my resin building friends have shown me.

On 31.10.09 & 01.11.09 there were 2 rallies held in Manchester to mark the 40th Anniversary of the establishment of SELNEC PTE on 1.11.1969. One held at the Museum of Transport at Boyle Street organised by the Greater Manchester Transport Museum Society. The other was held at Eastlands in the Car Park of the Manchester City Football Stadium organised by the SELNEC Preservation Society. Heritage Bus Services linked the sites. SELNEC (South East Lancashire & North East Cheshire) was created by the merging of the municipal fleets of Manchester, Salford, Leigh, Bolton, Bury, Ramsbottom, Rochdale, Oldham, Ashton Under Lyne, Stalybridge Hyde Mossley & Dukinfield 'Joint Board' & Stockport. A substantial part of North Western (from the NBC) was added in 1972 and in 1973 plans were then laid to takeover the then largest independent Lancashire United which was completed in 1976. The Wigan fleet was added in 1974 and it was then renamed Greater Manchester Trasnport. (Original plans had also envisaged Rawtenstall & Haslingden were to be included and Warrington was only excluded due to an 11th hour change)

Jean-Luc lives in the south of France and has only been to the UK once! Instead he bases his diaoramas on English towns he's studied from Ian Allan 'Glory days' books. These little layouts are excellent, I recognise one of the Gateshead scenes and the entrance to the High Level bridge into Newcastle. Great stuff.

Just a selection to show another ECW variation to the VR style body.

The latest demonstrators from LBC show the very useful Sentinels, some beautiful Bristols and an appealing Southdown - plus many more.

With the announcement that there may be an Alexander D type model sometime I've dug out some examples. Well I think they are! Not as easy to spot as I first thought. Tweaks to the low height D type bodies resulted in F, K, H and N type variations.

My next project for a resin conversion is the Tiny Alexander coach. I saw one regularly at Cowdenbeath Raceway in the 80's being used as a transporter. In an attempt to find a photo I unearthed some more stock car transporter bus pics. here they are...

I've been sent a selection of Dublin Geminis to illustrate the possibilities for the recently announced Corgi release. Thought you might like to see them. Thanks Seamus.

I've spent a lot of good times in Belfast but when i was going there regularly it wasn't a great idea to be standing on the streets taking photographs. When Niall told me he had a set of recent bus shots I had to have them! Here are Niall's sharp shots of an attractively shocking liveried fleet.

A selection of the more interesting buses at Showbus. Thanks Niall.

A Niall Dorset selection.

Members diaoramas kindly provided by Dick Lindsay.

Thanks to Campbell for this fine set of layout shots from this recent Scottish Show. Some excellent diaorama type shots and great attention to detail. The breakdown truck looks good though the dobs of glue holding it down are a bit OTT!

As VR hysteria grips the country, well part of the country, well actually a field in Suffolk, somewhere down in tractor land maybe these pics will help slake the unquenchable thirst for info. Never before has the population been so engrossed in a will he/won't he fever - well not since Ken Barlow was marrying Deidre. There are some round front VR's here too so that you can spot the difference.

Manchester. Trans-Lancs Historic Vehicle Rally, Heaton Park. More than 200 vehicles, many of them buses, participate on a road run from Museum of Transport to Heaton Park for display. Unfortunately Niall's camera decided to malfunction so he grabbed some Ribble pics before it died altogether. Worth showing the few he took. Love the North Western Tiger Cub and the Saro.

Johnsons/Redferns Open Day. They provide a number of school contracts in and around the Mansfield, Worksop, Chesterfield, Newark, Alfreton areas. Their fleets is almost entirely made up of VRs (including two flat front ex Scottish ones from 1968/9 still in service) with some Olympians, Scanias and an ex Nottingham Atlantean. They repaint buses for other operators and provide an MOT and training service. The Nottingham 3 axle Scanias shown amongst my Nottingham pics were there for repainting. Withdrawn from NCT it is understood they have now passed to Premiere of Nottingham. Niall.

Love 'em or hate 'em you can't get away from them! I also had difficulty in keeping up with one shifting down the road in Portobello! No mean feat with the traffic that was about. In every sense - the Gemini is omnipresent in the City. The fleet appears to be beautifully assembled too with chrome lettering, considered vinyls (in most cases) and chromed wheel trims. The similar looking First vehicles look quite down market by comparison.

From the sharp lens of Dick Lindsay. A glimpse at Alton Rally in 2006 and 2006. Good modelling rear end references here.

Another rally season over! Where did the summer go? Took more general shots this year at this friendly little local rally and a few pics of the new Dennis dart SLF creation by EFE.

Niall Dorset has been out and about in Nottingham recently and what a collection of colourful shots he's sent in. Not much sign of the 'big three' liveries but a plethora of alternative sensible liveries with understandable themes. And some more shots of those lovely Optare Versos!

Bill Wood's excellent repaints are well known to Scottish officionados and I'm pleased to show some here in his Alloa Bus Station diaorama. Notice the attention to detail - only needs some chewing gum on the pavements - and look at the light weathering on some of the blue Midalnd buses. Lovely touches.

There's been a lot of talk lately about the new Oxford recovery trucks. Here's one being readied for the Glenelg fleet. Thanks to Dick Lindsay for the first of a few pics to 'show how'.

These ingenious bus kits from Alan Johnston are clever assemblies of resin and metal parts. Thanks to Harry Cameron of Diecast Buses Interactive and Alan for making the pics available.

Actually my wife spent the day in Skipton while I was working. She took these pics so don't make any derogatory comments please.

Thought I'd take a sunny colourful look at Newcastle this Saturday. I wasn't disappointed and despite having a deep seated hatred of all these silly 'look at me' fleet names I have to admit some are close to pretty and a couple are well considered though what the Cobalt Kipper has to do with a bus service from Newcastle to Blyth puzzles me. You don't think it's a joke about the old Blyth power station do you? "Cobalt..."

45 new pics added 14/08/09

Some samples of Stephen's kits are here. If anyone has other photographs of completed kits please let me have a copy and we'll publish them here.

Another collection selected by Bob H. We don't get many trolleys for these pages so this selection represents a good range of UK types.

A Bob Heathcote selection from this Derbyshire rally. Some sharp detail, nice pics.

There seems to be a disagreement over the colours of the wheels on the Britbus Omnidekka. I don't know what colour the wheels are meant to be but looking through a set of pics I took in Edinburgh last June they could be any colour! We have some that look light grey, some dark grey, some silver, even white (though I doubt it myself). Now to confuse matters some have blue wheels on the front and not the rear and vice-versa - near side or offside! That set me looking at legal owners styles as Peter H was asking about them. I haven't got a model so I can't check but here are two styles, including a brush painted 'KG' sign!!! You can't take anything for granted can you.

A new event on the rally calendar, the first Leeds Bus Rally at Elland Road looks like to be a winner. Niall was there and sent these excellent shots. (Didn't they use to play football near there?)

Not been to this one before. A lovely location with seafront across the road, and pubs, cafes and a chip shop close by. Some interesting visitors and a couple of stands selling models and books.

A few shots of the Model Bus Company Bristol ECW Royal Blue coach. Made by Weico of Australia.

Dick Lindsay recently spent some time on this holiday isle. here are a few of his holiday snaps - a glimpse at the varied transport on the island. I see the Leyland Comets have all gone then?

YOu may have seen the unpainted masters at the South Shields MBF meeting. Here are a few examples of the finished articles. The red Yorkshire Woollen District Brush bodied Leyland is a gem in its distressed state. I regularly saw them in Dewsbury and I never saw one cleaner than this!!!

Sydney Bus Museum Tempe .
For many years the Tempe Museum has been home to two ex London Transport buses RT 3708 and RM 1708. Earlier this year a support group London Transport Enthusiasts (LTE for short) was formed under the wing of the museum to look after RT 3708. Since the arrival of RM 1708, the RT has tended to be displayed rather than used mainly due to available volunteers to run it. Still in sound condition most of the work needed is maintenance and cleaning. It is therefore hoped to be on the road later this year in preparation for the Australia day event in January when regular vintage bus services are run through the City. It was evident at last year event that Sydneysiders like double decker and further more like Red double deckers. Attached are a collection of photos of a trip with the RT to Loftus Tramway Museum in 1999 arranged by Alan Lee at Woodpecker Model Railways and some photos taken two weeks ago of the bus being given a clean up.

Photo's © Tony Asquith (LBC) & Tony Long.

A Scottish fictional operator serving Dumfries and district and modelled by MBF member Bill Mather. Cairn Valley is the coaching arm of Glencairn Buses whilst Solway Motor Services has been revived. These pics show some lovely cameos on Bill's diaorama and an attractive backdrop of a local loch. Some of the 'preserved' buses are included in the selection.

Once an island full of interesting buses, Bedford OWB's, Albions, Morris Commercials and other exotica, today it's a Stagecoach stronghold with the streets rumbling from the sound of cascaded vehicles. Oh, I did see one '57' registered Solo. To add some interest I've posted a few scenic shots of the small town of Brodick and the ships in the bay.

This is a favourite model of mine, it just looks right. I like this Corgi casting and it suits this cream livery very well. Yelloway - What a brand!!!

A small selection of Stagecoach in Cumbria. There would have been many more but Cumbria 2008 and 2009 were two of the wettest I can remember!

I shall be putting some scans of timetables, fleetnames and leaflets as/when. For the moment this is likely to be the only document!

Another lovely weather day with some interesting buses and stalls. Not the biggest event on the rally circuit but a relaxing, friendly affair.

I have a fascination for passenger carrying ships, 'ferries' in particular. Here's an updated selection taken between 2002 - 2009.

This selection of views show photos all taken (by my wife) on the north journey from Carlisle to Oban via Stirling (where an idiot woman tried to run me off the motorway then effed and blinded because I couldn't get out of her way!). Strange creatures aren't they. The return journey was from Largs to Carlisle via Thornhill. The only incident of note was when an articulated milk tanker joined the A76 from a farm road on the left at 10 mph in order to get in front of a train of cars doing 60 mph. That was interesting.

Many thanks to John Openshaw who has sent some pics he took whilst on holiday in Rhodes. Another fine set of bus views to extend our world coverage! By the way, have you seen the length on that MAN city bus? It must be the longest one ever operated on a Greek island. Rhodes is the largest island in a group known as the Dodecanese. It has a population of about 117,000 and is 541 sq miles in size.

Another annual pilgrimage around West Coast Motors territory with 5 days of sunny weather. Surprises include photographing in the old Rothersay Tramways depot on Bute, seeing the short Plaxton Primo's which look REALLY odd and the very first shots of WCM Van Hool, R900WCM in WCM livery, fresh out of the Citylink livery. Oh and I bagged both WCM open toppers in the sunshine although the ride on the Bute tour was a hypothermic experience aggravated by a dodgy commentary and rib bruising ride....and a fixed charge of £7 for a two day ticket when I was only there for a day.

Chesterfield, home of Reeve Burgess Coachworks and to the 9th Chesterfield Preserved Running Day. Organised by 'Transpire' (Chesterfield Bus Society) the event included the operation of preserved buses on a route around the town. In operation were buses from the former municipality (now passed to Stagecoach) and the various companies who operated in the town and on the routes to Sheffield, Mansfield, Nottingham & Derby and the like.

Also in evidence were the new Enviros on the 'Pronto' route. This route which operates on the Chesterfield/Mansfield/Nottingham corridor is a long established route and must be one of the few joint routes still operated on a commercial basis. Buses in the 'Pronto' livery are operated by Stagecoach and Trent-Barton. Trent has Gemini bodied Volvos in Pronto livery.

An area rarely covered on this Fotopic site but thanks to Wayne Bell here's an excellent set of colourful buses!

A pot pourri of shots taken over a two day visit to Cumbria. The new Stagecoach open toppers look smart but I'll miss the old London rattle boxes. I bet the drivers won't! No sign of the Peter Rabbit/Wordsworth all-over signed buses, all gone perhaps? And a glimpse of an unusual Mellor bodied Beaver 2 with Stagecoach.

A glimpse from Andy's recent visit. Thanks for the chance to show these pics taken in a city rarely photographed for its buses.

On Saturday 30th May the 1922 Petrol Electric Tilling Stevens left the Manchester Museum of Transport. This bus had been privately owned but on display in the museum for many years. Thankfully the bus was saved from export to the USA over a decade ago. The bus has been bought by a private collector in Shropshire. Its Departure from Boyle Street was one of the few opportunities to catch this beast in daylight. Its a far cry from todays 'low floor' buses. More excellent shots from Niall. These pics show the beautiful detail on this veteran gem! The signwriting is pure artwork, no vinyl abominations here.

A selection of vehicles from this new event on the rally calendar. Pics by Terry show quite a bit of modeller's detail.

Another fine selection of photographs from Niall who visited the Nottingham Rally at the weekend. Some nicely framed pics and lots of detail exposed. Love the Midland General Regal with Saunders?body and some of those rarely photographed back views.

Some of Rod's excellent models are shown here. The attention to detail is testimony to this model maker's art. Thanks for sharing these lovely models with us. All pics © Rod Blackburn

Rod's comments about the Keil Kraft Routemaster were less than complimentary recently when the subject of RM model accuracy was discussed on DBI (http://groups.yahoo.com/group/diecastbuses/).

A large selection of buses from North West England, if you like the Lancashire municipal fleets there's lots here... Bolton, Bury, Manchester, Wigan, Salford, Stockport... Many thanks to Niall for enduring what looks to have been a great event, even if it did pour down!

Actually, probably a lot less than a day or even an hour but thanks to Siggy for this glimpse of life in the fast lane!

Look what the postman brought me!!! Love the Sealink although the big name is the wrong shade of blue. The detail on some of these is very good, just look at the seat detail, hand rails and interior fittings. Oh, and the National N on the Sealink IS the right way around, I found a pic of it at Ambleside!

Always a gathering not to miss - and becoming a benchmark event to see the latest resin kits from the UK major players and work from some excellent north east modellers.

Came across these pics the other day. Thought they might be of interest.

Well he forgot to go to the Coach rally but has Terry redeemed himself with this set of pics? Perhaps...

Defying the swoops and curves brigade the Jonkheere offers strong straight line styling with a quality appearance. Many thanks to readers supplying pics for this selection.

A selection of views of Stagecoach buses in Cumbria 2007-9. Some all round shots of the latest ALX liveries.

Thirty years ago I tried to build 1/50th and 0 gauge model buses. I wasn't very good at it! I found the discarded models the other day long forgotten in a box, here they are in all their tawdry. There's also a couple of shots at my first attempt at making a master for resin casting - in 1980! That didn't work either.

Press Release

NATIONAL BUS COMPANY (Southern Division Bus Services) are pleased to announce the start of a large delivery of the new Leyland National single deck bus. In the photos Mark Speight of Leyland National congratulates James Carver of NBC (Southern Division) while Ian Mackenzie (Commercial Manager, London Country Bus Serivces) and David Seagers (General Manager, Sothdown) together with staff from the two subsidiary fleets look on. Mark Speight announced that the Leyland National is a new integral construction urban bus developed jointly between Leyland (Truck and Bus) and the National Bus Company. Ian Mackenzie of National Bus Company (Southern Divsion) said "we are pleased to accept delivery of a new concept, highly advanced bus that will essential to offering the public new standards in bus travel.

London Country Bus Services have not been without operational problems, inheriting a ageing fleet at formation; Ian Mackenzie has confirmed that firm orders have been placed for 543 of the new buses whilst Southdown will add a further 128 to their Sussex operations.

Thought I'd try and adapt one of my CMNL models to represent a West Coast Motors vehicle. I haven't sprayed from a Halford's tin for ages - I usually use an airbrush - so this was a bit of hit and miss. first results aren't too bad. Also included is the rear view of a Sprinter for Honister Mines that I did the artwork for.

OOC are due to release 46109OM Plaxton Panther in the same livery in the near future. Many thanks to Graham for these pics of a similar vehicle.

Some models look great together, the Sprinter and the OB but others look odd - the Oxford Panavia campervan v their Bedford CA. Are these tricks of the eye or scaling mistakes? I don't know. Thanks to Dick Lindsay for the use of the Glenelg example. Terry Kempshall has sent some useful pics to show how he has added scale people very convincingly to scenes around his diaorama - Steine Valley. There are more pics of Steine Valley further down this page (a lot further).

What a super shape! Well balanced and despite being 'boxy' the glazing is sympathetically fused to give an 'all-in-one' appearance. Isn't this the one that CMNL are introducing later in the year? I hope so.

I was sent a set of pics for this new model by Harry Cameron (thanks H) and I've compared it with the pics of GCS50V in my collection and on the internet at....

http://kennybarclay.fotopic.net/c1318152.html

As a model, well i know what it's meant to represent.

The one they're all talking about.

What a selection of transport. Ancient bone shaking city buses, run alongside state of the art Golden Dragon single deck streamliners - recent additions to the City bus fleet. River taxis and tourist boats, Static steam trains, great brutish diesel main line engines, beautiful dmu's and lots more in this Terry Kempshall selection. If you thought Bangkok transport was boring - think again.

Oh and by the way, if anyone can help with identification of any of the images shown please leave a note on here or on the DBI website

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/diecastbuses/

A couple of people have asked about depot shots for references for diaoramas so I've had a quick shufty through some scans and grabbed this lot. Some are non-UK but the clutter around a yard seems to be much the same anywhere you go. Look closely at some of them, there's all sorts of bits of detailing that makes even the smallest model depot look amazing!

Picked these up today. Got them home and it was only when I looked at these pics I realised the British Rail version had no front grille. I'm not bothered, they're cheap enough but it's something to watch out for in future. It'll probably get a full front! I've not seen much about these two so maybe these pics will fill a gap. They're not bad and allowing for their tiny scale I think they're OK generally. The RM - which I didn't buy - was not a great casting, the front cab area looked 'thrown together'. But for what they cost and as N gauge toys you can't complain. Four Quid max! Less if I'd got my 2.5% VAT discounted.

Some early shots of the Corgi OOC Crossley DD.

I've been sent a collection of 350+ bus roofs to consider! Not an easy task but I think this set of 100 or so shows at least one of every type included. The Verso roofs are interesting as are the tops of the Go-Ahead and Arriva Omnicitys. If you thought a roof was a flat sheet of alli with an AC box bolted on, think again!

TrystCo - a new range of 4mm scale resin bus kits, covering fleets and vehicles in the Southern part of England, including London Transport. The kits will be in the popular cream resin, with whitemetal base plates, steering wheel etc., and push fit rubber wheels. The exception to this will be Kit CK1, which is a special conversion kit for the diecast Leyland Olympian to make a dual door London specification vehicle. The Hunters Tryst Graphics range of waterslide transfers will be extended to cover destination blinds, registration numbers etc., dedicated to the kits being issued, and the kits will also include instructions where remaining transfers can be obtained to complete the kits.

Can anyone help identify what year this photo was taken. It is a postcard with a Ell stamp on the back saying 1964 but it looks much older. Not sure about any copyright but if you know of any please let me know and I'll remove the pic.

A dump bin really for all the odd emergency stuff I take but rarely look at. However, there seems to be some interest in fire engines so here's a pot pourri of 'stuff'.

Saw this monstrosity in Singapore and promptly threw up.

As the interest in Denning buses grows I thought it would be better to merge all my various Denning collections into one site and include the 35 new shots I took around Sydney and Tasmania this year. The Trax Trux Denning double decker model is due in 2009 and I've added a selection of the real things in here. I have interior shots too - if anyone wants to see them just shout.

Twelve months on and I made another couple of trips into the city for a bus reccy. It was quite alarming! The usual bus ranks that I visited 12 months ago were sparsely occupied. I spoke to several local bus drivers who were all of a similar opinion - the country buses aren't coming into town because of their weakening economy. Visits to the city are pointless when you've got no money to spend. Other pics in this collection are from south of the city. The Crowther's bus fleet is looking very smart after a livery revamp.

I spent some time in Cairns last year and loved the place although it was a bit of a bus wilderness. This year I hired a car and did a bit of touring out to the Tablelands and up the coast to Daintree. Populations are sparse up there so there aren't too many buses needed however I grabbed a few gems like an International at Mareeba, an ex Brizzy Denning? on a school run in Cairns and a Leyland Worldmaster? near Daintree.

During November 2008 I drove around Hobart and district looking for old relics (Mrs B excluded). The surprise find was an ex Hobart trolleybus of 1935 (perhaps) but there was a lot of other interesting stuff about. However, rabid mean looking guard dogs and Tiger snakes meant that some pictures were taken from a safe distance. I've also included some of the old trucks that I stumbled across too.

I can't recommend a visit to this lovely city for the hospitality - we were robbed once and then 3 hours later suffered a second attack!!! However I'd go back tomorrow to photograph the city's marvellous transport system. There are 160 bus routes serving a 13m population and every route is branded. Not with daft stuff like 'Magic Roundabout' and 'Blaydon Twoccer' but with route details and useful info. I took a couple of hundred pics when I wasn't looking out for pickpockets who creep up behind you, squirt you with bird sh** and then rob you as they help you wipe it off! They never mentioned that in the Lonely Planet.

I have never seen such beasts before. The ice field buses of Brewster are special. In Andy McClellands selection of buses taken on a tour of Canada there are pics of all types of buses but these are without doubt 'awesome'. The old streamliner bus body on the tracked chassis is a bit special, so is the VR! Now where did that come from?

If you like Routemasters (and a couple of Bristol VR's) then this set of pics taken in Halifax, Nova Scotia by Mike Harvey will interest you. Nice photography and colourful buses.

There are only eight pics in this set but when keith Jackson sent me them I thought there'd be a lot more people interested in seeing his pics - including Ipswich and Darlington examples.

Many thanks to Niall for these splendid, well posed shots of his favourite Duxford buses.

The BET 36' bus body appeared in the early 60's built by Park Royal, Willowbrook, Weymann and Roe? and quickly set the standard for a modern single deck body. The BTC ECW RE was unashamedly copied from the BET style. They saw life through into the NBC era in the early 70's and Plaxton and Strachans also produced variants.

I've started working on the model railway again and after visiting the West Coast of Scotland a couple of weeks ago I decided that the harbour area of the railway layout will also be the bus turnaround. I've used one of the pics I took as a backdrop, printed it on an A3 printer and fitted it to a side wall to give some depth to the scene. This theme will be extended along the main wall - sometime!

The original folder is getting a bit heavy to wade through so I've started this one reflecting the second year of building this railway based diaorama.

More pics from Terry Kempshall. New angles on some old favourites but don't ask him about the Southdown VR. I said "Don't ask him about the Southdown VR".

In view of recent events I thought it would be appropriate to put up some pics from a recent collection I acquired. These smart vehicles are a tribute to the operator.

Dick's Glenelg diaorama is well known to many MBF members and he sent me some pics to add to our 'members layouts' collections. The blue and grey Glenelg livery is a smart one and suits vehicles of all era's. I particularly like the 50's Bedfords. All models are kit built or modified proprietory items. The paintwork is exceptional.

Europe's answer to the Denning? These beasts are amazing. Look at the huge red coach negotiating the 16th century bridge at Grange on Derwentwater or the gargantuan machine taking up the road as in glides down Kirkstone Pass.

I've never been to South Wales before and my expectations were high for a sunny late summer break when I visited in late August. God had other plans and she covered Swansea and Carmarthen with rain for the four days I was there. Consequently these pics were mainly taken through a car windscreen. Sorry about the quality, I hope to do better next time - I must go back and visit on a dry day - do they have them?

Been going to WCM territory for a number of years now. It makes an interesting comparison to see how this fascinating fleet continually changes. There's always some new stuff running around on every visit! Look at the interiors of some of the new buses compared with the modern looking ex Jersey MT Darts. My thanks again to the people at the various depots who allowed access to the sites at Dunoon, Campbeltown, Oban and Ardrishaig.

There has been some comment lately about the W type bodies from Alexander of Falkirk. This motley collection has been put together from my 'collection' - pics not necessarily taken by me but acquired with permissions to reproduce. The quality may be lacking but you get a general idea of the type. Notice the rear of a Fleetline version on the National pic. Not at all what we expected of Alexander at the time - not until they produced the ugly P type! Maybe 'P' stood for plug?

A small cosy affair but very well attended this year despite the dull weather.

Now a photographer's gripe... Why oh why do a small minority bring their lovely chariots out to play and fill the front windows with stickers, bait bags, and general clutter? When I photograph preserved buses I want them to look as nice as I can as a mark of respect for the preservationalist who throws money at these beasts and for posterity. But sometimes it is a bit difficult to do my best.

Two destinations to gladden the heart of any Wearsider of the sixties! Service 20 on the Circle, Seaburn and round the town - the bus to get you home and Service 24 to Seaburn Camp - summertime fun guaranteed.

Guys 231- 236 new in 1958 were Sunderland's last new deckers until 1962 when the intake was 6 Daimler Fleetlines with Roe bodies. The era of the rear loader was over.

This collection shows resin kits by other manufacturers. Resins are an area I'm quite unsure about but I'm taking a growing interest in so if my captions are wrong or you'd like to add more information please leave comments. All those fit to print will be used. (No Terry, I can't publish that. You'll just have to find a way of filling the hole yourself).

Keep looking in here! Tony Asquith has sent me a few pics of Little Bus Company resin models and is going to send more as and when new models are ready. The experts amongst you will be able to spot the new releases!

I came across this little Lledo on holiday in South Wales this week. I'm told the original Nigel News bus was an RF or a Merlin type thingy and that this Lledo MB2 came out about 15 years ago. Whatever, I thought some members might like to see this odd little model.

Seems that no sooner does someone say "Irizar PB" than the retort is Sunsundegui, the Spanish coachbuilder from Pamplona! Just to even the Fotopic up a bit then here is my Sideral Sunsundegui collection.

It's a neat little model to start with but a bit garish. Who's complaining at £2.50 - £2.95 at most toy fairs it's a bargain? I decided to give mine a repainted, a well used feel, a driver and a Elf n' Safely roll bar. I also narrowed the front wheel tracking and tweaked the rear. It's now in the pre-1954 blue but looks better to me and anyway by the time of the railway/diaorama of Port Appin - 1980 - 1995 most of these had been repainted. The trailer is scratchbuilt.

A selection of Irizar PB's from all angles including some from other photographers - thank you. Mainly Scanias but a couple of MAN's. For me, this was once the best looking coach on the road and I think the Corgi model does it close justice but today I prefer the more angular looks of the Jonkheere.

Pretty little model it may be but you can see where they've struggled to capture the complexities of the real thing. The side moulding 'groove' is way too pronounced. The front lower panels should be more rounded and the front is generally more bulbous. The rear 'reverse angle' window is more of a caricature and whilst it couldn't be anything but an Irizar it simply isn't right. And maybe that top dome should be more rounded too. The destination blind treatment is definitely 1990's model making but they're not alone with that 'quick fix'.

Whilst there has been a lot of lyrical waxing about this model it isn't quite right. Nevertheless it will be a welcome addition to many a model coach collection even at £26 a pop!.

If I could preserve any vehicle it would be an Albion. It's an honest to goodness thoroughbred machine, especially the exposed radiator Albion Chieftain. I'm in the process of taking pics but in anticipation of the Albion Event at Biggar this weekend Donald Grant kindly sent me these three pics to get the collection going.

Go-Coastline operated out of North Tyneside. This small fleet was one of the better looking post-NBC incarnations. The post box red and deep cream livery was a true bus scheme unlike many which seemed like the result of a long night in a darkened room with a banned substance. I don't have many pics to show here but there is one of an AN68 at Beamish Museum - well off route on a day trip. The model has been announced by Britbus.

A regular contributor to these pages has sent me a disc of North Weald shots. That Sunderland Corporation Crossley looks good, I remember it stood out the back of the Fulwell depot. Many thanks for sharing your views with us.

A glimpse around parts of the capital at buses and coaches visiting and working between July 11 - 16th. I haven't been particularly selective about my choices - I didn't try and bag all the RM's, I've probably been beaten to it several thousand times! Nor did I selectively pick out favourites for special attention. I love the lines of the Enviro deckers and the front of the Optare/East Lancs greenhouses are gorgeous but the retro rubber mounted glass on the sides is awful. Pity that. I do have a soft spot for Neoplan coaches but there were remarkably few around and 'pig of the visit' has to be a Noge coach with an Alfa Romeo style grille!

I didn't photograph many municipality fleets, didn't find them interesting. Trams and trolleys leave me cold and the replacement fleets were usually too modern to interest me in the sixties. Some of these pics were acquired in the seventies from a local photographer, they're not the greatest but they show how things were. Newcastle was in the City and County of Newcastle upon Tyne - according to the boundary signs on the Tyne Bridge, Middlesbrough was in North Yorkshire. Hartlepool, Stockton, Darlington, Sunderland and South Shields were in County Durham.

One of the most colourful independent fleets in County Durham. Oh heck, why beat about the bush - it WAS the most colourful. There was always a surprise at the OK garage with unexpected second hand refurbished vehicles glistening in the sunshine, parked against a green County Durham backdrop. I remember it well, it was bike riding distance from my house.

A few pics here of the Edinburgh livery before they were given clowns uniforms.

The North east was a fascinating area for spotting independents. Here are some of those that have survived from my NE collection. Still sorting these out and there are some OKMS to go on later. A few back ends here from my scratchbuilding days.

A small selection of Edinburgh's non-Corporation buses here. Scottish Omnibuses, Eastern Scottish, SMT and their varying liveries are evident. Also a selection of the vehicles acquired with the Baxters takeover.

Instead on the normal front,back and sides shots I thought I'd place this new model in the railway layout, Port Appin - a fictional location maybe near Oban on the West Coast. Imagine a taxi has dropped a passenger off and the local bus is sitting there waiting. The driver carries the cases to the bus.

A small collection but one which contains two of my favourite pics, the 1958 Bristol LD Lodekkas in the KWG series, both pics were taken in Perth. Whenever I could break my journey in Perth I used to head for one of two excellent Chinese restaurants they had in the 60's, failing that it was Woolies Cafeteria.

The bright red Fife livery and the flamboyant Fife logo represent my favourite Scottish livery, certainly within the SBG fleets. Maybe not as unusual as the bonny blue Midland livery, not as traditional as the information splattered Western or as eye jarring as Highland's poppy blue and peacock red it looks good to me. Many of these pics were taken at Kirkcaldy, a depot I never had any trouble getting in to in the 60's and it was usually a veritable treasure trove of vintage vehicles.

If you like Leyland Routemasters there are a couple more views here and some of the Leyland National demonstrator at SDO's depot at Philadelphia near Sunderland. Some pre-NBC shots and some fascinating street scenes. Was it really 35 years ago?

I always looked out for contractors buses because they often represented the oldest buses around. There are a few here that epitomise the 'builders bus'.

I suppose my love of Bristols stems from my formative years in the north east. Here are a few of my favourite United shots taken before deregulation and the cold limp hand of the vinyl lovvies took away all long established local identity. Somehow "I'll meet you on the Magic Roundabout Go-Ahead bus" just doesn't have the same ring as "Meet you on the 46 United".

Pics of this company were usually taken when I was passing through their territory. The only trip I made solely to photograph their buses was to Dumfries in 1969 and unfortunately most of those pics are still lost in the Photobus archives. I'll add to this small collection from other sources as/when.

There are many of my Scottish pics that fit one or more categories or I don't have sufficient to make a new collection so this is where I'll put them.

From the remnants of my recently returned slide collection here are some pics of MacBraynes vehicles in various ownerships. It's a hotch potch selection, sadly some of the MacBraynes slides used in the book I wrote about the Company have been lost forever but this gives an idea of the state of the fleet between 1969 - 1974. The camera I used was a Pentax Spotmatic SLR, supposedly state of the art. Pity I couldn't work it properly!

The MacBraynes Book is still available from daveherron362@tiscali.co.uk

I arrived at Inverness in 1962 at 6am on a cold March morning and without a camera! There were old deckers parked up around the side streets presumably waiting to start on works services. The fleet was intriguing and it became a mission to find out more information. Two days later I was in Fort William and then Oban and the MacBraynes affair started. Now for the last 40+ years I've been a regular visitor to the area. I missed most of the really old stuff in 1962 and there was a gap in the 80's when I missed the Olympians and Nationals (do I sound unhappy?). Now Rapsons have gone to Stagecoach. How long before West Coast Motors go the same way?

I discovered Northern Scottish or Alexander's Northern in the summer of 1966 when staying at Inverness. There is only so much potholed single track road a Ford Anglia can handle so for a day out we went east to Elgin instead of the normal west to Ullapool area. The sight of these garish yellow buses was a shock, especially after the drab maroon of Highland. Here are some of the shots taken around Hopeman, Burghead, Elgin and Nairn (I think!). Well it was over 40 years ago.

I first became aware of this interesting fleet when I was on my honeymoon in 1967 and saw an ex Ribble Olympic single decker parked up in Perth. I resisted a search for the depot as I had other things on my mind. A couple of years later I found the the depot and took this batch of pics. Stagecoach eventually acquired the business and the depot. The slide film is Perutz and Agfa, both a bit grainy but relatively stable and 40 years on is scanning OK.

Well it was Terry's title so don't blame me!

Many thanks to Bob Joy who set me a set of pics from his recent holiday in Scandinavia. No doubt he'll be building a fleet of Voss Volvos now! I would of I could.

Well I have to say that the First fleet is looking a little more up to date than the last time I was there and they looked generally clean too! I am doubtful about some of the Lothian 'routed' liveries but at least they are on the madder/white base livery. Full marks to Lothian for their consistently good and identifiable ticketing information. I was disappointed that my driver refused to give me change so I had to let him go and buy a ticket at a machine. Bet they get sick of telling tourists that! favourite pic (though not everybodys) is the Optare in Mac Tours livery. This collection has been added to over the last 3 years.

One of our rich readers has sent me a set of pics taken on a jaunt around the islands of the Caribbean. To an impoverished hourly paid like me this is a fascinating insight to how the other half live - and the buses they travel on too. (Not that I'm a stranger to island hopping - I went past Holy Island off the Northumberland coast recently, I've been to Walney Island near Barrow and to the Isle of Dogs). And Terry's been to the Isle of Wight and Jersey (semi-rich).

Robert Gunther sent me a batch of photographs taken around the 23 wards of Tokyo. The predominant green and white buses are the Tokyo city buses. Robbie's son is an avid bus spotter (aged two) and these were taken for his amusement. Robbie is an excellent photographer, see more of his work at > www.gunther.ca

I don't often get too bothered about Corgi offerings but this National Express Plaxton coach is one of the cleanest castings I've seen in a long time. I was going to repaint it but I think I'll leave it alone! Nice one Pete M eh?

A day of mixed weather but still some photo opportunities. Not much London stuff this year - well when you've seen one Routemaster you've seen them all, haven't you. The Maidstone and District open top single decker now in the care of the North East Bus Preservation Group was a gem and the Strachans bodied Sunderland Panther was a favourite of mine.

Bob Heathcote sent me these pics last year but part of the CD was scratched and I couldn't get them all off. With the wonders of a 'disc restore' programme I've now opened the dodgy folder and these beauties fell out. Thanks for allowing me to use these pics Bob, nice to see a scratchbuilders work - rear ends et al!!!

The beauty of business trips is someone else pays for it! So whilst the others filled up on sausages and white cabbage for breakfast Arnold Richardson and I went out bus spotting - or in this case trams and Trabants! I don't know anything about the trams except they were hard riding, tin sided boxes. One traditional type tram was running one evening but I didn't see it again.

Whilst this ugly duckling was begat from the Dennis Loline casting who would ever have thought that we Caledophiles would ever get a casting of this beast! And with two cab variations too. It may not be perfect, actually it isn't, but whilst a few pedants and rivet counters gleefully rubbish the minutiae it's a pity there wasn't more consideration for the fact that this set of models actually exists! By the way, some pics may look bent because I haven't got the hang of my new Canon G9 just yet.

This collection started as a Dinky 29c reference site but I've since received more Dinky pics so they are here too. It is often thought that the classic Dinky Toy double decker was a one off casting that varied very little from year to year - but did vary. However, here are 40+ pics of a series of 8 differing versions. You'll notice there's not a Guy amongst them - because they never did a Guy double decker though the long snouted AEC is often mistaken for one because of that feature. Robin Hannay mentions a Dinky Guy double decker in Bus Stop, published in the 60's but no-one has to my knowledge ever published a photo of it.

A special themed event to celebrate the former bus operations of the Stockport based North Western Road Car Company and Stockport Corporation was held at the weekend and Niall Dorset has sent an excellent selection of his photos. Many thanks.

I am an absolute beginner to building resin bus kits. Unlike Terry who has been building them since he was sixty, fifteen or so years ago, I have only just started. Well not quite started, I have four boxes of parts! I thought that for others like me it might help if I displayed what's in my boxes. Does it take rocket science to build any of these - I think not. Like Airfix kits of old there seems to be a bit of 'cottage industry' cock-up in a couple. One kit has odd wheels, others have duplicated parts. All have reasonable instructions and helpful advice of the fleets they operated in etc. Only one provides transfers but they are for a grille so therefore not regional/geographical. They aren't cheap, I think the average price was around £25 -30 each so buying the kit and finding a builder/painter will easily more than double the price so DIY is the way forward. Even adding the cost of paint and transfers will stick a few quid on the bill. Wipers and wing mirrors - dream on.

Before Terry Kempshall sent me the pics of the Britbus AN68 in Southdown Coastliner livery I had no intention of buying one. When I saw the detail I was hooked, look at the clarity in the destination blinds and the little badges on the front. Lovely clarity. Of course the AN68 isn't without issues, the wing mirrors are strange and the drivers view from the NS would be - different! But it's better than no wing mirrors at all. And a couple of grab poles inside are leaning the wrong way - but it beats the heck out of ugly poles. One of the seat handrails is crooked but I prefer it to Toblerone brown block plastic seats. The NBC livery may not be to everyones taste but it knocks 10 shades of shampoo out of those vulgar vinyl ' look how clever we are' abominations from lycra clad luvvies closeted away from the reality of urban travel, playing on their Apple Macs, Blackberries and iphones. Moi - bitter?   

I'm a bit sick of seeing Bedford TK cabs on so many Oxford models. Surely it's time to develop another truck cab or two? Anyway I'm more familiar Leyland/Austin threepenny bit cab on the crewbus type so I've bonded the Base Toys Leyland FG cab with the Oxford body. I have no idea if it is a protoypical match but I like it.

A very well attended show with some lovely new items on display. For me the stars were the Neil Mortson Marsden resins particularly the Bristol J types but there were other delights to look forward to like the Bristol KS and the Burlingham bus body and the Ribble PD flat tin fronted Burlingham from Tiny. MiM had a strange prototype on show, a sort of East Lancs/Greenaway Blue Bus rebuild machine. Nothing from Little Bus Company there. Another surprise from Stephen at MiM was his stock of Oxford BR yellow crew buses - no-one else had them. Well done S. And on Dave Herron's stall I acquired the CMNL minibus. A little beauty. Good to meet many friends and have a natter, enjoyable day. Thanks to all who allowed me to photograph their wares.

All the photos from this event today. Taken by Klicker Kempshall. Thanks Terry, some nice stuff there, even though I know you don't recognise most of it!!!

I acquired this 'mule' for my red bus fleet. It was cheap so I snapped it up. I've already flung the box but I think it is UKbus 7009? Anyway, anyone wanting a red bus for repainting this seems to be the one to look out for. There's a lovely lack of tampo confetti which adds emphasis to the beautifully detailed interior. It has lots of ugly poles but none of them are there to keep it together and each one shows a bell push. Wish I'd bought the box full! The price? Half price? Well after haggling I got it for less than £12!

I couldn't wait any longer to add these to my collection and as they seem unlikely to be on a BOGOF list just yet I had to shop around. However I think they were worth every penny. And they're almost perfect certainly a lot closer than some other attempts at 'perfection'. There may be a couple of errors but there's no attempt being made to pass them of as compromises. What are they? Well the United should have demister bars and the Tees o/s wing mirror is set about 4 inches too low. Oh horror. Imagine anyone but Britbus making two castings of this body - one 2mm narrower than the other. Well done Mr. Craggs - if you're listening. BTW if anyone wants to use any of these, please help yourself.

The West Coast Motors fleet is very smart. Their distinctive red, white and blue vehicles are a pleasure to behold. When the EFE Titan came out in this livery I rushed to buy one, likewise with the new Dart from Harburn Hobbies in Edinburgh. Sadly there are a few differences between the ones I photographed in September 2007 and the EFE offering. I paid full whack for it, £22.99 - for £27.99 I could have bought a CMNL Enviro 200. What a difference £5 makes! My choice. If you like it buy it - otherwise... I still like it!

More from the DH Collection. The M types were awesome machines. There are a number of liveries here and a couple of 'foreigners'. Look at the state of that ex Ribble NBC clanker - is that a Y type front panel?! Sinful.

The Northern RM's turned up on my local route when United were still running LD's and the occasional K type. What a turn up! They were luxurious by comparison and despite being a BTC fleet enthusiast I loved these imported BET beauties. Here they are, mostly in their later years and a couple of imposters, the Wearsider and the Tynesider.

A friend has allowed me to scan some of his collection for the gallery. They have been bought from local photographers over the years and are believed to be originals. If you see one that might be copyright of someone else please email me and I'll remove it straight away.

A selection of the buses and coaches operating in and visiting Cumbria in 2007. I've picked out some of the more unusual vehicles as well as the ubiquitous Stagecoach where many of the shots focus on landscape rather than the vehicle.

Mine arrived today. A lovely clean, solid well fitting kit. No warp in the body sides and no problems fitting seating into the body. See for yourself... I used to know these buses well and travelled on the a lot, mainly Wilkinson's MS but some OKMS. Not a comfortable ride but (I'm told) a solid, simple to service body that stood up well to the rigours of miners and schools services.

A reference gallery with pics by Terry Kempshall and topped up by a couple of friends.

There are some lovely Alexander designs and there are some dogs too! I hope I've fairly mixed the good and the bad in this selection. My favourite is the red Fife M type, thanks for that one Ian. The Y type was built from 61-71 then when Alloy construction was introduced it became the AY although the 'A' was rarely used. AYS was for the short Y type not Service bus. The T type had prefix and suffix designations too.

Well a bit longer than a day actually. Andy McLelland sent these excellent shots of many of the islands older buses. Look at all those Bedfords! What gorgeous bodywork too. It's now a must go destination for me.

A brief glimpse of some buses (I'd rather not travel on) in Cairo. Not user friendly if you're European, hand written fleet numbers are a first!

I can't believe I had no interest in Irish transport during the two years I spent working in Belfast and visiting various towns around and about. In 2000 I spent a week in Galway, a wonderful city in the south and I took SEVEN transport photographs. How stupid is that? I found the originals the other day so here they are. two years work... Not a lot is it.   

CMNL have just announced the model - a lovely thing! Now compare it with the actual version in service in Newcastle and others in the class.

Just received notification from Neil of two new kits, one previously unannounced, a Lovely old Albion single decker; and a 36 foot brute with the first long Plaxton style of bus body.

I've been banging on lately about the lack of road vehicles for the late 70's - 80's era seemingly by and large forgotten by the model manufacturers. If you think I'm talking nonsense just look through this lot and tell me which ones are made in 00 scale. Is it important? Well if you model the 'blue diesel era' it is and remember that that era of the 80's was as important it its day as the steam era of the 50's was. You can still see trucks from the golden age of blue diesels - this lot were taken at Cartmel races in Cumbria in the summer of 2007.

Welcome to Port Appin, a rural harbourside railway. It's meant to reflect Scottish operations around 1980 -1985 at a ficticious location with the blue diesels in power and the grey Railfreight just coming in. Most of the engines and rolling stock are from J&J Models at Morpeth (thanks Jim - don't forget my walky-talky Bachmann Class 25 and 24). A lot of the scenic material came from Townfoot Models at Hexham. There's still a dearth of road vehicles for this era with all the manufacturers being obsessed with the Beatles Era and then leaping a few decades to Volvos and Mercedes. C'mon!!! It's a long way from finished but I hope that readers and diaorama builders will find it interesting following the progress.

All this talk of Bristol LH from Britbus has had me raking again through my photo files again. If they're short of opportunities for new liveries there are a few here! C'mon when's the Tyne and Wear coming along??? Take a look at some of the registrations on the second hand buses and you'll see even more livery opportunities

There doesn't seem to have been much reaction to this lovely little model. Here's my attempt to redress the situation. BTW, I think it's a bit like a modern LH!

Veteran traveller Terry Kempshall has been out on his zimmer again taking pics on his annual pilgrimage to Thailand. Most shots are of buses but T has included some of the other forms of Thai transport like odd trucks with school kids hanging on the back (the H&S zealots here would wet their frillies over that behaviour) and a type of moped/scooter service used for short trips (more H&S hysteria - the passenger hasn't got a crash hat - tax it! - tax it!).

More of the same really this one, I've concentrated on the little PLB's and the older deckers, particularly the non-aircon models. If anyone wants more variety, i.e, the coaches and single deckers just drop me a comment and I'll upload them.

The Comfort Del Gro fleet is in a lovely livery of red, white and purple and very modern. I just missed the newest class recently entered service and I concentrated on older vehicles - but there's nothing very pld around. I took the MTR up to Woodland and glimpsed one non-aircon sliding windows SMRT but missed a pic. Singapore City is a lovely place, enjoy these pics.

This is regarded as the wine region but there's still a big mining presence and subsequently some serious bus operations. I visited Singleton (Comfort Delgro) in the north and Rover Coaches (Independent) in the south, just in time to catch some old stagers including Bedfords and Leylands.

I could fill this gallery with hundreds of blue city buses but there's much more interesting stuff parked around the city back streets! Here is a selection of both with particular attention being paid to older vehicles.

In my search for Denning vehicles a couple of years ago I discovered McCafferty's was a major user but now their Greyhound brand is all prevailing and the drab Mac's gold livery is being replaced by the gorgeous bright red Greyhound garb. Sadly most of the Dennings have been replaced too. In 2006 there were 34 based at Toowoomba near Brisbane, this year there are four operating, the rest are stored pending their disposal. My thanks to the Greyhound staff at Sydney for allowing access to their new depot at Botany Bay Road. Depot Supervisor Stewart Radcliffe sent me a couple of Denning pics and a bag full of Australian snow scenes which are included here.

We had a bad start to the Brisbane trip when a taxi driver with a trick meter ripped us off. As we left the airport it jumped from $5 to $12 and did it again further along the road. He denied it - of course and refused to give us our luggage until we'd handed the fare over. Brizzy, the fastest growing city in Oz is a bit of a big building site, the buses are interesting though especially those old ones with the angled screens. Look closely at the pics, it's a city of pretty girls too! I only noticed this when I got home and checked the pix.

Right up in the north east corner of Oz, Cairns has a reputation of being a backpackers town but it is quickly becoming a more up market attraction. The little bus fleet is called Sunbus and the few big coaches are generally modern stock.

My annual visit to Oz found me in Cairns, Brisbane, Hunter Valley and Sydney in 2007. Here are some of the fascinating vehicles I saw in some of the most strange places. The worst was the bush where the three old single deck wrecks were. I spotted them from the Hawkesbury Ferry road and took a look. It was red hot, searingly so and the trees were shrieking with cicadas, the soil was hot and my son in law reminded me about funnel web spiders, red backs, king brown snakes and other delights that seek shady places on days like this.

Remember the snow? Not the light powdery stuff that gets the Highways Agency closing the motorways and the council H&S zealots banning snowballs but the deep snow and hard frosts of the 60's, 70's and eighties? Remember the bus rides - I do - a slithering jolting ride on a Bristol LS with a heater that barely breathed warm air. Cold handrails, icy kerbs that threatened to send you skidding underneath the bus as it pulled in... The driver with fingerless gloves and a great coat and a conductor with a freezing cold stiff Setright. Those were the days.

Since the successful government introduction of global warming and the diligent spending of the creative taxes thereupon it is fully expected that the white winters we used to look forward to will soon return. In your dreams.

A selection of these lovely machines taken in 2003. With additional photos taken by Mike Beard, October 2007. Thanks Mike.

"Knowledge is like fine wine - it should be shared". Nice one.

Just added ten pics taken in the Lisbon Transport Museum.

David sent me a selection of his Welsh photographs recently and there are some beauts amongst them. The RELH coaches look well in their latter day liveies and the Morris bros ex BH&D Lodekka is a cracker! Take a look at the Duple Viceroy that davisd was driving when an overtaking car driver removed his front axle!!! Great stuff. Thanks David.

September 2008. David found a few 35 year old old transparencies and they've been included in the selection.

With apologies to Willie Nelson fans. These are shots taken by my beloved from the front passenger seat whilst I diced with death from Oban and the north of England. The blurred ones were either when I hit a pothole or swerved when some trucker pulled out without a signal or when she was trembling with fear - or both. There are some unusual pics of bus rears - not often recorded and a couple of London Transport red things going down the road to... Favourite pic is of the ex Hong Kong/London open topper that carved me up going through Glasgow - then waved 'thankyou'.

The results of my annual pilgrimage to the land of the flat sausage. Managed to get a couple of decent days of weather so some of these are looking OK! A refreshing change. Also a couple of wartime tow trucks seen on the Isle of Mull.

Our first full collection by a lady bus spotter! It's pronounced Neece Terry, and yes she is nice, the lady in neece. By the way, if anyone can help identify these vehicles it would be helpful. Just leave a note in the comments section. Thankyou

I ought to come clean... I didn't buy it, it was a present from a friend who acquired it in the course of business dealings. I am very grateful because it's a lovely casting, probably OOC's best. I personally think the livery is another 'eye candy' toothpaste design and the gold is more of a baby's protective clothing colour but most people seem to like it a lot. So here it is in all its technicolour confusion.

All my chops and fixes on Base Toys will go on here as i start to build my new diaorama - a scrapyard in the 80's. First mod is a Commer TS that will double as a fuel tanker/water bowser. There is a reference for it, I used to go to a stock car track that had one.

If you were to introduce new services (compete) on Brighton and Hove's territory, what would you call the operation? One of 'The Big Lemon' buses in Brighton on 8th September 2007. An ex- Bristol Olympian, I believe. Terry

Is this how new collections start? I picked up the Classix Austin Devon at a toy fair, looked at it and before I could stop myself another five 00 scale (proper 00 scale - not just the label) fell into my goodie bag. I can't wait to add to the collection. Just thing what a Mullined bodied Bedford OB or a utility OB bus would look like from these people. Mmmm... Alovely new range to throw my money at. Oxford better look over their shoulders. Funny how the whole market appears to be changing?

Another sunny day photo trip. A few distractions but mainly buses!

We don't hear a lot about bus tickets but they are an important part of our bus world. In the 60's I started a collection which I kept in a cigar tin. To keep them in pristine condition I covered them in Sellotape - well that was a big mistake! I found them during yet another garage clear out, cleaned them up and scanned them for posterity. I have a few 'rack and clipper' tickets somewhere which I'll add as/when.

Raking through a heap of old photos in a shop in Northumberland I came across few old bus snaps. The tatty prints have been cleaned up and they look like holiday snaps taken some from an upstairs window. The ex Eastern Counties Bristol is interesting as is the unusual view of the tops of rare vehicles. Look at the old Guy Otter lorry and that lovely load. The Elf and Safely zealots would have a field day with that today! Thanks to Phil Dodderidge for identifying them for me and for sending some of his own West Country models to include with them.

My diaoramas are no more than some home made buildings in plasticard from Wills, ten pounds worth of secondhand card buildings from a railway exhibition and a few bits and pieces. My new railway project will include lots of road transport hence my current love affair with Base Toys. I recently acquired a Panasonic Lumix LX2 in a sale and at £100 off list price! It's a little snap camera but when messing around with it I found it takes better model pics than the more expensive SLR's! These are just low quality snaps but it does show what you can accommodate on the top of a couple of book cases.

Terry Kempshall has now sent some Steine Valley pics for inclusion as Base Toy lorries are adding a bit of colour to his green layout. If you have any pics of your diaorama I'd be pleased to add them here.

A selection of buses and coaches from this gorgeous north eastern fleet. Now part of the TGM group I've seen a few coaches in a new livery but this classic treatment of both buses and coaches is still to be seen.

More gems from the camera of Rev Bob Heathcote. Well you'd take a lot of pics if you were on a one day week.

A selection of preserved vehicles by Bob Heathcote. It's easy to dislike Rev Bob - he takes well composed, sharp, beautifully exposed photographs. Me, I just point and press. Do you think there's someone up there helping him?

An occasional glance at some operators and the evolution (or part thereof) of their fleetnames and their portrayal on model buses. At the behest of Mr. Kempshall I have started with the BH&D logo - not a good one for the manufacturers!!! The comments are mine alone, nitpicking - of course - but if you think I'm wrong let me know and I'll look again. In my opinion the best attempt is Britbus, then Corgi. EFE could do better and CMNL spelled it wrong. None are perfect.

Maybe they were more novelty value than pure technological advancement, and sadly they never seemed to catch on but after scouring Dave Heron's excellent pics I found a representative selection from the north east of England. The Bedford VAL first ran in 1962, 14 months after the legal length was increased from 30 feet to 36 feet. Their longest chassis was the Bedford SB and the VAL with its 16 inch wheels was rushed into service. Most were bodied by Duple or Plaxton but some carried Harrington, Yeates, Strachans, or rare MCW Athena bodies. Because of its small wheels the VAL gained a reputation for poor braking and tyre wear. By 1971 only 2350 chassis had been sold against a target of 2000 per year and it was pulled from the range.

A WWMB member sent me these pics of his recent trip to China. Graham doesn't know a lot about the vehicles he photographed (as in 'nothing') but they make nice views and a good research project for those rainy days. Have a look here
http://www.chinabuses.org/english/manufacturer/szkl.htm
to identify them... or here to buy models from Graham!
http://www.miniaturemotors.co.uk/

Nice set. Cost £12 at Chester le Street toy fair. Some dealers charging more. Great value for money.

A first time visit for me and it was quite an enjoyable event. Not so much fun for one poor exhibitor who ran his Atlantean into the Park n' Ride canopy and wiped out 10' of the nearside top deck. I really do feel sorry for you, good luck with the repairs. Quite a few visitors, a few stalls and free parking and free rides into Durham City in vintage vehicles. I hope this becomes an annual Father's Day event.

This interesting set of Swedish buses was donated by Ove Bojarp of Sweden. Ove has worked for the Swedish State Railways since 1962 and lives in Ostersund close to six local operator bus depots! The city is in northern central Sweden on the shores of lake Storsjon. Thanks Ove for sending the pics.

This is a Terry Kempshall collection of the various vehicles at the Harrington Gathering at the Amberley Museum in West Sussex on 10th June 2007.

This was the fifth such event which is only held every 5 years to commemorate the vehicles (including cars and vans) built by Thomas Harrington Ltd (1897-1966). If you've been on holiday or liove abroad and you'd like a page of your bus pics on here please drop me an email and maybe we can sort something out. The more exotic places with buses the better. Stuart.

I think it's about a year or so since I uploaded any Cumbrian Stagecoach pics. The fleet is becoming more and more standardised so I try to grab shots of the older stuff and show them operating in the lovely Lake District countryside.

These great pics were taken for me by my father in law, John who has been a keen photographer all his life but now he's 80 I expected he'd have slowed down a bit. Not at all, the sun came out the other day and he and went off round the town. A good days work I'd say.

All the white and blue A and B fleet buses have gone, the Bristols MWs and the lovely AEC Regents are history and this curious orange and brown livery with 'of the moment' typography has replaced them. I remember the Sheffield fleets of the sixties as always being a bit grubby, it was a massive industrial steel and coal producing region belching out muck and smoke and carbon monoxide and keeping the fleet clean must have been a nightmare. Dark days; but to many still more preferable to an economy where the fastest growing sectors are hairdressing and unregulated labour - although we don't really know about the latter 'cos nobodys been counting them for a few years. The biggest and fastest growing workforces are call centres and government departments, and if you want a job with a final salary pension you have to become a civil servant. You can pay your road tax and fuel tax but you pay extra for using the car via road charging, cash cameras, and insurance tax. Joe Public may only create 10% of landfill but we're going to pay dearly for rubbish collection whilst there will only be half as many, get fined if we don't recycle and charged if you go to the tip. A huge tax cut is 0.5% and a modest increase is 10%. Good 'ere innit.

My first visit to Birmingham was in 1957 behind Madge Wildfire from Durham to New Street Station. How things have changed by the 80's. I remember the GOE registered AEC's with RT type bodies trundling down from Deritend to Digbeth and all those 'standard' Crossleys and Daimlers and the Leylands with their chromed rads. Why the manufacturers allowed the tin fronters to take over their best advertising signs I'll never know! I know I bang on about liveries but Birmingham had one of the best with the dark blue, cream with khaki roofs. Now that was classy. None of the silly names slapped all over them, just reliable machines, clean inside and out and running on time.

I spent a lot of time working in Portsmouth. My favourite hotel was the Post House in Southsea because I could get great shots of the Southdown Queen Marys from the bedroom window. I first photographed Portsmouth buses, Atlanteans at the MCCW Elmdon works in 1964 but some b****r nicked my camera when he gave me a lift from Wakefield to Leeds in the early hours the next day. I should have suspected something when he told me he'd just picked up his mate from prison but I couldn't resist a ride in a big black Jaguar. There was also a load of MacBraynes Maudslays on the film in the bag too. The Git. The Portsmouth City fleet was very smart in the 60/70's, they're looking a bit tatty in this collection but at least they haven't yet been attacked by some potty bus painter or the vinyl villian.

When I was dragging a caravan, wife and children away on holiday behind my Austin Princess (the worst built car I've ever owned) Plymouth was simply a place I thrashed through on the way to Cornwall. On the odd days I called in I was unimpressed with the fleet of dull all-over red Atlanteans that seemed to be everywhere. Almost two decades later the place had brightened up and the variety was appealing.

Not a fleet that interested me too much - until all the Guy Arabs had gone - and then it was too late!

I'd like this to be an annual pilgrimage but the North of Scotland is one heck of a treck from the north east of England and the price of Scottish hotels is crazy. It wouldn't be so bad if I could find good hotels - last year's trip to Oban was the worst hotel experience I've ever encountered 'up north' - if you stay at the Queens don't pay more than £40 a night and it's not worth that but some poor devils from Croydon, on the table next to me had paid £90 !!! Wafer thin walls, creaky floors, shabby fittings, awfully grim food. How do they get away with it? This year I tried a Holiday Inn Express at Inverness - excellent value for £60 a night although the desk sign claimed a room was £120 a night. Here then is a selection of pics taken over 4 days at Inverness, Elgin, Perth, Fort William and along the A9.

Always a good little exhibition and a great excuse to natter while my beloved sits in the car (fuming). I was away about an hour and a half this time and there is only so much of the football gibberish you can take on Five (used to be) Live. She'll get over it.

The new T type casting shows promise though there were no finished versions to see. Take a close look at some of Stephens pics 'cos there are a couple of future releases lurking therein. Little Bus Co had a stand of lovely stuff as did Tiny Bus Co. If I go into resins I think I'll call my company "Littler than the other Two Bus Company". Neil Mortson has started the Marsden Model Company and was showing a part complete Alexander half cab PS1 and talking enthusiastically about a 36 foot Plaxton Highway, an Alexander UF of the 50's and other exotica. I meant to photograph the Alexander but the last I saw of him he was scurrying off to hide and scoff his double pie and chips. Plenty of layouts and thanks to all for allowing me to take pics. Please copy them and use them wherever you want. Unfortunately I grabbed the wrong camera when I came out and it had a telephoto lens on instead of a macro so the pics aren't as good as I'd have liked. Clown.

Technicolour yawns or creative manipulation? Look how clever I am designs or fit for purpose? Young people magnets or old people confusers?

From my Fotopic Team on the South Coast

I sold half my collection - about 500 models - back to the dealer I bought them from. You don't want to know how much I lost on the deal BUT part of the arrangement was a bag full of Bachmann railways and a list of my favourite Britbus requirements. The Ribble came a few weeks ago and I got a call last night that my next one on the list was winging it's way to me, these are the dealers pics. Here it is. Beauty. Sensible sized mirrors too.

I visit a few shows and fairs each year mainly to photograph Albions, my favourite vintage commercial. Although this is predominantly a bus site I know some of you have broader horizons so please take a look around. As we go through 2007 I'll update the collection after each new fair I visit.

Some colourful pics of this south coast fleet from a collection I acquired. I did go to Bournemouth once and found a fantastic Chinese restaurant - that's all I remember about the place. Oh, and there were some old people.

I can remember Crosville when it had Bristol/ECW LS/MW/LH/SC/K/L/LD/FSF/FL types everywhere you looked. And not only that they were painted in a lovely combination of green and cream or black and cream. The trembling hand of some Lycra clad designer with a psychedelic box of crayons wouldn't have been allowed near such a precious commodity as the fleet!

Look at that livery! Isn't it err... well sort of... Ummm... different? I thought it was a joke the first time I saw it, a bit like the Northumbria livery of the day up in Newcastle, something designed under the influence of hallucinatory potions or powders, probably internally administered.

Highland Omnibuses had a marvellous fleet in the 60's and 70's. You probably wouldn't agree if you had to travel on them but from an enthusiasts point of view they were very spottable! I had a few hundred pics but they went astray after being loaned out for copying however a friend has released prints from his collection and here they are. Not many I'm afraid but representative of my holidays around Inverness in 1965/67/70/72. Also a couple of Sutherland Transport and Trading are included.

I had a surprise visit this weekend when an old mate of mine handed over his entire NE collection as he was getting too old - and poor sighted - to make them out. Most of them were copies from other collections but I've gone through them and scanned some of those I believe were taken by him. Many were because I was with him at the time in 1962 - 1966! He also handed over a bag of prints from some of the Scottish slides mislaid by Photobus when in their care.

A friend bought me these pics from a bric-a-brac stall in Covent garden many years ago. They appear to be of a works trip or mens outing. I have no idea about anything else on these. If any viewers have ideas please leave a comment. They may be of interest to a London group?

Once my local operator, I knew them at their best with a yard full of Leyland PS and PD types and a wonderful livery. Most of these pics show them 15 years on and in a more economical livery. Some nice T types and Y types.

A mini-break on a cruise ship saw me spend an afternoon trying to find something to do in this pretty little town. Between the downpours I grabbed a few bus pics. At the tram depot I was manhandled by an armed guard who leapt out of the shadows thinking I was a spy. Honest. The local store had a shelf full of Chinese tin plate toys.

On a business trip and in between flights from Newcastle to Munich via out of town Oslo (the Aftenposten newspaper factory) I managed half a dozen pics of Oslo trams and buses. It was a mad rush in a taxi from the factory and back to the airport for the connecting flight.

Not a great selection but all I can find quickly to fulfill a request! Will sort out when I have more time.

I made the mistake in my early years in the 1960Õs of taking pics of the newest buses. Consequently I missed out on lots of pre-war gems (of little consequence now as my slides evaporated into the Photobus ether during loan). Whatever, now I grab shots of old buses as well as new stuff and these 0305s are in their death throes in Sydney. They have a future life as they are very desirable as cheap wheels by the independent operators. Lots of opportunities for an enterprising Oz diecaster perhaps who wants a subject with l o n g life?

I was starting to panic that it might be lost in the post after seeing them on Ebay on Friday and being announced on Saturday but look what arrived second post today!!!

Probably not everyone would agree with me but I like them! They suit some liveries but not others. The United paint scheme is a bit OTT but they were going through a change of culture and identity. They never really got it right.

This latest selection from the shaking hands of Terry shows a variety of Bangkok city buses taken at Mor Chit bus terminus where facilities are also available for re-fuelling and vehicle washing; a selection of inter-urban coaches also taken at Mor Chit in what seemed to be a lay-over area; and a couple of provincial buses/coaches captured at a temple outside Bangkok, all photographed in February 2007. The inter urban coaches all carry the two terminal points shown permanently on their sides suggesting that they are route dedicated. The interior pics all relate to the bus shown in pic 1010020. The 2006 photographs by TK are also in this collection. Thanks Terry.

2006 Buses seem to operate under the umbrella of the BTMA and the logo is carried on most buses operating in the central and urban areas. Red and cream buses serve the central area, blue and white operate into the city from urban areas, orange buses have air-con and the pink and grey midibuses seem to operate courtesy services with the city's Skytrain. Mo-Chit is at the Northern end of the Skytrain system near Chatuchak weekend market. Victory Monument is in the centre of Bangkok and is virtually a massive roundabout! Nam Tok is north west of Kanchanaburi and is the terminal of the former Thailand - Burma Railway. The main chassis on the buses appear to be Hino, Mitsubishi, Mercedes and Isuzu. One is signed Daewoo. Bodywork is anybody's guess.

A friend of mine borrowed a camera to take on holiday and as a favour he snapped a few buses for me, nine to be exact. Now whether these are representative of Moroccam buses I don't know but here they are. Thanks Adrian.

This holiday was advertised as one of those mini-breaks where your beloved will be so besotted with you that the world is your meat pie. Well that's what the DFDS brochure implied. I left my car at North Shields and kissed it goodbye (it looked a grim place to leave a car for four days). Then on board the ship we hit bad weather. Any amorous thoughts I had were dashed when my beloved slumped into her 'Lovers Delight Seafood Special' groaning (good sign) and shouting for hewey, foaming at the mouth and feigning death (bad sign) - no hanky panky for her then. Next day I caught a severe bought of manflu and that about sums up the mini-break-up. Bus pics were the last thing on my mind as death in a foreign land pre-occupied most of my thinking. Worse still, I worried if I died on the ship home would they bury me at sea? Awful thought, I hate fish and deep water.

Colourful liveries and interesting vehicles. Pity I didn't get too many pics of the old BTC Mansfield and District or Midland General despite travelling on them a lot. I frequented the C3 or B5 ( I think) from Mansfield to Sutton in the early 60's but an evening in town usually meant I couldn't remember what bus I came home on - or who with! I recall travelling on the Saunders bodied AEC and Leylands with their moquette seats and a delightful oily aroma and lurching notchy gear change! And don't ask me why I didn't photograph the Barton fleet. I said, don't ask...

I've always enjoyed visiting Edinburgh and the Lothians. In the days when the monotony of the north east England fleets became too much a two hour drive up the A1 or more often the A697 or A68 would bring much pleasure. This collection is a pot pouree«of delights seen over many years, hope you like them. Many thanks to Callum Colville for sharing some of his views.

I remember Yorkshire buses from an earlier time. This collection just shows how things have changed - and not neccessarily for the better. My memories of Yorkshire Traction go back to visits to Barnsley in 1960 in a Yorkshire Services pool coach, a Weymann Fanfare, a great improvement on the previous trip in a Leyland PS1 with a bus body and prickly velvet/moquette coach seats - all the way to Birmingham. Leeds buses in the 90's were a shadow of their former 'posh' selves and the restrained lines of the Sheffield fleets have been reduced to the inevitable garish 'supermarket ' liveries. Only Yorkshire Woollen seems to have been improved through takeover!

By popular request some views of this fascinating company operating in it's home town in the mid-nineties with Chester buses running alongside. Also some views of Merseyside buses in more turbulent times. What a selection of oddities!

Red and White, Greenslades, Royal Blue, Midland Red - evocative names, pity they were all white with red and blue spots, stripes and signing. However, no matter how much I used to ridicule them they leave some of todays silly liveries looking ridiculous. As for the new National Travel livery, I like it.

In 1977 or so I was preparing an article on East Coast Independent operators for Buses Annual. They only used a few of the pics, now the whole batch is together here but sadly the negs haven't stood the test of time very well. Trouble is, 30 years ago we couldn't have even dreamed of putting photographs onto a machine and beaming them around the world by bouncing them off satellites!!! If I'd known, I might have taken more care of them.

When Stagecoach bought Cumberland Motor Services they acquired a valuable piece of real estate in the heart of Keswick. It was being used as a coach park by visiting operators and Stagecoach made no money from it. Ann Gloag of Stagecoach applied for planning permission to build a supermarket on the site and the council turned her down. Incensed by this she arranged for about 20 wrecked and withdrawn vehicles to be dragged to Keswick in the beautiful Lake District and dumped on the land. The resultant blockade, an eyesore in the height of summer caused disruption in the town and damaged trade. The council relented and approved the planning application. That's my girl!

I love bodging the occasional model into a breakdown truck or a driver trainer - usually after I've made a cobblers of a conversion. This selection of country wide fleet service vehicles may give you some ideas. My favourite is the Chesterfield tin front PD2. The Corgi version would make a good conversion - but then you couldn't make that casting any worse.

Sounds like a big Company but this South Central Welsh regional operation was formed in 1978 by the amalgamation of former BTC company, Red and White and BET operator Western Welsh who in turn had absorbed Rhondda in 1971. There never seemed to be much information in the enthusiast press about Welsh operators - except Crosville - who were actually based in England. I hope this small collection redresses the balance a little bit.

Some seasonal pics of buses by Snapper Kempshall. Terry's has been out and about with his new 'jamjar bottom' lens and took this selection perched on a vibrating paving slab. Strange chap, but then I suppose it IS Brighton.

When you look at these liveries there's a long way to go before anyone runs out of opportunities for this casting! Those NBC red ones look especially attractive to a non-Londoner like me. (Hadn't you noticed?)

The two collections have been merged as Terry was having difficulty remembering which one was which. Poor old chap. If you want to see more of these cleverly designed diaoramas just ask as he has over 3,000,000 unpublished pictures he's desperate to show people. Notice the excessive use of young lady plastic replicas in the photos. That man lives in a fantasy world... I do worry about him.

If I had my way I'd have tram systems in every big city. What better way to get into the heart of things without the delays and aggravation associated with cars and buses. As parking becomes more difficult and extortionate, and car and bus drivers less tolerant of each other I'd much rather jump on a tram. Have you ever seen one held up by a car or taxi? I love the HK trams, they are cheap and cheerful, fast and efficient. Sure they get chokka at peak times but for rapid transit - short distance travel they are perfect. As a tourist attraction they are fascinating and advertisers love them.

After being bullied by a number of 'friends' (shouldn't have the 'r' in it!) I have been persuaded to do a few fantasy liveries/vehicles. These people are mainly old codgers so I'm doing this to placate them. It must be sad when you only have memories left to hang on to.

I found it difficult to title this lot, mainly as I don't know the area very well and all the switching and swapping in those NBC/Dereg days was confusing to say the least! So here's a mixed bag of Devon and Cornwall buses predominantly Western and Southern National. Thanks to Phil Doddridge for some new views of Laira Depot.

More scans from some prints in a scrapbook. Tons of work to clean them up to this standard but worth it I hope.

I acquired some south coast photographs on a second hand stall recently. The vendor assures me they are not copies from a photo supplier, and that the negs are long gone. They were bought at auction from the estate of the deceased and have been in store for almost 5 years. Here is a selection from them.

CAN YOU HELP PLEASE? If you have seen these identical prints for sale anywhere or they are from your negs please let me know and I'll remove them straight away. Otherwise... enjoy some shots from the golden era.

A trip to Hong Kong is an expensive adventure, made worse when you have to take your wife as everything you spend on buses is doubled to keep SWMBO happy! I managed to get hold of eight models that I was after although there were a couple of hundred I'd like.

PLEASE NOTE If you want to download these onto DBI/WWMB/BMB/EFE/OOC websites or take/link copies please feel free. If people would share more information rather than store it up and be secretive with it wouldn't it be nice? Too many people die with their knowledge.

There are fewer and fewer of the non-aircon buses trundling the streets of Hong Kong and Kowloon. I'm no expert on these big beasts but I believe the livery is the identifier of such machines as being non-aircon, non-low floor, and in the Asian climate that is very user unfriendly! Whatever, they'll probably all be gone soon and I bagged a few this year - 'for the record'.

Macau is a peninsula off mainland China about an hours fast ferry ride from Hong Kong. It was under the protectorate of the Portugeuse Government until 1999 and has a population of 0.5m. It is joined to two smaller islands, Taipa and Coloane by road bridges. There are two main bus companies, Sociedade de Transportes Colectivos de Macau (TCM) and Transportes Urbano De Macau (Transmac) and a thriving coaching trade. Notice the lookalike bodies on various vehicles, the Dennis Darts have Sonn Chow bodywork, there are Irizar PB copies and at least one electric bus with the 'scooped screen' NZ style body. The surprising fleet of dual door Plaxton Beavers are genuine!

EFE are selling the Coo-Eee manufactured tram in 2007 under their own brand name. Expect it to be around thirty five/forty pounds, it was in Hobbyco in Sydney.

I first stumbled across this marvellous little company in 2004 but couldn't find the depot. This trip I still couldn't find them in the phone book - as I was looking under - Blue Mountains Tours - but a local driver told me where they were based and so I went along. I've never been stopped from taking photos at ANY Australian bus depot and this was no exception. The owner, Darrell Booth wriggled out from under a Bedford fire engine to greet me. He was a bit under pressure as the whole town and those nearby were fearful of the bush fire that was only a few miles away and it was literally 'all hands to the pump'. Just along the 'Bell's Line of Road' the fire was raging and I've enclosed some awesome shots, taken from a very safe distance I hasten to add. The road was closed 6 hours later!

Sorted out a few more shots from a 2003 trip to Lisbon. Lovely city, fantastic trams and buses, bars, food and weather. Look out for the bus queue pic.

I try and acquire the first version of every new casting. My Enviro arrived today. No ugly metal poles holding it together but it's got 23 bent bright yellow ones.

In 1985 I was driving up to Crianlarich from Sunderland along country roads trying to avoid the horrors of the A82 up Loch Lomond. Dragging a Bessacarr caravan behind an SD Rover wasn't a pleasant experience on any road. 0 - 60mph was best measured with a calendar. As I crawled through Doune behind everyone else doing the same thing I saw an old wrecker in a lay-by and pulled in to investigate. Behind the fence I saw this lot! I went back a couple of years later and got some colour pics (since lost) and about three years ago I took another look for this marvellous truck dump but it had all gone. Some of the shots have a 'moody' look about them - an accident - I spilled some chemical when I was developing this film 24 years ago and stuck it in a can and forgot about it. In 2006 I found it again and have salvaged what few frames were intact and a few that weren't.

FOUND!!! Those missing colour shots have been found! Interesting comparisons.

In the 60's I worked for The Durham Advertiser in Sadler Street, Durham. The boss wanted the loft clearing and to my horror I saw a gang of workers shovelling glass negs from an upstairs window into a tipper lorry. I salvaged many of them including some excellent advertising shots of Showler's Express of Durham. I loaned these to Arnold Richardson of Photobus and never saw them again. There's a moral there.

In 1985 we were rebuilding one of our offices at the Hartlepool Mail and I found a forgotten cabinet full of glass negs and managed to salvage a few more pics. There are a couple of bus views but generally these are an everyday snapshot of life in County Durham around 1950-1960. That was a great place to work as my office overlooked the bus station

Many thanks to Chris Hall for adding the informative comments.

This small island is where I would like to go to if I wanted to die of boredom. Fortunately the buses provide a bit of entertainment, better than watching the paint dry and the wood warp.

Maltese buses have always had a fascination for me, probably because they were so ancient and held secrets of previous owners. I've only been once, my first trip, in 1976 was spent outside the harbour for a day in a cruise ship that couldn't get in because of storms. It was 16 years before I returned. This time the flight from Newcastle was successful. This selection shows some of the oldest and newest that were in service around Valetta and Sliema in 1992. John Openshaw visited malta in 2009 and sent a further selection...

In 1994 Darlington Transport Co was losing money and advertised itself for sale. Stagecoach was outbid by Yorkshire Traction and so encouraged by the TU convenor at DTC, advertised for drivers so they could launch a service of spoilers in the town. They promised £1000 signing on fee. 55 drivers were hired and Stagecoach registered services that almost shadowed DTC's. Then they announced the services would be free for a month. Other bidders withdrew, DTC went straight into administration. Stagecoach tactics were described by the MMC as 'deplorable, predatory and against the public interest'. Stagecoach's reputation was damaged.

Here are some pics of the DTC fleet and those vehicles flooding the town from Stagecoach and subsidiaries.

Over the years I've beel lucky enough to spend both work and holiday in various parts of Ireland. I wish I'd taken more care to record the places I visited but I usually had other things on my mind and my Irish colleagues already thought I was barmy after I went to Donegal to check out the remains of the long gone railway! Tell them about my bus fixation - not bloody likely.

I bought an Epson V700 scanner last week and set about going through my carrier bag of old negatives. Found quite a few that are difficult to categorise or put up a complete collection for so here is a job lot! The scanner is brilliant and does trannies as well as negs. It's not cheap at £370 but as it's for work I can justify the cost to SWMBO. In my business I've got 2 SCSI UMAX scanners, an old Nikon Coolscan slide scanner, a Minolta Dimage ll and they're all redundant now this has come along!

Anyway, back to the buses...

I get full body tremors when I realise how easily I can recall buses and coaches that were manufactured 50+ years ago, and me being just out of my thirties   

I've been sorting some old stuff out and came across a box of long forgotten slides of a holiday in Cornwall and some lovely NBC RE's. Jersey had an island coach fleet that saw a longer life than most and I've included some shots of those that were well known on the mainland too.

EYMS enthusiasts may like to take a look at the rare shot of the MCW Athena on the green at Reeth. N.Yorks.

Saw these last week in brilliant sunshine but didn't have a camera. This week I had a camera but not a lot of sunshine. Still worth a pic or two and one of the new Corgi Gemini Go-Ahead Service 10 full size. More of those awful patronising 'local liveries' of Go-Aheads are about. Cringeingly crass.

I have bought this RTW because I like the look of the vehicle and was familiar with them in the NE. This one may one day appear as an OKMS unless OOC beat me to it. Overall I like it. It reminds me of the original type and that is important to me. Moreover when compared to the now ageing, but due to be revitalised EFE RT it is a worthy competitor. In fact it beats it hands down. It looks like a serious attempt to replicate the original and not a 'quick fix'. So it's got faults. Who hasn't.

I picked up a scrapbook of crash pics at a rally in the Midlands about 10 years ago. Found it again the other day when I was cleaning out the garage. Thought commercial vehicle enthusiasts might like to see these pics of 1960's lorries.

I've been taking photographs around Inverness and Fort William since 1962. Unfortunately all of my colour slides, many of them used in the MacBraynes Book, went missing after the death of Arnold Richardson of Photobus last year who had borrowed the collection.

Rapsons of Inverness, to many (including me) the 'new MacBraynes' have a fascinating fleet full of variety. Their livery is imaginative and well executed. I was up there in 2001 and 2003 and this is a selection of Highland region bus pics - mainly theirs. It's a precursive selection to my visit at the end of this month when I hope to update it and start a new collection of West Coast Motors too.

Compare the newly announced CMNL Stagecoach Coastliner with the real thing. Terry Kempshall took these photos of Stagecoach Coastliner buses earlier in 2006 along with some ex Stagecoach Dennis Tridents with B&H in Sept/Oct 2005.

I'm not sure where this model is pitched. As a replica it bears much similarity to the original - at first glance. As a souvenir of a trip to Bondi Beach I suspect it's a bit expensive for the types I saw there. It is under scrutiny where the model shows its alien origins. Let me say at the outset, I like it. It reminds me of some memorable days at the beach and of Sydney buses in general. It fits well with my 'worldwide' model collection too. There are some differences between the real thing and this casting and I think CMNL have admitted to that. The details are small and maybe not important to most buyers. The biggest innacuracy I suspect are the window shapes. You can see where overprinting has been used to hide the original lines of the UK version and that's OK but I imagine the raised windows at the rear sides are slightly too shallow. They just don't look right. The front grille is incorrect, Sydneys buses don't have a slatted vented grille, they have a pre-shaped panel. There are a few details that could have been added like aerials and receivers on the roof and additional 'pod' detail too. The printing is excellent even though the blue seems a shade too dark but I don't want my money back! Where else would I get an Oz model of this standard but from CMNL.

As Kempshall is trying to take over my website thought I'd retaliate with a truly superb selection of images taken by ME in 1997. You will see the quality exceeds anything ever taken in Brighton before. Enjoy them and click them dozens of times or TK's bl***y models will take over MY Fotopic top ten!!!

Arriva have revitalised their Durham City fleet so I thought I'd take a look and also try out the new Park and Ride system operated by Scarlet Band - disappointingly in a drab white livery with coloured scribbles. First ride on a Solo. I'd hate to go long distance on one but it was more comfortable than the T&W Metro and nobody threw bricks at the windows! The last time I photographed buses in Durham City was 1962, despite it being less than 7 miles from where I live! Oh what fare in those days, rebuilt Woodhall-Nicholson ECW Bristol L's, Durham District LD's, Bristol LS's, and all the independents down by the Riverside. Northern were still running Guys and Park Royal PD2's, Monocoaches and Tiger Cubs. Now look at it.

My wife came in the other day and remarked about this 'beautiful bus' she'd seen on her way home. After establishing basics like colour, number of wheels, one deck or two, etc it sounded like one of Abbotts but her 'and it was called a Sunshine-thingy" threw me a bit. What she had seen was the latest of two Sideral Sunsundegui's and as I've fallen completely, head over heels in love with this coach style I had to go and get some pictures down at Leeming Bar, about 45 miles south of where I live.

NICE COACH, SHAME ABOUT THE LIVERY

In the writers opinion entirely. I often see some of the most ill-conceived liveries on the roads today and they just leave me staggered. you spend a fortune on a vehicle, a mobile advertisement and then you sign it up like an after thought! Do they communicate, inform, educate or are they just the whim of some erstwhile artist with too many paints in his box? Does the livery make you want to ride this bus or avoid everything to do with it? And it's not just the little operators who do it badly. But then it's just my opinion. I abhor the technicolour yawn designs too.

The title was Terry's, not mine. A great idea from the man who usually photographs rear ends. ALL THE BH&D TITLED COASTLINERS ARE HERE!!! This is a photo journey along the routes 12/12A/13* (Sundays Only) during June/July 2006. Brighton and Hove's Scania Omnidekkas operate this very scenic route from Brighton to Eastbourne. Terry does it both ways (but then you knew that).
Thanks Scott for the two Coastliners - excellent pics

I thought I'd put up some pictures of 'nice' bus drivers! Jeremy Clarkson, the fat bloke who does a car programme recently wrote some quite nasty things about bus drivers. They may have been true, who knows. All I can say is, if I saw this calorifically disadvantaged bloke in a posh car trying to beat me to a space down the street I might be inclined to 'put him on the pavement' too! Makes you laugh though, the number of people who are "offended" about anything these days. "The drivers were offended, their families were offended" said a TU spokesman (It was a man, not a person). Just how does 'offended' feel? Why is the world being offended nowadays whereas in the past they would've just laughed or clocked him. Or both. Here then is a set of drivers who wouldn't offend anyone.... Unless you're on the bandwagon of hyper-sensitive, easily offended .gov PC hysterics. If so, calm yourself, get over it - and click off.

By the time I could afford a 35mm camera most of my favourite stuff had gone from the streets of Birmingham and Stourbridge, the two places I mainly frequented. This is more or less the sum of my Midlands selection - not great I know but I've been asked to post them so here you are Pete!

This holiday in Jersey nearly caused a divorce! It was bus heaven! But lots of distractions like a wife who loved frying on the beach, a small (gorgeous) daughter who wanted attention (and wouldn't take bus pics for daddy for another 18 years) and 500 buses and three rolls of Kodachrome ll crying 'take me, take me'.

Actually the shots were taken on two seperate days in this gorgeous Guernsey capital town. The pic from the ferry is a lovely period shot and the one that started it all. In June 1973 whilst holidaying in Jersey I went on a trip from in an Aurigny Airlines Britten Norman Trislander - my first ever airline flight - to Guernsey. About six passengers climbed on board the 20 seater at St.Helier airport, the pilot turned round and said, "Nice to see you all again, you know what to do"!. That was it. I worked out how to fasten my seat belt as we were landing.

The next - and last visit was in March the following year when I went to a Newspaper Society conference (in a British Caledonian Viscount) and spent most of the time bus spotting! The Watson's Greys fleet was so quaint I embarked on a modelling spree which led to a love of Albions, mini-buses and Island buses - particularly Scottish. Hope you like this selection.

Up to date photographs of Stagecoach buses and coaches operating in Cumbria. The Stagecoach livery appeals to me as one of the few in the 2000's that will probably stay the test of time. Their branding usually oozes quality and they mainly resist the garish graffiti liveries - the ones that look like they were designed by schoolchildren in a hurry to get out for playtime.

Terrys been at it again. From his position on the top deck of a Brighton open topper he's taken a selection of Brighton's finest though I fear he was distracted on a couple of occasions. Check out the pics closely, there's bodywork of all shapes and sizes!

NEW PHOTOS ATTACHED!!!!

' Brighton and Hove East Lancs 12 meter Scania Omnidekka 905 (Rev Richard Enraght) captured on the first morning in service on the Metro 25 route(s). This is one of 18 currently being delivered for the Metro 25 service and displays route branding for that route and for the night service on the Metro 7. A new all night service will be provided on the 25 shortly to supplement that already available on Metro Route 7.'

When my daughter took time out for her grand tour she promised to keep in touch by taking bus photos wherever she went! The camera had its limitations but her choice of subject was usually interesting. The blurred shots (yes some were worse than these) taken when she was ratted have been removed. These pics were taken between 1999 - 2000.

Lovely sunny day toady, so I took my beloved shopping so that I could lurk on street corners taking bus pics. I'm probably one of the CCTV's most wanted after todays escapades all around the city. There's lots of variety in Newcastle but sadly the sun went in when I was up by the central Station and they were bussing GNER passengers down to Durham because of line repairs. Can you imagine, you've shelled out a small fortune for the privilege to sit next to some herbert with an ipod blaring out rap or some equally annoying genre and they turf you off onto a bus with him, extending your torment by another hour. There were buses from all over the North charging around as well as some lovely DFDS ferry buses. Missed the lot. Oh bugger.

After yesterdays wonderful weather in Newcastle I thought I'd pop into South Shields and take some more bus pics. The Tyne - Tees Run starts in Stockton and ends in Shields, not far from where I live. Alas, the weather was awful and the bus entries generally disappointing. I suppose as it's an HCVC rally, bus entries are a bit thin on the ground. Anyway I grabbed the stuff I wanted and joined the traffic chaos kindly organised by the roadworks dept of Sunderland Council - the caring council (so their slogan says. Ha!) At one point I was in a jam of 100+ vehicles while two blokes dug a hole on a Sunday. Good for their pay packets I suppose, not so good for our Poll taxes.

Often neglected, the back of a bus is something you don't notice until you want to model one! Hopefully this little collection will be useful to someone, somewhere at some time. Terry has sent more of his pics for this section - presumably he doesn't like to keep these at home?   

Istanbul 1992. Lovely trip. It rained - and rained - and rained. Then it snowed. I made three trips in six weeks and got wet on every visit. Then I caught something very nasty at a floating fish restaurant on the Bosphorus. Serves you right I hear you say. I agree. Who'd eat anything out of the Bosphorus? Have you ever seen it? The day before my illness (details will offend the squeamish but it lasted for a month) I watched a bloated bobbing dead sheep float past my hotel window. That evening our Turkish hosts took me and my group to a river restaurant a hundred yards away. Oh dear.

The green buses are called 'Domoosh' (Domus) and they are used like taxis for all, flag it down and jump in with the other riders. The taxis operate as everywhere else. I've included some general transport pics to show the awful state of the place 14 years ago. The big old Yankee cars were commonplace and cherished by their owners. Updated in 2006 by JP. Thankyou.

A friend of mine travelled extensively in eastern Europe in the late 90's and was persuaded, very reluctantly, to photograph some buses as he went around. The Albanian buses in Tirana were particularly interesting, bullet holes et al. His trip to the capital of Albania in winter included a meeting with the Albanian Governments Health and Safety Minister who had his electric fire cable plugged into a dodgy wall socket with match sticks!

The origins of these buses is unknown to me but I suspect, Switzerland and Rome to be two of the Albanian donors.

I had no intention of buying this Corgi model. Based on previous experience and pre-prod photos I expected it to be a big chunky red lump! When I saw it I was pleasantly surprised and paid full price for it at ModelZone in Newcastle. They supplied one from their 'plentiful' stocks in central warehouse for £24.99. Ouch!

Some excellent layouts and diaoramas. For me it was nostalgic to see some of County Durhams older independent fleets accurately displayed, Cosy, G&B, TMS; lovely stuff.

At last there appears to be decent model of a Burlingham half cab bus on the horizon (resin?)

I made two trips to Japan with Mitsubishi. Both were frenetic. The Japanese way of doing business is to start at 8am, work 'til 9pm then go out and get smashed 'til 3am. Next day, start all over again. They think it's what we English want to do. Me, I couldn't stand after three days of it so I mutinied. They just laughed and went about things exactly as before. Lovely people, disgusting food. Went to a restaurant in the Ginza in Tokyo where the chef felt obliged to entertain his 'important English party' by eating live fish, swallowing them whole and crunching live prawns, heads legs and all. The lucky ones were just dipped in batter and deep fried!

This selection of shots was taken in Tokyo - Osaka - Hiroshima - Kyoto and Mihara, down in the south - the Mitsu' factory.

These pics were taken around Lagos and Albufeira. The 'yellow fleet' was interesting to me because of the strange looking boxlike vehicles that literally charged around the country roads! I was driving a little Opel Astra type thing and the buses just drove AT you! No such thing as "please let me out, I'm a bus" these beasts just charged. You very quickly learned to move over.

Photographs by Terry Kempshall

Terry's pics show the Brighton coach rally on a dull wet day on the south coast. His coup of the show was a pic of the biggest vehicle ever to be exhibited at the British Coach Rally, a 102-seat Volvo B9TL being shown by East Lancs. Built for Roadliner of Poole, the B9TL has high-backed seats, most of them with three-point belts, soft trim in the interior, CCTV, DVD player and satellite navigation. The 12.8m-long tri-axle coach Ð named the Roadlyner by East Lancs - achieves its high capacity with conventional two-plus-two seating.

I recall the halcyon days of Southdowns and Glenton et al but todays beasts, much as I admire them, leave me baffled. Don't ask Terry either. He just took the pics!

A rag bag batch of pics of buses and coaches in France. On the trip I made I was more interested in old transport and there's a fair bit of stuff mixed in this batch. The French buses all seem a bit over decorative with odd liveries. They've yet to catch my attention as a serious interest. I like the temperature, and the wine. The food would be great too if they cooked it and had toilets in restaurants that encouraged you to believe the chef had washed his hands.

I've been buying the odd HK model bus for the last few years, mainly driven by the belief I was getting a bargain. The OOC/Corgi deckers were picked up for around £4 each a couple of years ago. Then there seemed to be a glut of ABC blue and cream Guy models so I bought a few hoping to convert them to UK types. I never did as time ran out and I lost interest.

Im February 2006 I visited Hong Kong en-route from Australia, my mission was simple - visit a new country and take some bus pics. How wrong I was. The Chinese seem more enthusiastic about their buses than we do and you can see why. They are everywhere! They're big and modern and charge around 'on a mission'. I didn't take enough dosh to buy a bagful though I will next time. I've admired the old Albions and Seddons I've seen on the Oriental Bus site and I just had to buy a couple. Then I saw the Toyota Coasters and another obsession started. Watch this site...

The Australian independent operators remind me of the way things were in the UK in the 60's, using a few new vehicles and rebuilt and secondhand vehicles and squeezing every last mile out of already 'past their sell by date' motors. The buzz word 'cascaded' hadn't been misused in those good old days. I love the big Ozzie highway cruisers with their 'roo' bars and screen catchers and they remind me of the American interstate coaches of the 50's and 60's. There are quite a few in this set.

There doesn't seem to be a lot of variety in the city though what there is, is beautifully painted in a sensible livery style. How pleasant not to see the 'look at me' liveries from some of the wannabe opinion formers that blurt their technicolour garbage onto the streets of
Britain.

I loved the little buses, the big gold ones were,... well big and the rest were photographed in the hope that one day I'll be able to identify them!

The KMB fleet is a sight to see! Apart from the fact that buses are everywhere in Honkers these big gold beggars are especially noticeable. The drivers throw them around as though they were family cars and achieve a fair turn of speed on the busy (people covered) streets. You will already realise that I know precious little about these buses though I'm now crawling the web for information! Another branch of my burgeoning bus hobby has started much to my bank managers concern and the wife's disbelief.

The first public light vehicle I saw was a dead ringer for a MacBraynes bus!!! I thought I was dreaming. After a few minutes standing in a side alley off Nathan Road, Kowloon's main shopping street I saw dozens more, all wearing different liveries and was immediately taken with this somewhat ignored aspect of Hong Kong transport. Whilst the big buses are awesome, especially when charging around at close to 50mph - or so it seemed - these little 'uns are brilliant. There are 'Best Choice' 1/76th diecast models in both the green and red liveries and they sell for around £9 in HK model shops.

I sourced these two on a trip to Sydney, Australia. The single decker came from Tempe bus museum and the decker from Sutherladn models on the outskirts of Cronulla.

I visited San Franciso a few times in the late 90's, usually on business so bus spotting wasn't too easy without alarming my employer or reaping buckets of ridicule from others!!!

I'd forgotten all about their unique transport system until members of a model bus website showed some interest so here is my total collection!

The fuzzy tram pics are included for those who find such things (trams) interesting. I regret not paying much attention to them.

I've not included the cable cars as I always regarded them as a novelty, a bit like the Blackpool tram system. I also neglected the ferries - was it Blue Star and Redline? The next time I went they'd amalgamated and that was another opportunity lost.

I suppose there's a moral to this sad tale and that is 'don't go on company time or with the wife'! San Francisco needs some serious 'transport time' without interference from both bosses.

For most of the 90's I followed NASCAR racing around Charlotte, Bristol, North Wilkesboro' and Darlington using my annual holidays to indulge in my expensive pastime! En route to the various tracks I used to seek out junkyards to photograph old cars, trucks and the occasional bus. US junkyards are often massive affairs and in the 90's it was common to find 1930's stuff just lying around stacked four high. Even on a drive from Charlotte NC to Bristol, Tennessee along the back roads you would find small junkyards dotted allover the place. As my US colleague used to say, "The woods is full of 'em".
Most owners were happy to allow me inside their yards to photograph and many weren't bothered about letting me take tag plates (number plates) and bits of memorabilia.

I met some characters on these trips. One old guy knew the nesting place of every Copperhead snake and took me around the yard to show me where not to go! Another yard owner well in his 70's up in the Smokie Mountains (Cherokee I think) allowed me into the site but forbade me from photographing an old Flxible at the bottom of the wooded site 'cos "his Momma was in there". I left very quickly. As she must have been well over 100 I didn't want to know any more!!!

These pics are from prints so the quality isn't great but you might like to see them.

I've started cataloguing my burgeoning collection and giving them a spring clean too. More as a place of safe record than anything else this (not very artistic) collection may be of interest to others. Maybe not. Half of what you see here was disposed of in 2006, I just ran out of space and Mrs B ran out of patience! The latest shots are of the 'shelf fleet' in June 22007.

Rome is a city full of buses! The ATAC group operate around 2700 of them and a massive influx of around 500 Citaros over the last few years is evident. I searched for a Citaro bendy version and thought I saw a couple on the first day but maybe I was wrong! I wanted to compare the flexi section with the CMNL model. What i can say is that I never saw a flexi section that wasn't distorted or generally out of shape. It makes the OOC and CMNL attempts look accurate.

I'll probably not add another to my collection but I had to have one because it's a gorgeous model. The bendy bit hasn't worked too well and the packaging is a bit of a backward step but as I don't keep the boxes it doesn't matter to me. The fact that this and the Corgi bendy won't retain their bent position is a bad show as that is their main feature. No playability here then. Detail is lovely and the big preying Mantis mirrors are very well done. I saw a new Irizar the other day and it was covered in mirrors up at the front. Model that next!!!

After a welcome respite from flinging badly needed money at toy buses (as she calls them) I find myself parting with masses of the folding stuff to buy TWO LONDON BUSES!!! What's wrong with me? Well they are red and they are particularly attractive   

If you thought the Renown was an ugly duckling take a look at a Bridgemaster. EFE's latest double decker is typical of what we expect from them nowadays. Nothing added to the casting so nothing falls off. Nothing poses or opens so there's nothing to criticise there either. All in all a good "Dinky" representation of a 60's bus in true EFE style.

Now here's a thought, the two Renowns used by Smiths of Barrhead were sold to Barton Transport in 1968. Two lovely liveries on one registration plate!

If you can't tell the difference between Renowns and Bridgemasters, look at the offside front mudguard. The Bridgemasters doesn't protude from the front panel by the radiator tin front and the Renowns does.

Another lovely model from Britbus. It looks right to me - a non rivet counter. There's some nice detail which far outweighs the couple of niggles like the paint blobbed rear lights and the steering wheels that catch on the bodywork. I like the yellow adverts on the NS and the back end looks exactly as I remember them though I never took much notice of them at the time. The panel fit is superb and a far cry from some of the Britbus attempts. Nice one.

After a break of three years I made a return visit to my favourite city. Princess Street has been made buses only so that bus photographers can get better pictures. A lot of the old favourites have gone but Lothian and First epitomise beauty and the beast fleets. First doesn't seem to know what it wants to be whereas the Lothian livery is strong and dominant. Let's hope rumours of the madder livery being abandoned are illfounded. The Guide Friday fleet looks very smart but sadly the 'other tourist bus fleet' looks like a dogs breakfast. The Motivator coaches are awesome and the Megabus coaches too. On top of all that variety there is a constant stream of visiting coaches from allover Europe and a tidy little fleet of Optare Solo's nipping around the East Lothians. Gotta go back.

Going through my old slide collection I've come across a few more buses that have to be included in the 'ugly' category. The Lynx is a prime candidate in my eyes. Look at that awful slab sided body. Notice the deep windows destined to help you fry in summer and freeze in winter, and what about that afterthought of a lower front end! Ugly? A friend of mine used to say "She has a face even a pig wouldn't lick". I think most of these fall into that category. Piece de resistance has to go to the Wear Buses Lynx rebuild. Were they really serious??? I think I'd refuse to drive it.

I must be getting too old but these Tyne and Wear Lynxes are growing on me!

I've always been impressed with these ugly beasts! The crude 'chipcutter' grille lacks any finesse or sympathy for the elegant body whatsoever. I wish I had more memories of them, the best I can recall is the roar of them on a hot summer day pulling away from bus stops and traffic lights along South Clerk Street in Edinburgh and the squeal of the brakes as they literally ground to a halt. I only have a handful of photos - it was expensive to waste film in the Kodakchrome II era and on holidays I had to share out the 36 frames betweem family and hobby. (Usually 10 - 1 against the hobby!) These images are from slides so the quality is not the greatest. Won't someone please bring this type out as a casting???

I see an Arriva vehicle rarely. You wouldn't believe their head office was only 7 miles away! I detested their plain livery when it first came out but in this era of technicolour yawns it looks quite respectable. The EFE rendition of the Arriva vehicles seems to me to be the best. Their EFE Leyland National may get lots of criticism but their Arriva version looks superb, as does the diminutive Merc minibus. The Plaxton also gets full marks even though it is an overprint of surplus stock sold on as a 'de luxe' model. How dare they do it? I certainly wouldn't buy a car from anyone who did that!!! More garden shots, great for sharpness but I'm already getting bored with the location. Back to diaoramas I think.

Nothing themed in this set, just pics of buses that I like or shots I like. Some views of dubious driving or parking and some pretty backgrounds. A pretty little collection I suppose.

I recently acquired an ABC Leyland Lion from a friend in Australia after my searching in the UK proved fruitless. It's a little beauty so it seemed appropriate to photograph it with a couple of EFE Titans that it might have just possibly crossed paths with at some time. Strangely despite the fine attention to detail, way ahead of it's time when this casting came out, it has no registration number. But it has an opening bonnet and drivers window and some intricate printing. Very nice.

On Saturday 8th of January 2005 the three rivers running through Carlisle burst their banks after flash floods. There was little warning (I know, because my business is based there) and no time to prepare for the consequences. The Stagecoach garage was flooded, Some buses bobbed around and as well as flood damage took bodywork damage as the hit girders and stanchions in the depot! Around 87 buses were lost or badly damaged. This site shows some of those vehicles when they were in service in 2003/4.

I use the word 'girls' very loosely on some of these photo's. My wife asks why I don't put pics of blokes in this section too. Stupid woman. I started this section quite by accident when it was suggested by a friend that the girl in the Lisbon photo was better looking than any bus in the set so I went through my collection to check out all the 'girls and buses' shots. Today most are by design, usually taken when the wife is looking the other way.

In 2002 I visited Wadebridge and Penzance and was amazed at the fleet of old buses running around. Truly a time warp! Wife and daughter were not impressed at my hysterical interest and so only a few pics were grabbed on a day trip. I was dragged off to St Michael's Mount protesting loudly...

These ex UK buses (and maybe a Hong Kong one?) were operating in New South Wales in December 2004. The VR was ex West Yorkshire but the Atlantean is a mystery to me. there were traces of blue and yellow paint beneath the red.

Now looking rather long in the tooth and showing it at times, the Stagecoach Mercedes minibuses are a feature of the Lake District landscape. The fact that batches from all over the UK seem to be drafted in on a regular basis makes them interesting to seek out. I wonder what will replace them - MPD or Optare?

EDITED BY STUART LIVINGSTONE - THANKS!


I was fortunate enough to be working around Oban and Fort William between 1996 and 1999. Oban and District was a favourite fleet of mine because of the diversity of types. There was an eclectic gaggle of mini and midi buses and a reasonable fleet of heavyweights. Pity about the livery but that's all changed now.

By the mid 60's most of the pre-war buses had gone except for showmen's vehicles. Infact half cab single deckers were a rare breed and early underfloor buses were being replaced by Tiger Cubs and Reliances. I started too late photographing in colour to catch the really good stuff but this selection here would today be regarded as serious preservation prospects!

First of all, sorry about the quality of the pics. They were taken on an early digital camera in 1998/9 - a Sony Mavica and a 909 I think. The Scottish based layout was built at home and never finished. Now it's remains are rusting behind the garage and the rolling stock is de-commissioned - 'in the loft'! The wife hated those naked bathers by Preiser so I left them on.

***UPDATED*** When I discovered Highland Omnibuses in 1962 I couldn't believe the variety they had. Years after deregulation the lovely poppy red and peacock blue livery was abandoned and the fleet seemed to disintegrate into a hotch potch of liveries. Then in the 90's Rapsons acquired the fleet and injected quality and variety. Whenever you see one approaching you can't be sure what treasure you're about to capture on film. Now that's just how it used to be in 1962!!!

A small selection of Stagecoach green rural route buses seen around Cumbria. The ex London Open Toppers running between Grasmere and Bowness on Windermere, service 599 are particularly interesting - and cheap to use. These green buses are such a relief from the swoops and stripes prevalent allove the place. Shades of Southdown.