Bus Shite

[SunnySouth]

18 hours ago, Yoss said:

Advert signwriting  is definitely a lost art but was probably quite common back in the day. 

These are all hand painted. 

Plus the wheelchair converted 133 and 134.

I have many more examples upstairs. I think before computers if you only wanted one advert, as a lot of small local companies would it probably was cheaper to paint it than print it. 

 

That’s interesting; were the wheelchair accessible Atlanteans specially allocated in any particular way? Or did they just turn up as and when in the vague hope of an optimistic wheelchair user waiting at the stop?!

I recall being at a bus rally once, many many years ago as a young lad, and watching a demonstration of what I seem to recall was a Mk1 National dropping an entire nearside bay of the bodywork down as a ramp. No idea whose it was, but it was an impressive conversion!

[Leyland Worldmaster]

Filers of Ilfracombe gone. 

https://www.route-one.net/news/closure-for-filers-travel-as-ilfracombe-firm-enters-administration/

[Leyland Worldmaster]

3 minutes ago, Leyland Worldmaster said:

Filers of Ilfracombe gone. 

https://www.route-one.net/news/closure-for-filers-travel-as-ilfracombe-firm-enters-administration/

First time I travelled on a Volvo Citybus was in Devon on this:

 

[SilverMachine]

there were a few leyland leopards on the weardale fleet, and a similarly bodied volvo with plaxton coachbuilding. of the other leopards there were a couple with bus seats - which were standard 2x2 for the front several rows but the rear 5 or six rows were in a 1 x 3 configuration which i liked as you could lie down on a 3er... 

heres some pics i found of the others :

these last 4 pics are upt6n leyland national, rebodied im guessing in the 80s while still at weardale. i have not managed to find out why yet, or why the reg changed when it went to wjc, but i can confirm that my regular main transport to school was shared mainly between leyland tpt6k and volvo kbr252n and probably on the rare occasion they werent available leyland ogr652t! i dont recall any trips on upt6n to school. and they didnt like to send the double deckers into bishop they used to only go to crook / howden  they had some older stuff  for school runs that went up dale stanhope etc too. because of fuel consumption most were left parked at school, but mine was the 101 service bus from bishop to stanhope, so that ran all day! 

Edited Wednesday at 18:41 by SilverMachine
added piccies and juicy info

[Inspector Morose]

7 hours ago, SunnySouth said:

I recall being at a bus rally once, many many years ago as a young lad, and watching a demonstration of what I seem to recall was a Mk1 National dropping an entire nearside bay of the bodywork down as a ramp. No idea whose it was, but it was an impressive conversion!

Sounds like Ribble PTF722L to me. 

[Christine]

Blueprints  .  Old bus shite .. Dennis Dart & Leyland Cub ..there was more bus blueprints of  Albion and Guy  ,but i gave them to someone at the weekend who bought 3 crates of model buses   . I expect they're on ebay now !    'Scuse shadows , the ceiling light is right  above me! 

 

 

[SunnySouth]

15 hours ago, Inspector Morose said:

Sounds like Ribble PTF722L to me. 

Might have been - this would likely have been somewhere in the south of England, and in my mind the bus was green, but both of those things might be ‘variable’!

It was that style of conversion though!

[SunnySouth]

Nice collage of pics I found stuffed away; an interesting illustration of the turmoil that was Portsmouth’s buses in the 90s. Stagecoach came to town and had bought both Southdown and Portsmouth Citybus, but were then informed that this constituted a monopoly and told to sort it out. Citybus was duly prepared for further sale, with buses rebranded to carry simply “Portsmouth” as their fleetnames, and was sold to Harry Blundred, who swiftly pumped the city full of minibuses under the Red & Blue Admiral fleetnames (Blue was for the local routes running awful Transit 16 seaters, Red was the out of town stuff with better quality motors, initially Robin Hood Ivecos but later the nice big Carlyle Merc 811s as in my post above; Blue Admiral eventually got batches of dual door Mellor bodied Ivecos).

Here are examples from both fleets; former Southdown VRs and Citybus Atlanteans in both their previous and then new liveries.

[danthecapriman]

1 hour ago, SunnySouth said:

Nice collage of pics I found stuffed away; an interesting illustration of the turmoil that was Portsmouth’s buses in the 90s. Stagecoach came to town and had bought both Southdown and Portsmouth Citybus, but were then informed that this constituted a monopoly and told to sort it out. Citybus was duly prepared for further sale, with buses rebranded to carry simply “Portsmouth” as their fleetnames, and was sold to Harry Blundred, who swiftly pumped the city full of minibuses under the Red & Blue Admiral fleetnames (Blue was for the local routes running awful Transit 16 seaters, Red was the out of town stuff with better quality motors, initially Robin Hood Ivecos but later the nice big Carlyle Merc 811s as in my post above; Blue Admiral eventually got batches of dual door Mellor bodied Ivecos).

Here are examples from both fleets; former Southdown VRs and Citybus Atlanteans in both their previous and then new liveries.

I remember going on those Southdown VR’s, in both liveries. 
The CityBus Atlantean’s I remember vaguely but can’t remember them being repainted in the Stagecoach style livery.

[Yoss]

On 03/09/2025 at 11:15, SunnySouth said:

That’s interesting; were the wheelchair accessible Atlanteans specially allocated in any particular way? Or did they just turn up as and when in the vague hope of an optimistic wheelchair user waiting at the stop?!

 

I'm sure they had a regular timetable, probably different routes each day. I doubt you you just turned up and hoped for the best as there were only two of them. They were always parked up in town as in the above picture. 

[Yoss]

4 hours ago, SunnySouth said:

Nice collage of pics I found stuffed away; an interesting illustration of the turmoil that was Portsmouth’s buses in the 90s. Stagecoach came to town and had bought both Southdown and Portsmouth Citybus, but were then informed that this constituted a monopoly and told to sort it out. Citybus was duly prepared for further sale, with buses rebranded to carry simply “Portsmouth” as their fleetnames, and was sold to Harry Blundred, who swiftly pumped the city full of minibuses under the Red & Blue Admiral fleetnames (Blue was for the local routes running awful Transit 16 seaters, Red was the out of town stuff with better quality motors, initially Robin Hood Ivecos but later the nice big Carlyle Merc 811s as in my post above; Blue Admiral eventually got batches of dual door Mellor bodied Ivecos).

Here are examples from both fleets; former Southdown VRs and Citybus Atlanteans in both their previous and then new liveries.

I can't remember the exact timeline now but Portsmouth were briefly owned by Southampton CityBus but the competition authorities got involved and made them sell it again even though they were two entirely different areas twenty odd miles apart with no overlapping area. A few years later both companies were bought out by First Group but that was fine apparently. Go figure. 

In the bottom left picture above the Atlantean has a Southampton CityBus type logo but with Portsmouth replacing Southampton. Quite a few were repainted in Southampton red and cream, many of them were painted at Portswood garage before it all went tits up. 

Like so. Not my picture, just pinched off the internet. 

 

[martc]

Just look at this wonderful Ikarus 256.

[martc]

Sheffield in the '70's, nice.

Probabaly the '70's as well.

[martc]

Nottingham Midland Station.

Nottingham Cathedral, Derby Road 1963.

And later, in the centre.

[martc]

Certain parties in Japan are none too keen on the infantification of society.

[lisbon_road]

43 minutes ago, Yoss said:

I can't remember the exact timeline now but Portsmouth were briefly owned by Southampton CityBus but the competition authorities got involved and made them sell it again even though they were two entirely different areas twenty odd miles apart with no overlapping area. A few years later both companies were bought out by First Group but that was fine apparently. Go figure. 

In the bottom left picture above the Atlantean has a Southampton CityBus type logo but with Portsmouth replacing Southampton. Quite a few were repainted in Southampton red and cream, many of them were painted at Portswood garage before it all went tits up. 

Like so. Not my picture, just pinched off the internet. 

 

 

I saw one of these at a Southampton bus depot open day, here:

I remember being surprised to see it.  I didn't know about the competition thing, @Yoss, seems totally daft.  Didn't someone else on here go to an open day - wonder if it was the same one.

Do we need a Southampton Bus Shite thread?

[auntiemaryscanary]

3 hours ago, martc said:

Nottingham Cathedral, Derby Road 1963.

I bought my new-ish Escort from that Hooley's in the mid 90's. The showroom was an amazing 1930s style although looking slightly run-down and anachronistic. I thought how has this survived! 

Of course a few years later it was demolished and replaced with bland student accommodation shops/bars.

3 hours ago, martc said:

 

 

3 hours ago, martc said:

And later, in the centre.

Going by the bus reg and other vehicles this would have been the mid-late 80s. I'd have been on the top deck having a cig.

Most of the Market (aka Slab) square is now pedestrianised. Trams now run where this bus is.

[Yoss]

3 hours ago, lisbon_road said:

 

@Yoss

Do we need a Southampton Bus Shite thread?

I think that might be one step too niche even for here! Whilst there is a fair bit of activity at the moment I think it might have some very long dead patches. 

Having said that, going back to this... 

On 31/08/2025 at 10:38, lisbon_road said:

Sad day on Friday.  Last number 46 bus from Winchester to North Baddersley.  Used to go all the way to Southampton and was a really useful service which has gradually been cut back.  Rather local news for most of you but @Yoss might know the route.  Here's the last one:

I have eventually found some pics of the route 54.

Hill Lane by King Edwards School. 

So it ran from the city centre to Lordshill missing out Shirley, then on North Baddesley, Hiltingbury, Chandlers Ford industrial estate and according to this blind Badgers Farm, which I don't remember before finally arriving in Winchester. 

The infamous YEL 1T! I've just looked and the reg is now on a 2019 Land Rover. I wonder how many other cars have carried this reg. 

Leaving Winchester bus station. 

And the Southampton terminus along with what I think was a nearly new Olympian and a Southampton Atlantean. This is the same bus stop that the Winchester buses leave from today although Bluestar decided to renumber it the 1 even though it had been the 47 for longer than anybody can remember. 

Complete with genuine Babs Cabs Hyundai Stellar taxi! 

 

This was the last ever one, it was a fairly short lived route, probably lasted no more than three years. This has an RU reg so it would have been an original Hants & Dorset bus.

On the 47 at the same time. I've no idea what the Pony Express branding is for. I don't know where PR reg is either, I suspect this came from another Stagecoach subsidiary. 

 

Also in the same packet of photos was this Blue Line VR at Chandlers Ford on a 45 from Hiltingbury. 

The 47 ran from Southampton to Winchester every 30 minutes. The 45 ran from Southampton to Hiltingbury in between the 47s giving a 15 minute frequency service as far as Chandlers Ford. Interestingly the current route 1 was increased to a ten minute frequency last Sunday which is great if you want to go to Winchester but no use at all if you want to go to Hiltingbury. 

Also in the same packet of photos were these two. I remember CityBus running the 47 for a brief period but it seems it might have happened at the same time the 54 was withdrawn. I don't know how Stagecoach and CityBus came to this arrangement but it didn't last long. 

[lisbon_road]

16 minutes ago, Yoss said:

 

On the 47 at the same time. I've no idea what the Pony Express branding is for. I don't know where PR reg is either, I suspect this came from another Stagecoach subsidiary. 

 

 

 

 

PR is a local registration, Dorset anyway.  That's an original Hants and Dorset Leyland National was a local bus.  Interesting photos, thanks.  

[Yoss]

2 minutes ago, lisbon_road said:

PR is a local registration, Dorset anyway.  That's an original Hants and Dorset Leyland National was a local bus.  Interesting photos, thanks.  

Okay, thanks. Still no idea what the Pony Express branding is for though. 

[busmansholiday]

15 hours ago, martc said:

Sheffield in the '70's, nice.

Probabaly the '70's as well.

Both those pictures are Commercial Street but from different views. Top one is around 1972 as it shows the building of what was known as "Death Island", the big roundabout that connects the Parkway (direct link to J33 of the M1) with the city centre. There's traffic lights on it now so it's a lot better. It was fun* cycling around it in the old days!

The bottom one is post completion, if you look at a current view the Supertram now runs on what was the down side, all road traffic is back on a single carriageway.

The buses are interesting too as they both show ECW bodied Leylands. The top one has a pair of PD2 Titans, a rare picture as only five of this combination were ever built as ECW bodies back in the 1950's were restricted to Tillings (Railways ) owned bus companies and were almost always fitted to Bristol chassis's.  The reason Sheffield had them was due to the A, B and C fleets that existed until 1968. The A fleet was 100% council owned, the B fleet was joint BR / Council and the C fleet 100% BR, but run and maintained by the council, this being the reason that ECW bodies were fitted to Leyland chassis's. The A fleet did the city services, the C fleet the long distance (Manchester, Bradford etc), the B fleet the out of town services until the NBC was formed when the Council took over all services and the B fleet buses (these are two of the three), the C fleet buses went to the NBC elsewhere (the two ECW ones went to Yorkshire Wollen at Dewsbury).

Bottom pic shows one of 56 ECW (free to supply anybody after the NBC were formed) Daimler (then part of Leyland) Fleetlines supplied in 1974-5, the first new double decks for South Yorkshire PTE which had taken over the council run buses of Sheffield, Rotherham and Donny in 1974.

 

TL:DR, nice pics.