Bus Shite

[lisbon_road]

20 hours ago, 808 Estate said:

An old Southampton Corporation bus on the bay.

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/187963078186?

 

That's a lot of money.  A fine vehicle that has had an immense amount of work to get it to where it is.  I feel concerned about what happens next but am not about to step up with the cash!

OK, let's have a random bus photo.  Here's a Southdown Plaxton bodied coach, presumably a Leopard, taken in the early '80s, when it would have been an older National Express coach for sure.  

[Inspector Morose]

On 12/02/2026 at 13:47, Inspector Morose said:

I see your WMPTE Jubo and raise you:

So why was a WMPTE 'jumbo' Fleetline in Johannesburg? Do you really want to know? Sure? Oh, go on then.

Back in 1969, Birmingham Corporation had ordered 100 33-foot-long Fleetlines with Park Royal dual door bodywork. These were to be numbered 3881-3980, but before they were delivered, the West Midlands Passenger Transport Executive was formed, effectively taking over Birmingham, along with the transport sides of Walsall, Wolverhampton, and West Bromwich Corporations.

Now the first ones were actually delivered in BCT livery, minus crests, but the rest came in the new WMPTE livery of a slightly lighter shade of blue and cream (albeit still with the BCT throwback of a khaki roof) and fitted with the new WMPTE name and 'wiggly worm' logo.

Daimler, the chassis supplier, suddenly was in need of a demonstrator to secure what could be a rather lucrative contract to supply Fleetline Chassis to Johannesburg. It just so happened that 3980 (SOE980H) was nearly finished and happened to be nearly enough the right spec for the Joburg order. Negotiations happened, and the final Fleetline of the BCT order was diverted to South Africa, in full WMPTE livery and specification and was immediately put to work (after minor modification to meet local legalities) as their 331. The only difference to the ones running along the Bristol Road was the addition of a Daimler badge on the front.

To compensate the newly formed PTE, Daimler promised to supply another 33-foot-long Fleetline chassis. Now WMPTE had taken over orders for similar Fleetline chassis places by Wolverhampton and West Bromwich corporations. The Wolverhampton batch was to be Roe bodied, but this was to be altered to a near identical Park Royal body to the BCT batch, and the fleet numbers shuffled back by one (the WMPTE fleet numbering policy carrying on from Birmingham practice) 3981 became 3980, and so on.

All well and good, but by the time Daimler had got around to building the replacement Fleetline chassis, all of the Park Royals had been built, and they didn't want to body what would be a one-off to them.

 

Still awake? good.

 

Luckily for WMPTE, West Bromwich had also ordered some 33-foot-long Fleetlines, this time to be bodied by Northern Counties. To spread the load, the Wigan order was kept, but the specification was altered to be closer to WMPTE specification. Now Northern Counties were happy to build one more body and tag it on to the order, meaning of the whole batch of 33-foot-long Fleetlines, Birmingham had one less of their order, Wolverhampton got what they ordered, albeit with different bodywork, and West Bromwich gained an extra bus.

And a WMPTE jumbo Fleetline could be seen, in full WMPTE livery, running in Johannesburg.

[High Jetter]

3 hours ago, lisbon_road said:

That's a lot of money.  A fine vehicle that has had an immense amount of work to get it to where it is.  I feel concerned about what happens next but am not about to step up with the cash!

OK, let's have a random bus photo.  Here's a Southdown Plaxton bodied coach, presumably a Leopard, taken in the early '80s, when it would have been an older National Express coach for sure.  

Brighton reg, and is that the roundabout by the East pier, turn left for Madeira Drive?

[Richard_FM]

Another WMPTE interesting bus order situation was a batch of Fleetlines ordered by Coventry Corporation Transport with East Lancs bodywork & inherited by WMPTE.  Some of this batch were allocated to Birmingham when they were trying to phase out conductors & needed more one man operation buses while the rest went to Coventry as intended.  Eventually the whole batch was based at Coventry, probably for ease of maintenance as they were the only buses in the fleet with East Lancs bodies.

[Inspector Morose]

1 hour ago, Richard_FM said:

Another WMPTE interesting bus order situation was a batch of Fleetlines ordered by Coventry Corporation Transport with East Lancs bodywork & inherited by WMPTE.  Some of this batch were allocated to Birmingham when they were trying to phase out conductors & needed more one man operation buses while the rest went to Coventry as intended.  Eventually the whole batch was based at Coventry, probably for ease of maintenance as they were the only buses in the fleet with East Lancs bodies.

Some did escape Coventry later in life. In the early 90s, 6728 and 6734 moved to Dudley for a time and right at the end of Fleetline operation, all the surviving East Lancs moved to Walsall for their final days in service.

[artdjones]

12 hours ago, lisbon_road said:

That's a lot of money.  A fine vehicle that has had an immense amount of work to get it to where it is.  I feel concerned about what happens next but am not about to step up with the cash!

OK, let's have a random bus photo.  Here's a Southdown Plaxton bodied coach, presumably a Leopard, taken in the early '80s, when it would have been an older National Express coach for sure.  

UUF335J still exists, in its original Southdown green.

As you can see, in between withdrawal from Southdown and preservation there have been a number of cosmetic changes by later operators, the biggest being having a Supreme front with dome grafted on.

[Remspoor]

Want to purchase a RM?

 

[busmansholiday]

On 13/02/2026 at 20:10, lisbon_road said:

That's a lot of money.  A fine vehicle that has had an immense amount of work to get it to where it is.  I feel concerned about what happens next but am not about to step up with the cash!

OK, let's have a random bus photo.  Here's a Southdown Plaxton bodied coach, presumably a Leopard, taken in the early '80s, when it would have been an older National Express coach for sure.  

Some of that batch were built with 2+1 seating as 'luxury' touring coaches. They got more standard 2+2 coach seats in later years but with extra leg room, and we ended up with some at Sheffield back in the late 70's. I remember taking one to Woodhall services northbound to replace a United Autos RE that had gone "pop" there. The Leopard had only 45 seats which didn't please the UA driver as some passengers had to sit on others knees(!). Being dragged back to Sheffield steering a dead RE behind our expertly* converted similar but older Leopard was an entertainment.

*as in it was externally standard, the towing bracket was inside the boot on the back wall. You wedged open the boot, dragged the tow bar through the hole in the passenger compartment and attached it, best part of 80 foot long and fun on roundabouts.

[The Old Bloke Next Door]

[500tops]

Plymouth City Centre this morning 

[busmansholiday]

42 minutes ago, 500tops said:

Plymouth City Centre this morning 

Ex Bournemouth,  my god that's loverrrlly (apart from being a mobile cafe)

[Yoss]

19 hours ago, The Old Bloke Next Door said:

 

[SunnySouth]

On 13/02/2026 at 00:06, 808 Estate said:

An old Southampton Corporation bus on the bay.

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/187963078186?

A quick check of Faceache appears to suggest that it was most recently owned by local independant Xelabus. It’s lovely, let’s hope it doesn’t end up ruined

[myglaren]

 

[SunnySouth]

9 hours ago, myglaren said:

 

“You’ve been a very naughty boy….”

[Remspoor]

On 19/02/2026 at 21:59, myglaren said:

 

That explains why they fit these?

[worldofceri]

On 02/09/2025 at 17:38, artdjones said:

Elkes and the CWS both had biscuit factories on Moorland Rd., Cardiff. Around 1955 my father worked in Elkes, and my mother in CWS.

Off topic, but do you know the relationship between Elkes Biscuits of Uttoxeter and the Cardiff factory where your father worked? The smell of biscuits baking was a feature of my childhood; I grew up a stone’s throw from the Uttoxeter factory. But I didn’t know there were other factories bearing the same name. I know Elkes were bought out by Fox’s at one time, and the factory nearly closed recently under the ownership of a subsequent parent company but, happily, is now back in independent ownership.

[artdjones]

34 minutes ago, worldofceri said:

Off topic, but do you know the relationship between Elkes Biscuits of Uttoxeter and the Cardiff factory where your father worked? The smell of biscuits baking was a feature of my childhood; I grew up a stone’s throw from the Uttoxeter factory. But I didn’t know there were other factories bearing the same name. I know Elkes were bought out by Fox’s at one time, and the factory nearly closed recently under the ownership of a subsequent parent company but, happily, is now back in independent ownership.

Elkes used to be a big biscuit brand in the UK. There had to have been a relationship between the factories, because it's such an unusual name.

This tin on sale on Etsy says Uttoxeter and Cardiff.

[worldofceri]

4 hours ago, artdjones said:

This tin on sale on Etsy says Uttoxeter and Cardiff.

Yeah, from a very brief internet search, the only results linking Elkes and Cardiff are old tins on Etsy and Ebay! I guess the Welsh factory must have been a second factory to meet demand. Or perhaps Elkes bought into a firm down that way to increase market share.

Anyway, since I’ve found myself in a bus thread talking about Uttoxeter, have someone else’s photo of a pair of Stevensons’ buses at Uttoxeter bus station. 1983 so a touch before my time; I don’t remember then having half cabs.

Sad story: The two story science block of the town’s high school (yes, high school, not secondary) is over the road behind the buses in this picture. Some time in around 1998 or ‘99, a reversing bus collided with an elderly chap who had regrettably walked behind the bus. My physics teacher, Mr Hardy, saw the incident happen from his first floor lab, and rushed downstairs to administer first aid. Sadly the gentleman could not be saved, but Mr Hardy was highly praised for his swift and selfless actions.

[Inspector Morose]

55 minutes ago, worldofceri said:

RCN699 and PAX466F are both Preserved. RCN699 is, rather confusingly, re-registered PCN762 after it lost its original registration while at Stagecoach (After being sold to them by Stevensons). It is also now AEC-engined instead of its original Leyland unit. I've a feeling that this was also the first Routemaster to be operated by an independent operator.

PAX466F is also the last lowbridge double deck bus built for the UK, a Massey bodied Leyland PD3 and is now restored as Bedwas and Machen UDC No.6.

[artdjones]

9 minutes ago, Inspector Morose said:

PAX466F is also the last lowbridge double deck bus built for the UK, a Massey bodied Leyland PD3 and is now restored as Bedwas and Machen UDC No.6.

It's looking good.

[quicksilver]

In the early 2000s PAX466F used to belong to MK Metro in Milton Keynes but Julian Peddle kept it when he sold that operation to Arriva. They even turned it out on a school run to my school at least once, much to the confusion of the passengers who'd never seen a rear-entrance lowbridge bus before.

 

[lisbon_road]

1 minute ago, quicksilver said:

In the early 2000s PAX466F used to belong to MK Metro in Milton Keynes but Julian Peddle kept it when he sold that operation to Arriva. They even turned it out on a school run to my school at least once, much to the confusion of the passengers who'd never seen a rear-entrance lowbridge bus before.

 

That is such a good looking vehicle.  The styling is balanced and proportioned.  So much better than the St Helens front in my opinion and also better than the ungainly (however fine a vehicle) Southampton bus up the thread.  Many thanks for sharing.  

[Inspector Morose]

1 hour ago, lisbon_road said:

That is such a good looking vehicle.  The styling is balanced and proportioned.  So much better than the St Helens front in my opinion and also better than the ungainly (however fine a vehicle) Southampton bus up the thread.  Many thanks for sharing.  

Those Southampton machines had a bit of a back story to them. Park Royal (who built the body) had bet the house on the AEC Bridgemaster being a success, similar to the Bristol Lodakka. As we now know, it sold in small numbers, and Park Royal were left with a healthy supply of Bridgemaster body parts. How to get rid of them? Just use them to build bodies for the next customer. The problem was that the bits to be used were not really the right size for the body to be built, leading to a very top heavy design whose window spacing was so wrong as to need a small extra window to make up for the shortfall in length. I can only assume, as they were built using leftover bits, Southampton got them cheap.

Massey managed never to make a bad looking bus body (in my opinion, anyway). Even their Atlantean body embraced the boxiness of the design of first-generation rear-engined buses in a way that others failed to do. Their Southend rebodies were truly stylish looking machines and, unlike many other coachbuilders, they were built to last, too.

[catsinthewelder]

[lisbon_road]

Today's random bus photo.  This is a former Thamesdown (Swindon) ECW bodied Fleetline in use as an open topper in Malta.  I think they've gone now, but they ran on Malta for a few years.

Not a bad looking vehicle really, though the livery is a bit of a mess.  Fleetlines always seemed to have a good low floor too.  

[500tops]

TFL are selling off their final.5 Routemasters 😢

[Remspoor]

13 hours ago, 500tops said:

TFL are selling off their final.5 Routemasters 😢

There was a post  about that earlier. The video I found was from the auctioneers. They gave nothing about the history.

I suppose they will end up butchered as food truck/bar/wedding venue. I wonder if I rode the ex Reading Mainline ones. When they were in service I would let the OMO buses pass and wait for the RM

[Inspector Morose]

[worldofceri]

2 hours ago, Inspector Morose said:

Does the Black Prince of bus fame have owt to do with the Black Prince of narrowboat hire fame?

* Library photo.