Classic Buses

Lots of Bus Books, Models and DVDs for sale here;

with many other road, rail and air transport items.

"Greenway Ferry & Pleasure Cruises are pleased to announce the arrival of a 1947 Vintage Leyland PS1/1 Barnaby C33F bus to The English Riviera running a regular service to Greenway on the 'Agatha Christie Tour'. This fabulous piece of recently restored British history joins the Greenway Ferry Company adding to the rapidly growing historical fleet and complimenting perfectly the existing services to Greenway that are already provided by taking passengers from Torquay, Brixham Dartmouth, Dittisham and Totnes to Greenway House and Gardens. Helen Meacock Operations Manager said 'This special little bus provides a nostalgic and authentic jiggle, jerk and creaky ride along part of the Agatha Christie Mile before arriving at the wonderful home of Agatha Christie now giving a new option other than ferry adding to the era of real travel'.

"The vintage bus coupled with Heritage Ship Fairmile creates a fantastic heritage link, promoting green transport which is both the National Trust and our companies' common goal in a fun and historical way. In addition to the new service from Torquay and Brixham Park and Ride to Greenway, our company for the first time will add a unique Heritage link between the National Trust Properties of Greenway and Coleton Fishacre which will be available to visitors."

"The new service will commence on Saturday 26th June with a complimentary tour day to welcome the bus to the English Riviera - tickets are available free of charge by calling 01803 882811. This will be followed by standard operations Wednesday through to Sunday departing at 10.00am & 2pm from Belgrave Road Torquay and 10.10am & 2.10pm from Cary Parade Torquay. Tickets will be available onboard or from Princess Pier Torquay or the Torquay Tourist Information Centre at Vaughn Parade. Services from Brixham Park and Ride will operate on the same days at 11.15am, 11.45am, 3.15pm, 3.45pm and cross property services between Coleton Fishacre and Greenway Wed, Sat and Sun at 12.50pm and 4.20pm giving visitors the opportunity to see two properties in one day the Greenway."

"Greenway Ferry & Pleasure Cruises is the English Rivera's largest passenger boat operator with 10 passenger vessels operating 19 different cruises and excursions in Torbay and the River Dart carrying in excess of 300,000 passengers per year."

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My old colleague Peter Skerry, who is now retired to Malta (lucky chap), was visiting the Danish Resistance Museum in Copenhagen recently, and saw a picture of a Red Cross halfcab that interested him. He photographed the photograph (attached). The caption says "White buses with prisoners freed from the KZ-camps pass Odense on their way to Sweden, April 17 1945".

When they say "White buses", they don't mean the US manufacturer White, do they? Do you have any suggestions? I don't recognise the radiator shape. Maybe it's not British, but it does look as if it might be. As usual, you can Email me here with your thoughts.

John Wakefield wondered if it might be a DAB (Dansk Automobil Byggeri A/S). By the way, the Danes DID drive on the right at that time!

Allan Haynes says that he has seen pictures of Scania-Vabis vehicles with radiators like that, and he feels the bodywork has some slightly "un-English" features, so it may be a local product. He later called to say he'd seen a picture of an FN truck from Belgium, also with a similar radiator.

Claus Hansen from Denmark says "The 'white buses' were a rescue-convoy formed by Danish and Swedish buses and coaches, in order to pick up mainly Danish prisoners from German KZ-camps during the beginning of May 1945. The bus in this picture is probably a Leyland Tiger from a batch that was sold to Stockholm in the 1930s". Thanks Claus - now we know why they are described as "white", although I don't think the vehicle is a Leyland.

But then again.... There is an all-Leyland Tiger TS1 in the Stockholm Transport Museum, which was new to Stockholm Tramways in 1928, and its Leyland body is pretty well identical to the one in the picture above. In fact, the body style on the 'white bus' is a pretty standard Leyland product of the period (around 1928-31) as sold to Ribble and many others. So is this a Leyland body? And, in that case, is it also a Leyland chassis? Maybe the radiator came from something else, or maybe the body was transferred to another chassis.

Andrew Colebourne has been very busy! He provides a link to an image of the Stockholm Museum Leyland Tiger here, and has found that the museum has a photo archive here (type "Leyland" in the box and see what comes up! "Nasta" apparently means "next".). He also points out that Scania-Vabis radiators of the period have angled lower corners, rather than the rounded corners on the 'white bus' (for example, see this one); but he suggests that we might like to consider Volvo, and offers this specimen as an example. All very useful material - thanks Andrew.

That dilapidated bus body rotting near the coast in Norfolk was never satisfactorily identified, so I've given up.

Welcome to the home of classic buses and coaches on the net. I'm Dick Gilbert. This site is all about nostalgia for British passenger transport vehicles from the 1920s to the 1960s, with an unashamed bias towards 'halfcabs'.

Each page has a different colour scheme which is supposed to be reminiscent of some bus or coach company from the era, and this one is meant to represent Western / Southern National. As a result of this arrangement, some of the pages are hard to read, and some will scramble your brain. I'm sure you'll manage.

My interest in British buses began in the late 1950s and early 1960s, and the buses and coaches that were around then are all 'classics' now. It was an interesting period, when there were still pre-war and wartime 'utility' machines about (although mostly on the point of retirement), and a large number of halfcab vehicles that had been built immediately after the war. At the same time, new products like the Leyland Atlantean, AEC Regent V, and a host of 'modern' coach designs (Plaxton Panorama, Harrington Cavalier, Weymann Fanfare etc.) were appearing. It was a transitional period when vehicles from the 1930s, 40s, 50s and 60s could all be seen in use at the same time.

Having been born in south London, London Transport was the first operator that I lived with, then we moved to Sussex and I grew up with Southdown, Maidstone & District, East Kent, and the municipal fleets of Eastbourne and Brighton, as well as the large number of excursion coaches that used to visit the south coast every summer.

In the early 1960s I used to make trips to London to visit Victoria Coach Station, or see the last of the London Transport trolleybuses, or the last halfcab single deckers (TDs). Unfortunately, although I saw what I went to see, most of the photographs I took are not particularly brilliant, or have been lost. However I do have some black & white pictures taken at Victoria Coach Station, London, and in Sussex between 1960 and 1962 which are barely reasonable, and some of them appear around this site. Here's one;

This was taken at 'The Crumbles', Eastbourne, in the summer of 1962, where Claude Lane was running the narrow gauge Eastbourne Tramway (now moved to Seaton, Devon). He had used this ex Lincolnshire Road Car Leyland KPZ01 Cub as a lorry in the past, and it was left to rot outside his depot. New in May 1937 it was FW 8855, originally fleet number LC502, one of thirty delivered that year with Brush B20F bodies. I guess someone might rescue it these days.

I attend a few rallies around the country, and like to see the old machines that people have restored. Reviews and/or pictures of some of the shows I attend appear on the pages here, although it can take a while before I get round to it. The whole idea of the site is to entertain the sad souls (like me !) who have a soft spot for old PSVs, and also be a sorting office for information on the subject.

It's all for fun, so relax and have a wistful rummage through the scrapbook. If you weren't around in the 1960s (and they say that, if you were, you won't remember it) then these pages might provide an insight into the variety of glamorous machines that could be seen on British streets at the time.

Incidentally, this site has no connection whatsoever with Classic Bus magazine, but I thoroughly, absolutely, unreservedly and totally recommend it to anyone with an interest in the subject. It is published 6 times a year, and regular readers all wish it was 12 times a year. Folk in the UK should be able to order it through their newsagents. Those offshore should contact Classic Bus Publishing Ltd., 18 Brunstane Road, Edinburgh, EH15 2QJ, Scotland. When it falls on your doorstep it's like when the delivery guy has brought you a really good pizza.

Please keep in touch, as changes are taking place here all the time, and let me know if you spot a mistake somewhere - I do try to keep things pretty accurate. I know that there are some real boffins out there, and I need you to tell me when something is inaccurate. So welcome to the site, browse around and make yourself at home.

GUIDE TO SITE CONTENTS

SURVIVING BRITISH SINGLE-DECK HALFCABS

Because of my particular interest in this area, I have compiled a list of all known classic British single-deck halfcab buses and coaches that I believe survive in the UK and Ireland. Surprisingly there are over 600, and the list is constantly updated. You can find it HERE, and I invite any passing enthusiast to point out any mistakes or updates (and they do !).

SURVIVING DOUBLE-DECKERS CONVERTED TO SINGLE DECK SERVICE VEHICLES

British double deckers that have been converted to tow-trucks, recovery vehicles, lorries and all sorts of other odd things. I've found quite a few surviving examples, but maybe you know of others. Please let me know.

SURVIVING SINGLE-DECK, AND DOUBLE-DECK HALFCABS & TROLLEYBUSES ON EXPORTED CHASSIS

British bus chassis were exported all over the world fromfrom the 1930s to 1970s, but how many survived and where are they now? The Classic Buses Website tries to find all the halfcabs and trolleybuses across the planet. Can you add to the list?

BUS RALLIES AND SHOWS

Reports of visits (by me and others) to bus rallies and transport shows, with details of vehicles present. Hopelessly biased opinions can be expected, but I hope pictures of the visiting buses make up for this. The page is usually way out of date, but does get sporadic updates, and I hope it provides some enjoyment for those who cannot visit these events.

EVENTS DIARY

The most comprehensive anywhere! Listing the many events and rallies that are scheduled each year. Make a note in your diary of a show near you, or send me details of one that I've missed.

MAIL AND NEWS PAGE

A collection of contributions from readers on all sorts of bus subjects. Photos and items come in all the time, so call in every so often to see what's going on - or send something yourself !

VINTAGE BUS TICKETS

My (sad) little page about bus tickets stirred up a surprising amount of interest. It show samples from tickets I collected all over England and Scotland from 1958 to 1962 (or thereabouts).

THE BRITISH BUS PRESERVATION GROUP

This site is proud to have been chosen to host the B.B.P.G. homepage. Please visit their page and see what valuable work they do in saving classic buses from the scrapman's torch - and join the Group to help them in their never-ending task.

AUSTRALIAN BUS PAGES

I've been amazed how much interest there is in classic British-built buses in Australia, and there are a lot of survivors too. So I've created several pages on the subject, using the many contributions I receive from kind enthusiasts over there. Pay a visit and see what's going on in the colonies.

NEW ZEALAND PAGES

Several correspondents have sent me pictures and news about British buses in New Zealand, so here's a place to display them.

SRI LANKAN TRANSPORT

A page about a visit by me to Sri Lanka in October 2003, with details of the buses, trains and other modes of transport that I saw there.

TRANSPORT IN INDIA

Three pages of transport pictures taken during a trip to India in October 2006.

FREE SMALL ADVERTISEMENTS

Need parts for your bus? Trying to find out what happened to that old Daimler ? Got an AEC Regal radiator grille for sale ? Trying to find a good home for your Atlantean ? Then put a free entry in the Classic Buses Small-ads Page. All comers are welcome, so visit the page, take a look and see if you can solve somebody's problems - maybe your own!

THE LINKS SECTION

Links to Classic British Bus websites only - no Patagonian trolleybuses here, and definitely nothing that mentions words like Volvo or Van Hool. But if you want to visit folk who know about Crossleys and crash gearboxes, browse through the Classic Buses Links Page.

THE CLASSIC IRISH BUSES WEBSITE

I'm delighted to host Shane Conway's Classic Irish Buses Website. Contains comprehensive cover of buses in Ireland (old and new) and pictures from visits to many other areas as well. A vast amount of information and a huge picture resource - well worth a visit.

This section is a wistful look back at some wonderful classes of vehicle that could once be seen gracing the streets of Britain (and sometimes elsewhere). Here is the present selection;