ɹnoɯɹɐdsıɹɔ's photostream  

Representing a type which was to become widely used by operators all over the UK in the years after bus deregulation, the GM standard, here with Leyland Atlantean chassis and Park Royal bodywork.

Long established Leicestershire independent G. K. Kinch of Mountsorrel near Loughborough was participating in the free-for-all on the routes between Leicester and Loughborough. This view was taken in the village of Birstall.

If my remembery serves me well this was taken on the last day of a Coast and Peaks Rail Rover ticket where a group of us had assembled in the Leicester area to witness the use of some ex-Crosville Olympians which had been transferred to Midland Red East's new subsidiary, Fairtax. I later found myself riding off to Melton Mowbray on the last ever Bristol VRT before we regrouped to hit the fantastic Brunswick pub by Derby station on the return journey. What fun you could have when you were young, free and single.

The day I discovered oatcakes.

My notes tell me this was the 4th of May, 1991, which was a rare Saturday rest day for me. I made my way to Leek via Chester and the marathon C84 service to Hanley, then in the hands of Midland Red North and being operated by brand new Dennis Dominators. PMT by that time had taken over the last remnants of Crosville and had integrated a number of Crosville vehicles into their homeland operations. Unlike the photos of an earlier visit, recently uploaded, by this time all traces of the National Bus Company had been obliterated from the company's vehicles.

I must have spotted this view as I arrived on this bus, clack-clack VRT no. 648, because looking at the map I hiked it back a fair way from the bus station to catch the bus rounding the corner. In the comments on the last upload in my photostream I championed the cause of the short telephoto lens in bus photography. This is one of the many shots I took with my prime 135mm lens on my Olympus OM10. As a rule (not without exception, of course) I prefer bus photos where the bus roof doesn't break the horizon. There was no danger of that here.

Walking back to the bus station I treated myself to an oatcake lunch from the little shop I'd seen on my way out.

This is the third photo taken on the same day as the previous two as I strolled over the bridge from Runcorn to Widnes, snapping away at what I saw, particularly interested in the "bus wars" that were taking place around then between North Western, Halton Transport, Merseybus and Warrington Borough Transport, all of which were active in Widnes at the time.

Particularly ironic here is that LMB947P, about to do a tour of the roundabout at the bottom of Kingsway to come back and enter St Paul's Road where the Ford Escort is going past, is here in service with with Halton Transport but only a year or two previously had been in use at Runcorn depot with Crosville as ENL947 [I have it in my little green book since I had driven it myself]. So Crosville had sold it to Martins of Middlewich only for Martins to sell it to Crosville's arch-rivals across the river. And the arch-rivals were giving Crosville [and now North Western, who had taken over Runcorn depot] a proper pasting with their former fleet.

Something of a nadir of the history of public transport in Runcorn: the arrival of North Western in the town was followed by the removal of our beloved Bristol VRs and their replacement with a fleet of clapped-out Ribble Nationals. Here one of the elderliest, no. 211 of PTF-L vintage, is seen clattering through Devonshire Square, a favourite haunt of mine for its fetching backdrop of the Runcorn-Widnes bridge and the parish church of All Saints. Classic.

This historic vehicle was the last Leyland National off the production line at Workington it seems. Halton Transport, the former Widnes Corporation, had a way of bagging the first and last of a lot of Leyland models, having had an early National, the very last RELLs for the home market, an early Lynx and later taking the very last Leyland Lynx.

No. 33 was delivered in a reversed cream and red livery with the red between the wheelarches and the windows. It also had coach seats. By the time this photo was taken in 1990 it had reverted to fleet livery and bus seats. It is seen on the final approach to the Runcorn bridge on the Widnes side at West Bank on a road which is now restricted to buses and taxis only.

After service with Halton no, 33 passed to Crosville Wales via Devaway of Bretton near Chester. I believe the vehicle still exists, in a black hole in Yorkshire.