Buses, Trams and Trolleybuses

PRESERVED LONDON TRANSPORT BUSES

Buses on display at the London Bus Museum at Cobham during a rally in 2003 are arranged by age – oldest first.

The BEA coach provides a link to some preserved London Transport buses photographed at various rallies; again arranged roughly by age of vehicle.

The gallery ends with a couple of view of the horse-drawn bus service operated during the summer of 1979 between Baker Street Station and London Zoo in Regents Park.  This was part of LT’s “Omnibus 150” celebrations to commemorate Shillibeer’s first omnibus service in 1829.

OTHER OPERATORS PRESERVED BUSES

Various preserved buses seen at rallies and in museums, beginning with a wonderful West Bromwich Corporation petrol-engined vehicle of 1927.

The 1949 KHCT Regal III was of a type which operated on Route 34 near my childhood home, which I sometimes used to and from secondary school.

Again the photos are ordered by the age of the vehicle, ending with the great design disaster which bankrupted Guy Motors.

PRESERVED COACHES

Most of these preserved coaches are from the 1950s, although the gallery begins with another petrol-engined vehicle from 1931.

The star has to be Scarlet Pimpernel Coaches Leyland Comet of 1950 with the go-faster fin.  How could one not feel part of a new era when bowling around North Devon in this vehicle.

The sequence ends with two designs from 1961 – something subdued from Duple contrasting with more exhuberant styling from Harringtons.

TROLLEYBUSES

Sadly, I never managed to capture photos of trolleybuses in their working heyday, so these are all photos of preserved vehicles.  The gallery begins with the well-known Hastings & District Tramways trolley of 1928 – fitted with a diesel engine to enable the old lady to appear at various comercial vehicle rallies.

Next is a fine Bradford City Transport trolley at the Black Country Living Museum in Dudley.  The remainder of the photos were taken at the East Anglia Transport Museum at Carlton Colville near Lowestoft.  Portsmouth and Ashton-under Lyne trolleybuses are seen running at the museum, with Hastings, London Transport, & Bournemouth buses in the main garage, and a Hellerup vehicle in its own shed.  Also featured are the fine crests of Portsmouth Corporation and Ashton-under-Lyne Council which such boroughs proudly displayed on the public transport vehicles they operated.

TRAMS

Again this is mostly a selection of photos from museums, begining with some from the National Tramway Museum at Crich.  Next are more recent photos of Blackpool and Sheffield trams at the East Anglia Transport Museum, Carlton Colville near Lowestoft.  The EATM series ends with a Manchester Co-operative Society battery electric “Electrocar” bread van of 1935.

The two Wolverhampton trams are at the Black Country Living Museum in Dudley.

Finally some photos of a modern tramway taken on NET in Nottingham.


This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.