The page for enthusiasts in the Oxford Chilterns Area - News from you and news for you - pictures too  ~~~~   The page for enthusiasts in the Oxford Chilterns Area - News from you and news for you - pictures too  ~~~~   The page for enthusiasts in the Oxford Chilterns Area - News from you and news for you - pictures too  

Issue 183
(OBP-398)

Sunday 25th June 2006
next update week ending 8th July 2006

Visit the "OXFORD & CHILTERN BUS PAGE " Archives from October 2002

Visit the "OXFORD BUS PAGE" Archive 1998 - 2002

Please note that any comments made in this news page are those of the Editors' and in no way constitute 
any official points of view from the bus companies mentioned,  or indeed any other official body. 
As a news page we reserve the right to make valid comments as seen from an editorial point of view.

If you wish to be included on a mailing list where I will advise of any mid-week news please let me know
malcolmhc@aol.com

One of the biggest events to take place in Oxford in recent years was the Elton John Concert which took place at the Kassam Stadium, yesterday, Saturday 24th June 2006. Stagecoach in Oxfordshire were awarded the contract to provide Park & Ride facilities to handle the 15,000 or so people who were expected to attend the concert. Full details are reported in this editorial and some 30 buses were used on this event.

Newly refurbished Volvo B10BLEs continue to enter service with Oxford Bus and the new livery is becoming a familiar site on the streets of Oxford.

Work continues on the High Street in the centre of Oxford, where pavements are being re-laid and the kerbing is receiving attention.

The holiday season is getting under way, with the students coming to the end of this academic year. Apart from the regular site of students in black gowns going to and from their examinations, the coach services are all busy with students departing for homes, some very far away whilst others are nearer to hand.

With the academic year coming to a close, two Brookes Tridents have already left for their summer vacation in Devon whilst two more will shortly join them on the coastal 12 service at Torquay.

Whilst I was in Stokenchurch village this morning I was surprised to see what appeared to be a Bedford VAM/Plaxton coach pass through and shortly thereafter a Western Welsh Harrington bodied AEC Reliance.

I then thought to grab my camera and wait for the next bus to turn up and the results are below. I wonder what was going on?

Major news from Stagecoach

The under-mentioned link will take to news of the sale of Stagecoach London, quite a development from this group.

http://www.stagecoachplc.com/scg/media/press/pr2006/2006-06-23/

Elton John and a concert at The Kassam Stadium

As mentioned above last Saturday witnessed a concert by Elton John in front of some 15,000 people and Stagecoach were contracted to provide a Park & Ride service from six sites around the stadium which required over 30 buses to operate.

Details were
 
Location                                                    Nr of buses planned and from which                   
                                                                    from which company
 
Redbridge P&R                                            4 buses from Stagecoach South
 
Seacourt P&R                                             5 buses from Stagecoach South
 
Unipart site                                                5 buses from Stagecoach East
                                                               3 buses from Stagecoach Warwickshire.
 
Headington Hill Campus     Brookes                 5 buses from Stagecoach Warwickshire
 
Horspath Athletics Ground                            3 buses from Stagecoach East
 
Rail Stn/Castle St                                       8 buses from Stagecoach West
                                                              2 buses from Stagecoach Oxfordshire.

Several correspondents were out and about and have sent reports.

Derek Dawson reported ".....managed to get up there but did not do as well as hoped logging 19 visitors as follows: 

Hampshire Bus 16288 / 13640* / 13629* / 13634* / 16293 

Southdown  13646* / 16308 / 16323 / 16324 

* Denotes SWT Livery 

Cheltenham & District  18082 / 18083 

Cheltenham & Gloucester  18437 / 18438 / 18439 plus 18445 / 18446 which were unbranded but suspect from here as all in same 06 reg block 

United Counties  16528 / 16676 

Stagecoach in Oxfordshire noted 18051 / 18131"

Andy Gilmour writes "Redbridge was Volvo Olympians 16288/93/308/24 

Seacourt was SWT Tri-axle Leyland's 13629/34/40/6 and Volvo Olympian 16323; also two inward trips were worked by Brookes Bus Tridents while homeward the 5 South buses were assisted by 2 Oxford buses (one was a Volvo Olympian) 

Didn't get the numbers of all the other vehicles, but East sent mainly L-HNV  and P-EFL Volvo Olympians plus original Megadekka F110NES. West sent Tridents from Gloucester and Cheltenham at least (possibly Swindon too) while Warwickshire sent pink Uni Volvo Olympians alongside some in fleet livery.

Oxford used lots of additional buses including MAN single decks to clear the loads after the event. 

All seemed to run very smoothly apart from the Oxford Parking attendants threatening to ticket all the buses parked outside the Kassam awaiting their return passengers. They had already booked every single car parked on nearby grass verges - and that was a lot of cars !!!  (Oh joy of joy - what a lovely war we have with Parking Attendants. Ed.) 

If anyone does have pictures of my bus for the day (13634) please do let me have a copy."

Dave Rogers writes "....here are a few pictures I took in Oxford this afternoon. Sorry some are not very good due to the strong sun."  (They look fine to me Ed.)

 
The above pictures were taken by Barry Pickett and give a good flavour of the event.

     
Excellent pictures from Dave Rogers and these also show some of the buses in use.

  
Gavin Francis sent these two pictures, one of which is of one of our own Witney deckers working from the Rail Station.

If any further pictures come to hand these will be included on next weeks page. I should also have a definitive list of all buses used by that time.

Gavin Francis visits Bournemouth

Gavin writes "We had a nice day out in Bournemouth and Poole. Took a few pics. The most interesting was this Roadliner East Lancs/Volvo. Looks similar to the Weavaway ones but it has a terrific paint job"

That purple decker from last week

Several readers wrote in about the purple decker pictured above.

Pete Thomas writes "Great to read this week's page as usual.

After a bit of digging I've found out that the purple decker showing registration OLW 3N is former Merseyside PTE (Willlowbrook bodied?) Atlantean 1847 - originally WWM 924W.

I'm afraid I can't shed any light on it's current owner or use though."

Additionally Andrew Webb says "In answer to your question about this bus on your page this week, it appeared at Showbus in 2005.  From my notes I have it recorded as a Willowbrook Atlantean that started life with Merseyside PTE as their 1847.  Went inside it at Showbus and seem to remember reading a notice inside that it was used as a "party bus", taking punters on nightclub tours.  It was certainly fitted out with dual purpose seating, balloons and a sound system."

So there we have it, as ever you always come with the answers. I think this is one of the things that makes this page so popular.

Damory comes unstuck at Didcot

Some fellow enthusiasts were on a day out last Sunday the 18th, when their coach came to grief in our area at Didcot. Woody writes "We had made a trip to the midlands when at Didcot services on the A34 our DAF coach expired. A burst top hose caused the entire contents of the cooling system to be broadcast all over the road and the rear of the coach.

 

Almost eight hours after we first broke down a Wilts & Dorset Optare Excel arrived after being diverted from Andover where it was on rail replacement work. We finally departed eight hours and six minutes after the breakdown."


3613-HF03HJY Didcot 180606

Hemel Hempsted Running Day

I received some excellent picture from Colin Cooke of buses working at the above running day, held today 25th June 2006. They show what an excellent day those who were unable to attend missed. Colin writes saying "Hemel Hempstead hosted a good selection of LT types which used to operate in this 'new' Town of the late 1960's ! with the Bus Station remaining unchanged from those days. Not the most exciting of venues but it worked well throughout the event with a good flow of buses operating routes not seen on blinds for many years..........

 

I also caught the Sunday only Red Rose operated Ramblers special................"

Model Buses for Sale

I have a new Deal on Models for your readers...

Each of the following models are available in the following price structure: 

1 Model = £13.00

2 Models = £24.00

3 Models = £35.00

4 Models = £41.00 

Postage is £2.70 for the first models and 40p per model after that.

UKBUS 1014 - CREATIVE MASTER OXFORD P&R TRIDENT

UKBUS 5002 - CREATIVE MASTER OXFORD P&R CITARO

 

UKBUS 2012 - CREATIVE MASTER BROOKES BUS TRIDENT

 

CORGI ORIGINAL OMNIBUS OXFORD ESPRESS EXCALIBUR

Once again this offer is only available by emailing me direct at modelsmk@aol.com

More models are for sale on my eBay store, http://www.modelsmk.co.uk/shop

Thanks!    James

Would readers who respond to the above please quote this site when doing so.


Again my thanks to all my contributors, both old and new.

Malcolm Crowe - Sunday 25th June 2006

Visit the "OXFORD & CHILTERN BUS PAGE " Archives from October 2002 to date

News of the local companies – 25th June 2006

A rest from Arriva this week after good coverage over the past few weeks. However one item of interest comes from Mike Chadwick, a fellow resident of Stokenchurch who writes "Present this week, or at least Mon (317) and Wed (305) was K411FHJ. Keeping track of these short-term movements would be so much easier with an in-depot contact!"


Gavin Francis sent this nice picture of a new VDL bus with Arriva.
The interest is that it is in a batch which follow on from the Park & Ride VDLs which work at High Wycombe.

My correspondent CurlyC2 has been busy taking notes on various OBC workings.

On the 20th June he noted that Citaro 835 was on 400 road with Trident 1092 on 15 road.

On the 21st June he reports that Volvo B10B 611 and red Trident 104 were both on 400 road.

The 22nd saw Volvo B10B 609 on 15 road, advert covered 601 on 35 to Didcot and Volvo B10B 637 on 5 road.

On the 24th he adds that red Tridents 102 and 105 were on 400 road and that Volvo B10B 639 and red Trident 105 were both on 5 road. 

Additionally Curly C has noted that Volvo B10B 620 is repainted in Oxford Red livery with an advertisement.


I liked this picture of Trident 107 in the latest Park & Ride livery alongside a refurbished Volvo B10BLE.
Both buses were delivered around the same time and both have now received new liveries.
Picture by Chris Maxfield.


We are somewhat confused by the destination on this bus. It is loading for Barton on the 8
and we think the driver forgot to change the front blinds. The side blinds were correct for the 8.
Picture by Chris Maxfield.

 
Volvo B10BLE 804 has now returned from refurbishment and oddly has limited branding on its rear.


Some weeks ago we mentioned that Volvo 818 had illogical branding on the rear talking about Cowley when it works to Wood Farm.
This matter is now corrected and it looks fine again.
Pictures by Chris Maxfield.

You can view the latest happenings to the fleet at the following link - http://www.oxfordbus.co.uk/company4.shtml


For the first time almost since the move to the new garage a Volvo B10B has been repainted.
639 is seen ion this picture by Gavin Francis at Oxford Rail Station and how good it looks.
Unusually it is on a 5 road working, this route normally being served by later Volvo B10BLEs.


Citaro 828 appears on a short working to Castle Street, buses on the X3 normally terminating at the rail station.
Picture by Gavin Francis.


Karl Oakley took this picture of ex OBC 602 now with Damory and seen here at Blandford Forum.

   
Anthony Poulton took these pictures of the Solent Blue Line fleet of ex OBC Paladins.

Anthony writes "Thought you might like this picture of the above B10B (621) that I had the pleasure of driving this week on something a little out of the norm; we were (very!) short of mini-buses and thus 621 was used on Hythe local routes 36/37 which have some rather tight roads and bad parking to say the least!! Good fun though. 621 is seen here in Hythe Ferry yard with my passengers all looking rather amused by my photo efforts!! 

Also, has anyone sent you pics of K122 BUD in it's temporary "Solent Shuttle" livery yet? It has received this pending more permanent vehicles being sourced. Also attached is a shot of several of the B10B's lined up waiting to go out at Barton Park with a couple of their Alexander bodied cousins. 

Regards, Ant

http://poultygscsblphotos.fotopic.net/

http://poultygscwdphotos.fotopic.net/

http://autos.groups.yahoo.com/group/scrappydoo_2000/

Another good weekend for our team prompted me to use this picture from Chris Maxfield taken in Victoria last week.


You need to look closely at the registration of this coach which give the game away. Now working for Birmingham Coach Company
This Volvo B120M started out in life on the Oxford Airports services and was fleet number 12, R12OXF.
It was on a 412 working last Friday at Victoria when I managed a picture in the arrivals area.

Red Rose

Operating the Sunday only Red Rose operated Ramblers special this picture by Colin Cooke shows of the new Darts which recently entered service. It was one of these which operated to Oxford recently.

RH Transport - Oxford Yarnton

Following the introduction into service last week of the Solos for the 600 route some of you sent pictures for the page of these buses in service.


"BPZ" is seen at Thornhill in this picture by Gavin Francis.


"BPY" on the same service, this picture from Huw.


Again "BPY" on stand at Thornhill with picture from Huw.

Correspondents are asking what the frequency of the service is, since the timetable states "every 20 minutes" but the actual service appears to be very 40 minutes using only one bus?

Chris Maxfield was busy with his camera last week and sent a number of interesting pictures.


Once branded for the 5A/%B services Dart 33822 now works a variety of routes and is seen here in Florence Park on
the recently acquired 16 route. Picture by Chris Maxfield.


Seen in the Cowley area last week, Solo 47315 is working the short Greater Leys-Cowley service 12A.
Picture by Chris Maxfield.


The early morning sun shines down on 22941 now sporting a side advert for The Oxford Castle complex. This is my picture.

Ex Oxford registered Darts.


This bus worked for Docklands and although registered in Oxford never worked in Oxford. Picture by Terry Wong.


This was the last Dart delivered to Thames Transit and is now in Devon. picture by Woody.


This Dart is a sister to the one pictured above on the 16. The batch were widely dispersed from Oxford and 33824 is now in Exeter.
The use of very large fleet numbers is noteworthy and much easier to see. Picture by Ian Kirby.

Chipping Norton out station

 
Seemingly the old depot is due for demolition to make way for housing. However three buses are out stationed at Chippy for the services like the 20 to Oxford.

Brookes buses by the sea.


As mentioned before two Tridents, 18054 and 18055 are already in Devon for their summer holidays.
This picture from Dave Godley shows the two in Paignton bus station last week.


Chris Maxfield took this shot of Neoplan 50107 turning out of Speedwell St last week. It still looks good after two years in service and
over 400,000 kms on the clock.


Sister coach 50108 shares the pits at Sammy's in London with later Neoplan 50145 with Yorkshire Traction fleet number. Chris Maxfield.


Show coach and winner from Duxford Showbus last year, 50124 is seen turning to the Lewknor stop last week, picture Chris Maxfield.
The "branding" from the show is still present in the nearside front window.

Yorkshire Traction coaches are still regular performers on Megabus services to London.


Number 4 works the M12 from Yorkshire and it is seen arriving in London in this picture from Chris Maxfield.

Stratford Blue

Chris Maxfield was really busy last week and sent this picture of the Enviro on the X50 in Chipping Norton.

 



One of the new Scanias seen negotiating the very narrow road through Littlemore last week on service 103.

Terravision


A new coach has appeared on the Victoria - Stansted service. It is fine example of a 6 wheel Scania/Irizar.

Worth's of Enstone

 
Chris Maxfield visited Worths and took some nice pictures.
The Volvo coach L151HUD is ex Oxford Express.

PHOTO CORNER
If you have a digital camera and wish to submit photos for this page please send them to the me at 
malcolmhc@aol.com


Mentioned in the latest Buses magazine this coach is used for the Scotland Rugby Team and was seen last week in The Oxpens Coach Park in Oxford.

HISTORY IN PICTURES AND WORDS
If you have any pictures or historical memories and wish to submit them for this page please send them to the me at 
malcolmhc@aol.com

Alder Valley goes topless.

Peter Edgar has sent some interesting pictures and tables relating to the open top services operated by Alder Valley some 20 years ago.

 

Peter also included some shots of one of the buses involved taken recently at Windsor.

 

Coming events

Running Day as advised by Peter Cartwright, Running Day Organiser  Amersham & District Motorbus Society 

Sunday 1 October 2006 - the 18th Running Day at Amersham.

As route 724 is 40 years old this year, apart from the feeders, I want to schedule a service between Watford and High Wycombe via Amersham - the original route south of Watford. This will be 29 years to the day since MA Garage took over duties from HE - High Wycombe Garage which closed the previous day, 30 September 1977.

This year should see the brand new bus station at High Wycombe open by this date and this would be the ideal place to terminate. More on this Running Day in due course.

It is hoped to celebrate 40 years since RMLs took over route 363 Totteridge - Holtspur in February 1966. Weather permitting it is hoped to have RML/RMLs running over the route on Sunday 19 February. Likewise a month later to run over the full length of Route 347 Hemel - Uxbridge which received RMLs on 20 March 1966. Anyone else interested in joining us?

Please feel free to contact me by phone 01494 437750 or by e-mail - Peter_Cartwright@wycombe.gov.uk - or post at 54 Guinions Road, HIGH WYCOMBE, HP13 7NX. 

If you wish to be included on a mailing list where I will advise of any mid week news & when each News Page is posted
please let me know on malcolmhc@aol.com

Visit the "OXFORD BUS PAGE" Archive 1998 - 2002

Visit the "OXFORD & CHILTERN BUS PAGE " Archives from October 2002 to date

Links

These are three most interesting sites which I do recommend

Bus Zone Logo (2421 bytes)

Mike Penn's photo page with much from Bedfordshire, Hertfordshire as well as Buckinghamshire

Chris Lowe's Photo page - mainly North West UK

The Oxford Bus Museum


Ray Jackson Art

A web site which has paintings of buses.
Nice present for a Christmas or Birthday wish list !!

http://www.rayjacksonart.co.uk/index.htm
 

 


Stagecoach Handbook for 2006
from British Bus Publishing

http://www.britishbuspublishing.co.uk/

The latest handbook from BBF was on sale at Cobham and was the ever popular Stagecoach edition now in its 13th year.
It includes all the latest takeovers and as ever is invaluable
in keeping track of this now very large fleet.

As in earlier editions it includes the 2006 new bus orders.

Links

Bus Services in Buckinghamshire

Bus services in Oxfordshire

Where are the Chilterns?

Visit this informative site through the link below.

back to home page
Map showing the Chilterns Hills beginning in Oxfordshire in the Thames Valley and stretching north-east through Buckinghamshire and Bedfordshire to Hitchin in Hertfordshire. The highest points are over 250m. There are various water courses running from the Chilterns to the South East.

Visit the "OXFORD BUS PAGE" Archive 1998 - 2002

Visit the "OXFORD & CHILTERN BUS PAGE " Archives from October 2002