From the Editor

My apologies for the delay in posting this issue, my wife has not been well.

Also a sad week with the disaster at Bicester Motion.

In this issue

We remember Ruby

David Gray was at Rydabus - IOW

London update from Gavin Francis

Grahame Wareham's memories of COMS 348

Nuneaton area report from Keith Briant

Trevor Wilson reports from Mull

Pictureview of Heathrow by Jack Cooper

Milton Keynes area by Thomas Walker-Werth

Operator Developments

London operations

Gary Seamarks from the Norfolk Coast

Tony Bungay from the North East

Jonathan Radley remembers Ruby

Much loved 1968 Bristol RELH / ECW coach, OAX 9F (known as ‘Ruby’) was destroyed by the devastating fire at Bicester Motion on Thursday 15 May. Owner Jonathan Radley, would like to thank all those who have been in touch to express their kind thoughts. Tragically, two firefighters, Jennie Logan (30) & Martyn Sadler (38); plus Bicester businessman David Chester (57) lost their lives in the horrific events that day. Our thoughts must be with the families, friends and colleagues of these brave people who paid the ultimate sacrifice doing their job.

Photos from  Gavin Francis in Stokenchurch

   

Photos from James Freeman

Sad news from last night fire at bicester that oax9f has gone up in flames.

     
   

We will remember the Lady - RUBY 

David Gray was at Rydabus in May 2025

Rydabus Website

I have just sent some photos from the Rydabus event which I attended yesterday. The usual superbly organized event with a nice range of buses in service. 

The services operated to East Cowes, Newport, Brading Roman Villa, Quarr Abbey and the Wroxall Donkey Sanctuary as well as local services including open top services to Seaview.

Participants

     
     
     

A wonderful variety of buses and coaches on The Isle of Wight. 

London update 14^th May 2025

 

Today in London I started at the northern end of The Northern Line at Edgware Station. This is a very busy area with many routes passing through it.  Amongst them is Rte 292 from Borehamwood to Colindale currently operated by Metroline however on 6^th December it will change operators not to one of the other big London groups but to Uno so I needed to get pictures in its current form.

   
Today the route was operated entirely by VWH class buses in this case 2049, 2055 and 2047.

Uno already have one route in the area being their own 614 operated by Enviro City 400 253.

The area has become the home of a number of electric bus routes.

       
Route 142 operates a mixture of WDE and BDE class buses in this case 2907 and 2793, Route 204 is represented by WDE 2907.
Single deckers are represented by VMSS 2842 on Rte 384 and VMSL 2854 on Rte 251.

I have no idea how many Emirates wraps there are in London I seem to see them everywhere in this case LT 15.

 
From time to time a member of the small VHR class appear and today it was the turn of VHR 45207 on Rte 79
accompanied by VH 45306 showing its new First Bus logos on the same route.

Most of the London companies have specially branded training vehicles but Metroline are using plain red TE 911 

It was then back on the Underground to Liverpool Street.

   
The latest company to start a London to Stansted Airport service is Flibco. They pick up both at Liverpool Street and Stratford.
The coach is owned by Readybus of Slough. The same stop is served by National Express whose coach arrives just as Flibco is leaving.

 I needed to get to Edmonton Green where Rte 144 is changing operator from Arriva to Go-Ahead on 11^th October so jumped on a 149 for an hour long ride there.

     
There was a mixture of buses of the 144 today including DW 484, HV 206, DW 485 and HV 116.

   
Edmonton Green is now the home of 3 New Routemaster operated routes, LT 198 on Rte 149, LT 218 on Rte 349 and LT 581 on Rte 259.

 
Arriva are operating new Electric Streetdecks on Rte 279 including ES 15 and ES 71.

 
As always where there are New Routemasters there are wraps in this LT 466 for Vodaphone and LT 185 for Mullvad VPN.

 
Go-Ahead were out with their training buses, Citaro MEC 22 and E400 E83.

Then I used The Weavor Line and Met Line for the trip back to Amersham and home.

A fascinating article which shows London buses in various areas. Ed 

Grahame Wareham for O&CBP Issue 348 

L348 MWL982  1948 AEC Regent III with NCB L27/26R low-bridge body, renumbered L124 in 1952. Withdrawn in May 1961 and sold to Deacon (dealer) Dorchester. Resold in May 1961 to Dickson, Stoke Mandeville and withdrawn in February 1967 and sold for scrap 

   

348 CFC348C 1965 AEC Renown 3B3RA with Park Royal H38/27F low-height forward entrance body. These and all subsequent AEC Renown's had a six inch longer body at 28ft. and resulted in a slightly longer window in the last side bay. 348 was allocated to Witney depot from new and was the first member of the 1965 batch to be converted to OMO in 1971.Subsequently the conversions were not popular with drivers owing to excessive engine noise preventing the driver from hearing the passengers requests so 348 was transferred to Oxford City routes finally ending its days on Cowley Road until being withdrawn in August 1976. It was the sold to Paul Sykes Organization, Wakefield Road Barnsley but immediately resold to Arthur Barraclough of Carlton for scrap. These buses were almost like new when consigned to their doom! 

     
 

Another trip down memory lane! 

Grahame really recreates the past. Ed. 

Keith Briant reports from the Nuneaton area

3768 (CX58 EUP) a Wright Pulsar bodied VDL SB200 transferred from Arriva Merseyside in 2023.
It was seen on the 158 Nuneaton to Leicester service in Nuneaton bus station.
It's the last vehicle in 'cow horns' livery at Leicester Thurmaston depot. Photographed on 15 May 2025.  

3586 (CX58 EVL) a Tamworth based Enviro 300 seen in Nuneaton bus station on the 65 from Tamworth.
As can seen, it still carries the obsolete Sapphire livery and was transferred from Arriva North East in 2024.
Photographed on 16 May 2025.  

T70 (LJ59 AJX) an Enviro 400 which still retains its former London fleet number with Arriva Midlands' driver training unit.
It carried former Routemaster registration 70 CLT for a while with Arriva London.
That registration appears to have been sold by Arriva as it now carried by a Land Rover.
Photographed along Coventry Road in Hinckley on 6 December 2024.  

Finally one from the past, included for interest.
Wright bodied DAF DE02 4752 (FJ06 ZSX) now scrapped, showing its commemorative Midland Fox livery.
Photographed leaving Nuneaton bus station on 21 April 2021. 

 

The first batch of Yutong E12s for Stagecoach Midlands has entered service at Nuneaton this week.
I managed to photograph 73041 (YK74 PKY) at Nuneaton bus station on its first morning in service, 17 May. 

They're primarily for service 148, Coventry to Leicester via Nuneaton and 73041 was on its first return journey, having reached Leicester for the first time.  So far 73024/7/35/7/8/41/51 are in service with 73052 being used for driver familiarisation.  

This service is operated alongside Arriva Midlands 158, Nuneaton to Leicester via Hinckley under a local authority partnership agreement with coordinated timings. They make quite a contrast with the 2011 and 2013 VDL SB200/Wright Pulsars which are the vehicles most commonly allocated to the 158 by Arriva! 

West Coast Motors on Mull by Trevor Wilson

I was checking bustimes.org for West Coast Motors on Mull.  Some ex Oxford Tubes now there. https://bustimes.org/operators/west-coast-motors/vehicles 

11414	J10 WCM	96	7 May		Van Hool TDX27 Astromega		YJ14 LFF	power sockets, USB-A	Flickr	Edit
11415	J20 WCM	496	8 May		Van Hool TDX27 Astromega		YJ14 LFK	power sockets, USB-A	Flickr	Edit

YJ14LFF ex Oxford Tube 50270

YJ14LFK ex Oxford Tube 50273

Both via Stagecoach Scotland East at Perth. 

Service 96/496 is the Iona route - long single track road with passing places.  96 is the commercial service.  496 is the same route but funded by Argyll Council.  The 96/496 combines with coach tours arranged from Oban by West Coast Motors - Iona at al is very popular, hence these large coaches.

We went to Mull and Iona in 2022 and took this photo of a similar but older vehicle

And my research in 2022 was: Visit to Iona and Mull 
Taken 10.35 on 15th July 2022. 

We passed through Oban in mid July for a holiday to Iona.  On the way there, we stopped over in Oban and got the 0955 ferry Oban to Craignure operated by the Isle of Mull, the larger of the 2 ferries on the route.  It was full and the load included 2 or 3 coaches on an Iona day trip.  

On unloading at Craignure, I was surprised to see Van Hool Astromegas operating.  

West Coast Motors have a depot at Craignure, near the terminal for the ferry to/from Oban, where they have 6 double deckers. 

Van Hool TD927 Astromegas, qty 3, are normally in use on the 37 mile single track road between Craignure and Fionnphort Ferry (for Iona) on the service 96/496 and coach tours to Iona: 

*  10907 M60WCM formerly Megabus 50208 SV59CGK route branded discover Iona, Mull and Staffa
*  11020 M20WCM formerly Megabus 50231 SV10DDK route branded discover Iona, Mull and Staffa
*  11234 M100WCM formerly Megabus 50234 CN61FAJ  

There was a 4th one, 10908 M40WCM formerly Megabus 50227 SV59CGG which arrived about the same time as 10907 and 11020.  

However  10908 suffered a fire in August 2020 on the Edinburgh bypass believed to be en-route to Borders Buses for additional capacity to aid social distancing on school routes and is now shown as withdrawn, registered back to SV59CGG and the DVLA (August 2022) showing M40WCM as SORN.  I guess 11234 is a replacement for 10908.
The whereabouts of 10908 are not known. 

A photo is attached of 11020 M20WCM (I think) in the coach parking bays at the Fionnphort ferry for Iona - the ferry waiting room, slipway and breakwater being 100m further on and to the right and thus obscured from view by the coach.
[11234 M100WCM has different branding.
10907 M60WCM has a slightly more curved blue line along the side below the lower deck windows and is also missing an Emergency Exit sign, upper deck, window above the drive axle.] 

The Astromegas do also visit Tobermory either on service 95/495 or on tours. 

What is the difference between a 96 and 496?  Same route but a 4xx service is an Argyll & Bute council supported service. 

For info the current 96/496 timetable from 22nd March 2022 is:  

                   496FS    96        96     496
Craignure     04.55   08.25  13.30  16.55
Fionnphort   06.10   09.40  14.45  18.10 

                   496FS    496     496     96       96
Fionnphort   06.20   09.20  11.50  15.20  17.45
 Craignure    07.35   10.35  13.05  16.35  19.00  

FS = First Schoolday of the week.  Secondary school pupils travel to Oban and board in Oban for the week's schooling. 

So 11020 would have arrived at 09.40 with the 08.25 service 96 from Craignure. 

We stayed on Iona and the Fionnphort ferry terminal and coach park was visible and I noticed that an Astromegas overnighted at Fionnphort having arrived at 18.10 and departed at 09.20 the following morning. 

Note - there is no departure around 11.00 from Craignure - not to worry as there would usually be one or two coaches departing on one or two of the day trips organised by West Coast Tours who have an office/sales outlet in Oban near the rail station, ferry terminal and bus station.  The day trip tours offered are: 

*  Mull and Iona, 09.55 ferry Oban to Craignure for coach from Craignure.  Returns on 17.10 ferry. Adult £45.00.  Child £22.50.  Ferry fares included.
*  Three Isles Tour - Mull, Iona & Staffa.  09.55 ferry Oban to Craignure, 08.00 ferry on Saturdays.  Returns on 19.25 ferry.  Adult £78.00.  Child £39.00.  Ferry fares included. 

There are a lot of visitors to Iona, hence the large Astromegas reduced the number of coaches require and reduce the chances of passengers being left behind on the regular services.  I think there is also some mixing and matching of passengers between dedicated tour coaches and scheduled service and also coaches between tour use and scheduled service requirements. 

A Mull 24 Hour Island ticket is £18.00 exclusively via the West Coast Motors app. 

West Coast Motors also have a normal size coach, 50 seats, at Craignure. 

What an interesting area to visit. Ed.