From the Editor

This past week has been very busy for me and I have had to pend some contribution until the next issue.

It is the season for events which is reflected in this issue.

The big event of the past few days has been the launch of TT River Rapids and their new buses in a smart livery.

In this issue

Gloucestershire Vintage and Country Extravaganza

 The Greatest Gathering, Derby

Belgium, France and Germany by Andy Millwood

Grahame Wareham with O&CBP Issue 359 

Midland Interlude by Keith Briant

The Arriva X5 history by Tony Bungay

Branded for action by Harry Jones

Buses in the Landscape

Fleet News & Developments

 

Gloucestershire Vintage and Country Extravaganza August 2025
from Andrew Simmonds

https://www.glosvintageextravaganza.co.uk/

     
     
     
     
       
     
     
     
       

 The Greatest Gathering, Derby. 1-3 August 2025 by Andrew Webb

https://www.thegreatestgathering.co.uk/

The Greatest Gathering, Derby. 1-3 August 2025.

Litchurch Lane railway works in Derby hosted "The Greatest Gathering" between 1 and 3 August.  Staged to mark the 200^th anniversary of railways it was billed as the largest every railway open day and lived up to expectations with over 100 units and locos present from across the rail industry.  With parking near the site very restricted the 12000 daily visitors were encouraged to travel sustainably.  To support this a frequent service of heritage buses linked the site with Derby city centre and railway station. 

Buses from the capital were well represented.  Routemaster RM406 has spent time in Ireland but now returned to British shores. The London Bus Company is in common ownership with the Epping Ongar Railway and sent three vehicles.

Bristol buses were well represented in the run out. 

Bristol RE TDL564K was delivered new to Southern Vectis and spent its first 40 years on the Isle of Wight. 
Since then it has passed through several owners but is now with Midland Vectis, an operator of heritage buses in Nottingham. 

The Bristol VR had a long production run and was the standard double decker for many NBC fleets.  Wilts and Dorset were one of the last operators of the type, refurbishing many to extend their operating lives. 

The company's livery upon privatisation is carried by KRU855W. 

VVV952W meanwhile looks smart in NBC Green with United Counties fleet names. 

The VR was replaced by the Olympian which went on to be the world's best selling double decker (to date). 
EEH902Y carries the Mercian branding used by Midland Red.

Not all NBC companies used the VR and Olympian.  UHA225H is an Alexander bodied Fleetline used by Midland Red. 

Derby was once the home of municipal operator Derby City Transport.  Whilst the fleet was not represented in the line up neighbouring municipal Burton Corporation was remembered with two vehicles. 

Delivered in 1964, TFA987 is a Massey bodied Daimler CCG5. 

Only 4 years younger is MFA703G, a Daimler Fleetline built in 1969 with Willowbrook single deck bodywork. 

RRM148M is a unique Leyland National, built with a flat floor through out the saloon. 

It was designed to serve longer distance commuter routes and fitted with coach seats.  It remained unique after a tour of operators wearing this demonstrator livery.

Wearing strikingly similar liveries despite service lives in different parts of the country. 

DXI 3370 is a Leyland Tiger with Alexander N-type bodywork, a type most popular with Ulsterbus. 

TMS 405X is an Alexander Y Type bodied Leyland Leopard,
new to Alexander Midland but typical of the single deck buses delivered across the Scottish Bus Group. 

Arriva is a key operator in Derby so this Dart was mistaken by many for a regular service bus. 
It is in fact a preserved example originally delivered to the company's now abandoned operation in Guildford. 

Finally, amongst the railway exhibits was Pacer 142013, one of a class built using Leyland National parts on a 4 wheel chassis.
 Widely derided by passengers and media alike they enjoyed a long service life and this one is now preserved in the Greater Manchester PTE livery.

Belgium, France and Germany by Andy Millwood

A few pictures of trams and a row of buses in Strasbourg France on my holiday. I will be sending one more lot from here and some from Germany and Belgium.

     
More buses in Strasbourg France.

     
     
The trams were taken in Frankfurt Germany

 
Buses in Frankfurt Singen  and Baden Baden

     
These buses were taken in Leuven Belgium and the red and white bus outside Brussels midi station. 

Grahame Wareham with O&CBP Issue 359 

L359 MWL993  1948 AEC Regent III with NCB L27/26R low-bridge body, renumbered L135 in 1952. Withdrawn January 1963 and sold to TPE (dealer) Macclesfield in February 1963. It passed, like its sister L134, to Smith Nottingham in February 1963. 

     

359 CFC359C  1965 AEC Renown 3B3RA with Park Royal H37/28F low-height forward entrance body. 359 was allocated to Oxford depot from new firstly appearing on Botley Road City routes and then as a country area bus.It was converted to OMO in 1970 and was reallocated to Witney depot in 1975. 359 was withdrawn in August 1976 and was sold to Paul Sykes Organisation (dealer), Wakefield Road, Barnsley and immediately passed to A.Barraclough (dealer), Carlton, Barnsley for scrap the same month.  

   
     

359 R9OXF (OE62ZRV) 2013 Volvo B5LH / Wright Eclipse Gemini 2 low height H45/27F body. These were hybrid technology vehicles using battery power, when available, to move the vehicle from a standing start in first gear to then automatically restart the diesel engine to attain normal road speeds. The system worked well initially but the ongoing maintenance costs were high as the buses aged with the gearbox suffering expensive repairs by the Volvo dealers. 359 was always a City bus initially operation on City 2 and 5 routes and later migrating to 15 & 35 routes. 359, like 354-358, never received a repaint and was withdrawn in 2024 as part of the electric bus cascade plan. The plan was for another Go-Ahead subsidiary to operate these buses until life expiry, probably at least eight more years, and they were to be transferred to Go North West in Manchester as part of the Transport for Manchester fleet enhancement plan. In the end 359 did make it to Manchester but Stagecoach Manchester swapped depots with Go North West and 359 became 13182 in Stagecoach Manchester fleet and has since been repainted in the standard TfM canary yellow scheme. 359 was reregistered to OE62ZRO before leaving Oxford with the R9OXF mark being retained by OBC. 

     

The registration number R9OXF originally adorned  1998 Volvo B10M / Plaxton Excalibur coach 9 and upon its withdrawal was transferred to Dennis Dart SLF / Wright Crusader 409 in November 2003.It was then transferred to 906 a Dennis Trident / Plaxton President registered NK51UCY originally delivered to Go Ahead North East in 2001 lasting with OBC from July 2007 until October 2009.

       

Midland Interlude by Keith Briant

Here is my offering for this week's edition. Apologies for being close to the wire on this occasion! 

I was intending to send you photos from Pwllheli for next week's edition on Saturday 9th, but as it's pouring with rain and I was intending to work in the garden, you may get it later today!  

From 25th to 27th July the Battlefield Line held their annual Rails and Ales event at Market Bosworth which included a free bus service to and from Nuneaton.

     
One of the buses used was former Midland Red (South) 202 (M202 LHP), a Volvo B10M/Alexander PS seen here in Nuneaton bus station.  

Stagecoach Midlands still own similar bus 20215 (N215 TDU) as part of their heritage fleet which has been restored to an immaculate condition at Nuneaton depot, where it was photographed. This took place over 3 years and also formed part of an engineering training programme. Both buses formed part of Stagecoach's investment into the company after it was purchased from Western Travel in November 1993. Note the different seat moquettes on the buses. This is the last such bus remaining in Stagecoach ownership from well over a thousand purchased.  

 
Also used on the Battlefield Line service was former Ulsterbus 370 (DXI 3370) with an Alexander (Belfast) dual purpose seated body.
This was delivered in June 1984 and spent it's entire working life at Coleraine depot.

Irish Transport Heritage record that this was a unique bus in the Ulsterbus fleet as it has a Gardner 6HLXCT engine coupled to a hydracyclic gearbox rather than the normal pneumocyclic type. 35 similar ones with 6HLXB engines joined the Citybus fleet. It has a very sprightly performance and certainly doesn't show it's 42 years of age! 

The other bus used on the shuttle was former Midland Scottish MPE405 (TMS 405X),
a very late model (1982) Leyland Leopard PSU3G/4R with Alexander Y type bodywork.

It was delivered with 53 bus seats and was later converted to 49 dual purpose seats before passing to Highland Scottish in 1986 and eventually entered the Stagecoach fleet when Highland withdrew from Inverness. I missed it at this year's event, but this photo shows it at the similar event in 2018.  

  
Finally, after starting with Stagecoach's first livery, I'll end this week's offering
 with the latest steel blue livery on 36749 (KX62 BLZ).

This is the first and so far, the only repainted bus at Nuneaton depot as is seen here at rest in Nuneaton bus station. Since repainted, it's been spending most of it's time on the various Coventry to Solihull services which are operated from Nuneaton depot. Note the differing fleetnane styles on nearside and offside, presumably to allow space for advertising. I won't express a personal opinion, but suffice to say with Nuneaton depot having now received 40 Yutong E10 and E12s in the 2020 livery, the now superceded livery should still be around for a few years yet!  

As ever, hope I've not been too wordy, but trying to make it more interesting!

The Arriva X5 history by Tony Bungay

In April 1977 London Country closed Tring Garage, and the services and workings there were transferred to Hemel Hempstead and integrated with services there, so the Green Line 706 was merged with the 708. The 301 had the previous year been diverted to double run to and from Hemel Town Centre and the Town Service section of the 302 had become part of the recast Hemel Hempstead 'H' network.

This basically set the pattern of the service along the A41, with the 301 and 708 providing an hourly service between Watford and Aylesbury, giving an half hourly frequency over most points (for a number of years the 2 routes took different roads out of Aylesbury Town Centre).

As this article is a more of a background guide to the X5 rather than a comprehensive history, I felt it was worth adding that somewhere along the line the 302 number must have fallen out of use, but when this was so I don't know off the top of my head. So anybody who wishes to enlighten viewers with additional facts or dare I say corrections!! Please feel free.

1986 was in some respects probably a very traumatic year for London Country, as not only was it required to split itself up into smaller operating companies for the run up to Privatisation, but also had to plan it's network for Deregulation on the 26/10/86.

The new company formed September 1986 in whose area the 301/708 operated was called London Country North West based at Watford. From Deregulation day the 301 was renumbered 501 and extended from Watford to Harrow. A leaflet at the time promoted the service as break through to Harrow. The Green Line 708 partner route was eventually renumbered 768 to avoid confusion with the 758, as at Hemel it continued to London via the M1.

Bus services as has become the norm, were split into commercial and supported. This meant that any service that an operator felt was not commercially viable, could if the local authority felt there was a social need be operated on a subsidised contract via the tendering process. So these services many of which were the evening and Sunday journeys of the main service could be run by a different company to the main operator.

In the case of the 501 London Country North West was successful in their tender for the evening and Sunday journey's. It is important to point out that prior to Deregulation the Watford - Aylesbury Sunday service was an hourly 708 whereas afterwards it became a 2 hourly 501, partnered from Hemel to Aylesbury filling in the gap with commercial 768, the 501 on a Sunday certainly diverted off the A41 at Northchurch to serve Durrants Hill to rejoin the High Street in Berkhamsted via Kings Road, I cannot recall for certain if this happened Monday to Saturday. 

Needless to say this did not last long and by mid 1987 the Sunday 768 journeys were withdrawn. Hertfordshire Council wished for an Hourly Hemel - Aylesbury service to remain, so awarded a short notice contract to Marshalls Coaches who operated the journey as number 502. The unfortunate downside to this was that no timetables were on the Bus Stops if I recall correctly, so any intending passengers would see a coach with at best a 502 board behind the windscreen and perhaps a destination and not really know what it was for!!!!  Let alone knowing if a return ticket issued on an LCNW 501 was valid.

As it was London Country North West had various operating problems including not operating some of their tendered journeys, so eventually their operation on the Sunday 501 ceased and I understand Marshalls then gained the whole Sunday operation for a while.  

By 1990 the 768 itself was withdrawn along with the remaining journey on another Green Line Route the 788. This was tied in to the closing of the outstation at Aston Clinton. Now I will add here my recall of events is rather hazy, so if I am incorrect and other readers know better, then any corrections are welcome.

Going back to Deregulation Day, Hertfordshire County Council sponsored one speeded up journey to and from Watford numbered 508, presumably based on the previous 708 that had been withdrawn.

The changes mentioned above is where I believe London Country North West in replacing the 768 took on the 508 number as a commercial service to maintain the overall half hourly frequency.

In 1990 London Country North West, which had been the only part of the divided London Country to be purchased from the NBC by it's incumbent management, was in turn sold to neighbouring Luton and District. As would be expected a number of changes were made which were principally the appearance of more Hemel Hempstead based vehicles being repainted in the former LCNW Dark Green/Silver Grey colour scheme but now sporting Hemel Bus fleetnames, as was the operating set up of Luton and District, and the introduction of journeys on the 501/508 from the Aylesbury end of the route, being worked by Aylesbury Bus in standard Luton and District Red and Ivory. The services still being worked by Leyland Nationals, both long term by now former London Country examples, but also others bought in from elsewhere. In addition different types of vehicles appeared including Aylesbury based former UCOC Bristol Vrt's  and much newer Dennis Dart/Carlyle vehicles initially purchased for contract service in Watford. Luton and District in their later years started to repaint their vehicles in the same style as the former LCNW area vehicles.

In the mid 1990's the employee owned Luton and District was approached and accepted a bid from one of the groups that had grown out of the privatisation of the NBC, in this case the recently renamed British Bus, whose roots were I understand in Salisbury as Endless Holdings in the very early days. British Bus by this time already owned or in the  same year would own Kentish Bus and Coach, and London and Country, so virtually now owned much of the former London Country area, that had been split in 1986.

The exceptions being around Slough and St Albans/Welwyn Garden City areas roughly, as well as what was now County Bus and Coach based at Harlow.

Quite quickly Luton and District was renamed as LDT the shires and vehicles including brand new ones (which had been thin on the ground for a number of years, other than mainly minibuses). At the same time a new livery of principally half Blue and Yellow with a beige? skirt was adopted, and in a similar way to before different garages carried local names.  Aylesbury Bus becoming Aylesbury and the Vale, Hemel Bus slightly less obvious unless you were local Gade Valley, Both High Wycombe previously Chiltern Bus now Chiltern Rover and Watford previously Watford Bus now Network Watford, sounding to the writers minds like area Bus Tickets!

As stated new vehicles were received and for the Watford - Aylesbury the route, these were long East Lancs bodied Scanias, which I understand were chiefly supplied to British Bus.

The 501/508 number itself was replaced with the number 500 still on a general half hourly frequency Monday - Saturday daytime. The number 501 did not disappear entirely as it remained in use for the hourly Sunday service which I believe by the mid 1990's was operated by fairly new and small Aylesbury independent Red Rose who had successfully tendered for this and in the next few years other services in the Hemel Hempstead/Watford area including providing later evening journeys between Watford/Hemel Hempstead/Berkhamsted and Tring. Indeed I think apart from a spell in the late 1990's when the Sunday 501 was operated by Aylesbury and the Vale, Red Rose has been the operator ever since.

Another feature of the change to the 500 number was the prominent route Branding that was applied to a number of vehicles. The extension of the 501 to Harrow in 1986 did not last long as the route length made operation unreliable, and I have read at one stage the service was split to try and improve things.

Equally a number of places the service passed through regardless of which route number was in use were becoming increasingly congested and being on the A41 it was only getting worse. To this end in the 1990's the construction of the new A41 Dual Carriageway was a much needed improvement, but in the short the construction added to the unreliability.

And as the writer can testify, even with the new road open and in theory now only local traffic on the road, the building of new retail parks more focussed for car users, but needing new traffic light controlled junctions and traffic calming measures put in place by local councils quickly caused journeys to be slowed down. A journey made in 1998 mid afternoon in part due to the things mentioned above arrived in Aylesbury half an hour late. 

At this time British Bus were intending to go on the stock exchange, but in the event were purchase by Cowies, who trading as the more famous Grey Green had bid and were successful  in operating London Buses route 24 in 1987, sporting Silver Grey/ Green colour scheme with an orange stripe rather than famous and iconic Red London Bus Livery. Over the next couple of years it expanded acquiring other London Bus companies as well as outside. This change of ownership did not cause initially any major change, until the announcement that all companies now part of the Cowie's group outside London would be repainted or receive new vehicles in a standard livery of Turquoise with a Cotswold Stone upper front part and thin Yellow just above skirt level line. In addition the many in some cases famous fleetnames were replaced with the large single name of Arriva which carried initially a descriptor in small wording, so for the 500 it was Arriva serving the shires.

This more or less set the pattern for the main service between Watford -  Aylesbury into the 21st Century, the main Monday - Saturday service being half hourly, though the evening service had progressively reduced. Red Rose as stated earlier providing most of the evening journeys but not along the whole route, although it did include a couple of late return journeys to it's Aylesbury operating base, for example from Tring then Rose and Crown about 11.20pm. Certainly by 2004 the last 500 of the day from Aylesbury to Hemel Hempstead was about 18.40!

With the election of the Conservative government in 2010 and it's subsequent austerity measures, even the very late Red Rose return journeys were curtailed, although Hertfordshire continued to fund an evening service within it's area. 

The Scania/East Lancs vehicles were eventually displaced by low floor vehicles in the form of Alexander bodied Dennis Trident and Volvo Double Decker's as well as Plaxton Prestige LDV single decker's. Most of which carried Route Branding.

From this point however later Arriva initiatives such as the up market Sapphire and enhanced MAX brands passed the 500 by, and the service throughout the teens had more and more varied selection of types to be seen working on it. Including indeed right to the last day of the X5, Sapphire branded Enviro 400's. MAX branded Mercedes Citaro, Hemel local service Wright, all of which it goes without saying had prominent branding for other routes!  As well as cascaded VDL and Volvo Wright bodied from Arriva's London operations, and on occasion a small Mercedes Sprinter was seen performing the whole 500 to Watford from Aylesbury!

 

At some point in this time however the 500 gained a frequency increase on Monday to Friday to every 20 minutes. But as is well known in 2020 the tragedy of the Covid pandemic struck and the resultant changes still continue to affect much of the Bus network nationwide to this day.

In the case of the 500, the increased frequency Monday to Friday went back to half hourly and the route was split at Hemel Hempstead, with the 500 remaining as the number on the Aylesbury section and now entirely operated by Aylesbury garage, and the Watford section being renumbered again 508. I understand since then it may well have been renumbered again, possibly 322? But in both instances I believe the journeys from Hemel continued beyond Watford to serve Rickmansworth. Again as I could well have got some of them details incorrect, any amendments are welcome for enhanced accuracy.

Another significant boost, was for the first time in many years an enhanced evening service, probably better then at anytime sine the mid 1990's at least! 

The Arriva the shires operation had become split in more recent years, with Hemel Hempstead coming under the Arriva Southern Counties area based at Maidstone, whereas Aylesbury along with High Wycombe coming under Arriva Midlands at Thurmaston. The Aylesbury garage in particular had been suffering sustained competition on a couple of it's core services, and indeed even before covid had been giving up a number of services locally. By September 2023 it withdrew from it's last Aylesbury local service and transferred the operation of one of it's remaining 4 routes to Milton Keynes. Sadly it looked very much that the writing was on the wall. 

January  2024 saw both Aylesbury and High Wycombe moved from Arriva Midlands to Southern Counties control and at the same time the 500 was renumbered X5, this being nothing to do with speeding up the service as X is usually assumed to mean express! But along with other routes similarly changed to promote connectivity.

Just over 5 months later Arriva announced the proposal to close both Aylesbury and High Wycombe, which was thus duly implemented.

Just over 5 months later Arriva announced the proposal to close both Aylesbury and High Wycombe, which was thus duly implemented.

The X5 surviving as it's operation's returned to it's long term operating base Hemel Hempstead. The frequency still remaining in the daytime Monday to Saturday half hourly.

Unfortunately at times there seems to have been a number of issues affecting reliability, with despite the frequency, there have been times when  2 X5 vehicles have come along a few minutes apart!

In addition on the section between Aylesbury and Tring it has had to contend with a certain amount of competition from Red Eagle working services 61/62. Ironically the former for many years was an Arriva operation to Luton until they withdrew from it in 2017 if I recall correctly, with Red Eagle jumping in to provide a limited replacement.

By early April 2025 Arriva announced they were reducing the frequency of the X5 on Saturday to hourly. About the same time Red Eagle announced they were introducing a 500 service to Hemel Hempstead bypassing Aston Clinton on a 90 minute frequency.

In almost an instant reaction to this Arriva announced they were withdrawing from the X5 citing low patronage as the reason from mid May. At the same time they changed the timetable for the remaining few weeks, changing departure times in Aylesbury from 00 and 30 past the hour to 15 and 45 M-F and 15 Sat. Red Eagle at the same time until they replaced the Arriva service totally, increased their initial frequency from 90 minutes to hourly, with an Aylesbury departure at 15 past the hour M - F!

The writer observed that many of the timetables on the bus stops in Hertfordshire were not changed, but perhaps as Arriva was exiting in only a few weeks and what passengers there were, it was deemed not a priority.

The announcement of the withdrawal of the X5 did create the setting up of a protest group on social media, which in turn caused Aylesbury's local Labour MP to express her concerns on the issue. As it is Red Eagle now provide a basically hourly service between Aylesbury and Hemel Hempstead also serving Aston Clinton which was initially excluded. In addition extra journeys are provided between Berkhamsted and Hemel Hempstead numbered 560. and some faster journeys are numbered X500.

From September 1st the 560 journeys are withdrawn, but according ton Intalink 500 and X500 will be increased to every 30 minutes, whether this is the whole route or not is not stated.

Part 2

VDL SB200/Wright 3816 formally 3075 Aylesbury bound, passes the Anchor pub towards the end of April 2025. For a small place Bourne End does rather well for pubs, with The White Horse next door and The Three Horseshoes on the nearby canal. In addition behind 3816 can just be seen the entrance to The Watermill Hotel.

Enviro 400mmc 6524 Hemel bound approaches The White Horse with the Anchor alongside!
A 100 yards or so further on it will pass the turn for The Three Horseshoes, which delightfully sits beside the Grand Union Canal.
Accessing this pub can be a bit tricky as the lane is narrow and a swing bridge needs to be crossed.
In the latest series of Canal Boat Diaries shown on Yesterday channel for those who are interested,
Robbie is shown opening and closing the swing bridge here!

Although not obvious from the photo, just to the right of 6524 is the Watermill Hotel with the Grand Union Canal and indeed the West Coast Main line very close by here, indeed in 1945 there was a serious Rail Crash in this area. 

Next place along and the largest one between Hemel and Aylesbury is Berkhamsted which joins onto Northchurch. A very historic town which has many historic buildings including a famous Castle. The main road through the centre still displays a good number of shops in contrast to many places these days and a varied number of stalls on market day. Berkhamsted is said to be the place where the Anglo Saxons acceded to William Duke of Normandy following his earlier victory at Hastings in 1066, the castle being constructed afterwards as Berkhamsted was on a strategic route to the Midlands.   With the Canal and Rail Station a short walk away and attractive countryside roundabout it is very affluent. Possibly the same affluence impacts on Bus usage and the decision to axe the X5. 

Enviro 400mmc 6526 in Sapphire livery with Route Branding,
but not for the X5! Passes the Grade 2 listed Old Mill which still features a water wheel.
In a Hemel  bound journey about a fortnight before Arriva withdrew the X5.

VDL SB200/Wright 3758 formally 2681 wearing original Sapphire Livery on an X5 Aylesbury bound journey. passes restored Art Deco building that originally housed the Rex cinema. Closed in the late1980's the building became derelict but was saved from demolition by getting a Grade 2 listing. In the early 21st Century the building had apartments added. The original Foyer was restored and formed part of The Gatsby restaurant seen behind, with an independent Cinema located behind.

If one looks closely traces of the original route branding can be seen, reflecting the vehicles original operation in the North West,
which was still fully on display when used in Hemel Hempstead for some time!  

Having just left it's main Town Centre stop Enviro 400 5462 approaches St Peters Church,
despite the glorious weather the ice cream seller seems to be very quite.

5462 was the last former Sapphire branded vehicle to be repainted and returned to Aylesbury, before the Arriva garage there closed in late July 2024. It's stay at Aylesbury was brief, being moved to Hemel before the closure, it appeared in service on the X5 the Monday after the closure of the garage the previous Saturday.

More to follow. Ed.