From the Editor

Well, I've caught up with the backlog and I trust you will find this issue most interesting.

There are several articles for you to  read and plenty of pictures.

In this issue

Red Rose buses MA61BAO

Camden Town Running Day

Devon & Cornwall with Jack Cooper

Salisbury Interlude from Keith Briant

GRAHAME Wareham looks back to COMS 372

Leighton Buzzard & Tring with Matt Cooper

Hatfield by Kevin Fuller

Reading Runabout event by David Gray

Cheltenham with Robert Homan

Readers Write

Buses in the Landscape from Tony Bungay

Fleet News & Developments

London with Andrew Webb

 

Red Rose Buses MA61BAO by Gavin Francis

 

After many weeks of green livered E1RRT operating the single bus route 275 there was finally a change today (17^th) when MX61BAO appeared.

 

This bus started life with Red Rose.

 

One of its first uses was as one of the large 2012 Olympic Games fleet of buses and is pictured here at Marble Arch on 6^th August 2012

Red Rose are regular supporters of Showbus and it is seen here at Duxford on 21^st September 2014.

 
MX61BAO is no stranger to the 275 as over 10 years ago it was operating the service, It is seen here in Queens Lane, Oxford on 21^st September 2014

By 2022 it had moved into the Redline Buses fleet and is pictured in Bridge Street, High Wycombe on 30^th May.

    
It is now back with Red Rose and back on its old route the 275 and is pictured in Chinnor outside the preserved steam railway.

An interesting history. Ed.

Camden Town Running Day 16^th November 2025

On Sunday 16^th November the annual Camden Town Running Day was held. Compared to previous years this was a much reduced in size event with only 8 buses operating.

 

Three routes were operated:

 

31 – Camden Town to Kilburn Park Station

 

134 – Camden Town to Muswell Hill Broadway

 

253 – Mornington Crescent to Stamford Hill 

 
Route 31 was operated by RTL 554 and RF 486 

     
Route 134 was operated by RT 1790, RM 298, RM 848 and RM 1962

  
Route 253 was operated by RML 903 and RML 2660

 
Insert picture of RTL 554 and RM 1962 together

 A chance opportunity allowed a picture to be taken of RTL 554 and RM 1962 together. They have the same owners and spend most of their time parked next to each other in the garage.

 
Also an opportunity to see 2 buses around 60 years apart in build operating on the same route. 

The pictures are a combination of mine and those of Nigel Eadon-Clarke.

 

An interesting report. Ed. 

Devon and Cornwall with Jack Cooper

Here are some pictures from my visit to Devon and Cornwall last week, taken in Plymouth, Truro and St Austell. I also was lucky enough to photograph 2 ex Oxford Enviro 400s, 252 (now Go Cornwall Bus 540) and 301 (now Plymouth Citybus 5035). I have also added pictures from when they were in service in Oxford.  

 

     
     

 

     
     
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There are also several ex London buses I thought I'd mention in case anyone has any pictures of them in service in London to add to the current photos. 

The ex London Buses are:

Go Cornwall Bus 5006 - ex Stagecoach London 10201

Go Cornwall Bus 2217 - ex Go Ahead London SE291

Go Cornwall Bus 4002 - ex Go Ahead London  E59 

Some nice memories of the area evoked by this article. Ed.

Keith Briant writes of a recent Interlude in Salisbury

Something different this week. We spent a few days in the Salisbury area during the recent half term and a second trip shortly followed after a family bereavement. With the addition of photos taken during visits in the spring and summer, I thought I'd highlight some of the variety from where I grew up.  

Salisbury has a population of over 41,000 and has several claims to fame. The largest cathedral spire in Europe at 404 feet which contains one of only four surviving copies of the Magna Carta; one of the oldest markets in England which began with a Royal Charter in 1227; home of one of the oldest newspapers in the UK with the weekly Salisbury Journal published continuously since 1736; is a stones throw from Stonehenge (pun fully intended!) and more recently the location of a particularly well publicised incident of poisoning. I could go on, but I need to remember this is a bus page.... 

Go South Coast's Salisbury Reds operation can trace it's origins back 110 years to the formation of Wilts & Dorset Motor Services in the city in 1915. In what follows we'll show current operations and link them with a little taste of bus and local history. Salisbury Reds has over 100 vehicles based at the city's depot and a number of rural outstations. The city route network gives good coverage and most of it's rural routes date back to the early days of bus operation.  

Go South Coast (GSC) have a large fleet of Enviro400s of which 38 are allocated to Salisbury. Despite the standard appearance, there are some variations of type and seating layout. The first six buses, all now allocated to Salisbury have Scania N230UD chassis although numbered in the main series. These were new to Bournemouth for university services, but have now migrated further north. First of the batch is 1501 (HF59 FAA). In the 1970's and 80's 'AA' was a Salisbury issued registration, so is most appropriate. It's seen alongside a  standard bus 1585 (HW63 HWG). Despite the closure of local licensing offices, Go South Coast still specifies what were 'local' registrations wherever possible and H denotes Hampshire, which the majority of their buses carry. HW was used for the Isle of Wight and the bus was first allocated to Southern Vectis. 1581-4 were the buses loaned to Thames Transit from new which became 251-4 as they never operated for their intended company.  

Continuing with the Southern Vectis theme, Damory 1507 (HW62 JVF) is the first of the second batch delivered to GSC for what was the Vectis Blue operation on the Island. These have now moved to the "mainland" and this bus is one of those in the Damory fleet. Seen here in the quaintly named Endless Street on service 20 to Blandford. Endless Street has a place in bus history as 8 Endless Street was shown on the legal lettering of Wilts & Dorset buses until the merger with Hants & Dorset. Number 8 was originally the Plume of Feathers pub and was opposite where this bus is parked. Wilts & Dorset originally owned number 6 for their offices and when plans were laid for the building of the now closed bus station, they did a deal with the local Gibbs Mew brewery to exchange premises. Number 6 still exisits, but is now the inevitable Turkish barbershop. There can't be many bus companies who have moved a pub! After deregulation, another property in Endless Street housed the head office of British Bus.  

 

Standard Enviro400s are 1546 (HJ63 JKU) and newest example 1809 (HJ25 BYR), both in Blue Boar Row alongside the market place. The stone facade behind 1546 now houses Salisbury library but was originally the market house and headquarters of the independent Market House Railway, a quarter of a mile long branch line which ran from the end of platform 6 of the railway station and was used to transport goods to the market. It remained independent until it closed in 1964 having been incorporated with its own act of parliament in 1859. It never owned a locomotive and trains were operated by the LSWR and then SR until nationisation.  Immediately to the left of the visible arches is a third arch with a public footway which is where the line was located and was where the Russian spy and his daughter were found after the poisoning incident. 

 

Some Enviro400s carry route dedicated schemes, here are two examples. 1680 (HF20 CUY) is one of five with this livery for the Activ8 Salisbury to Andover service. They only seat 39 on the upper deck as have a number of seats grouped around tables. This is a rare jointly operated service and is shared with Stagecoach South who have a similar number of specially liveried buses, one of which can be seen behind. Note the slight variation in application. When Hants & Dorset was divided in 1983, this became a joint service involving Wilts & Dorset's Salisbury depot and the Andover depot of Hampshire Bus. It is a busy route and serves a number of military locations on Salisbury Plain. The stone built building behind the front of the second bus is still used by LLoyds Bank. At the time Wilts & Dorset Motor Services was about to be formed, Lloyd's Bank had just taken over the Wilts & Dorset Bank and this had been it's headquarters. Legend says the founders of Wilts & Dorset so named the company because of the loss of what had been a well respected local name!  The second bus, 1637 (HF66 CFG), is one of three to carry Stonehenge Tour colours for use on the frequent premium route to Stonehenge which has a recorded commentary. These are due to be replaced with electric buses next year. Wilts & Dorset Motor Services first began daily coach excursions from Salisbury to Stonehenge twice a day in the 1920s for 2/6 (12.5p)!  

A non-standard Enviro400 is 11 (HF70 CUW), the only long wheelbase example which seats 80 in more comfortable surroundings. It was new in Excelsior colours and is numbered in the coach series. The bus is tachograph and seatbelt fitted.  

 

Ten Scania N230UD Omnicitys are allocated to Salisbury from GSC's large batch. 1132 (HF09 BJE) is seen in Bemerton Heath, Salisbury's largest housing estate on service R1 which provides a frequent cross city service to Salisbury District Hospital. In the second photo, similar 1133 (HF09 BJJ) is seen leaving Salisbury along Castle Street where the large Salisbury Reds depot is located. Salisbury cathedral spire can be prominently seen in the background. My cousin who recently died, was a steeplejack and had the job of changing the aircraft warning light located at the top of the spire for around 30 years. On his last climb before retirement in 2010, he was joined by a presenter and cameraman from the children's TV series Blue Peter and became a bit of a local celebrity! 

 

GSC are now slowly withdrawing their Scania N94UD/East Lancs OmniDekkas  that were aquired from Reading Buses in 2011. The two that remain in Salisbury are 1019 and 1020 (YN06 JWW/X) which were painted into these Tilling liveries in 2015 to mark the centenary of the formation of Wilts & Dorset. They are still in excellent condition. Both were fully refurbished with seats covered in two different designs of Tilling moquete. These have previously featured on this page as they ran on the Reading Buses farewell day a few months ago.  

 

The next two photos illustrate rarer Salisbury buses. 8102 (HF08 TKY) is a Scania N270UD with East Lancs Olympus body. It was one of two delivered for coaching, contract and private hire work and are the only 12 metre examples built with this bodywork combination. Its sister bus, 8101 (701 GOO) is in the Damory fleet. The second photo shows one of two remaining Plaxton President bodied Volvo B7TLs based in Salisbury and primarily used on schools services. Still in reasonable condition for a 23 year old bus, 1997 (HW52 EPV) was new to the pre GoAhead Southern Vectis and wears the older darker red Salisbury Reds livery without fleetnames. I managed to catch it working a variation of the service 2 from Devizes to Salisbury. The X2 was introduced at the end of August and serves the Stonehenge Visitor Centre and then takes a more direct route to Salisbury using a route previously largely unserved by bus, albeit with little population until it reaches the city boundaries. The driver was waiting time here and when he got out to take a photo, I grabbed the opportunity to capture a bus that won't be around for much longer.  

 

The newest full size single deckers allocated to Salisbury are three BYD/Alexander-Dennis Enviro200EV buses. Pictured here are 903 (HF09 CHO) and 902 (HF09 CHN). These are almost exclusively used on Salisbury's park and ride services. In the early 2000s, the now defunct Salisbury District Council opened five sites on the outskirts of the city. They've had a controversial history, being massively loss making at first and then a smaller operator who won the contract from Wilts & Dorset to operate the services went into liquidation. The sites were inherited by the new unity authority Wiltshire Council. It's thought the losses made by park and ride hastened the downfall of the original local authority.  Go South Coast eventually took over the entire operation of the park and ride scheme after a couple of the routes had been contracted to Stagecoach South for a while. The new long term  arrangement included Salisbury Reds managing the sites and integrating the services commercially into their local routes. The link to park and ride on the Wiltshire Council website takes you directly to the Salisbury Reds service information with comprehensive details including maps for both bus users and drivers.  

 

The GSC single decker of choice has been the inevitable Enviro200 for many years with 22 allocated to Salisbury. Seen here are 2728 (HF65 AYH); 2721 (HF64 BPY) and 2730 (HF65 BPY) from the Damory fleet. Service 20 to Blandford has connections to Weymouth and is operated under local authority contract.  

Six of Salisbury's Enviro200s carry this livery for English Heritage and operate the shuttle service from Stonehenge Visitor Centre to the stones along the English Heritage owned private road. They are the only vehicles allowed at the Stonehenge site and the buses are outstationed at the Visitor Centre, but do occasionally see normal service use at quieter times.  2788 (HF67 AUO) illustrates the type. 

   

A handful of smaller buses are allocated to Salisbury. 3835 (HF15 BMZ) is one of 11 Optare Solo SRs at Salisbury Reds. Delivery also commenced at the end of October of nine Mercedes-Benz Sprinters with Mellor Strata bodies. 154 (WX75 OCV) is seen here before it's entry into service and before the new "Little Reds" branding was applied. They are being introduced on services operated under contract to Wiltshire Council during the day and park and ride services during evenings. Eight similar buses but bodied by EVM and a Mellor bodied Fiat Ducato, all owned by Wiltshire Council are operated on their behalf by Salisbury Reds on the Wiltshire Connect DRT in the Pewsey Vale and Kennet Valleys. These include a small number of fixed services. 7925 (YB23 FCV) is seen in Marlborough High Street where Salisbury Reds connects with fellow GSC company Swindon's Bus Company. Marlborough High Street is one of England's widest streets. It once contained a restaurant owned by Bristol Omnibus Company in the days before the M4 opened and coaches stopped for a break.  

Back to the Enviro400. This is with GSC's More Bus, their 1791 (HJ24 RCZ). More reach Salisbury on the X3 from Bournemouth. The service was recently extended to Salisbury railway station where a new and long awaited bus interchange was opened on the station forecourt during the summer. The window visible between the bus and bus shelter had a phone box situated in front of it which was mounted on old wooden railway sleepers in the ground which had been there for as long as anyone could remember. When the phone box was removed and the sleepers lifted for the bus interchange work, a short section of foot tunnel was found which led to a bricked up wall. When Network Rail surveyors carefully removed this, they found more tunnels and long hidden underground rooms which extend under platform 4, the main platform. None of these were marked on plans of the station held in the archives. 

https://www.networkrailmediacentre.co.uk/news/uncovering-the-hidden-secrets-of-salisbury-station

A small number of Salisbury allocated coaches still carry the Tourist fleetname from the takeover of locally based Tourist Coaches in the Wilts & Dorset buying spree of small operators in the 1990s.  7801 (FJ60 EHB) is a Caetano bodied Volvo B9R seen leaving the bus depot. It is used on a regular school service. Tourist Coaches has a legacy dating back to the 1920s when it was then known as Pirate Coaches. Another GSC operation with a long history is Excelsior and their 18 (BU74 YVG), an MCV Evotour bodied Volvo B8R  is seen on a day tour resting in Salisbury's quaintly named New Canal.  

Stagecoach South's Andover depot operate a small number of tendered services from locations to the north west of Salisbury. Salisbury Reds operate commercial journeys on most of these services. Here late model Optare Solo SR 48136 (YJ24 BFY) is seen on service 67. As the destination shows, it serves the village of Porton where the legendary operator Silver Star Motor Services was based until Wilts & Dorset purchased it in 1963.  

Finally, a little indulgence! Salisbury had many market day (Tuesday and Saturday) services operated by a significant number of independent operators, some of which dated back to the beginnings of the motorbus. Most of the companies that survived were purchased by Wilts & Dorset in the 1990s. Some Salisbury Reds services today have journeys that only operate on market days. One company that wasn't taken over and now the final small operator to serve Salisbury is Beeline of Warminster. They now have the same directors as the larger South West Coaches, but have been retained as a seperate company. They run service 24 under contract to Wiltshire County Council every two hours from Frome to Warminster and Salisbury from Monday to Saturday and service 56 from Warminster to Salisbury on Tuesdays, Fridays and Saturdays, comprising one return shopper's trip. This serves the villages in the Wylye Valley that are off the A36 trunk road, one of which - Great Wishford was where I grew up. We always called it "the back road bus". The final three photos show this same service on layover photographed in the same location (the first floor bay window is the clue) some 70 years apart, quite an achievement! 

   

In the first photo, Enviro200 SN69 ZKY is seen on layover awaiting its return journey up the valley. The second photo goes back to the early 80s and shows Alexander Y type bodied Bedford YRT MSF 727P which was new to Scottish Omnibuses in 1975. This bodywork type was a rarity in Wiltshire and Beeline also owned similar 728, although the seat headrests hadn't made the journey south on the latter bus! Finally, a gem in my collection. BUX 626 was a Roe B32F bodied Bedford OWB that had been new to Salopia of Whitchurch in October 1942. It was sold to Wylye Valley Valley Motor Services of Codford (Couchman) in 1948  who ceased operations in 1955, the latest date this photo could have been taken. The service went through a number of operators before reaching Beeline in the early 1970s. I wanted to include this to show the incredible destination blind for a very limited service with a company that only ran two or three buses.  

Sometime in the early 80s I remember taking a trip into Salisbury on MSF 727P. Surprisingly it also had a conductor, which was a regular occurrence. There was a large farmhouse a couple of miles along the valley that did bed and breakfast and two American tourists caught the bus from there to Salisbury. One asked the conductor if he had a timetable. His reply was priceless, "Yes, once on a Tuesday and twice on a Saturday!" Away from the main road, the stopping places were each village pub. The joy of rural bus operation! 

A well presented piece with lots of information. Ed. 

Grahame Wareham remembers COMS 372 

 

L372  OFC372  1950  AEC Regent III  9612A with Park Royal L26/26R low-bridge body. L372 was renumbered L148 in 1952 and lasted in the fleet until March 1963 when it was withdrawn and sold to Transport Passenger Equipment, Macclesfield (dealer) being resold tp Service Coaches of Blyth in July 1963. It later passed to Bedlington & District, Ashington in April 1964 and lasted there until June 1968 when it was sold to Hancock & Turner (dealer) at Bedlington Station and disposed of in a nearby quarry in June 1971. 

   
   
   
 

372  KFC372G  1968  Daimler Fleetline CRG6LX with Northern Counties (NCME) H41/31F low-height body. 372 represented numerically the first of a batch of ten rear engined double deckers, the first of what was going to become the standard mechanical arrangement for the next four  years which included 59 new vehicles built on Daimler chassis and a further 21 secondhand examples from Midland Red and North Western acquired between 1972 and 1977. 372 and its sisters were put to work as conventional conductor assisted buses on City routes but mainly on the 2 road corridor between Kidlington and Barton/Risinghurst/Sandhills estate until the dual-doored following batch arrived from 1969-70 which then saw 372-381 allocated to Country area garages and used as OMO vehicles. They were also brought back into the City Centre and used as OMO vehicles with, Almex, Solomatic and Electric Setright ticket machine trials to establish modernization of the issuing of tickets. 372 repainted into the dual colour red and duck-egg green during 1971 was allocated to Chipping Norton from 1972 to 1974 returning there for a short spell after overhaul in 1974., receiving NBC poppy red livery at the same time. 372 was withdrawn in August 1980 and transferred to Bristol Omnibus Company as their C7000 being allocated to Weston- Super-Mare and Winterstoke depots. It was withdrawn in April 1983 and sold to Green (dlr) Weymouth for scrap. 

372   OX68ENG  2018 Wright Streetdeck HEVC Gemini 3 H49/33F low-height body. It was part of a batch of six ordered to supplement the existing Brookes liveried E400 MMC buses being used on the U contracts and the 400 service. This batch of buses were similar to previous Streetdecks but incorporated a Hybrid regeneration system to feed all the auxilliary electrical outputs required to operate the bus leaving the engine to power the gearbox.   In December 2023 a new fleet of Streetdeck EV's arrived releasing 372 and the other five diesel Streetdecks to be transferred to Pulham's for operation on the NHS Cheltenham and Gloucester hospitals contract. 371 was reregistered L99NHS and received new vinyl branding to advertise the service. In 2025 371 was renumbered 80372 along with the Go-Ahead national identification of the OBC Group fleet.. 

Matt Cooper was in the Tring and Leighton Buzzard area.

211125

I chose to get out and about yesterday (Friday 21st) in the Tring and Leighton Buzzard area. I got to Leighton Buzzard when the sun was coming up and did some trekking from Tring station!  

An atmospheric shot of Arriva 3967 (LF71 DLD) just after 7am. It is MK-bound on the X2 and one of several MCV Evora-bodied Volvo B8RLE seen during the day. Guide wheels are fitted by the front wheels for use on the Luton to Dunstable busway. The bus stop at Leighton Buzzard has very good publicity displayed and a real time departure screen.  

 

Routes operated by the Aylesbury ‘reds’ around Tring are represented by ADL Enviro200 MMC (SC67 ZHB) on route 61 to Dunstable. Similar (YX21 RUV) in overall white picks up at Tring railway station heading in the other direction towards Aylesbury.  

I was standing beside the Posting House which began life as the Royal Hotel for use by railway passengers. The station today is simple but functional with nothing remaining of the original structure that once existed. It is a busy station with people travelling from the surrounding area to use the services on offer from London Northwestern Railway. That includes many from the Aylesbury area who prefer the extra carriages provided on this route .  

 

The nearby village of Aldbury is very picturesque and a slightly shorter distance from Tring railway station the Tring town centre. The stocks are still in place by the village pond which on Friday was more like a small ice rink! Red Rose E7 RRT was working local route 387 once operated by London Country. 

Red Eagle GX57 BXH was working route 63 and carries another livery variation.  

Centrebus provide the Leighton Buzzard local services all prefixed with an ‘L’ and branded Buzz, one letter short of the Luton and District network named Buzza! Arriva had operated the rebranded network initially which passed to Centrebus.

5020 (YY25 HYW) is from the main fleet and carries standard fleet names.  

Of similar vintage is another Arriva MCV Evora 3226 (BU25 ZCK) working the X2.  

By the High Street was Marshall’s Caetano Levante -bodied Scania FJ59 AOZ, previously used on National Express diagrams with Lucketts of Fareham and still in that livery. This type doesn’t seem that old to me but the model was launched in 2006 taking over as National Express Group’s preferred type for use by its contractors from the Irizar PB which went before. Both type had leather seats etc as part of an image upgrade and the Levante was also wheelchair accessible, equipment contained at the front with all passengers therefore entering and leaving the coach by the door at the front. 

Last but not least Red Rose 50533 (Y27 RRT)(previously YX12 AEU) on the High Street working route 163 a circular taking in numerous villages to and from Ivinghoe.  

Hatfield with Kevin Fuller

I took a trip to Hatfield last week and spent some time in various locations to view the local bus scene - mainly Uno and Arriva. 

   

       
     

There is another world to explore. Ed.