‘Scene’ in Chatsworth Park, Derbyshire 2 Preserved Buses on Dennis Basford’s railsroadsrunways.blogspot.co.uk’

There cannot be many readers / viewers of my blog who are unaware that 2021 marks the 100th. anniversary of the founding of ‘Hulleys of Baslow’.

 

It had been intended to mount a bus rally in Chatsworth nearer to the original anniversary date but this was set back to September 26th. 2021 because of the Covid-19 crisis.

 

The buses I saw on the day split nicely into, 

 

Those owned by ‘Hulleys’, preserved buses and those that were visiting or passing through.

 

I do not claim that those pictured were the only buses on display because there were others that were out visiting elsewhere that I would have missed.

 

NNN 7M ‘Mansfield District’ No.7, Bristol RELH6L / Eastern Coach Works /1

on Dennis Basford’s railsroadsrunways.blogspot.co.uk’

 

 

 

 

NNN 7M ‘Mansfield District’ No. 7, Bristol RELH6L / Eastern Coach Works /2

on Dennis Basford’s railsroadsrunways.blogspot.co.uk’

 

 

 

 

 N409 HVT ‘PMT’ (Potteries) No. MMM409. Mercedes-Benz MB709D / Plaxton

on Dennis Basford’s railsroadsrunways.blogspot.co.uk’

 

 

 

 

NNU 447J ‘Mansfield District Midland General’ No. 148 .  Bristol RELL6G / Eastern Coach Works 

on Dennis Basford’s railsroadsrunways.blogspot.co.uk’

 

Delivered to ‘Midland General’ but pictured in the joint livery adopted after the merger with ‘Mansfield District’.

 

This particular merger was prior to ‘Midland General’ being merged with ‘Trent’ as part of the series of mergers leading to the formation of the ‘National Bus Company’.

 

 

 

TFA 987 ‘Burton Corporation’ No. 87. Daimler CC5GDD / Massey

on Dennis Basford’s railsroadsrunways.blogspot.co.uk’ 

 

New in 1964.

 

 

 

 

WLT 467 ‘London Transport’ No. RM 467. AEC Routemaster / Park Royal

on Dennis Basford’s railsroadsrunways.blogspot.co.uk’

 

New in 1960.

 

‘Scene’, Down Memory Lane with ‘ARRIVA Midlands’ (AM) 1 on Dennis Basford’s railsroadsrunways.blogspot.co.uk’

An occasional series which came about when I was looking through my collection of images for something else and this selection turned up.

 

In the early days due to the number of operators who formed the group, the fleet was a mixture of types amalgamated by the livery. 

 

It was plain, simple and some said boring.

 

I liked it so here are some examples of how it looked.

 

YN08 HZX ‘ARRIVA Midlands’ No. 3810. Scania K230UB / Scania OmniLink

on Dennis Basford’s railsroadsrunways.blogspot.co.uk’ 

 

New to ‘ARRIVA Derby’ where it is pictured.

 

 

 

 

M831 SDA ‘ARRIVA Midlands’ No. 4191. Scania N113DRB / East Lancs

on Dennis Basford’s railsroadsrunways.blogspot.co.uk’

 

New to ‘Midland Red North’.

 

Pictured in Derby.

 

 

 

 

P483 CAL  ‘ARRIVA Midlands’ No. 1381. Mercedes-Benz 709D / Plaxton Beaver

on Dennis Basford’s railsroadsrunways.blogspot.co.uk’ 

 

New to ‘Derby City Transport’ where it is pictured as its No. 83.

 

 

 

 

M159 GRY ‘ARRIVA Midlands’ No. 4159. Scania N113DRB / East Lancs

on Dennis Basford’s railsroadsrunways.blogspot.co.uk’ 

 

New to ‘Midland Fox’.

 

Pictured in Derby.

 

 

 

 

T61 JBA ‘ARRIVA Midlands’ No. 2299. ‘X38 burton derby fast’. Dennis Dart / Marshall Capital

on Dennis Basford’s railsroadsrunways.blogspot.co.uk’ 

 

New to ‘Gilligan & Wilson’, Winsford, Cheshire.

 

Pictured in Derby although at the time, it was based in Burton-on-Trent.

‘Scene’ in K & H Doyle of Alfreton’s fleet part 2

It is now one year since ‘Doyle’s shut down. I do not know why they did. What I do know is that for a period of 25 years or so, they brought extra colour and interest to the East Midlands transport scene.

 

Time then before memories fade for a retrospective of the company.

 

The early buses in the fleet were a beige colour and some never made it into fleet livery. In addition one or two appeared in advertising liveries. (See blog dated 14/01/2015)

 

After that, there were two distinct liveries adorning the fleet. The lime green and purple and the overall green. 

 

My son Andrew likened the lime green and purple livery to 

 

     “Looking like a fading bruise”.

 

I was fortunate to meet Mr. Doyle on a number of occasions. The first time was on a ‘Transpire’ (The Chesterfield Bus Society) visit to his premises in Alfreton. It was an evening visit and he was kind enough to conduct us around and then to give us the run of the place to take whatever pictures we wanted. Some of them appear here.

 

I will deal with the other liveries in additional blogs.

 

I believe this to be P568 PRE.

An LDV Convoy dating from 1996/7 seating 8. By the time of this image it appeared to be on its way out. 

Seen at Lydford Road depot (LR)

 

N996 KUS

 

A Mercedes-Benz 709D (MB) with UVG bodywork. At one time it had worked for ‘Arriva’ in Wales.

 

M457 UUR

Another ‘MB’ an 811D which came from Lancashire United. seen on Ripley Market Place.

 

L953 MBH

Another ’MB’ 811D this time with Plaxton bodywork seen in Belper. At one time it worked for ‘Sovereign Buses’. After service with Doyle’s it was sold to a ‘theme park’ at Doncaster.

 

M460 EDH

A ‘MB’ 811D with Marshall bodywork was also sold to a ‘theme park’ at Doncaster. Seen on Ripley market place. It was previously with ‘Arriva Midlands North’.

 

S287 UAL

A ‘MB’ 814D with Plaxton Beaver 2 bodywork.

It was built for ‘Trent Buses’ (TB) and fitted with Dual Purpose seats. One of 7 so built the other 18 being bus seated. The thinking was that they could be used on long, thinner routes where a bit more comfort was desirable.

 

This particular bus worked for 'TB for some time on the ‘Ilkeston Flyer’ service and another, R275 RAU worked on the X38 service from Derby to Burton-on-Trent.

 

Seen in Alfreton.

 

M273 URC

A ’MB’ 811D with Wright Nimbus bodywork was earlier with ‘TB’ and its  fellow 'Wellglade' member ‘Notts & Derby’.

 

Again seen in Alfreton.

 

MX53 FDZ

An Optare Solo Seen at the Alfreton depot was at one time with ‘PaulsTravel’ / ‘Easyrider’ (Huddersfield). After its service with Doyle’s it moved to ‘Ace Travel’ in Liverpool.

Seen at 'LR'

YN53 SVJ

Another Solo Seen in Derby. At one time it worked in Perth for ‘Stagecoach’.

Seen in Derby.

‘Scene’ in the fleet K & H Doyle of Alfreton part 1

It is now a year since ‘Doyle’s shut down. I still do not know why they did. What I do know is that for a period of 25 years or so, they brought extra colour and interest to the East Midlands transport scene.

 

Time then before memories fade for a retrospective of the company.

 

The early buses in the fleet were a beige colour and some never made it into fleet livery. In addition one or two appeared in advertising liveries. 

 

After that, there were two distinct liveries adorning the fleet. The lime green and purple and the overall green. 

 

My son Andrew likened the lime green and purple livery to 

 

     “Looking like a fading bruise”.

 

I was fortunate to meet Mr. Doyle on a number of occasions. The first time was on a ‘Transpire’ (The Chesterfield Bus Society) visit to his premises in Alfreton.

It was an evening visit and he was kind enough to conduct us around and then to give us the run of the place to take whatever pictures we wanted. Some of them appear here.

I will look at the other liveries in future blogs.

 

G291 TSL

A Mercedes-Benz (MB) 709D with Alexander bodywork that in its early days worked for ‘Stagecoach’ in Scotland. Pictured in Belper.

 

MX55 BYD

An Optare Solo in an all over livery proclaiming the delights of Tesco’s Ilkeston store seen leaving Nottingham’s Victoria bus station on service 331 to Alfreton.

 

Previous to service with Doyle’s it had worked for ‘Super Travel’ on Merseyside and has since gone to the ‘GHA’ group in North Wales.

 

R183 OCW

A ‘MB’ 814 Vario with Plaxton bodywork which although retaining its lime green bonnet is otherwise advertising the wares of a local computer supplies company. Previously with ‘Hutchinson’ Easingwold. Seen in Alfreton.

 

R191 LBC

A Toyota Optimo dating from 1998. Seen at the Alfreton depot.

 

RIB 4311 (previously HXI 845 and B669 DVL).

A Neoplan N116 Cityliner dating from 1985. A previous operator was ‘TRS’ of Leicester. Seen at the Alfreton depot.

Buses ‘Scene’ in the ‘Southwest’

A few days holiday based in Weymouth allowed me to have a look at what goes on in that part of the world. The coaches of the Southwest have featured in an earlier ‘blog’.

 

‘First Hampshire & Dorset’ (FH&D) are the dominant operator in the area with the usual mixture of old and new buses in old and new liveries.

 

‘Barbie’ is now getting on in years but she is still alive and well............! 

 

W708 PHT

 

A Dennis Trident with East Lancs Myllenium bodywork which has been cascaded from Bristol where at one time it worked in a dark blue livery on the Bath Road Park & Ride operation. Before coming to Weymouth it had a spell in Poole.

V807 EFB

 

A Volvo B6BLE with Wright’s Crusader 2 bodywork picking up on Weymouth’s sea front.

 

P244 UCW

 

A Volvo Olympian with Northern Counties Palatine bodywork. It was new to ‘Centrewest’ working in London (Uxbridge). It moved to ‘First Bristol’ in 2005 and came to ‘FH&D’ in 2009. 

 

W815 EOW

 

A Volvo B7TL with Alexander ALX 400 bodywork which at one time worked in Southampton for ‘First’.

 

R613 YCR

 

A Dennis Dart SLF with Plaxton Pointer 2 bodywork. It previously worked for ‘First Berkshire’.

 

YJ14 BVF

 

An Optare Solo SR. It was so new that the titling/branding had not yet been applied. 

 

SN14 DXG

 

A Wright Streetlte DF was another bus that was bereft of any titling

 

CU08 ADV

 

An Alexander Dennis Ltd. Enviro 200 that was new to ‘First Cymru’ and was one of a batch that came to ‘FH&D’ to modernise the fleet.

 

YN04 GLV

 

A Scania N94UD with East Lancs Omnidekka bodywork. At one time it was painted in the ‘Jurassic Coast’ livery and appears to have recently been repainted.

 

I have never liked this new ‘First’ livery  and I think that without the benefit of advertisements it looks even blander and more half finished than usual.

 

HX08 DHY

A Volvo B7TL with Wright Gemini bodywork working on the X53 ‘Jurassic Coaster’ (JC) service loading in Weymouth. Until it was recently repainted into fleet livery, it appeared in the branded ‘JC’ livery seen 2 images down.

 

YN04 GNY

A Scania N94UD/East Lancs Omnidekka in Bridport seen on the X31 ‘JC’ service.

 

The X31 runs between Axminster and Dorchester whilst the X53 runs between Poole and Exeter. I have travelled on the X53 which takes a full 4 hours. Tiring but worth it !

 

The section between Bridport and Lyme Regis is common to both routes.

 

HX08 DHG

Another Volvo B7TL with Wright Gemini bodywork in the full ‘JC’ livery once more in Weymouth.

 

YJ60 KFV

 

An Optare Versa owned by Dorset County Council on its own Park & Ride service to the Mount Pleasant car park.

 

T640 AJT

 

An Optare Solo seen in Bridport. Part of ‘Damory Coaches’ fleet which is part of ‘Wilts & Dorset’ who in turn are owned by the ‘Go-Ahead’ group.

 

N350 OBC

An Alexander bodied Mercedes-Benz 709D now operated by ‘South West Coaches’ previously worked in Weymouth in a blue livery for ‘Sureline’ who were based on nearby Portland.