Up the road, a while back

Sadly there are non from Plymouth, bus a great collection of photographs from the 1950's including many from Exeter and Devon General have been posted on Fotopic by Mike Morant. Taster below but click HERE for the full page to view these at full size. Its worth the visit!

Local Lines

Back on 21st February I posted a report:

Refurbished FGW Class 150 No 150261 in "Local lines" livery made it's debut into Cornwall today making 2 return trips from Plymouth to Penzance.

Well thanks to Kevin Browett I can now bring you his photo of this train...

©Kevin Browett

More photos on his Fotopic account

Blast from the Past

© Terry Stapley - used with permission.

July 1988. In my view one of the better liveries carried by Plymouth Citybus although I know of many who disagree! Sadly the advert does distract somewhat. One of the awful breadvans can be seen to the left.

http://terrystapley397.fotopic.net/ (updated with photos from 09/02/2007)Overseas Coaches & Buses seen in Britain http://gallery76289.fotopic.net/ (updated with photos up to December 2006)Japanese Buses & Coaches http://january2007triptotokyojapan.fotopic.net/http://ukbusphotoarchive.fotopic.net/ (updated 14/03/2006)

Trip to London Bonus pic

© Chris Stanley

Thanks to Chris for sending me this photo as a bonus to go with the one posted yesterday. Taken on the same day back in 1967.

This one is 337 EDV Bristol SUL4A with ECW C33F bodywork New May 1961

Another photo of this same coach in March 1971 is here on Alan O Watkins Fotopic collection, and a nice little potted history of the coach is here on the excellent Bristol SU site.

To add to yesterdays post you can see a similar potted history of 255 KTA here.

Alan O Watkins does not capture 255KTA but does have several of its sisters including 254KTA and 257KTA on this collection here.

Take your time to explore the collection - there really are some fantastic photos there!

Coming soon - Trathens Skyliners

© Chris Maxfield

Thanks to Chris for allowing me to share this picture taken a couple of weeks ago at Plaxton Anston.

This is one of the new Neoplans for Trathens, its been sent to Plaxton as it was delivered with the wrong interior moquette. They are due to receive National Express livery although at least one of them had been delivered in a Stagecoach Group livery! Look out for more details on these coaches when they arrive at Trathens.

For more of Chris Maxfields photos see his Fotopic site including galleries of First Devon and Cornwall, Western Greyhound, and Plymouth Citybus.

Plymouth Citybus 1971 Fotopic site

Just a quick plug for the Fotopic collection of James E Lowe.
There are hundreds of great photos here but the main reason I am promoting it here is the Plymouth Citybus page which as well as having some photos he has taken over the past few days has a small but interesting selection of buses from 1971 with Titan 73 MCO673 and Atlantean 232 JJY632G being my favourites.

Well worth a visit!

Life after Plymouth

Thanks to Peter Horrex again for this excellent photo of WDR665M Leyland National in the wonderful green and cream of Southern National taken at Yeovil in 1997.
This was new to Plymouth City Transport as a dual door bus and later converted to a very comfortable 'dual purpose' coach.
For more of Peters photos visit his fotopic British Buses
or you can visit the Google groups which he runs
http://groups.google.co.uk/group/UK-Bus-Photo
http://groups.google.co.uk/group/London-Bus-Scene
http://groups.google.co.uk/group/The-Girl-in-the-Street

Essex girl in Essex

Thanks to Peter Horrex for allowing me to post the photo above.
Taken in February 1996 is shows C409HJN Leyland Olympian in the dark red and custard livery of Thamesway.
This bus is better known now as 34809 in the FDC fleet and is in the standard Barbie livery.

Plymouth March 2006

Citycoach on tour

The Plymouth Citycoach fleet has always looked very smart. The fleet may have been slightly downsized recently but they can still pop up just about anywhere in the country.
WA03MGE is seen here in London back on 22nd April.
Thanks to Graham Smith for permission to post his photos here.
For more of Grahams photos visit his Fotopic site which has some excellent photos.

Plymouth goes to Darlington

© Mark Harrington

Thanks to Mark Harrington for allowing me to post this photo of his. It shows one of the first generation minibuses to hit Plymouth - the Renault S56 which were purchased in bulk in 1986 and saw off many of the older double deckers. Shame! They started off in his bland livery too which didn't help one bit. The ride quality was really bad too. They didn't last too long and the Mercedes 709s which started to arrive in 1990 were a lot better, and there are still a fair few left in service today.
This picture is even more interesting as it was taken in Darlington in 1989. Presumably on loan to the local municipal bus company.


didbygraham

Inner Circle visit

© Simon Coates whose Cornish Bus Scene Fotopic is well worth a visit!

I am feeling fairly chilled at the moment so no Soap Box today!
Sadly other commitments meant I missed the scene as picture above when members of the Inner Circle Group (ICG) came to Plymouth as part of a South Devon bus trip. It sounds like it was a good day out. Thanks as ever to Simon for allowing me to use his photographs.
didbygraham

Citybus Fotopic Gallery

I have spent part of today re-organising my Fotopic Gallery. the Collection I have sorted today is my Plymouth Citybus collection.
Why not take a look at the collection by following this link.

Atlanteans in exile

Not got much time tonight so I thought I would post a few links to photos of Plymouth Citybus Atlanteans elsewhere in the country. Not sure how many I can find but here we go:

088 GDR213N Liverline in full Citybus livery still © Roy Naylor (link gone)
091 LTK91R Finglands © Chris Lowe
096 LTK96R Finglands © Chris Lowe
120 OCO120S P&O Llyod © Chris Lowe
120 OCO120S P&O Lloyd © Richard Turner
124 STK124T Guide Friday © Malcolm Audsley
125 STK125T The City Tour © Terry Stapley
125 STK125T UKIP in purple © Alan O Watkins
130 STK130T Guide Friday © Adam Floyd
140 VJY140V Abbotts of Leeming © David Herron
147 VJY147V City Sightseeing © Steve Maskell
147 VJY147V The Tour (Different livery) © David Allen
156 ATK156W Roselyn © Chris Maxfield
157 ATK157W Roselyn © Chris Maxfield
161 ATK161W Leicester Tour © Tony Gs Buses
163 TTT163X Roselyn © Chris Maxfield
164 TTT164X Roselyn © Chris Maxfield
165 TTT165X RiverLink © Ian Kirby

and finally a small but very interesting collection of old Plymouth Citybus photos can be found here

I hope you find something of interest here - its always good fun exploring other peoples fofotpic sites!

Pont Aven

©Luke Farley

This photo from Luke Farley's excellent fotopic site is of Brittany Ferries latest ship Pont-Aven. I include it here tonight as its been in the news today as its been upsetting the residents around the Milbay Dock area of Plymouth.

12:00 - 10 December 2005 taken from this is Plymouth web site
Vibrations and a droning noise coming from Brittany Ferries' £100million flagship Pont Aven are making life 'torture' for Stonehouse residents. Families say they have to put up with a monotonous racket from the ship's generators that rattles windows and keeps them awake, on up to four days a week when the vessel is in dock.


didbygraham

Torpoint Ferry

It seems there were major problems with the Torpoint Ferry operation yesterday which lead to major disruption to the bus services. This has been an ongoing issue apparently since the new Torpoint ferries have been delivered. A couple of people moaning about the situation.
a good fotopic site with quite a few photos of the new ferries and even the old ones being scrapped in Poland.

Target Travel

Catching up with events at Target Travel thanks to Derek Cuff, one of the drivers.

Two Mercedes Vario minibuses have been acquired and are currently in plain white livery. V89JBM and V98JBM.
Mercees 709Ds K854/9ODY are also fairly recent additions to the fleet.

For lots of photos of Target Travel visit Dereks taketwo fotopic site.