The Classic British Isles Buses Website

Elsewhere photos (by Dick Gilbert)

Last updated 30 August 2024

Email   Events diary   Past events list   Classified adverts   Classic U.K. Buses   Classic Irish Buses   Classic Manx Buses

Somehow I managed to keep all the negatives of my early photographs, and had them scanned in 2015. The results have brought back fond memories for me, and I hope you enjoy taking a look at them.

These pictures may not look much, but I'm glad I took them. In the summer of 1961 I rashly decided to visit the scrapyard of J. Light in Greystone Quarry at Southerham, just outside Lewes, Sussex. They didn't welcome visitors and I was lucky to survive the visit in one piece. Looking down from the rim of the quarry, here we see Southdown open-top Guy Arabs being broken up on the left, and Brighton trolleybuses on the right.

The quality of film that I used was cheap and appalling, so it's surprising that anything worthwhile resulted from it, but this is a panoramic view of the yard, showing a host of Brighton trolleybuses awaiting their fate. The system closed at the end of June 1961 and the last of the 52 trolleys in the fleet were sent to Light's to be broken up. A solitary Southdown Guy Arab open-topper is just above centre and what looks to me like a 1930s Leyland truck (possibly a cattle wagon) is in the foreground.

Here's another picture of Light's scrapyard showing five Brighton trolleys and one Southdown Guy Arab utility open topper.

Here's a final picture of Light's scrapyard before I was eventually chased away by a man with a guard dog. It may be a lousy photo but it's a sad story. The last of the 52 Brighton Corporation trolleybuses was withdrawn on 30 June 1961 and the majority were broken up by Light Bros. This is trolleybus no. 1 (FUF 1) which was the inaugural vehicle in 1939 and was also the last bus to run on the system. Surely it should have been preserved. Anyway I bet that this is the last photograph ever taken of no. 1, Brighton's first and last.

Above: Early in 1962 I got myself a London Transport Red Rover ticket and toured round some of the last depots still operating trolleybuses, including Colindale, Cricklewood, Finchley and this one - Fulwell. The London trolleybus story ended here on 8 May 1962. Sadly this is the only picture that has survived from that trip.

Below: In May 2012 an event was held to celebrate 50 years since that last service, and I went along to relive old memories. To my surprise, the view from the entrance gate was virtually unchanged from the rather grubby image shown above, apart from the wires overhead, the tramlines in the cobbles below, the trolleybuses inside and the red RF outside. Curiously the clock over the central arch was running backwards! Back to the future by 50 years...

In 1970 I worked for a few months in Tehran, Iran, a place I grew very fond of, returning again in 1974 by which time the bus livery had changed from red to green. The city bought loads of left-hand drive AEC Regent V buses with Park Royal bodies. A batch of smaller ones arrived in 1958, with a bigger batch of longer ones being acquired in 1966/67. Here is one of the earlier examples speeding through downtown Tehran in 1970.

Here's another picture I took in Tehran - a glimpse of part of the city's bus station. On the left is a classic early 1960s Mercedes O321H, while two Mercedes O302 coaches are on the right, locally-built by IranNational and probably dating from around 1970.

Also seen in Tehran was this glorious Bedford TJ converted for passenger use. It doesn't look typically Iranian to me, and may have come into town from Afghanistan.

This photo dates from 1976. I lived on Alderney, Channel Islands, for five years in the early 1970s, working for the local island-hopping airline and starting to raise my family.

Riduna Buses was run from Riduna Garage by Riduna Motors, the family business of Bill Simon (pronounced "Simmo" in the semi-French used for surnames and places on the island) until 1984. Bill also provided Alderney's petrol. The Riduna fleet was varied and confusing, as Alderney registration numbers (AY - surprisingly the same as North West Leicestershire) were used again and again as vehicles were retired. The vehicles were all second-hand and continued in service until they fell apart.

The bus in the foreground is AY 750, a former Ribble Tiger Cub ERN 776 with a Saunders-Roe Rivalloy lightweight body. The one behind is AY 59. That number had previously been used by no less than seven different Bedford OBs, and was later worn by two AEC Reliances, but in this picture it's in use by a Weymann-bodied 1960 Leyland Tiger Cub, which had been R381 (381 ENN) in the East Midland fleet.

The buses are parked on either side of the horse trough in Marais Square, named after the Marais Hall pub and restaurant, just out of sight to the left of the picture. If Alderney has a centre - and it's hard to say if it does - then this isn't it, but it is the only place near the centre where you could park two buses in the street.

It's March 1981 and I'm visiting Malta. In the bus station at Valletta A-2535 is loading passengers on route 18 to Zabbar. The bonnet says it's a Dodge, although you couldn't trust anything in Malta. But, then again, it might actually be a Dodge, and the one on the left just might be a genuine Bedford OB. Someone will know...

In the 1980s I lived in Swannington, Leicestershire and the village held a festival each year, originally set up to celebrate 150 years since Robert Stevenson had set up a railway there to carry coal to Leicester and beyond. In 1984 the event was treated to a visit by former Trent AEC Regal III no. 611 (ACH 441) with its classic Windover coach body. In this picture it is passing by Swannington Post Office, right by our house at the time.

Fortunately this gorgeous vehicle is still around, having passed through many hands in the meantime, although it doesn't look like this any more.

Also at that event was Trent SOS SON no. 417 (RC 7927) which I think has been owned by Trent since new in 1940. The body is a replica built by Trent in 1978.

Passing through San Diego, California in April 1987 I spotted this RLH outside a sports stadium being used that evening for a concert by Bruce Hornsby and the Range. Quite a few London Transport lowbridge RLH buses were exported to California on retirement and RLH60 (MXX 260), new in 1952, joined them in 1969. As far as I know it's still there.

Spotted a couple of days after the previous photo in April 1987, but this time seen over the border in Tijuana, Mexico, is this fabulous ex-Greyhound Bus General Motors PD-3751 silversides (named after its fluted aluminium cladding), dating from the late 1940s. It was No.8 (licence plate 30707A) in the fleet of Servicio de Excursion Turistico.

On 12 July 1987 I was attending an airshow at RAF Manston in Kent, and stopped to photograph this Scottish Leyland PS1 Tiger in the classic vehicle park, wedged between an East Kent Regent and a London RT. Wearing Alexander Bluebird coach livery and an Alexander 35-seat body, PA133 (CMS 201) was built in 1949 and has since (in 2010) been completely (and brilliantly) rebuilt by St. Margarets C. of E. high school transport society, Aigburth, Liverpool.

It's now 1988, I'm back in Malta, and this bus is claiming to be a Thames. Maybe it is, and maybe it isn't. I'm sure someone will tell me what it really is (or was).

In July 1990 I flew from RAF Northolt in Middlesex to Le Bourget airport, Paris, on a Vickers Viscount flight recreating an identical service by B. E. A. in 1950 - 40 years previously to the day - which was the world's first commercial turbine-powered passenger flight. For our little jaunt some of the passengers left their cars at Brooklands and were brought to Northolt in former London Transport AEC Regent RLH48 (MXX 248), wearing a very appropriate advert on the side. Here it is seen arriving on the apron at Northolt, being driven by Richard Proctor who owned, restored and regularly rallied it for 31 years from 1984 to 2015 when he passed it on to the London Bus Museum.

Finally we move forward to June 1997 and the location is alongside Frangokastello fortress by the coast in south-western Crete. This Mercedes O303 with an Irisbus body (probably dating from the 1980s and registered NB 9720, which I think comes from Thessalonika) was operating tours around the delightful island for visitors, one of which was me.

Email   Events diary   Past events list   Classified adverts   Classic U.K. Buses   Classic Irish Buses   Classic Manx Buses

SB