Classic cars forum & vehicle restoration.

[Penman]

Hi
If you half half an hour to spend wallowing in nostalgia.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GCeaBhLSkhI#t=1197.587559972
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Bristols should always come in pairs.

Any 2 from:-
Straight 6
V8 V10

[Rootes75]

Superb. Watched from start to finish. Shame the roads aren't like this now.
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Various Rootes Vehicles.

[Kleftiwallah]

I spent most of my 'formative years' in Penrith and used the local busses to get to the fells (bit like Wainright but without the artistry) I recognised quite a few of the routes seen in the film.

There used to be a bus company in Penrith called "Titterington's" this was of course shortened to "Tit's busses"!

I wondered about the inn keeper of the Kirkstone Pass Inn, on the board it reads W ION Atkinson, has a letter fallen off? Not a Cumbrian forename although the surname is Cumbrian.

Thanks for that, Cheers, Tony.

[petelang]

Fabulous bit of nostalgia. Is it just me or does everyone seem so happy and serene in this, mind with so little traffic it would have been a pleasure.
Quite luxurious interior in the Tilling bus, can't quite tell what it is though. Be good if the bus aficionado's can enlighten us. I did recognise a Leyland Royal Tiger and a Panther amongst them. No doubt much bodywork from Duple of Blackpool, Willowbrook of Loughborough and other long forgotten names. I think the coach body style is the "Europa" with the upper curved windows on the roofline.

It struck me as odd that so many of the coaches were in Old English White or Cream as this seems contra to the normal clearly identifiable liveries of the various companies. Was this a fashionable year for those colours?
The drivers uniforms are also unexpected, a white housecoat with silver buttons, a bit too long and not very practical for keeping clean, but then the white cloths on the seat tops must have also took some keeping fresh with smoking permitted on the bus and all that Brylcreeme!
Nowadays, you can't get anywhere near this close to Stonehenge, and certainly not without passing a turnstile and being relieved of much of the content of your wallet!
Ah, but this is progress....
Peter

[petelang]

For those wishing to know.
The Tilling Bus featured first is a Bristol LL with coachwork by ECW (Eastern Coach Works) from Lowestoft.
The next bus featured, the Western SMT FAG 92 was a motor show exhibit vehicle from 1952, a Guy UF model with unique body having a centre positioned sliding passenger door. The body built by Walter Alexander from Falkirk.
The Eastern Counties coach is a Bristol LS5G, which also was an exhibit vehicle, winning the 1956 Concours d'elegance at the Brighton Coach show in 1956. Bodywork again by ECW.
The one featured at Heathrow is another ECW body this time on a Bristol LS.
Peter

[alastairq]

As a child in the 1950's, I frequently underwent long-distance journeys by coach [cheaper than by train]....

Associated Motorways was the umbrella company...and I more often got taken on either Black & White coaches, or Royal Blue.

Cheltenham was a big interchange point for these 'express' coaches.

I noted that, from there, the companies rostered their best, most modern vehicles....Black & White taking us to Birmingham...Royal Blue heading us down to the West Country.

If lucky, we got a Royal Blue with a huge tail fin on the roof.

Once we got to Exeter, we would change for onward travel to Plymouth...and invariably the age of the bus got older, the further west one travelled.
For example, at Exeter we would have to change to another Royal Blue bus, this time, an older half cab saloon.

It was indeed a struggle to climb Telegraph Hill...as was the norm in those days...now, bypassed well & truly.

By the time I was 21, and old enough to take the PSV tests [I did 3, passed all of them].....little did I realise that these buses would still be in service, here & there......and I would end up driving them, 'in anger' so to speak.

I got to respect the Gardner engine.....and that off-beat, 5 cylinder engine evoked long forgotten memories.

No power steering, and crash gearboxes..Just look at the size of that handbrake? One could not 'rush'....the mechanicals wouldn't permit it.

Once I left the employ of London Transport, I drove for United Automobile Services, East Yorkshire Motor Services, and one or two smaller outfits in between. So I was well used to Bristols, AECs, Leylands, even the odd Albion, Bedford, Ford, and Commer two-stroke! In later years, these British makes gave way to Volvo, etc.

The cream colouring was often seen on 'coach' fleets of the big companies......often with smaller stripes, or hilights, in the company's main colours. This was to distinguish the'coach' fleet, from the stage-carriage 'bus' fleet.

It is a great shock to watch these 'runs' and 'shows' of preserved vehicles, & to find I likely drove far too many of them, for a living!

I shall allow my LGV and PCV licences to lapse now.....