The Gloucestershire Explorer

The second tour of the year took us to some beautiful countryside, but also a City Centre, as we headed west for Gloucestershire and Bristol.

After picking up at several places, our first main stop was at Swindon, where the occasion of the Fairford Air Tattoo saw new Stagecoach Tridents and also Thamesdown’s Fleetlines in service on shuttles, as well as the normal service vehicles, new and not so new. The absence of the Thamesdown garage was also noted.

We moved north towards the Cotswolds, negotiating hairpin bends and cows on the road, to find Ebley Coaches depot, with its miscellany of buses mainly from the North West, in picturesque Nailsworth.

	One of Thamesdown's school buses in use on the service to Fairford (photo: Derek Jones)
	Our tour coach New Enterprise 2904 seen in Swindon (photo: Derek Jones)
	A selection of buses in the yard at Ebley Coaches, Nailsworth (photo: Derek Jones)

From there we moved across to Newport (not Gwent, nor the Isle of Wight) to Applegate’s depot, where a brand new Plaxton-bodied MAN (the first in the country we understand) was moved to enable us to photograph it better. There was also a “spare” chassis in the yard, and the owner told me it was “buy one, get one free”!

David Cobb had managed to arrange an extra depot visit, so our next stop was in Kingswood, at Westward Travel, where the owner seemed to like Tigers (including one ex-M&D vehicle on loan) and VRs in particular, and was very accommodating and welcoming.

	Two ex-Nottingham deckers in yellow school bus livery at Applegates, Newport (photo: Derek Jones)
	Westward Travel had parked their serviceable VR fleet to make it easy for us to photograph (photo: Derek Jones)
	This VR at Westward Travel was withdrawn with a large hole in the roof (photo: Derek Jones)
	A former East Kent coach on loan to Westward Travel (photo: Derek Jones)

Then we entered the city of Bristol, stopping first at Patchway to revisit South Gloucestershire depot; with a large fleet of second hand buses, and a few surprises at the back of the shed.

From there we went to the centre of Bristol, and spent about an hour there catching up on developments since our last visit; it was mainly FirstBus, but there were a few other operators visible too.

Our final visit of the day was to Munden’s yard alongside the railway, where we found a collection of old buses, and also some left-hand drive vehicles that had been acquired from the Forces, as well as an ex-East Kent Volvo from an operator in Wales.

We had a fairly brief visit to Abus depot just round the corner, before heading back towards Kent.

	Two of the numerous Firstgroup vehicles seen in the centre of Bristol (photos: Derek Jones)

	A selection from the abus fleet parked in the yard (photo: Derek Jones)
	A former East Kent coach with the Bristol Bus & Coach dealer stock in Munden's yard. (photo: Derek Jones)

It was a long day, a fairly warm day, but a day without any hitches, and our driver John was extremely helpful and seemed to enjoy the trip himself.