THE M & D AND EAST KENT BUS CLUB
The
East Midlander, 21st July 2001
Tour report by Anonymous
(edited by David Cobb) (first published in Club News Sheet 590 Sep '01)
Boarding a Green Line coach driven by our own Richard Lewis, we left the Medway Towns and with little traffic had time for a brief stop at Rothersthorpe Services before proceeding to our first visit of the day at Country Lion in Northampton displaying a varied fleet of vehicles, mainly coaches in an interesting livery.
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Irizar Century A8 CLN, one of Country Lion's fleet of coaches |
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Two of the buses from Country Lion's fleet, P5 CLN and P4CLN |
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First Northampton 148 (G667 FKA) inside the depot |
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First Northampton 141 (B102 WUW) still in the livery of it's last operator Citybus |
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JNH 154, one of the preserved buses used on the tour |
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First Northampton S359 MFP entering the bus station |
A short drive brought us to the First Northampton depot. A conducted tour of the depot revealed a number of vehicles in pre-First Northampton livery. After a brief visit to the bus station we boarded a 1947 Daimler taking us to the first of the preservation sites. Changing onto a Birmingham Crossley, JOJ 489, we then proceeded down country lanes to the remaining two sites of EMVPG where a collection of preserved vehicles from many different operators, several ex-London Transport RTs and RLHs, are housed. Returning to the first site we picked up our Daimler for the run back to First Northampton depot passing en route Stagecoach United Counties' depot.
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Amongst the vehicles found at the East Midlands Vehicle Preservation Group sites was this M&D Albion Nimbus 308 LKK |
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JOJ 489 was the Birmingham Crosley used for transport between the preservation sites |
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Leicester Metro-Scania ARY 225K |
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Huntingdon & District 122 (R122 HNK) amongst the vehicles found at the garage |
Our coach then took us via Rogers Coaches to Huntingdon bus station.
For our final visit of the day we called in at Huntingdon & District depot before leaving the area on our return back to Kent.
Thanks go to Richard Lewis, plus Phil Welsh of EMVPG for making the day a great success.