The Sherwood Forester

Using New Enterprise Scania/Van Hool M51 AWW in the new company livery of red, white and blue stripes, which vehicle originated in Arriva Yorkshire and is of National Express specification, we departed Medway with 36 members on 29th June. Picking up additional members at Loughborough station where some new Optare Solos were noted, we moved on to our first visit of the day.

Kinch Bros is a large traditional bus depot which was filled with a wide range of vehicles, including Leyland-Nationals, traditional style Nottingham double deckers, Titans,and Darts.

	Our tour coach for the day, New Enterprise M51 AWW
	One of Kinch Bus's school buses C718 LTO
	Winson CWR 525Y seen in Kinch's yard
	At Winson's own depot was this Bova T8 PSW

The driving hours regulations required a walk to the tidy depot of Paul S Winston, which included some double decker and tour coaches.

Locked gates greeted our arrival at the Nottingham Transport Heritage Trust, and caused some concern to our organiser. However we soon located our host, who gave a brief talk on the history of the museum, a former Army Equipment Disposal Centre, which is also a Railway Museum. Sadly, few of the buildings remain, resulting in many of the Barton and South Notts buses being parked in the open and leading to some deteriorated examples. SCH 117X, the last Fleetline produced, and operated by South Notts, was of particular interest, as this was noted when we visited their depot in 1992. Noted in the garage was PFN 865, ex-Maidstone & District towing bus, which had been restored by our host to pristine condition.

	Amongst the buses on display at the Nottingham Heritage Centre was EOD 524D
	Our transport for the trip into Nottingham, ORC 545P

Unfortunately the Barton Leyland PD2, had sprung a radiator leak, and so DRC 545P, Daimler Fleetline open-topper, was our transport to Nottingham City Centre. This vehicle seemed to cause much interest and amusement to the locals, perhaps as few of this type operate in the area.

A circuit of the town centre enabled a quick estimate of the varied vehicle types. Specially noted was a new Scania /Wright Bendi-bus, and the construction work for the new tram service which is due to open in 2003.

	A small selection of the colourful liveries to be seen in Nottingham. This is Nottingham 668 (Y668 DRA)
	One of the Trent/Barton liveries seen on S166 UAL
	The old Nottingham City Transport livery is still much in evidence, here seen on 457 (S457 ATV)
	A Nottingham Solo in one of the new liveries

Our final visit was to Dunn Line, a large independent operator, who operate a sizeable school yellow bus fleet. Using second-hand Volvo chassis, the vehicles are re-bodied to 68 seaters by Neocar in Macedonia.

	One of Dunn-Lines Macedonia rebodied Volvos HIL 8286
	One of Dunn-Line's deckers E200 WHS
	A recent purchase was this Lynx G118 EOG from Highland Buses

Then back south via the M1, stopping at South Mimms, we arrived back to Kent in good time. Thanks again to our organiser David Cobb for all his hard work in arranging such an enjoyable trip.