THE M & D AND EAST KENT BUS CLUB
The Thames Wanderer 15th July 2000
Tour report by Ken
Lansdowne
Photographs by Ken
Lansdowne
Our vehicle for the day, New Enterprise 2902
(J 36 GCX) took us from the Medway towns to our first stop of the day in
Reading. An early arrival meant that our guide round Reading Transport's new
depot had not arrived, so we made the short walk into the town centre to see
members of the fleet in service, including the Routemasters in their last week
in use, plus a wide selection of Optare products. In addition to Reading
Transport a number of First Beeline and Tillingbourne buses were seen,
including the RailAir link coaches in FirstGroup Barbie livery and the Park
& Ride Scania L94UBs in Arriva colours!
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One of Reading
Transport's Routemasters XVS830 in service on route F |
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Reading
Transport have a large number of Optare buses in service, including this Solo
113 (V113DCF) |
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Reading
Transport 84 (D84UTF), an ECW bodied Leyland Olympian |
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One of
First Beeline's Rail Air coaches, T703JLD a Plaxton bodied Volvo B10M-55 |
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In a
livery more familiar with Arriva than FirstGroup is First Beeline V829FSC, a
Wright bodied Scania L94UB |
Back at the depot we were shown recent
arrivals from Cardiff, Excels 946-50 and a new Solo for Newbury Bus, together
with a number of other buses and coaches from the fleet.
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Inside the immaculately
clean workshop is Leyland Titan RMO79Y |
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Olympian
13 (E913DRD) and Spectra 703 (K703BBL) at rest in the depot |
Our next visit was to Chiltern Queens at
Woodcote where a selection of older coaches and minibuses from the fleet were
seen.
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Our tour
coach, New Enterprise 2902 (J36GCX) outside Chiltern Queens garage |
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MUD 25W,
a Leyland Leopard School Bus inside Chiltern Queens garage |
On to our main destination for the day at
Oxford we arrived at Oxpens Coach Park to find it full, a treat for the
coachspotters amongst us. We had a couple of hours in Oxford, giving people
plenty of time to photograph the two main operators Oxford Bus and Stagecoach
Oxford, plus the open-top buses from Guide Friday and Lothian Transport. Of
particular interest were the new Park & Ride Dennis Tridents and the
numerous route-branded vehicles of both main operators.
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One of Oxford Buses
Dennis Tridents used on Park & Ride services, 103 (T103DBW) |
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Oxford
Bus Volvo B10B 617 (N617FJO) with branding for route X3 |
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Stagecoach
Oxford 941 (S941CFC) with route branding for the Blackbird Leys service. It
is unusual to see Stagecoach vehicles in anything other than standard Stagecoach
livery |
Our last visit was to the Oxford Bus Museum
at Hanborough where a selection of vehicles, mostly from City of Oxford Motor
Services, were on display. Other exhibits included Chiltern Queens EUD 256K
which was used on a previous Club tour, ex East Kent UKE 830X plus Bristol VRT
VTV 172S which featured in the Spice Girls film!
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EUD256K
formerly with Chiltern Queens is now preserved at the Oxford Bus Museum |
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One of a
number of City of Oxford Motor Services vehicles at the museum, AEC Regent
956AJO |
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Bristol
VRT VTV172S, as featured in the film Spice World |
Thanks to David Cobb for organising another
interesting tour and to our driver for the day Gerald who made sure we ran to
time.