Each page has a different colour scheme which is supposed to be reminiscent of some bus or coach company from the era, and this one is meant to represent Western and Southern National. As a result of this arrangement, some of the pages are hard to read, and some will scramble your brain. Hopefully you'll manage.

Dick's interest in British buses began in the late 1950s and early 1960s, and the buses and coaches that were around then are all classics now. It was an interesting period, when there were still pre-war and wartime utility machines about (although mostly on the point of retirement), and a large number of half-cab vehicles that had been built immediately after the war. At the same time, new products like the Leyland Atlantean, AEC Regent V, and a host of then modern coach designs (Plaxton Panorama, Harrington Cavalier, Weymann Fanfare etc.) were appearing. It was a transitional period when vehicles from the 1930s, 1940s, 1950s and 1960s could all be seen in use at the same time.

Having been born in south London, London Transport was the first operator that he lived with, then his family moved to Sussex and he grew up with Southdown, Maidstone and District, East Kent, and the municipal fleets of Eastbourne and Brighton, as well as the large number of excursion coaches that used to visit the south coast every summer.

In the early 1960s he used to make trips to London to visit Victoria Coach Station, or see the last of the London Transport trolleybuses, or the last halfcab single deckers (TDs). Unfortunately, although he saw what he went to see, most of the photographs he took are not particularly brilliant, or have been lost. However there are some black and white pictures taken at Victoria Coach Station, London, and in Sussex between 1960 and 1962 which are barely reasonable, and some of them appear around this site. Here's one:

This was taken at The Crumbles, Eastbourne, in the summer of 1962, where Claude Lane was running the narrow gauge Eastbourne Tramway (now moved to Seaton, Devon). He had used this ex Lincolnshire Road Car Leyland KPZ01 Cub as a lorry in the past, and it was left to rot outside his depot. New in May 1937 it was FW 8855, originally fleet number LC502, one of 30 delivered that year with Brush B20F bodies. It is possible that someone might rescue it these days, if it was still about.

It's all for fun, so relax and have a wistful rummage through the scrapbook. If you weren't around in the 1960s (and they say that, if you were, you won't remember it) then these pages might provide an insight into the variety of some of the glamorous machines that could be seen on British streets at the time.

Please call back from time to time, as changes are taking place here all the time, and let me know if you spot a mistake somewhere - I do try to keep things pretty accurate. I know that there are some real boffins out there, and I need you to tell me when something is inaccurate, or if you have additional data or photographs. So welcome to the site, browse around and make yourself at home. For 2024 additional pages are planned, including more of the Malta photo pages, and perhaps other topics too.

MAIN AREAS OF THE WEBSITE

• A complete guide to all the photographs on the three sites.
• The HOMEPAGE
• Classified Adverts  
• Links to other Classic Bus Websites
• Events List (your rally diary)
• Rally reports
• News and Mail Page 1 and Page 2 and Page 3
• Surviving Single-deck Halfcabs list
• Surviving Double-deckers converted to single-deck service vehicles
• Surviving single-deck halfcabs abroad, based on an exported British chassis
• Surviving double-deck halfcabs abroad, based on an exported British chassis
• Surviving trolleybuses abroad, based on an exported British chassis
• Vintage bus tickets
• Free downloadable classic bus and coach paper models
• The Preservation scene in 1961