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Your
Webmaster took a bit of a busman's holiday (sorry for the pun!) at Meadowhall
this year by taking along A751NNA, the ex-Manchester Leyland Atlantean
he drives 5 days a week on a school contract for Aston Buses.
'Anna' is seen about to leave Aston's yard in Killamarsh for the journey to Chesterfield to take part in the road run. |
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Four Aston buses line up outside Chesterfield town hall ready for the road run through Sheffield to the Meadowhall shopping complex. First in the queue is Volvo engined Greenway conversion 43, next is 'Anna' the Northern Conties bodied Atlantean, 58 a standard B-series Leyland National 2, and finally Greenway 60 with a Gardner engine and slightly different body style to the Volvo example. |
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43 with National 58 in hot persuit head towards Meadowhall. |
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On arrival all the Aston Buses vehicles were lined up for the photographers. All would take part in the free shuttle service to the Sheffield Bus Museum later in the day. |
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South Yorkshire PTE livery was in evidence on a number of vehicle at this years event. However this ERF tow truck is something of an imposter as it never actually belonged to the PTE. |
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An ex-Barnsley & District Leyland National 2 (now preserved) stands along side a still in service mk 1 example from Bowers Coaches. |
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Bristol REs were also in evidence. On the left is a dual purpose example with coach seating inside a bus body, while on the right is a full service bus specification vehicle with the now rare dual door layout. |
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It's not only buses that show up at Meadowhall. These are just a few of the commercial vehicles on display. |
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A newcomer to the rally scene this year is this SYPTE Dennis Dominator. We now know of at least two of this type of vehicle in preservation, although this is the only one at present to have been repainted back into it's original brown & cream livery. |
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An overview of the rally site, held on the coach park, from the bridge which links it to the shopping mall. |
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A short journey on the free shuttle service brought us to the Sheffield Bus Museum, which occupies part of the historic Tinsley tram sheds. Outside we found this AEC Regent and a more local Atlantean which despite it's Holloways fleet names still retains Sheffield Mainline livery. |
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Inside the museum was Fleetline 836. This is a long term restoration project by the owner of the Dennis Dominator seen earlier. |
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Another SYPTE vehicle is this Fleetline. Despite looking very like a London DMS type, it is actually a clone built to the same design for Sheffield. 1515 ended her service life with Andrews Sheffield Omnibus and is now undergoing bodywork attention (which includes reinstating a centre door) before a full repaint into the increasingly popular brown & cream. |
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Another
bus which should end up brow & cream one day is Ailsa 388. This is
one of the most major of all major restorations, to the point at which
it becomes a very scarry thought indeed!
This is the back end of the bus as it stands at present. Much work has been done but there is much still to do. It will though make a fine vehicle when complete. |
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These two preserved coaches with similar bodies showed the contrasting liveries between the old SUT and the later white of NBC. |
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After my complains last year about there being very few preserved vehicles in SYPTE livery, this year we got no fewer than 4! |
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The two double deckers stand side ny side for the first time in many years with the famous disused cooling towers and Tinsley viaduct in the background. |
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In these days of barbie pink it was good to see this First owned vehicle presented in the old colous of Rotherham Corporation. Has anyone else noticed the similarity of this livery to the Webmaster's preserved Go-Bus 158? |
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Winner of the award for best bus still in service was this brand new decker from Delaine. It just goes to show how much better a bus looks in a well thought out livery. |