On Saturday 25th
April 2015 the Quorn & Woodhouse station was the venue for the ‘Bus &
Rail Event’ organised by the Leicester Transport Heritage Trust (LTHT) in
association with the Great Central Railway.
It brought together some of the excellently preserved former Leicester
City Transport buses owned by the LTHT as well as a number of superbly
preserved buses representing bus companies associated with the Leicester area
in the past. This video programme
concentrates on the buses that ran in Leicester in the past, and later shows
the current scene as at April 2015.
Our
journey begins
early in the morning at the Quorn & Woodhouse station where we see
a line
up of Leicester City Transport buses and the arrival of some of the
visiting
buses and coaches from fleets such as Mansfield & District, Barton,
Confidence, Midland Red and Trent. Our
first journey from the station is on board Leicester 90 (90 HBC), a
Leyland
PD3A/1 with East Lancs H74F bodywork.
The route takes us to Loughborough, calling at Loughborough Midland
Railway Station and the GCR Loughborough Central Station. On
arrival at the Midland Station we change
vehicles and return to Quorn & Woodhouse on board Leicester 154
(FJF 193),
an all Leyland PD2/1 in the maroon and cream livery used by the company
until
1961, when the mostly cream livery was introduced. From the
oldest Leicester bus on the day, to
the most recent vehicle in preservation attending from the Leicester
fleet, we
join 50 (TBC 50X), a Dennis Dominator DDA142 with East Lancs H76F
bodywork. It is also operating a duty to the two Loughborough
stations, and we are in the company of former Barton 851 (851 FNN), a
Northern Counties
low height AEC Regent V making an interesting comparison. Back at
Quorn & Woodhouse station we take
a short break from the buses as we see Hall class 6960 ‘Raveningham
Hall’
passing through the station, bringing back many memories of steam
locomotives. This locomotive is on loan
from the West Somerset Railway.
Returning to the buses we now board East Lancs bodied AEC Renown 190
(DBC 190C), from 1965 for the journey to the Loughborough stations and
back. Yet another style of bus from the
Leicester fleet with the distinctive sound of the AEC engine that can
easily be
heard as we travel on both saloons to bring back the memories!
Our final journey of the day is aboard 225
(ARY 225K) a single deck Metro-Scania BR111MH seating 44 plus 19
standing. This is operating the Charnwood Forest
Circular Tour, taking in the lovely countryside and villages that
surround
Quorn & Woodhouse. The perfect end
to a perfect day!
For the second part of
our programme we visit Leicester city centre in April 2015 and record the
current bus scene. With locations including
Charles Street, Humberstone Gate, Haymarket and Causeway Lane we see a good
selection of the buses running the former Leicester City Transport and Midland
Red services, now in the hands of Firstbus and Arriva. There are new Enviro 400 double deckers in
both fleets, as well as a number of Arriva refurbished Volvo B7TL/Wrights now
carrying Sapphire branding. First are
still running a number of ALX400s in the old livery, but as you will see, the
new shades are starting to appear! We
hope you enjoy this variety of Leicester buses.