The historic city of
Winchester is no stranger to superbly run bus rallies and running days. The event you will see on this DVD programme
is no exception. Planned and managed by
18 year old Daniel Raynor, it has got to be up there with the best! Part of a college course work project, Daniel
and his colleagues organised this Vintage Bus Day. As the title suggests, all the buses featured
in the running day were rear engine buses built from 1960 up to the 1990s. Vehicle types include Bristol RE, Bristol VR,
Leyland Atlantean, Leyland Panther, Leyland National, Leyland Olympian, AEC
Swift, MCW Metrobus and a DAF Optare Spectra.
A total of six services were operated, offering connections with other
services and even the steam trains running on the Watercress Line at Alresford
railway station! This DVD programme also
features the contemporary buses running around Winchester in the shape of Stagecoach
South and Blue Star. Towards
the end of 2015 Stagecoach introduced a new fleet of eighteen Alexander
Dennis Enviro200 MMCs. Painted in a smart metallic purple and champagne livery
they are branded as ‘The King’s City’.
These new buses replaced a number of older ADL E200s and Dennis
Darts. The new buses can be seen
operating their normal duties amongst the excellently preserved buses and
coaches on this Rear Engine Running Day.
Our filming starts at the Broadway in Winchester on a bright and sunny
spring morning, Sunday 13th March 2016. Moving into the bus station we see plenty of
action as the preserved buses pick up their passengers to ride the
services. Our cameras take their first
ride of the day on board former Bournemouth Corporation Leyland
Atlantean, 170 (AEL 170B). Dating from
1964 this lovely bus takes us to Otterbourne and back, where we pass a number
of buses along the way, both preserved and contemporary! From the Broadway we now join former Southdown
Bristol RESL6L, 490 (TCD 490J) for a ride through the Hampshire countryside to
the pretty town of Alresford via Itchen Abbas.
At Alresford we are just in time to see a ‘Schools’ class locomotive
steam into the railway station! Our
cameras now board former Economic (Busways, South Shields) Bristol
RELL6L, 1802 (TRY 118H). This
interesting ECW bodied RE started life with Leicester City Transport as
a dual door example. Later it moved to
Ipswich, before ending up in the north east of England! We journey back to the Broadway via Itchen
Abbas to capture further action before travelling to Winchester railway station. We travel on a Damory Coaches DAF
Optare Spectra, 1655 (R155 NPR) a bus still in everyday service, originating
with Damory Coaches parent company, Wilts & Dorset. This concludes an excellent day and event –
well done Daniel! The next two sections
of this programme take a look at the contemporary bus operations in the
city. Our first visit is in August 2015,
with weekday filming locations in City Road, Jewry Street, St George's Street,
Silver Hill and the Broadway. Stagecoach
and Blue Star are the main providers of the services. Our next visit is a week after the Running
Day, in March 2016. Here we catch up
with the weekday operations in similar locations, but add the bus station for
extra interest. Here we see ‘The
King’s City’ vehicles in service alongside ALX400 and E400 double deckers
and some elderly Volvo Olympians! To
keep our theme going, they all have rear engines! Enjoy.