King Alfred Running Day 2019
The 2019 early May
Bank Holiday yet again brought out the King Alfred buses onto the streets of
Winchester for another enjoyable Running Day organised by the ‘Friends of King
Alfred Buses’ (FoKAB). As in recent years
the independent transport videos cameras were on hand, bright and
early, to record the action of the day for you to enjoy!
Our filming begins on the Broadway as the
King Alfred and other visiting buses start their duties for the day. Like at last years running day the remodelled
bus station was not in use for the event.
King Alfred buses used the Broadway as usual, but the country bus
services departed from St George’s Street outside the M&S store, or from
the Cattle Market near to the railway station where there was a good display of
preserved buses. As on our previous video programmes we have filmed at a number
of locations around the city. These
include the Broadway, Eastgate Street, North Walls, Andover Road and City Road
junction, Worthy Lane and the Cattle Market. Our cameras also took up positions
in Jewry Street and St George’s Street to give you the best coverage of the
buses and coaches in action as they bring alive days gone by in this
picturesque Hampshire city. A good
variety of buses and coaches were attending the event. Chassis types include AEC, Bedford, Bristol,
Dennis, Foden, Guy and Leyland. A good
variety of operators were also represented, including Aldershot & District,
Hants & Dorset, Hants & Sussex, Mervyn’s Coaches, Southdown, Brighton
Hove & District, Portsmouth Corporation and Crosville to name but a
few! A recent repaint from the King
Alfred fleet was AEC Renown 595 LCG, now smartly turned out in the NBC livery
of poppy red with a white band and sporting Hants & Dorset fleet names,
numbered 2212. This is to mark the 50th
anniversary of the formation of the National Bus Company and 30 years since 596
came back to Winchester from the USA to be restored by FoKAB. Another vehicle attending in the same livery
was former Hants & Dorset Bristol FLF Lodekka 1254 (KRU 224F). This FLF has recently received a Gardner
engine, replacing its former worn-out Bristol BVW unit. It is also special in that it has
semi-automatic transmission (Hants & Dorset operated 22 similar FLFs with
either Bristol or Leyland engines), the last one delivered to Hants & Dorset
being 1577 (LLJ 443F), which was also seen in service at the event wearing
Tilling green livery. This bus received
a Gardner 6LXB engine in place of its original Leyland unit when operating with
Stagecoach in Scotland after its career on the south coast. You can see the driver in action, as we have
put a camera in the cab of 1254 as we travel from St Catherine’s park &
ride, through the Broadway to the Cattle Market on this superbly turned out
Bristol Lodekka.
As you will see on this
programme there is a vast variety of buses on show and in service at this very
enjoyable event. A big thank you to the
organisers and drivers and we hope that you enjoy this great reminder of the
day.