CORITANI CAPERS
Leicester area members have again had a full and varied social calendar, and as it is twelve months since I last reported herewith is a brief resume.
First to report is our August 2002 meeting, which was a landmark in itself, our meeting no 250. Appropriately for BaMMOT, Malcolm Keeley was our guest presenter with " Midland Red's Successor Operators".
September 2002 we welcomed back Chris Aston on his 167 mile each way jaunt from Bournemouth. This time we had a presentation of Northeast operators in the 1960s and 1970s. Of particular interest, Chris always seems to conjure up plenty of photos of defunct municipal operators, which itself precipitates a lively discussion. One further aspect of Chris's yearly visit, apart from winning the trophy for the furthest travelled presenter, is that it enables him to see an elderly Aunt in Humberstone, so we are all softies really.
October 2002, we welcomed back Andy Izatt, finding British Buses in Belgium and Holland. A surprising number of UK vehicles, mainly double-decks, are resident in these countries and are used mainly as private hire promotional vehicles. Andy gave us an insight into the various aspects of rules and regulations governing their operation and ownership, maintenance (or otherwise!), all experienced on a recent enthusiasts tour. It did prompt thoughts of extending our own established study tour beyond Leicestershire and its neighbouring counties, however I digress…
November 2002 and we welcomed back Alan Murray-Rust. This time, we had an interesting look back at bus preservation in the seventies. It was quite baffling to wonder why certain vehicles being rallied at the time eventually ended up at the scrap merchants. Plenty of scope for discussion there. Also, an intriguing photograph taken at a rally at Stratford upon Avon, which included an adapted (upwards) minivan being used as an Ice Cream dispensary. As usual with Alan, his shows tend to have a longevity about them and I'm pretty sure this rendition produced the most slides shown in a single morning (do the Greenwood archives record these, Mike?). This aspect was certainly enjoyed by our early morning riser David Pearson.
Mike Fenton was another speaker welcomed back in December and this time gave us a showing of Portugal in the 1970s, again showing plenty of UK built vehicles.
And so to January, our annual quiz and slide shows. Having established the opening times at the local centre, without hiccup this was on the second Saturday in the month (more of that later). The format of the quiz was again changed this year, incredibly to a question, followed by just two answers, the correct one and one wrong one. Interestingly at the half way stage, Dave Pritchard appeared to be in the lead. However, as if to replicate the seaside amusements horse betting game (you know, the one where you insert 10p into one of six horses, you put it on the white horse, it gallops into the lead only to come to a complete stop six inches from the end and gets overtaken by the green horse, blue horse, brown horse, etc), Dave simply had a "Mare" and unfortunately failed to again make the leader board. Simon Gill was this years winner with 42 out of 50 points, closely followed by Adrian Rodgers, Denis Hemsley and Phil Hayman all with 40 points.
The slide competition again provided some very interesting entries, this year's winner being provided by Denis Hemsley of a solemn looking horse dutifully pulling a tram along Douglas promenade in an awful downpour. David Pearson won the print competition with a photo of a Barton Leyland PD1 decker.
The Leicester branch's 2003 Study Tour on 7th June used Confidence Coaches oldest Leyland Atlantean No. 22 (OTO 570M) and also, for the first leg of the Tour, First Leicester's oldest Dennis Dominator No. 78 (A78 FRY) which has since been withdrawn. [Photo: Mike Greenwood]
Trevor Follows gave us his familiar review of local bus and train operations for the past year, in February. He also gave us a look back at local independent operators of the 1980s and it was very interesting to note just how many companies are no longer trading.
In March, we welcomed back another guest speaker, Peter Cordwell. Being brought up in the Liverpool and St Helens area, we were treated to a review of Merseyside developments in the 1970s and 1980s, with Warrington and Widnes in for good measure also.
April saw Andrew Tucker give us some delightful 1970s shots, first of all on home ground, some LCT vehicles and then after our normal coffee break, we ventured to South Wales.
Yours truly gave the May show this year, which was simply show "259" - a lighthearted look at transport. Our meetings are numbered and accordingly the show began with a slide of the current First Leicester 259 and then digressed into trams, open toppers, articulated buses and some 1960s slides on various transport topics.
Also in May, we had one or our convivial skittles evenings, with the usual accompaniment of mushy peas and faggots.
June saw our annual Study Tour, which this year was entitled " In search of the County's independently operated double-deckers". Our chosen mode of transport was Confidence 22, OTO570M, an ex-Nottingham AN68 Atlantean.
Despite the withdrawal of many sister vehicles in the fleet, OTO570M is one of two which are still giving daily service. We also had the chance again to ride on the oldest Dominator still in service with First Leicester, 78 (A78FRY), as far as our first port of call, G H Watts Coaches at Braunstone. This almost certainly will have been the last ride for many of our members on a Dominator still in active service, as all the remaining First Leicester examples are due to have been replaced by second hand vehicles, cascaded from other First group fleets, by the time this article appears. Indeed, shortly after our expedition with 78, I learnt from the voice of Leicester buses himself, John Arnold, that the vehicle had been withdrawn, I think with gearbox failure, and had unceremoniously been dumped at the back of Abbey Park Road depot by mid July. Even within such a short period if time, vandals had already scored a direct hit at one of the side windows. Such a sad demise for the vehicle which was the last of that particular East Lancs body style to be delivered and indeed, amongst the last batch of new vehicles to be delivered to Leicester City Transport, if not the final vehicle itself.
The G H Watts fleet is very well turned out and includes several ex West Midlands Metrobuses. However, the vehicle that caught our eye was a Plaxton bodied Seddon Pennine, XJF130J, which was bought new by the company and is retained for special occasions (mm, I think at this juncture it was pencilled in for the 2004 Study Tour!!).
Our tour also included visits to Fleetline Buses at Thornton, Roberts Coaches at Ellistown and Country Hopper at Ibstock. At the latter's premises, it was nice to see LCT 90 (90 HBC), repatriated to the county by Country Hopper themselves for preservation, having spent many years at a school in Hertfordshire. Plenty of work is needed to restore it to its former glory, but it is in a fairly tidy condition.
July 2003 meeting was number 261 and also marked Mike Greenwood's 250th appearance - the first member to do so. It was the group's second "Bring an Artefact " morning and again no one was disappointed. Amongst the highlights of items on display, Ken Williams brought in an odd looking piece of steelwork that looked either like the handle on a disabled bath or one of the very early mobile phones, or indeed the original used by Alexander Graham Bell. However, he confessed that it was merely the grab handle at the bottom of the staircase on the ex-Western National LD decker UOD500 that he ran many years ago.
Another fascinating display was from new member Ian Dyer. He had just retrieved old photographs and documents that were about to be destroyed at the local council, chiefly concerning Bus Shelters over the last twenty years or so. He went on to describe the bureaucracy that is now in place concerning the current contract in Leicester where all shelters are currently being replaced under a new agreement with JC Decaux.
And finally, we are back to August and the welcome return of Mr.Keeley. This year's offering was a tour around Scotland, covering several decades of change. This covered literally an A to Z, with details of Alexander's split into three regions and the more recent name changes for Glasgow's buses. Apparently, we were informed, it was pure coincidence that in several slides, the driver's name also appeared as the destination.
Thanks go on a continuing basis to Rob Pike for the room hire arrangements and to Phil Hayman for the coffee break logistics (we now enjoy fresh milk, courtesy of Mike Cattell !!), and thanks especially to Mike for arranging such a variety of speakers and the study tour. As mentioned elsewhere in Omnibus, from October 2003, our meetings move to the SECOND Saturday in the month. Hope to see you then!!
Brian Dicks
Chapel Lane, Wythall, Worcs B47 6JX
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