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And some of the visitors, starting with the older buses…..

A 1950 Bedford OB, bought new by the Woolacoombe & Morthoe Motor Company.  Company names were far more interesting in the olden days!

1936 Leyland Tiger TS7, in North Western livery.

Guy Arab Mk III, the standard Southampton Corporation Transport double decker of the 1950s.

Southdown 1956 Guy Arab IV.

A Portsmouth 1959 Leyland Titan PD3/6.

1955 Beadle Rochester C41C.

Wilts & Dorset 1995 Optare Vectra B42F.

1990 Dennis Dart.

This 1967 Bristol Lodekka started life with Brighton, Hove & District, with a roof on.

1999 Dennis Dart SLF had a number of owners before Southdown.

1979 MCW Metrobus DR102/8 ended its career in Reading.

1976 Leyland National 11.3m operated for various companies around Guildford.

City of Southampton Leyland Atlantean.

Not sure about this one, except for the operator!

Bournemouth Volvo B7TL East Lancs Vyking VLA427.

Leyland Tiger, new to Southdown in 1984.

And two modern Hampshire Bus vehicles to finish.

Looking at the history of all these buses, many of them have worked for several operators, sometimes due to takeovers, but sometimes just sold on to another company.

A few weeks ago (May 6 to be exact) Allan visited the King Alfred Running Day in Winchester.  King Alfred buses were a family firm that ran services around Winchester from 1922 till 1973, when they were taken over by Hants and Dorset.  Today I’ll post pictures of the buses owned by the Friends of King Alfred Buses.

RU 8678 – A 1929 Leyland Lion, new to Hants & Dorset in 1929.

Dennis 6 – This Dennis 30CWT was new in 1931 and was used to transport troops in Winchester.

Again on the small side, the 8 seat Bedford CA minibus.  Room for one more on top?

The delightful Albion Victor built in 1935.

POU 494 is a 1956 East Lancs Leyland Titan PD2.

One of two preserved, 595 LCG is a Park Royal bodied AEC Renown built in 1964.  It’s twin, 596, is in Hants and Dorset colours.

More up-to-date was this  1970 Leyland Panther.

On show for the first time was this 30-year restoration project, an all-Leyland PD2/1 dating from 1950.  All the King Alfred originals were scrapped around 1970.  So they have recreated this bus from the wrecks of two Isle of Man Road Service Titans.

A Silver Star Leyland Atlantean.  Next post will be some more visiting vehicles.

And another repost, describing the authentic smells of Old Hong Kong!

Hong Kong – Pig Train memories

Browsing around the internet I found a picture that brought back not entirely pleasant memories.  It’s 1984, and you are standing on the subterranean platform at Mong Kok, first station up the line from the Hung Hom, Kowloon, terminus of the Kowloon-Canton Railway.  There’s a rumbling noise very different from the usual electric multiple unit as something else approaches.  Your two-year old daughter covers holds her nose.

Yes, it’s the PIG TRAIN

This picture by David Barth brought back unpleasant memories.  A pretty normal stock car, but it’s full of pigs.  Pigs do smell.  Lots of pigs in a small space smell worse.  A train of terrified pigs heading for the Mong Kok government abattoir is an olfactory assault of the first order.  The smell was overwhelming, and it lingered for a good 15 minutes or so after the train passed by.

Pig wagon (Photo by David Barth http://barthworks.com/index.htm)

It really wasn’t the same when the HK Government moved the abattoir to Shueng Shui and the pigs came a short distance over the border by truck.  After all, HK still needed a lot of pork each day!

This second picture shows the goods side of Hung Hong terminus.  I never tried to explore this area when I lived there 1984-85, so it’s good to see the photograph.  There’s an interesting collection of rolling stock, including some (then) modern refrigerated wagons in the foreground.  Good memories of an interesting time in my career.

Hung Hom station, 1984 (Phot by David Barth http://barthworks.com/index.htm)

I’m out of circulation for a few days, so I thought that I’d repost some more Hong Kong pictures, this time from 2015.  Here are a few more of those colourful trams.

Hong Kong – Tram Jam

Today’s title is blatently stolen from an excellent 1984 collection of photographs of trams in HK.  It tended towards the artistic, rather than the boring railway enthusiast album, but was none the worse for that.  (And it is still available second-hand from Amazon UK.)

What do you call a group of trams?  You have a flock of sheep, a pride of lions, and delightfully, a charm of goldfinches.  In Hong Kong at least I suggest a “kaleidoscope of trams”.  On New Year’s Day I travelled down to HK Island from Kwun Tong to meet my old work colleague Peter Stuckey for dinner.  I was a little early and caught the last of the light to snap this procession of trams on Johnson Road (next to the prosaically named ‘Southorn Playground’.)  However, there were none of the new-build trams amongst them.

We then had an excellent meal (as below).  Fried fish with egg and sweetcorn, tofu and greens and the ever reliable sweet and sour pork.  Followed by a cup of coffee at the base of Hopewell Centre, where we had worked on the 51st floor through the 1980’s.