2013 Review

2013 is over and it was a very busy year for us here at Southampton & District Transport Heritage Trust. One big thing we’ve done in 2013 is launch into social media and what a success it’s been. This blog was the first stage of the social media launch way back in early April. Since then we’ve published 13 posts and this is the 14^th. The blog covers what happens behind the scenes at S&DTHT with things we get up to and our trip to Northern France where we found ex Southampton bus 314 still surviving.

Late April saw the launch of our Facebook and Twitter pages and both have proven more useful than ever expected. When we started the Facebook page we thought we would get about 30/40 likes but as we post this blog it’s up to the amazing figure of 250 likes; something we never thought we would reach so soon after launching Facebook and we are ecstatic. Aside from this, we have found Facebook very useful as we can post some of our archive pictures and have people reminisce about the bygone era. When we posted an archive picture for Memory Monday it reached over 8,000 people after being shared many times. Events we are going to can also be posted on Facebook and Twitter to keep our followers up to date with information. Twitter has also hit around 100 followers; we like to post different things on Twitter from time to time that's a little bit different from the stuff that is posted on Facebook. Our last launch was our Flickr Group which was started to get as many pictures of buses from the Southampton area and also the local area in one group as possible. There is also some other pictures of other transport-related pictures in the group from the trams and Floating Bridge. The group now has over 1800 pictures in it.

 

(Our Facebook Page)

Our buses themselves have been very busy in 2013, attending over 20 events from the free bus service at the Solent Model Railway Show at Eastleigh in February to the very busy Maritime Festival in May, and then the Southampton Running Day in September. 2013 has seen some different events and we’ve enjoyed them all, despite often being some very cold days and then very hot ones. Behind the scenes work is carried out most weeks at our base in ‘Mini Portswood’ where our store has been sorted out so we know what spares we have. Progress has been made on our next project and we hope to have more news on our next project very soon.

(Running Day in September) 

So what has 2014 got in store? Well the first event we will be at is the last Friends of King Alfred Buses Running Day in Winchester. A very popular event for the start of the year but due to redevelopment that's due to be taking place soon in Winchester the organisers have taken the decision that 2014 will be the last New Year’s Day running day in Winchester. 1 – JOW 499E & 432 – NLP 389V will both be at the event on the Park & Ride service and 402 – KOW 910F will be on static display. We are planning on attending a variety of different events in 2014 like we have done in 2013, and we hope to have a list available soon of which events we will be at.

Finally, we would like to thank you all for reading our Blog, liking us on Facebook, following us on Twitter and being part of our group on Flickr. It truly does mean a lot to us and we look forward to welcoming you on our buses in 2014. From all at S&DTHT, Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

How did we end up in Northern France?

The story of why four bus enthusiasts from Southampton travelled to Northern France started in September 2013, when at the monthly meeting of the Trust one of our members Paul said whilst on a shipping holiday in Northern France he thought he saw what looked like an old Southampton bus being used as a pizza bar. Sadly it was not open when he was there but he noted down its chassis number; that being 2D3RA1052. After some research by Tom it was traced to 314 – 314 AOW which was last known to have gone to France in April 1976 to Hotel Cristal in St. Etienne.

(314 - 314 AOW in Southampton City Centre)

Luckily Paul had taken some photos of the bus and once they were developed more information about its use was able to be found and it turned out to be used by Popote Urbaine which in English means Urban Meals. Due to a number of reasons it was kept quiet that 314 was still going strong in Northern France and a trip was planned for the end of November where the four would visit the bus in Northern France. Contact was made with the owner of 314 where we surprised them with the information that the bus they were using was originally from Southampton.
 

On Saturday 30^th November the trip to see 314 started early and the first stage was to travel from Southampton to the port of Dover to catch the P&O ferry to Calais. Arriving in Dover early just before 9am, we were lucky to be able to get on an earlier ferry as originally we weren’t going to leave England until 10:15. We were quickly loaded onto the P&O Spirit of France ferry and left at 9:25am. Due to the difference in time zones we arrived in France at around 12am (11am GMT) and made our way through Calais to where 314 was located.

One thing that is very different when driving in France in comparison to driving in England is that we were driving on the wrong side of the road to what we are used to. As we left Calais; making sure of course we were driving on the right side of the road, we pulled over for a quick break and to call the owner of 314 so when we arrived at the location there was someone there to meet us. As we drove through the French countryside we arrived at the city where we needed to be. Making our way through the city we found 314 in a car park alongside the docks.

(314 - 314 AOW in 2013)

After a few months when 314 was found, we had made it to her and finally met her owner Jess whom we had been in contact with. Jess allowed us to have a good look at 314 which is in remarkably good condition. A lot of work has been done to make it a pizza bus but there are still bits in her from when she was a bus in Southampton. Downstairs is used as the cooking area and upstairs is used as a seating area. We presented the owner with an original number plate 314 AOW. During our time in the city we enjoyed a meal and then started the long trip home to Southampton. A quick stop was had in Calais for some duty free, and again we were lucky to catch an earlier ferry and arrived back in England just before 6:00pm. Sadly there are no plans to bring 314 back to Southampton at the moment as it's owner is very happy with it. More information about 314 can be found Here.

 

(Tom and Charnie present Jess with an original number plate)