It may be wet but there's still plenty to do...

We’re just over a month into 2014 and it’s already been a busy few weeks behind the scenes here at S&DTHT. Planning is well underway for 2014 with many events being planned and dates confirmed.

 

Our first event was on the very first day of the year, where we went to Winchester for the first event of the year; that being the Friends of King Alfred Buses running day. Sadly 2014 was to be the last one to be held on New Year’s Day as Fokab are going to try something different in 2015. As always we went along and this year it was a very good one. We took 1 - JOW 499E to the event and it was used on the park and ride service from St Catherine's site to the City Centre. 432 – NLP 389V was also due to attend the event but due to continued electrical problems it was decided to leave her at home. Over the day we carried 360 people on the service, and despite the poor weather we had a good time.

 (No. 1 waits at St Catherine's Park & Ride site)

The next event we will be at is the free shuttle bus to the Solent Model Railway Group's Annual show at Fleming Park in Eastleigh. This is another event we’ve been doing for many years and is always a good one to attend. The bus is always well used and last year was a particularly busy year with around 300 journeys on the bus. The route starts at the show at Fleming Park and then heads into Eastleigh for its first stop at Eastleigh Railway Station, before heading down Southampton Road towards Southampton Airport Parkway. Here it turns around and heads back via Chestnut Avenue to the show. It's a simple route that only takes about 20 minutes to complete. For a few years 71 – LOW 217 was used on the service but last year a change was had when the new boy on the preservation scene 1 – JOW 499E was used. following its recent return back to the road after 20 years. Once again, 1 – JOW 499E will be used on the service for this year.

 

(Timetable for the Model Railway Show)

 

Our Facebook Page is still going from strength to strength with nearly 300 likes! Something we never thought would happen when we set it up just under a year ago. The page gives us the ability to share news, events and pictures from our archives, as well as raise awareness of the Trust on a much larger scale than ever before. Another of our social media outlets is our Flick Group which now has over 2000 pictures of Southampton and the local area's buses from over the years - well worth a browse if you've a few minutes to spare. Also our Twitter page is growing well. If you are on any of the platforms we mention and you don’t like us or follow us already then please feel free to do so and let your friends know about us as well.

There’s been plenty going on behind the scenes as planning is well underway with organising events and shows we hope to attend later on in the year. This year we are hoping to attend a few different events than we usually attend. For details on events we're currently planning on going to, check out our 2014 Events Page on the website. For various reasons some of the events listed may be subject to change at any time, or additional events might be added, so it's worth having a quick look every so often to keep up to date.

Work has also started on a new project as well and we hope to bring you some more news on this project soon, so keep an eye on our Facebook and Twitter pages in the coming weeks and months, where we'll be giving details in the future.

Guest Blog: A Southampton Bus Tour 2

Just one day after the start of the new year, Website Manager Tom Lingwood and Website Editor Steven Briers wasted no time in making the most of Southampton's buses once again as they embarked on their second bus tour of the city and its surrounding areas, and as they both explain, their day saw a few interesting surprises.

Anyone who has kept an eye on events in the bus world in our area will know that a lot has changed in recent months in terms of routes, frequencies and vehicles themselves. Among them include the introduction of brand new buses for Unilink and Bluestar 1 (more of which later); the introduction of new routes (and the withdrawal of old ones), and more buses than ever operating on Boxing Day and New Years Day. To encapsulate some of these changes, we decided to have a second bus tour, following on from our last one in May last year, with the main intention of going on routes that had changed (or were due to change) in some way. Here is what happened.

Our first leg of our journey involved the First 13 from Burgoyne Road in Thornhill to Central Station. One of the first surprises we encountered was on the bus shelter, where we saw a piece of history in the most unlikely of places. Along the top of the shelter, underneath where a bus flag had been attached previously, were faded remnants of the original Solent Blue Line logo, of which there are a small handful still around in certain places, so this wasn't too much of a surprise. What did amaze us was that underneath this, again faded and extremely worn, was the original sticker for Hampshire Bus when they operated in the 1980's (picture below).

(The bus stop in Burgoyne Road

 

The route 13 now no longer serves Thornhill and instead terminates in Harefield, reinstating the loop around Moorhill Road and West End Road that was once done by the 4 when it served the area a whole 8 years ago. For this reason, we made this a must on our tour. One of London's former double deckers (32256 - LT52 WWB) did the honours and it was a pleasant journey all round. Thankfully the roadworks by Itchen Bridge caused no delay; something we feared because of our tight schedule.

From Central Station it was straight on to a route which is now sadly history; First's service 10 to Totton College. As this was the last chance to ride the route, we chose to do the whole length of it (excluding the short section from Vincent's Walk to Central Station). Again a double decker in the form of 37165 - HY07 FSX (one of the batch of 5 introduced in Southampton as brand new in 2007 for the then 8/8A route), we sat on the top and enjoyed the variety of landscapes that the route went through, from the quiet residential Luccombe Road in Upper Shirley, to the busy General Hospital, through to the extremely busy Redbridge Flyover. Alighting at Totton College, our next step was to wait for the first of 3 Bluestar buses in our trip.

(37165 - HY07 FSX)

 

The 11 was our next port of call and once it had completed its loop of West Totton, it arrived (3414 - NK04 FPA; previously one of the many Cadets that operated the 18 for so long). Reminiscing about the times that these buses were on the 18, it wasn't long until we arrived at West Quay. Tom spotted across the road the recently started Velvet 300 to Ringwood, and was keen to take the potential opportunity for a photo, but time was against us so we had to leave it this time. More important things awaited us; namely lunch.

Walking up Above Bar Street Tom quickly saw something that we simply couldn't miss the chance of experiencing. One of the brand new buses for the Bluestar 1 pulled up to the bus stop as we passed, and we decided in less than a second that we had to ride it; even if it was only to London Road to get our lunch. Nonetheless we were impressed by what we saw; even the standard "No Smoking" sign on the bus intrigued us as it also mentioned the banning of electronic cigarettes. How times have changed. After a quick bite to eat we headed back into the centre of town on a U1C (again one of the newest of buses in the Southampton area), and then it was a very quick visit to the First Travel Shop for a new timetable booklet before boarding our next bus.

Our next destination was Romsey, but via the newish W1 from Wheelers; one of the newest operators on the scene. This was one of the key routes of our tour, and everything else we did centred round the inclusion of this, as it was a route we have been keen to sample since it was registered on VOSA. The journey was pleasant and timely, and looked like it was quite popular amongst the public from what we observed, although admittedly after it had left Chilworth we had no idea where we were going. This remained the situation until we reached Romsey Bus Station. It was a minute or so before this that Tom saw another unique opportunity.

(AE56 MDJ & SF08 ROU at Romsey Bus Station)


 

It was a race against time as we stepped off the W1 and ran to the back of the queue to make sure we definitely boarded the Bluestar 4 that was loading at the stand. We agreed that we simply could not afford to miss riding it, as it turned out to be not a Bluestar bus, but a Unilink double decker (1198 - HF58 GZN). This is an extreme rarity, as the route is nearly always Citaro-operated. A massive photo opportunity indeed. Our journey was to Lordshill (in an extremely heavy downpour), to meet our final bus and our final journey of the day.

Stopping briefly in Sainsbury's for refreshments, we made the perilous journey in the pouring rain and wind to the bus stop for the First 3 (rebranded as "the three" shortly before Christmas). For this reason, we were extremely keen to ride one of the newly refurbished vehicles (recently transferred to Southampton from Portsmouth where they would be found on the Zip services to Waterlooville and Clanfield etc.). The weather was dire, it was getting dark, and rush hour was looming, but we were in luck. Taking the risk to not board the 3 that was actually waiting at the bus stop when we arrived (due to its lack of red livery), it wasn't long until what would be the next bus pulled up on the opposite side of the road, and to our delight it was a freshly branded one. A minute or so on and the 3 we could have boarded departed and we excitedly waited the 10 minutes until the next one was due to leave. When it did we were nothing short of impressed, and we had a lovely (reasonably traffic free to our surprise) journey back to Thornhill.

 

(69401 - HY09 AZG with it's new look)

 

All in all we had a great day. The weather was rubbish but it didn't matter; we achieved all we wanted to and more. We now need to come up with some more ideas for our next one, which we are looking at doing in the summer maybe. Who knows, maybe the weather will be nice too?

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)

The trip overseas

Our last trip out for 2013 was our usual trip to the Isle of Wight Bus Museum in Newport on the island. The trip to the island is very different to any other bus rally as a ferry trip is needed to get to the island.

This year may have been the last rally at their site in Newport as they hope to move to Ryde to a former bus depot which will gave them more opportunities than their present site in Newport. The morning of Sunday 20^th started at our yard (‘Mini Portswood’) where 289 – E289 HRV and 402 – KOW 910F were started and got ready for the trip, and it was just after 8:45am the bus left the yard and headed into town and picked up a few members and friends en route. Arriving at the ferry port at around 9:30am there was time for those who needed to get a ticket to get one and then it was time to be loaded onto the ferry. The ship for our crossing to the island was the Red Falcon. The crossing takes an hour so there was enough time for a coffee and time to relax. As one of our members works for Red Funnel, we were treated to a visit to the bridge, where the captain talked about how the ship moves and different aspects of crossing the Solent.

 

(289 at Yarmouth Bus Station)

 

Arriving on the island just after 11am we made our way to the bus rally in Newport. The quayside was full of buses, and some were on display, while others were operating service to various parts of the island. 402 was on display and 289 was used in service to Yarmouth. 289 itself has not returned from having a new engine fitted and there are still a few jobs left to do but for the time being 289 is fine to use. One job that is hoped to be carried out over the winter is to fix the electronic number destination blind that it has, and a general tidy up will also be carried out. The trip home started at 2:30pm when we left the rally site and headed for the ferry home. A good day was had by all and next year the trip to the island may be to the new museum at Ryde and we wish all involved in the move good luck.

 

(289 & 402 arrive home seen coming of Red Eagle)

Time flies when you're having fun...

So it’s been over 2 months since we lasted updated our blog and the last two months have been a busy couple. Because of this we've not had much time to update our blog, so here’s a look at what we’ve been up to and a sneaky peek at what's coming up next year:

Back in our last blog we mentioned about the Running Day that was taking place on Sunday 8^th September in Southampton; the event which was organised by one of our members Phil Blair of PB Bus Marketing. The event saw 8 Southampton buses running different routes that went via Portswood. Another 7 buses ran on the event, and a wonderful day was had by all. In total £500 was raised for Naomi House Hospice and Jack's Place at Sutton Scotney. Thank you to all who donated.

(Buses in Pound Tree Road on Running Day)

 

The following weekend (Saturday 14^th and Sunday 15^th September) saw another buses weekend; that being the Heritage Open Weekend, which sees heritage venues open to the public. This included the SS-Shieldhall which is located in Dock Gate 4 in the City and not normally open to the public. 1 – JOW 499E was used on the shuttle on the Saturday, the Southampton Tram Group and Dunkirk Little Ships were also open on the Saturday. 71 – LOW 217 was used on a City Tour from Tudor House and stopped off at different places around the City Centre where a talk was given about the different locations where the bus was stopping. Places that the bus stopped were the Titanic Engineers Memorial, SeaCity Museum and various other locations.  71 – LOW 217 was used on the free shuttle on the Sunday. It’s hoped that both the tour and shuttle bus to S.S Shieldhall, Southampton Tram Group and Dunkirk Little Ships may return in the future.

(1 - JOW 499E & 71 - LOW 217 in Dock Gate 4)

An annual event we do is provide a free bus service from Alton Railway Station on the Mid-Hants Railway to Jane Austen’s House in Chawton. This year 71 – LOW 217 was used on Sunday 29th September on the service. The vintage bus service is operated by our friends at Medstead Depot Omnibus Group, who are one of three groups under the Working Omnibus Museum Project Ltd, and some of the fleet is stored at the depot. On Saturday 5^th and Sunday 6^th October 432 – NLP 389V was out and about; this time back home from when it was in service with First in Cosham but this time it was used on a free service from Cosham Bus Station to North Harbour where our friends at the Fareham and District Model Railway Club were holding their annual show. There is just time for our last trip of the year and we're off to the Isle of Wight for the annual Isle of Wight Bus Museum Running Day. This is one of our favourite events of the year, and this year it’s hoped that 289 – E289 HRV & 402 – KOW 910F will attend the event.

 

(432 - NLP 389V at 1000 North Harbour)

 

The last few months has seen our storage area tidied up and sorted out as it was getting a bit messy. 367 – BTR 367B has also been raised up onto blocks so the gearbox can be removed and fixed. It's hoped that 367 will be back on the road early next year ready for the 2014 season. We’re already planning for next year some dates for your diary: 1st January 2014 is the Friends of King Alfred Running Day in Winchester and Saturday 22^nd and Sunday 23^rd February will see the annual free bus service for the Solent Model Railway Show at Fleming Park, Eastleigh. This is the service that stops at Eastleigh Train Station and Southampton Airport Parkway, running every 30 minutes throughout the day. A few other new things will also be launched in 2014 so be sure to look out for them. Over the next coming months on this blog we will be looking back at how the S&DTHT website started and will have some guest blogs as well. Thanks for reading our blog and for your continued support.  

A Summer Summary

The summer is in full swing and we have been very busy over the last month or so attending rallies, moving buses and enjoying the hot weather. Take a moment to read what we've been up to.

The first bus rally we went to was the Alton Bus Rally and Running Day held at Anstey Park in Alton. We went along with 133 – TTR 167H and were also joined by 271 – FTR 271X & 361 - BTR 361B of the 393 peservation group. We left ‘Mini Portswood’ in convoy just after 9am and headed north toward Winchester and in an effort to save some time we decided to take a trip up the motorway. We arrived at the rally site just before 10:30am. A number of other ex-Southampton buses were also at the rally; them being 318 – 318 AOW, 353 - 373 FCR and 403 - ALD 993B. So in total there were 6 ex-Southampton buses at the rally on show. 133 was not in service until later  so there was plenty of time to enjoy some of the other buses at the rally and take a look at the numerous stalls. After spending most of the morning looking around the stalls and talking to a number of friends, it was time to take 133 out for a trip. The trip would be to Medstead and Four Marks Railway Station, with a quick stop at Alton Railway Station, which is around 7 miles altogether. 133 was full for the trip, which was pleasing to see. After returning to the rally site it was time to head back to ‘Mini Portswood’. 133 performed remarkably well all day. 133 has since been withdrawn from the road as it's due its M.O.T in a few weeks. 

  

 

Sunday 4th August saw the Provincial Society Bus Rally at Stokes Bay in Gosport. 432 – NLP 389V would return home to where it operated for a few years. 402 – KOW 410F, along with 271 – FTR 271X and 361 – BTR 361B of the 393 peservation group. would also attend the rally. This would be the first time in a few years that four buses went to a rally together. At one stage it was planned to take six buses but due to 133 – TTR 167H needing pre-M.O.T work and 1 – JOW 499E having been out and about a lot this year after returning to the road late last year it was decided to let it have a rest and just take the four. We left ‘Mini Portswood’ just after 9am and the first stop was for fuel, but then it was quickly onto the motorway and down to Gosport for the rally. All four buses were parked up together on the rally site, which as can be seen below made for a wonderful photo opportunity. 432 – NLP 389V and 402 – KOW 410F were used in service from the rally site to Gosport Bus Station, running passengers back and forth between the two destinations throughout the day. After returning from Gosport Bus Station on its last run 432's charging light, which had caused it many problems for most of the year had come back on. As a result, 432 was switched off so an investigation could be carried out under the bus, but nothing was found. So it was decided to turn it back on but it wouldn’t start and after scratching heads and help from others at the rally it was finally found that one of the relays was not working properly. After playing around with the relay, 432 fired back into life and headed back home. 

 

 

432 – NLP 389V has been off the road most of this year suffering from electrical problems. which the team have been working to resolve, and a number of tests were done to find out what the problem was. It was thought that the starter motor was the problem so that was removed and it was then found that a number of other items needed to be replaced. The starter motor was then refitted to the bus but the electrical problem continued. The problem that it was causing was the charging light would not turn off after a few minutes. So next the alternator was removed and sent off to Leyland to be repaired. Once at the repairers it was found that it would be best that a replacement alternator was put onto the bus as the old one was in need of a lot of work. A few days later the replacement alternator arrived and was fitted. After being laid up with the electrical problem and a replacement alternator being fitted, 432 was finally fired into life, and after a few moments the charging light went out. 432 was then taken for a spin around the yard to make sure everything else was ok and thankfully it was. Whilst being off the road 432's M.O.T ran out. So an M.O.T was booked and on Thursday 1st August, 432 was taken to I M services for it to be carried out, and it passed, meaning it was back on the road and ready to head off to the Provincial Society Bus Rally at Stokes Bay in Gosport. 432 spent some time in the Gosport area before being retired from service in June 2004 after mechanical problems.

 

A number of other buses have been moved around. This has included 222 – GTR 484 which has been bought by member of the Trust. 222 needs to be restored as it was unfortunately damaged in a fire some years ago. 222 was first brought back to  Southampton a few years ago by Phil Blair of PB Bus Marketing, who planned to restore it but due to other projects 222 was put up for sale. In July, 222 was moved from where it had been stored in Eastleigh to South East Coachworks in Faversham, Kent, where work would start on the next stage of restoration. 289 – E289 HRV, which has been on loan to Xelabus has also been off the road due to needing a new engine after the old one blew up. It has since received a new engine, which was fitted at Brijan Tours. More news on 222 & 289 will be announced soon.

 

 

 

As always with the modern world social media is at the forefront of most organisations and S&DTHT is no exception. We have recently launched on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Flickr and of course this blog. Since launching into the social world earlier this year it has proven very successful for us, and in the last few weeks we celebrated reaching 100 likes on Facebook, and over 50 followers on Twitter. To top it all off, this is also our 10th blog post, showing that we are continuing to grow and expand. We couldn't have possibly imagined where we are now, and the response to our entry into social media has greatly exceeded our expectations. Flickr has many pictures of buses so something we have been working on over the last few weeks is to get pictures of buses in and Southampton, and after a few hours work we have managed to get over 1,200 pictures in the group, and it continues to grow. It’s well worth a look if you fancy a trip down memory lane.

Finally, Sunday 8th September will see heritage buses return to the streets of Southampton as part of The Mighty Regents Running Day, which sees the recreation of 1970's bus routes with AEC Regent V buses and Guys, Leyland Atlanteans, Bristol K's & Lodekkas. Buses will run from 9:00 until 18:00, running several local Portswood routes to and from some of Southampton's Districts, the city & Docks. This will be the first running day in Southampton since May 2010, which marked the closure of the Portswood Bus Depot. More information about the running day will be on the website in mid-August. Until then, thanks for reading.