Coventry Buses - past and present

Hi & thank you Foxcote, The two Coventry buses nearest are what I refer to as our last phase of rear exit town buses. They started with fleet numbers of 166 & eventually went on into the three hundreds. Slight modifications were to be seen as each new batch was delivered. Bus No 214 or 215 were the first to incorporate inside heaters. The power units with their pre-selector gear system remained right up until the era of the new front loading buses when they arrived. I am not sure about the bus that is in the Trinity St. stop, the lady's head is in the way. Thank you again for the picture. I like to learn. ps Whilst I was replying, you have put up another gem, with one of the then new front loaders nearer to Owens. In fact, three front loaders.

A nice line-up of old "COVENTRY TRANSPORT" Daimler Buses in the 1973 view!!! Three Daimler CVG6's are seen closest to the camera, with two 1972 Daimler Fleetlines in front of them, which were "K" registered (YVC95K - YVC122K) and then in front of those two is one of my favourite Coventry buses and that is one of the 1966 Daimler Fleetlines, which were "D" registered!!! (CKV1D - CKV22D). Out of all the buses pictured, there is only one of them still in the old Maroon & Cream livery and that is Bus No.335 at the rear (nearest to the camera and showing its later, smaller type fleet numbers fitted on it!), as the rest are all painted in the later Marshall Red & Ivory livery, which was introduced in early 1970!!!

Sacrilege!

Marshall red and Ivory was a better alternative to Brummie Blueberry cream pie.. I also thought that it was an affront to Daimler to see any other make of bus in Coventry colours. I was no fan of the front loading buses, but if they had to be, then they should be Daimler Fleetlines. Were they made better than other makes? I truly don't know, but the Daimler badge on the front was an object of immense pride as far as I was concerned..

Agreed "Blue and cream should not be seen" but unfortunately death by public torture had already been abolished by then

Especially for you, here is CKV4D

Hi all As my very elderly neighbour Ron has just said "Them wert Days". He was a busman in the fifties & sixties. Regards the question of why the swap to Leyland, everyone that I ask has a different answer. They were a lower unit cost to buy than the Daimler. So often, politics gets so mixed into these choices. Part of my English Exams, one of the free subjects that I chose was the British Railways Modernisation Plan. Most of us of my age all have our ideas about that, but the most damning implication was a letter written to B.R, from the National Coal Board stating that the B.R. could no longer rely on adequate coal supplies. Now since at that time B.R was the N.C.B largest customer, bigger than the power industry, that was a huge statement. Now, I am of the firm opinion that the letter was cooked up by Whitehall. I know this sounds odd, but one of the subjects as part of my finance studies was called "Everyone has their price". We all now see that everyday, whether it is HS1, HS2 or underhand deals for a corporation to buy buses. Thank you all for your posts & pictures on this. "Them wert days!"

CCC had/has little civic pride, (you only have to look around you), and were probably just looking to save pennies for the Christmas party. BR had to modernize, just as other countries railways did. Steam trains may have been more powerful than what was replacing them, but they needed a huge amount of maintenance, constant refuelling, were as dirty as all hell, and regularly set fire to the countryside.

Agreed, sadly Agreed, but it could have been done in a more controlled manner with (mainly) diesels replacing steam locos as and when the latter came to the end of their natural life and (important this) after diesels had been thoroughly tested and proved to be reliable. This was not the case and perfectly good steam locos were scrapped prematurely and unproven diesels rushed into service without adequate testing and maintenance facilities.

Here you go Philip... The 266

Some lovely buses in this one.. Jaguar, 1962

Hi & thank you for your posts & pictures. "Them wert days"!

The sian blue of B'ham too. B'ham's operation was huge compared to ours here as you know, but for me, the major difference with the B'ham buses apart from colour, was the lack of the front bench seat. They had a mix of power units, but so many of the bodies came from Metro-Cam as did so many of ours. Please don't feel sorry about quality for these memory gems. During school holidays, I enjoyed travelling with my mum on Coventry's half day closing (Thursday) to B'ham where their half day was Wednesday. She knew that I liked the B'ham buses & would treat me (only if I had been a good boy) to a ride from the Coventry Rd terminus at Sheldon & into the centre.