Coventry Buses - past and present

The bus at Husbands Bosworth has been under restoration for many years by an acquaintance of mine. Bus restoration can be a long process unless you can afford to employ labour as a thorough restoration takes around 5,000 man hours which, say at 8 hours per week, = 625 weeks or 13 years. I have just finished Coventry Transport oldest surviving double-decker (1945) so look out for that around Coventry during 2018. I am not a local historian and although living in Coventry during my childhood only came back as there was a suitable building to store and restore my bus fleet. So matchle55 the person you met at Newark was not me.

Hi all City says farewell to the bendy buses.

Sorry Philip, I must have missed something but why are they discontinuing the bendy buses?

Hi Dreamtime Like me, they are old & clapped out. Also, Coventry has few low-bridge routes to warrant them. Hope you ok.

Evening Philip, glad to see you are well and truly on the mend. Thanks for your reply, I still get a funny feeling when I see one of the old double deckers shown on the forum - spent most of my life travelling on them. Part of our upbringing I think for all of us. Take care

Here's one for you, Dream

Many thanks MR. My toddler son (in the 60's) had driven many of those from the long seat at the front then to tell his dad how he drove the bus into town.

A former Coventry Transport bus built in 1944 has just come back to the city after a complete renovation. Ken Jones has a series of pictures on flickr. You may recognise it as the wartime Daimler formerly housed at the Transport Museum; they have loaned it to an enthusiast who has painstakingly rebuilt it as new. When it finished serving passengers in the city in 1959 it went to the maintenance department and became a mobile workshop. This entailed panelling over the platform door and lower deck windows, and removing the seats to make room for workbenches and tools. It passed to the museum in 1970 but was kept in storage for many years, until restoration began about five years ago. It joins more than half a dozen other survivors of the maroon and cream era of Coventry Transport buses.

Hi mcsporran, Hi all I saw it go past the Belgrade yesterday. My first day out for quite a while. Thank you for posting that. The Flickr pics are brill!

Unfortunately not visible on the flickr pictures is this advert on the rear offside corner of the bus which I'm sure will bring back memories for many readers.

National Express Coventry is now accepting contactless payment. Just put your payment card on the card reader. 1 trip £2.20 2 of more trips £4.00 Maximum daily charge. You will not receive a paper ticket. All journeys must be made on the same bank card/mobile device. If you have a travel pass you are asked to take it out of your wallet to prevent your bank card being accidentally charged. (Full details) Peter.

A bit dark this picture, but clearly visible in the background there, is Lady Godiva sitting proudly on her horse and she's facing the right way too, unlike she sadly is today! Post copied from topic Broadgate on 25th Jun 2018 8:00 pm

Not too sure exactly what year this photo was taken (possibly early 1960's?), but it shows a Corporation bus standing at the "KERESLEY ROAD" terminus, directly outside the front door of the "Shepherd and Shepherdess" pub. The exact spot where the bus is standing, is now a Beer Garden full of tables & seating (and stacks of ENGLAND fans too yesterday!) and in the background is where the car park currently is now! Post copied from topic Keresley (incl. Keresley Castle) on 25th Jun 2018 3:35 pm

That isn't the only bus terminus that involved using a pub carpark. I vaguely recall the Red Lion at Walsgrave was a terminus too at one time. Any others? Apologies for straying off topic.

A JKV job I believe. Lovely.