issue 187 (October – November 2023)

Lots of readers like trolleybuses. So does Nigel Lemon, but every time he turned up somewhere, it seems they had just left; he tells the tale. And we tell the tale of some long-service open toppers in Port Talbot, from a new book just out. We take a brief look at what’s left of London’s other coach station that sort-of rivalled Victoria – that at King’s Cross – and there’s more on towns with the same number used for more than one route that served them. There’s also more on the MCW Topaz coach body (and the Amethyst, Athena and Metropolitan for good measure!).

We delve into The Bus Archive to look at an experiment with liquid gas fuel and report on when a gas turbine-powered coach came to these shores from the USA. Michael Baker has unearthed some fabulous street scenes with buses (and bicycles) in Dublin’s famous O’Connell Street, and Michael Dryhurst puts down a marker about garages and depots. 

We’re also loading mail at the back again and pondering about ECW bodies that might have been or nearly were…

in this issue

• finishing a restoration – Friends of King Alfred Buses appeal
• where have all the trolleys gone? – Nigel Lemon was always too late
• another coach station – in London
• topless in Port Talbot – in a new book about Thomas Brothers
• Topaz tales continue – with the Athena and Metropolitan
• doubling up – towns with duplicate route numbers
• what's in a name – garage or depot?
• gas power 1 – when a gas turbine coach came to England
• gas power 2 – when LPG came to Middlesbrough
• in O'Connell Street – Dublin's famous thoroughfare
• bodywork by ECW – if these Bristols had gone into production
• loading the mail at the back – more on Scottish post buses