issue 184 (April – May 2023)

After the recent exit of FirstBus from Southampton, David Toy looks at the city in earlier years and remembers its Atlantean days. John Hodge recalls the X-routes that once ran in the South Midlands in the 1980s and we feature more buses on rails around the world, more on Cuba, more about a Bristol L in Hampshire, more revelations about Fotobus and more on the end of Notts & Derby trolleybuses.

We also see how to upright a Routemaster on its side, and observe an Albion Nimbus and a Bristol LH in Devon country lanes, while Peter Calvert tells us about his classic classic bus and a letter he got from Lytham's general manager in 1960. A Leyland Lion will soon be roaring again in Winchester, and a fabulous new book will be launched at the London Bus Museum's Spring Gathering – a must buy! How about Ribble and BET Directors' jolly to the Lake District and how one-man operation did not always happen straight away with early underfloor-engine buses? It's all in the latest Classic Bus.

in this issue

• a Southampton story – standardisation and municipal ownership
• development of X routes – in the South Midlands
• when Notts & Derby trolleys left – what the papers had to say
• going OMO – a slow process
• a day out for the directors – from The Bus Archive
• a Lion returns to Winchester – to join the Friends of King Alfred Buses fleet
• some musings on preservation – and a fantastic new London book
• a Bristol L along Hampshire lanes – on Summer Sunday services
• more buses on the rails – around the world
• a favourite bus in Lytham – Peter Calvert's classic classic bus
• more Cuban curiosities – Caribbean exotica observed
• not such a secret society – the story of Fotobus
• little red buses – in East Devon lanes
• getting a Routemaster up again – it involved RT106