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There are 2,700 buses and coaches from the Bristol Omnibus fleet contained in this gallery. It is part of a picture record of 35,000 buses and coaches, plus ships, planes and trains, from the Alan O. Watkins Collection that is available for research on the web.
It is also a useful resource to examine the way the buildings and streets of Gloucester, Cheltenham, Bristol, Bath, and other towns in the region have changed in the past 40 years.
* Black & White Motorways was closely allied with Bristol Tramways, and although it has been gone nearly 20 years, I have transferred my collection of nearly 200 B&W pictures from the National Express gallery to a new bespoke gallery.
To find Black & White, just scan down the Other Galleries list to locate it. Happy hunting! |
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| 47 years of bus photography
47 years of coach photography
SHIPPING IN SOUTHERN ENGLAND AND EUROPE
Western National, Southern National and Royal Blue
Back end of a bus
National Express
Transport postcards of the 20th Century
Crosville
Hants & Dorset / Wilts & Dorset
Arriva Southern Counties in Kent, Medway and Essex
Britain's PTE fleets
Cyprus and Malta Buses
Scottish buses and coaches
NBC in South Wales
Medway - the tidal river, communities, places, ships and scenery
Midland Red & Carlyle Works
THE WORST RAIL PICS EVER
Kent bus scene
Corporation bus fleets of England
London's Buses
National Bus Company (NBC) in England
Three Counties buses - Gloshire, Worcs and Herefordshire
Bus, coach and transport ephemera (stops, stations, logos etc)
Corporation bus fleets of South Wales
Kings Ferry, Gillingham
Road vehicles
Planes - even worse collection than my trains
Flowers and trees, plants, animals and birds
Egyptian Buses and Coaches
Egyptian Holiday, 2006
Watkins - home and away
People and Places
Black & White Motorways and National Travel (South West)
Oxford Bus, City of Oxford, South Midland and Oxford Espress
Continental bus and coach operations
Workingarea
First Group Buses
Stagecoach Across the UK
St George's, HMS Pembroke - Royal Navy memorials
Bus Gallery
Corfu's bus and coach transport, 2008
National Express West Midlands
Lauren is here
Independent bus and coach fleets in Britain
Rebodied buses
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Bristol Omnibus was the company that first attracted me to take an interest in buses back in the Mid Fifties when it was still "the Tramways". I can remember as a young boy discovering that 1504 would go up the road, and then some time later would come back along the same road: I was discovering at a very early age the benefits of timetable planning.
Then I noticed that some of the buses had windows that could be rolled down to allow some heat in when travelling to Stroud to swim at the open air lido.
Why did some have side alleys on the upper deck, and how did the door slide shut with a massive handle on those singledeckers?
It was inevitable that I should record that fleet - but by the time I got a camera to record their operations many of those early vehicles (pre- and early post-war) had gone to the Great Recycler.
Three people deserve acknowledgement for starting this collection - Assistant General Manager Ken Wellman, who gave me access to places where many others were not allowed; Insp George Bennett, who would often tip me the nod when a rarity was about; and my father, Frank Watkins, who allowed me to go off on bus services armed with a 5/- Day Out ticket, paper, pencil - and loads of film when I was in my early teens. Would the kids of today have the chance - even if the buses were as extensive and frequent? |
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| Hits (today): | 27 |
| Hits (this week): | 514 |
| Hits (this month): | 547 |
| Hits (this year): | 39195 |
| Hits (all-time): | 302873 |
| Collections: | 105 |
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| All pictures are the copyright of Alan O. Watkins, or are (where stated) from the Alan O. Watkins Collection. |
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