The Stagecoach commemorative Southdown vintage bus route 31 Brighton-Worthing running day 01/06/2002

On 1st June  Stagecoach Sussex Coastline Buses ran a special vintage bus service running between Brighton and Worthing to commemorate the Queens Golden Jubilee using buses that were mostly ex Southdown Motor services vehicles

I managed to prize myself out of bed on that Saturday morning to capture a few of the buses that trundled by some 100 yards or so from my house with my camera.

The first bus I saw was ex-Southdown Park Royal bodied Atlantean SCD 731N, now some would say that this is not really a vintage bus but when you think that the registration number relates to a vehicle from 1974/75 that makes this bus nearly 30 years old...!   

After a short while a succession of "Queen Mary" PD3's came past including the one of two that are looked after by Stagecoach  this one in immaculate condition No 409  (409 DCD) still with it's original numberplate and with a good load of passengers for Brighton. It's sister 424 (424 DCD) still languishes out of use awaiting a decision on it's future. let's hope it won't be a sad end! 

Then came one of the 1965 batch of Convertible PD3's 426 (BUF426C) on a Brighton Worthing service. the driver just easing off the accelerator as he passed me so that I could get a reasonable shot. What a sport!

A complete surprise to me then appeared in the form of LFS 296F, one of the first Bristol VR's ever built (17th production VR) and slightly longer than subsequent batches.(hence these were classed as VRTLL as opposed to VRTSL) It was delivered new to the Scottish bus group hence the FS suffix on the registration (most of the 3 letter registrations in Scotland used to end in S). They were not favoured by them at the time and a deal was done with some of the English bus companies in the early 70's (including Southdown) to swap them with some of the FLF Lodekka's which the Scottish bus group preferred. (so did Brightonians at the time!!). Hence LFS 296F came south. It was eventually sold by Southdown to Alder Valley who carried out the conversion to permanent open top. After service with Alder Valley it crossed the Irish Sea where it was used on sight seeing tours. It has now been repatriated (to England at least!) and has been immaculately restored into Alder Valley stripe livery which it carried when first converted to open top as described above.  Here it is at the same location as the Queen Mary above

If you click on the picture aside it will take you to a much better photo of the bus Which can be found on Gerry Cork's informative website about the Southdown Historic vehicle group to which this bus belongs. Below is the rear of the same bus which again slowed down as it passed.. thank you driver!!

I spent a pleasant hour and a half watching these fine preserved buses go past and if my camera hadn't have given up the ghost I would have got some more photos to put on this page. Well done Stagecoach Sussex Coastline and as a mark of gratitude here is a picture of what we normally see running on the A259 between Brighton & Worthing  !! 

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