Vintage bus rides take on a new twist

Vintage bus rides take on a new twist

Following on from the story I posted last year, in which the local (to me) Epping-Ongar Heritage Railway ran a timetabled service of vintage buses, here now is a similar set-up involving the Yorkshire Heritage Bus Company which according to the accompanying article have just recently started running tours of the Yorkshire Dales in their vintage double-decker buses. It's splendid to see a family-run company making such a good go of the classic bus hire business - not just with the usual fare (no pun intended!) of
wedding and private hire but also with this excellent idea of touring the beautiful Yorkshire countryside. 

source

Just look at that stunning scenery as well and imagine how even better it must look from the top deck of a vintage bus!  Cruising the back lanes of Yorkshire in a 1959 AEC Regent, with such wonderfully-attired drivers and conductors(!) on hand, must be a glorious time-travelling experience.

Once again I've begun daydreaming about starting my own vintage bus company, except there aren't many picturesque views around my neck of the woods.  Not to mention - and more importantly - no PSV licence and no chance of buying a bus, ha!  Still, a chap can dream...

In the meantime, should I ever find myself in the pleasant environs of Halifax, West Yorkshire, I shall certainly avail myself of this company's lovely-looking tours.

Heritage Lottery grant to restore world’s first electric autocar

Heritage Lottery grant to restore world’s first electric autocar

Now, while I am all for steam locomotives over modern electric trains I'm not against all electric units, particularly if they're anything like this example!

The North Eastern Railway's petrol-electric railcar was the ancestor of today's diesel-electric locomotives and incredibly advanced for its time when it was introduced in 1903.  When steam was still the primary motive power for locomotives throughout the world this "autocar", as NER called it, was plying its trade around Yorkshire and shared more in common with the trains we travel on now than anything else of the time (it had two cabs, was capable of being operated in either direction and was later uprated to pull a coach - making it resemble even more the carriages we use today).  Sadly, as with many of these pioneering technologies, the established machines retained their dominance and no more than 2 of these forward-thinking engines were ever built, spending their entire working lives in the Yorkshire area before being decommissioned in the early 1930s.

Image courtesy of the NER 1903 Electric Autocar Trust

As this article explains, thanks to the tireless efforts of local railway enthusiasts, the luck of one of the railcars surviving (albeit as a holiday home!) and the good fortune of a Heritage Lottery grant, an autocar will once again soon be seen on the Yorkshire [heritage] railway lines as this fresh injection of cash allows a full restoration to go ahead.

While there is, and always will be, an inexorable romance surrounding the steam locomotive the renovation of this innovative engine comes as a welcome fillip to those of us whose experience and knowledge of electric trains has perhaps been limited to the 0715 to London.  Would that it could look like one of these "autocars" instead of the anonymous plastic tube we are forced to travel on today!  Now, thanks to the NER 1903 Electric Autocar Trust, we may have the chance to experience early electric rail travel for ourselves.

Vintage steamroller used to repair road

Vintage steamroller used to repair road

This is the kind of story I love - vintage machines being used for their original purpose and successfully to boot!

I'm sure we all (even non-drivers like myself) know of a few potholes along our daily routes - particularly after the harsh winter - just as we know that the council are unlikely to fill them in any time soon in the face of all the budget cuts they're undoubtedly facing.

So top marks to this fellow and his father for taking the initiative in such great fashion (and how lucky are they to own a working, 80-year-old example of just the vehicle to do it?!). It may only have been a small stretch of little-used track but it's still great to see an old beast like this doing such a thorough job when more modern machinery was not available. I think North Yorkshire Council ought to take up Mr Raley's offer!