Worthing Bus Rally

Sunday was a bit of a damp day with light showers but I braved the rain and attended the Worthing Bus Rally on Sunday.



The first participant I saw was on Brighton Road eastbound was Brighton Hove & District K5G open topper 352 CAP 229 with Eastern Coach Works body. After more than twenty years service, it moved to Eastern Counties Omnibus Company in late 1962. It was, at one time, a temporary resident at the Carlton Colville museum site when then owned by the Ipswich Coach Company.



Rounding Steyne Gardens, also eastbound, was ex London Transport AEC Routemaster RM1955 ALD 955B. It entered service in June 1964 at Aldenham and was withdrawn in January 2005.



Heading along Marine Parade, I looked in at Stagecoach South's Worthing depot and found driver trainer ADL Enviro300 27561 GX58 GNF resting.



There was then a lengthy walk along the seafront to the display area where a Compass Bus usually stands on guard at the entrance and this time it was Enviro 200 MMC YX21 RTO. However, the first vehicle to feature from the display was ex Z&S International Leyland Olympian/ Alexander 250 J778 CEV. It was formerly with Dublin Bus as their RH111 91-D-10111



The next entrant shown is AEC Reliance/Harrington Grenadier 900 SAF. It was new to Hawkey of Newquay in 1963. After several owners it passed to Camden Coaches in October 1974 and, after ten years of use it was stored. It was acquired for preservation in 1988.



The next one is often seen at rallies in East Anglia and is ex Eastern National Bristol L6B/ Eastern Coach Works (ECW) PTW 110. It was new in May 1951 with fleet number 4107.



Despite the miserable weather, many open top buses were on view and this is Seven Sisters Bus and Coach 175 KMW 175P. Named I K Brunel, it is a Daimler Fleetline CRG6LX with an ECW body which began life with Thamesdown in February 1976.



A Bedford OB / Duple Vista was on display in the shape of JYP 490. Not much information can be found on this although it was new to Dickinson of Apsley in September 1948.



Keeping each other company towards the end of the display area were Leyland Titan PD2/ Weymann Orion 23ACD, new to Brighton Corporation in 1962 and ex Go-Ahead Northern's ECW bodied Leyland Olympian 3661 C661 LJR



One of the vehicles offering trips was former London Buses DT29 G29 GTW. The 1989 Carlyle Dartline bodied Dart is owned by the 3238 Preservation Group



Former Maidstone & District AEC Regent / Park Royal. DH478 VKR470 was also carrying passengers. The 1956 built vehicle is observed leaving Heene Road on my way back.

The above is only a small number of photos taken of the vehicles participating in the rally and it was difficult to know what to post and what not to! However, click on the link to the Worthing Bus Rally Album on our Flickr site to view all of the photos taken on the day.

Roy