1. August 1985 and Trent’s fleet number 141 paused at the bus stop by the old post office at Ashford-in-the-Water whilst on the way to Nottingham. This 1979 Plaxton bodied Leyland and a few others like it, sported this really pleasant all-over branding for the service, which certainly caught the eye.

2. Travelling the other way and the nearside aspect of sister vehicle 140 was captured as it approached the entrance to the bus station in Matlock, destined for Buxton and Manchester. The headway was every 2-hours and remained thus for many years. All of the main centres of population were advertised on the vehicles at the top of the windows on either side. Green of the landscape and blue skies above were displayed on the side, front and rear panels.

3. Further along the route came the opportunity to photograph the rear aspect as it paused to take on passengers at Bakewell.

4. I am unable to date this image owing to the detail on the slide having faded, so have placed it here. This Duple bodied Leyland Tiger was one of five delivered to the Trent company in 1984 and assigned fleet number 109. As it was seen in this white livery perhaps it was used on express services elsewhere and used here as a stand-in for other vehicles, although the application of minimal route detail suggest it was a semi-permanent issue. Here though it circumnavigated the roundabout in the centre of Bakewell on the 252 route towards Nottingham.

5. An encounter with the service during April 1994 was quite different as by then the pleasant livery on the Leylands had been replaced by former Barton red-base liveried DAFs. These Plaxton Paramount bodied coaches had previously been operated on various long distance services before the company was merged with the Trent company. Depositing walkers in the centre of Bakewell this particular vehicle which dated from 1983, had originally been delivered to the Barton company with the registration ARB 613Y.

6. By now the route had been renumbered from 252 to the R1 as shown here on similar vehicle 1624, previously 624 in the Barton fleet. Here the vehicle had come off of the main A6 trunk road and begun to negotiate the narrower lanes to and through the village of Taddington. The route renumbering was all part of the great plan devised by Trent for their so-called ‘Rainbow’ and letter-prefixed services.

7. The following month of May and the local tradition of well-dressing had begun along with the usual round of flower festivals throughout the area. Ashford-in-the-Water again but this time with a Plaxton Supreme bodied Leyland Leopard, one of five purchased in 1978, passed through the busy village on way to Manchester and bore this red and silver livery.

8. Double-deckers in the main Trent fleet at present are very much a thing of the past, with virtually all mainstream services operated by single-deckers. However, a very rare event occurred back in June 1994, when this Eastern Coachworks bodied Leyland Olympian number 700, was captured on film on the service. Here it is illustrated as it pulled out of the bus station in Matlock when on way to Manchester. The views across the Peak must have been magnificent on this beautiful sunny summer’s day. How excellent it would be if just such operation could be revived. Now where’s that flight of porcine aviators?

9. The R1 route number continued to be displayed through the mid-1990s as illustrated here. But by now a new fleet of vehicles had taken over from the ageing coaches and odd bus that operated the service. In 1994 five Alexander Q bodied Volvo B10B dual-purpose seated buses were placed into service and assigned fleet numbers 51-55. Here the driver of number 54 paused at Stockport bus station. Again all the main centres of population were described on branding above the window line. A revised logo was also applied to the side panels and featured a peaked and split word “TRANSPEAK” over a green surrounded number “R1”.

10. The red and cream livery of the company certainly showed out against most of the sylvan setting through which the route operated. However, by 1998 the “R1” number had been replaced by a completely lettered description, the service now operated with the letters “TP” in the blindbox. Volvo number 55 is seen here as it left Ashford-in-the-Water in September 1998.

11. During 1993 and 1994 a batch of thirty-eight Volvo B10B buses with Northern Counties bodywork were acquired. Once in a while these buses deputised on the service when one of the dedicated vehicles was unavailable. 138 is shown here as it entered Ashford-in-the-Water in September 1998.

12. 1998 saw another major change when the vehicles began to appear in service after a complete external makeover. Gone were the red and cream colours, replaced by various shades of green with white in between. Bold place names were back on the tops of the side windows and just the split peaked “TRANSPEAK” name adorned the panels over a representation of hills. Here number 51 passed by the small Matlock garage where one or two of the buses were based.

13. A nearside of the same vehicle as it passed through the Market Place at Buxton on a gloomy and overcast day in February 2000. Note the plate in the nearside windscreen that stated “SELECTED STOPS”, not limited stop which is what I would have expected.

14. In 1997 a fleet of five Volvo B10M coaches with Plaxton Premiere Interurban bodywork were acquired and placed into service on the then new Red Arrow service between Nottingham and Chesterfield via Derby. Several years later these were replaced and became available for alternative service. During the early 2000s they were repainted into another version of the TransPeak livery as shown here by number 60 as it passed through Matlock in December 2004. The uppercase lettering for the service had given way to a more modern lowercase version as had the ‘peak’ motif on the panels.

15. Due to the popularity of the route by now the headway had been increased to hourly as far as Buxton and additional vehicles were required. Low floor Optare Excels began to make appearances such as 233 shown as it rejoined the main A6 having passed through Ashford-in-the-Water in November 2007.

16. Yet another revision to the livery manifested itself by 2009 as shown here on Volvo coach number 59 as it headed east out of Bakewell on a bright spring day. A much more pleasing green was the base colour, which probably blended into the surrounding countryside better than the earlier version. The livery featured a large circular image over the rear wheels of several different locations served by the route. On 59 the picture was Derby.

17. The rear end of number 56 is shown here as it passed out of Taddington bound for Nottingham. The bold picture here depicted Haddon Hall. The company was also making more of the rear panel by the use of encouraging messages to lure people out of their cars and onto their services. Softer lowercase lettering was used instead of the ‘shouty’ capital uppercase style.

18. Headed the other way on a short run to Buxton, number 61 also in the vicinity of Taddington. Another very slight difference was in the word “transpeak” where the “trans” part was written in an orangey red as opposed to green on other vehicles. This one also featured a picture of Matlock Bath over the rear wheels.

19. Optare Excel 157 became one of the first of the type to re-appear in the revised green livery. However, the body design made it nigh on impossible to include the round-shaped pictures in the area of the rear wheels. Here the bus climbed away from Chelmorton on a cloudless but crisp afternoon in February 2008.

20. Similar conditions prevailed in November the following year as Volvo coach 62 made the descent of one of many hills on the route. This one was again near Chelmorton, the vehicle on one of the complete through journeys from Nottingham to Manchester.

21. February 2011 and the final image features Optare Excel 158 at Buxton as it started out on a return journey to Nottingham, once again in good crisp late winter Derbyshire weather. The Excel appears to have become the normal type of vehicle on the service, so one hopes that they prove as useful to the route as the assortment of buses and coaches that have gone before them.