1. In today’s world it is now probably the first generation of low floor buses that are now used to train drivers in handling and technique. Vehicles such as this Plaxton President bodied Dennis Trident are in fulltime employment in just such a role, Lothian Buses number 584 one of eighteen such buses supplied in 2000.

2. An interior shot of the cab and entrance area. This illustrates how the ‘low floor’ has been adapted by the fitment of a staging area, upon which a seat for the instructor has been affixed.

3-4. Previous to the low floored buses, step-entrance was the accepted design and many such vehicles in the major fleets find themselves in use on regular training duties. Hence FirstGroup for example have this Alexander Strider bodied Volvo B10B seen on such duty in April 2010 as it passed by the western exit of Bolton bus station. The bus had originally been supplied along with ten others, to the Kelvin Central Buses company in 1993.
Stagecoach also employ four examples of the Volvo in B10M two each at the Grimsby-Cleethorpes and the East Midlands subsidiaries, with Jonckheere coach bodywork. 53630 illustrated at Chesterfield in March 2010, had previously been employed on limited stop duties in its latter revenue-earning days, mostly on the route between Chesterfield and Sheffield.

5. This bright green liveried DAF SB200 Optare Delta turned up in Mansfield in March 2008, when in the hands of Stagecoach in Lincolnshire. Sporting fleet number 26018 it had originally been one of thirty-five supplied to the East London subsidiary of London Buses during 1992 and 1993 in a red and silver livery for routes around the Barking and Ilford areas.

6. In 1993 the Trent Motor Traction Company acquired a batch of twenty-eight Northern Counties Paladin bodied Volvo B10B buses for various duties. However, by February 2008 several had lost their red and cream fleet livery in place of this rather different grey and white trainer bus livery. Buxton found number 125 on such duties on a cold but bright day.

7. Bournemouth Yellow Buses provided something of a departure from the usual fare to be found on training bus duties. Originally one of an up market fleet of coaches used on the high intensity London to Oxford service operated by the privatized City of Oxford company, it became number 107 in the Bournemouth fleet. This Leyland Leopard began life with a Duple body but by the time it seen here, this had been replaced by the Willowbrook bodybuilders with their Warrior version and converted to stage bus duties before it went south to the coast in Dorset.

8. In 1976 Ipswich Borough Transport acquired ten Roe bodied Leyland Atlanteans. However, by February 1999 at least one had completed its revenue-earning days and had moved on to driver training duties with the Roadcar company. Here it became number 9014 in that fleet and lost the previous pleasant green livery in favour of these rather dour yellow and brown colours.

9. This Eastern Coachworks bodied (ECW) Bristol LH had begun its working life in the beautiful surroundings of North Wales with the Crosville Motor Company before it was moved across the mainland to the North East of England. Here it operated for a while with United Automobile Services until that operation was taken over by the Stagecoach Group. By July 1998 though it had been transferred into the training bus fleet and as number 1010, is illustrated here at rest between such duties just outside the Interchange at Sheffield.

10. A long way from home in October 1996 was this former Southampton Corporation AEC Regent previously number 503. It had been supplied to the city’s bus fleet along with several others with Sheffield, South Yorkshire based Neepsend bodywork, a firm associated with the Cravens company. By October 1996 though Hull had provided what had become fleet number T1 and a home with the East Yorkshire Motor Services company.

11. Former Ministry of Defence troop carrying transport provided a source of well maintained second-hand vehicles for a number of bus fleets during the 1990s. The City Line in Bristol was no exception with a small line-up of such vehicles at the Lawrence Hill depot, although as to their identity, that escapes me.

12. Lincoln again but this time with a Leyland National as it passed along the dual carriageway through the city centre in October 1991. Once again Roadcar used a yellow based livery for their training fleet, but back then preferred an orange colour for the skirt area. This had been one of thirty-three such buses supplied in 1978 to Ribble Motor Services.

13. Peter Smythe Training was a passenger vehicle driver training company based in Nottinghamshire and one of their vehicles was found parked up at Langwith in May 1989. The registration was not original and disguised that it was one of many convertible open-top Northern Counties bodied Leyland Titans, first delivered to the Southdown Motor Services for seaside duties along the South Coast.

14. Two versions of ECW bodywork applied to a fine pair of Bristols in the late 1980s at the Southampton depot of the privatized Hampshire Bus company. On the left a former United Counties Omnibus Company FS6G rear entrance type and on the right a longer Lodekka front entrance version. The latter appeared to have had some internal alterations made, whereby the staircase has moved from the front offside to nearer the rear of the vehicle, if at all. It may indeed have been removed altogether. Note also the two differing word forms on the front of the buses, advertising the purpose of the respective vehicles.

15-16. Roe bodied Leyland PD previously operated by Leeds City Transport, obviously in the hands of a group of enthusiasts on a day out to a gathering at the Sandtoft Trolleybus Museum in North Lincolnshire. Here it sported the Metrobus livery of the West Yorkshire Passenger Transport Executive.
Another Leyland city based bus from a PTE area was this Massey bodied version at the Edge Lane depot of Merseybus in Liverpool. Before takeover by the larger organisation it had been one of fifteen supplied to Birkenhead Corporation in 1966.

17. Another bus a very long way from its origins was this former East Kent Road Car Company Park Royal bodied AEC Regent. Once used to carry passengers around the South East reaches of the ‘Garden of England’, by the mid 1980s it had been transported many miles northwards to England’s most northerly county of Northumberland. Here in the red, grey and white livery of the Northumbria company it ended its days on training duties.

18-19. Across the border from England and into the Scottish capital city in 1986. A somewhat dampish day in August of that year produced a couple of fine looking half-cabbed double-deckers on training duties. Both operated by the Eastern Scottish company first up was this Metro-Cammell bodied Leyland PD3, shown as it turned from a busy Princes Street onto Waverley Bridge by the main railway station.
Still in a livery provided by its former employer West Hartlepool, this Roe bodied Leyland PD2 had already been captured by the lens as it trundled across the bridge over the platforms and tracks of the Waverley railway station on the same day.

20. Back over the border and into the depths of the East Midlands for a vehicle whose origins lay with another city’s transport department. Originally supplied to Nottingham City Transport along with fifty-eight others during 1958 and 1959, this neat and well kept Metro-Cammell bodied Leyland PD2, had moved from revenue-earning to driver training duties and was in the hands of a training firm based in the West London borough of Hounslow. Here the bus made an entrance to a summer event as it bounced across parched ground near Uxbridge in July 1978. The event was actually an early precursor to what we know nowadays as Showbus.

21. Now to the National Bus Company (NBC) era, with two fine examples of differing body design. Nearest to the camera a former Southdown Leyland PD3 with full fronted Northern Counties bodywork and beside it the easily recognisable body design from the Lowestoft based ECW body builders on a Bristol Lodekka. The image also illustrated the marked difference in height of the two vehicle/body types. Both were employed with the Bournemouth based Shamrock & Rambler company during the 1970s and 1980s. Also in the picture, that rather interesting little ‘charabanc’ that has been the subject in a couple of earlier features during 2011, seen here poking its nose out of the small garage area.

22. Quite different though was this Willowbrook bodied Leyland Leopard single-decker found in the NBC Potteries Motor Traction fleet in April 1979 at a rather wet and pitted location in Stoke-on-Trent. It had been one of ten supplied to the company as a 54-seater in 1962 and appeared to be a bit past its sell-buy date. With the door open one can observe the three steep steps that passengers had to encounter before making it into the saloon and a seat. As to what purpose the wooden pallet on the roof served, I have no idea.

23. From the West Midlands we now journey south to the county of Royal Berkshire and the city of Reading. Here one of the rather bulbous and domed Alexander bodied Dennis Loline IIIs passed before the lens of the Box Brownie in February 1975. Having initially served with the wonderfully named Aldershot & District Traction Company as their number 413, under the NBC it was merged with the equally splendid Thames Valley Traction Company to become sort of plain old Alder Valley as their number 13.

24-25. Another fine pair of Bristols on display here both provided by the United Counties Omnibus Company and assigned to driver duties having completed their time in revenue-earning service. Both sported the recognisable lines from the ECW stable, the double-decker a KSW6B type from 1953 at the side of the bus station in Kettering during May 1974, and an older 1946 built L5G type tucked up in the bus garage at Luton some years earlier. The latter had previously been supplied new to the Eastern National Omnibus Company with which United Counties had a close relationship.

26. And finally. It is not just buses though that are used on such driver training duties. No doubt there have been trolleybuses employed throughout the United Kingdom on the various networks, as have vehicles on the few tramways that grace one or two of our cities. Not a city scape here though, being as Blackpool has yet to reach those dizzy heights, but it can claim to have the oldest tramway that still exists to this day. One of the single-deck tram sets was found temporarily assigned to driver training duties as it glided up and down the Promenade in May 2005.