BUSWORLD PHOTOGRAPHY

I AM CHRISTOPHER LEACH THE ARTIST. I started this blog so that I can share with everyone my vast collection of transport photographs showing a personal and nostalgic view of the industry with images that span some 45 years taking in the U.K and some of Europe. I have no darkroom and so rather than being the perfectionist after tidying them up I upload the images warts and all, and even those that won't scan squarely or are scratched. In a way it adds age and character. You are all free to download these for your personal use but please remember I still own them and you are not just free to use them without prior permission for any knd of publishing. Click on images to enlarge them and if you want to see more leave your comments or visit my website for the mother-site with galleries including those Buses & Girls: PICTUREWORLD

Friday 26 June 2009

Maidstone: Local buses for the town's people


This was the view from the window of my digs in Maidstone when I at Art college there. I don't suppose for one moment that Arriva gives the same level of service today but the two former trolleybus routes up the Tonbridge road offered a frequency of every three and every four minutes during the day plus a few more worked by older half-cab PD2 buses or even ancient Daimlers running to and from the depot having been on other routes. These unusual Massey bodied Atlanteans of which Maidstone had twenty looked a bit strange but they were certainly solid and nicely finished and the windows and doors didn't even rattle when the bus was held idling in gear. In this the County Town of Kent not everyone liked the new brighter light blue livery that replaced 'ginger' but not only was it still nicely applied with black lining the advertisements were sign-written adding that feeling of quality and civic pride. Maybe I'm alone but I loved this type of smallish municipal operator that regularly bought Massey Brothers bodies from Wigan including other county towns like Chester, Colchester and Exeter.

No comments: