37th annual bus & coach Spring gathering

11th April 2010

This year’s bus & coach meet was held at Wisley Airfield in Surrey, not far from the Cobham London Bus Museum. I only heard about it the day before from my friend Mike, so it was a last minute decision to go along. My fellow Triumph owner John picked me up in his duo-tone mk1 2000 saloon and as we’d be travelling on the M25, I was the one doing the driving, (John doesn’t do motorways).
The venue was easy to find and not much of a queue either. What did suprise us was when we were directed to the display area. We hadn’t planned on showing the car. This year’s gathering was to celebrate 80 years of the Greenline coach services. The first ever Greenline coach actually ran to Guildford via Cobham back in 1930. On the 17th July this year, (2010), Greenline will run a special commemorative service from London to Guildford along the route of the first service. This was another reason to pop along as I used to drive Greenline route 726 from Windsor to Gravesend. I sometimes did the London runs but not that often. Met someone there I used to work with when I was based at Slough.
It was nice to see the horse drawn London bus in action. 3 quid a go to ride it. This particular bus, the “Andrews Star” garden seat horse drawn bus was one of 3 donated to the museum by the late John Andrews. Two bus services ran during the day. Route 477 ran from Wisley Airfield to Cobham Bus Museum. The 499 route ran mainly between Cobham Bus Museum and Weybridge Railway Station.
Although it was an enjoyable day out, I’m not sure that I’d go every year, but it was one of those events that make a pleasant change from the usual vehicle shows.

-Renegade