Great Western Coffee Shop

I find myself in Taunton for a few days for family reasons. I think this running day had been mentioned somewhere on the forum recently but I couldn't find the post/thread.

Had my sister not taken a route home from the hospital via the bus station today I'd have been none the wiser about all these vintage buses running on this glorious June day.

I got to meet Inspector Blake and Norman Pitkin.
(https://i.postimg.cc/134bY8S5/IMG-20240602-123957.jpg)

I've put together a YouTube video of my photos and short video clips. Enjoy!

Nice one JayMac! It looks like the Service 2A bus to Exeter is a little off route at Taunton Bus Station or takes a VERY long way round! ;D

The 24 for Stockport Bus Station was really lost! As were the numerous south coast towns' services. :P

A few little factoids about the buses I photted today.

I chose the Bristol VRT SL/2 (BFJ 175L) for the opening pic in my video as it's the same vintage as me. Registered a couple of months after I was born in 1973. Bristol VRs were the buses of my childhood in and around Taunton. They replaced Bristol FLF Lodekkas in the early 1980s on Taunton's town services. The decline in bus use in the mid 1980s, coupled with deregulation, saw the VRs on town services replaced by the god-awful Ford Transit 'Shuttles'.

The Duple Vista bodied Bedford OB (JDV 754) is the same make and body as the coach featured in the (oft mentioned here) film, The Titfield Thunderbolt. JDV 754 lives just down the road from me in Henstridge, Somerset.

The double decker open top Leyland Atlantean, seen departing the bus station in my video, was being driven by the former MD of First West of England, James Freeman. I guess he was having a bit of a busman's holiday!
(https://i.postimg.cc/0N98zSGj/FB-IMG-1717352080413.jpg)

Looking at the YouTube clips and photos I think there's some there that I recognise from some of the past September bus running days in Kingsbridge and there's also some there that I'm pretty certain that I've not seen before.

This just popped up on my Facebook timeline. Their all knowimg algorithms are a little scary. This picture was from a page that has nothing to do with buses or the running day in Taunton. :-\

(https://i.postimg.cc/K8Z20Pkp/FB-IMG-1717438801501.jpg)

No bus depot canteens these days so Blakey had to get his tea in Maccy D's!  ;D

If ever there was a reason not to be on Facebook.

As someone once suggested to me “It is the quickest way to tell 500 strangers what you had for dinner.”

I had lamb & beef stew for my dinner this evening.

Hope you choke.  ;D