Model fleet focus: United Counties

The United Counties Omnibus Company is one of those fleets that although significant in terms of size and area covered doesn't have the same cult following as certain others, such as Southdown or London Transport for instance. UCOC is one of the main themes of my collection and is an operator of great personal interest for three reasons: my home town of Buckingham is served by the company's successors, my father was brought up in Northampton, where the head office was located, and my maternal grandmother spent a short period as a conductress at Stony Stratford garage. Over the years I have collected all known factory releases by the diecast manufacturers, plus a handful of code 3 repaints and kit builds that will feature in a future article, so this piece provides a hopefully definitive guide to what is available. There have been a dozen 1/76 OO models to date, mostly by Exclusive First Editions and in Corgi's Original Omnibus Company range, plus one in N gauge. With one exception they should be fairly easy to obtain and don't command premium prices like some of the cult fleets.

The man in the silver Rover

A strange encounter at the fair

 

The bonfire fair at Campbell Park in Milton Keynes came to a close on Sunday, and as is traditional I paid a visit yesterday to watch the showmen pull down their equipment and depart from the ground. There is a culture of mutual respect between showmen and funfair enthusiasts so the latter are to be expected and are generally welcomed as long as they don't cause trouble. The enthusiast community is very small and tight-knit so we are often known to each other and to many showmen, but I had a rather strange encounter yesterday with someone I had never seen before who didn't really seem to have a genuine reason to be there and was basically being a nuisance: the mysterious man in the silver Rover. Who was he and what was he doing there?

The fairground arcade - a thing of the past?

Go to the funfair and along with all the rides, stalls and catering units, what other form of entertainment are you likely to find? The amusement arcade of course, offering a range of video games, slot machines, prize grabbers and so on to test your skill and luck. However, it has become apparent in recent years that arcades are now in decline and becoming an increasingly rare sight on the fairgrounds of Britain - no longer are they an essential feature guaranteed to appear at pretty much any fair, and they are becoming conspicuous by their absence in some places.

On its way out, both figuratively and literally. Billy Gumble's arcade leaves Cambridge a few years ago; for now, this one is still travelling.