A Tricentrol tribute

With my interest in the present-day bus and coach scene on the wane, I've started researching some of the many firms who used to ply their trade in my area but are sadly no longer with us. Very little evidence of the group's existence now remains and younger readers may never have heard of them as they went out of business about 30 years ago, but throughout the 1970s Tricentrol was one of the biggest and most familiar names in Bedfordshire and beyond. The Tricentrol empire was a substantial business, comprising not just a large fleet of coaches but also many other ventures in the car sales and truck industries managed from the head office in Dunstable, but has now vanished almost without trace.

I'm too young to have ever actually seen any Tricentrol vehicles in the flesh and not much has been written about the coaching side of the business, so this article has been compiled from PSV Circle records and contemporary news reports and there may be some inaccuracies as a result. Special thanks go to Frans Angevaare from the Netherlands for allowing use of photos from his extensive collection.  Read on for more on the rise and fall of Tricentrol...

A typical Tricentrol Bedford in London on one of the express services
(Photo: Frans Angevaare)

February Funfair

One thing I wasn't expecting to see last weekend was a funfair. The bonfire fairs typically mark the end of the season so most showmen return to their yards for winter during November and apart from a few small Christmas and New Year events don't go on the road again until mid to late February or sometimes March. The Kings Lynn Mart is the traditional season-starter and that didn't open until Valentine's Day, by which time this fair in Milton Keynes had been there for a week, so it is very early in the season for them to be open for business.

It was quite wet. This was as close as I could get to Denzil Danter's Volvo because of that massive puddle

Corgi buses for 2018

I've been meaning to write this for several weeks now but the announcement coincided with my busiest period at work and life has just got in the way since then, so better late than never, here at last is my review of Corgi's model bus release schedule for January to June of this year, revealed exactly a month ago. I didn't even bother reviewing the models from the second half of 2017 as there were only two of them and neither were worthy of note: yet another Borismaster and a second Harry Potter Gemini very similar to the one released the previous year. Things are slightly better this time around, with four all-new liveries, each available with a choice of two destinations. There are still no new castings though (unsurprising given the company's poor finances) and nothing of interest to me.

Wright Gemini, Brighton & Hove, Pride - all themes Corgi have already done recently