The Thame Time Traveller

I've previously bemoaned the lack of interest in the modern-day bus scene on this blog. Thanks to accessibility legislation, all the interesting old step-entrance buses are now illegal to use on normal stage services and are confined almost exclusively to school runs, where they are difficult to photograph and impossible to travel on. Thus it was with great pleasure that I learned of an enthusiasts' tour on Saturday 5th May, organised by Chris Martin (no, not that one) of the Leyland Olympians Yahoo Group. Called the Thame Time Traveller, the aim was to sample seven of the Olympian school buses that form part of the fascinating fleet run by Walters Coaches of Oxford on various runs through the Oxfordshire countryside.

Very rarely does anyone other than schoolkids get to travel on these big beasts

The main attraction of this tour was a very rare opportunity to travel on three of the famous 120-seat tri-axle Olympians imported from Hong Kong by Brightbus in South Yorkshire and used solely on school services since arriving in this country. Walters bought these when Brightbus closed down and they never usually leave the depot at weekends but were made available to us along with four other Olympians. Impressively, Walters can still muster about ten serviceable examples of the type along with others used as parts donors to keep them running.

Not the sort of bus usually found in Oxford city centre

I arrived at the pick-up point outside Oxford railway station with plenty of time to spare, which quickly passed watching the service buses go by and talking to others waiting for the tour. At the appointed time, a huge green tri-axle double-decker lumbered into view. This was TIL 6571, a marked contrast to the modern low-floor buses usually seen in the city that left no one in any doubt it was our tour bus, and it took us on a scenic route through the villages of Stanton St John and Forest Hill to the depot. With blazing sunshine, the full-depth sliding windows of the ex Hong Kong buses seemed ideal, except that they have all been restricted to only open about an inch to stop the kids falling out.

Buses as far as the eye can see. This is just part of the site viewed from the window of TIL 6572

Walters' depot is an amazing place. They operate from a huge former quarry very close to the A40 and just a few miles from Oxford but tucked away in the countryside and not somewhere you would ever stumble across accidentally. I had printed out the fleet currently recorded by the PSV Circle, which ran to well over a hundred vehicles so I thought there was no way they could have so many and a lot of them must have been disposed of. I was wrong though as there were indeed almost a hundred on site, much to our collective amazement.

How the mighty fall. This started life as the England football team coach.

Chris admitted he had underestimated the size of the fleet and the 15 minutes he had planned to stop at the depot between trips was quickly extended to 25, but even this still wasn't long enough for a proper look at everything and I was running around like a madman, working up a sweat photographing whatever I could. Bus number 2 was thus a bit late leaving for its tour of Wheatley and Worminghall and the photo stop was skipped to recover time. I don't have a photo of this one but it was L952 MSC, one of the pair of Alexander-bodied Volvos purchased from Bennetts of Gloucester.

A gaggle of Mercs guarding the entrance

A family business run by Peter Blowfield, his sons and daughter, Walters seem to be an 'old school' operator with a very sensible business model, running older vehicles they can afford to buy outright and maintaining them in-house so they aren't indebted to finance companies and maintenance contractors like so many operators nowadays. They appear very reluctant to throw anything away and when a vehicle reaches the end of its working life they simply park it in a corner and gradually rob it of parts to keep others on the road.

One of the death rows. These are helping to keep others going.

In addition to dozens of near-complete vehicles in various states of disrepair, some withdrawn from service and some bought purely for cannibalisation, the whole site is littered with spare parts. Some of these disused vehicles defied identification as they no longer have any numberplates fitted, and many have clearly been out of use for a very long time judging by their advanced state of decay and the weeds growing around them. With such a large site at their disposal, I guess there is no urgency to get rid of them and free up space.

That's clearly been there a very long time. Weeds are growing inside it!

Although the fleet is very varied, there is a preference for Mercedes-powered coaches with various Setras and Neoplan Skyliners in evidence. Recent purchases have included a number of former Stagecoach 14-metre Skyliners and three of the relatively rare Ferqui Solera midicoaches, along with some Irizar-bodied Scanias. I found more than a dozen vehicles that were not on my fleet list and hadn't yet been reported by the PSV Circle, along with a couple of unrecorded re-registrations, so there was plenty to report to the Oxfordshire sub-editor.

Big Skyliners are in demand thanks to their high capacity

Other notable survivors are assorted examples of the once-ubiquitous but now rare Mercedes 709D and 811D minibuses, all well over 20 years old, alongside newer Varios with bodies variously by Autobus, Mellor and Plaxton. Less common makes of coachwork in the fleet include the likes of Marcopolo, Noge, Beulas and Indcar from Spain, plus three Neoplan Transliner-bodied Dennis Javelins. Other Javelins feature Berkhof, Plaxton and Caetano bodies, there are a handful of the more common Plaxton Premiere-bodied Volvo B10M and even a long-dead Duple 320-bodied Leyland Tiger still languishing in a corner - it had been many years since I last saw one of those.

There can't be many of these still in use

Some of Walters' vehicles are no strangers to Oxford and it was good to see them still serving the city. They include a pair of former Oxford Tube double-deckers, MAN/Jonckheere Monaco T43 BBW and Neoplan BIG 8732 (originally KP04 GJY), together with one of the MAN's predecessors, Volvo B10M/Berkhof N48 MJO. Two Volvo/Plaxton Premieres were familiar too - L150 HUD had worked for City of Oxford on their London services and R663 TKU for United Counties on the X5 (Oxford-Cambridge) route. Also returning to Oxfordshire was Setra D7 CCW, whose registration betrays its past ownership by Carterton Coaches of Witney.

A first-generation Oxford Tube decker still serving the city. L150 HUD alongside is an Oxford native too, as is N48 MJO visible behind!

One old friend I was reunited with was Iveco/Beulas MKZ 7187, formerly owned by Koncept Travel, whose depot I used to pass every day when I worked in Milton Keynes, and although sadly now out of use it had given several years of service to Walters. The Olympian we used for trip number three via Islip and Charlton-on-Otmoor was also a reunion with a bus from my past. F845 ENV was the first of many imported from the Isle of Man by the now-defunct Geoff Amos of Daventry, and F910 ENV from the same source is also in the yard, both of these having been photographed by me when in service with Amos over a decade ago.

I used to pass this coach every day on my commute

The morning tours had mostly covered narrow and twisty villages and country roads that very rarely see any bus and certainly not a double-decker, and we encountered many incredulous passers-by, horse riders and cyclists who must have wondered what was going on. Trip number four was a longer run down the A40 to Thame for lunch aboard M225 VSX, the other ex Bennetts bus. The sudden arrival of such an old bus in the High Street whose passengers promptly disembarked and crowded round to take photos of it caused much confusion among the locals.

Causing consternation at the lunch stop in Thame

After lunch it was back on board 225 and another return to the depot to transfer onto H809 AGX for our longest run of the day, over the border into Buckinghamshire to Stokenchurch, and this ex-Metrobus vehicle coped well with the climb up the fearsome Aston Hill. All trips included a photo stop in a scenic location but I chose not to participate and it was quite amusing to watch the lemming-like crowd of photographers all vying to take their shots from the same 'perfect' vantage point. There must now be dozens of photos of the same vehicles in exactly the same locations.

Photographing the photographers

There are a couple of rare classics in the fleet as preservation projects too. In a polytunnel-type structure surrounded by parts sits ABV 665A (originally 335 KPL), a 1959 Albion Nimbus/Willowbrook latterly used as a static caravan and in need of major restoration. Rather more complete is Bedford J2/Caetano Faro OLN 65P, one of only three known survivors and currently for sale. Another rare oldie is the company's Bedford TM recovery vehicle, on SORN but still looking ready for work - Walters must be one of few operators to still have their own recovery truck.

The lovely little Bedford J2

I was quite taken aback to find a batch of eight modern ex Abellio London Enviro400s lurking at the back of the yard as these were very out of character. It turns out they're not part of the fleet but are simply being stored here on behalf of the lease company who own them while new homes are sought. Similar circumstances presumably apply to the Plaxton Centro (CN07 FTC) formerly with the defunct Stephensons of Easingwold, and low-floor buses are conspicuous by their absence in the Walters fleet.

Just passing through - these are far too modern for Walters

Having previously been a wedding car hire company, Walters began PSV operation in the early 2000s with a small fleet of Optare Aleros used on council contracts and one of these (YS02 UCJ) survives as a mobile home, a welcome change from their usual fate of becoming tacky party buses. The newest vehicle operated by Walters appears to be a 12-year old Mercedes Sprinter, but there was one younger coach in the yard. Following the previous owner's retirement, single-vehicle operator Wallingford Coaches has recently been taken over by the Blowfield family and continues to trade as a separate company using Irizar i4-bodied Scania YN08 HZH on tours for the disabled.

Wallingford Coaches is now a sister company of Walters

Although they were the main focus, there was more to see than just the buses and coaches. A surprise to find sitting under the trees at the back of the yard was a collection of around twenty Rover cars from the 1990s and 2000s in various conditions, including half a dozen of the 'Tomcat' 200-series coupés and a genuine 200 BRM. Other interesting vehicles included a Renault Master with a caravan grafted on the back, an old Transit beavertail and a Daihatsu Hijet advertising truck. Another similar vehicle sat on the verge alongside the A40 advertising for drivers, mechanics and panelbeaters, the only clue to traffic on the main road that such a fascinating place was so close to them.

Just part of the Rover graveyard. How many head gasket failures here?

The final circular tour was on board another Hong Kong import, this time TIL 6573, which took us past the MINI factory at Cowley where my Maxi was built just over 40 years ago, on to Kennington and Radley. Sister TIL 6572 had been sidelined earlier with a mechanical problem but was up and running in time to work the return to the drop-off point at Oxford station, where I disembarked for the short walk to Gloucester Green to catch a very different tri-axle vehicle, a Plaxton Elite-bodied Volvo on the X5 service that would take me home.

Two of the day's chariots, H809 AGX and TIL 6572

Many thanks to Chris Martin for organising the tour, everyone at Walters for making the vehicles available and letting us roam their depot and take photos, and of course our stalwart driver who did such sterling work hauling these beasts through country lanes and Oxford traffic all day in 25-degree heat. What a fantastic and well-supported day riding a variety of buses that only schoolchildren ever usually get to travel on, not to mention the incredible collection of so many other vehicles in the depot. The Thame Time Traveller name was very apt as stepping into Walters' depot really was like travelling back in time a decade or so to when 1990s coaches were still common sights.

Would you want to live in an Optare Alero? Bedford TM lurks in the background too.