The Roger Burdett collection

I imagine most bus enthusiasts will know the name of Roger Burdett as he is one of the country's leading preservationists and has a large collection of interesting vehicles that can often be seen at events. Yesterday I had the privilege of visiting his premises in Coventry thanks to my friends in the West Midlands area of the Model Bus Federation and it was a most enjoyable evening surrounded by fascinating vintage buses that was well worth the slightly fraught 50-mile journey through roadworks and rush-hour congestion.

Gentlemen, your carriage awaits. Coventry 244 ready to give enthusiastic MBF members a trip.

Buses Festival at Gaydon

A couple of months since my last visit to Gaydon for the truck show, I was back again on Sunday, this time for the Buses Festival. Organised by Buses magazine, this was a new event on the rally calendar for 2014 in response to dissatisfaction with the 2013 Showbus venue at Long Marston, and returned bigger and better this year, with almost a hundred vehicles in attendance. This was the first bus rally I had attended for a couple of years so these are my impressions, both as a first-time visitor to this particular event and as a returnee to bus rallies in general.

Too many Routemasters

Here I explain one of the reasons why my interest in buses is waning - this may be a controversial one, particularly to London bus fans, but I firmly believe there are far too many Routemasters in preservation. Living in the Home Counties means London buses have always tended to dominate local events, but since the Routemaster was retired from London service and the remaining fleet sold off in large quantities, the number of the type on the rally scene has increased massively in recent years. They are to classic buses what the MGB is to classic cars, so common that sometimes it seems more are preserved than were ever built.