Showbus part 2

Rather later than anticipated due to other commitments, here is the promised second part of my review of this year's Showbus rally at Woburn Abbey. Having already described the serious organisational problems in the first part, this one is rather more positive and concentrates on the exhibits themselves. At an event of this size, it isn't realistically possible to photograph everything, and I had seen several of the vehicles before at smaller local events so these were overlooked in favour of those I hadn't previously encountered. As discussed elsewhere on this blog, the big groups and their low-floor buses aren't of great interest, and nor are London buses, so I make no apologies for largely ignoring these too, and this review focuses on the vehicles that caught my eye.

This Plaxton Viewmaster was superb and one of my favourites.

Shambolic Showbus

A tale of woe from Woburn...

Showbus has firmly established itself on bus enthusiasts' calendars and claims to be Britain's biggest and best bus rally, but that claim must be in doubt after the experience of the 2015 event yesterday. In recent years it had settled at the Imperial War Museum in Duxford, a well suited if expensive venue, but with the museum no longer willing to host the event an alternative had to be found and this year it returned to Woburn Abbey in Bedfordshire, where it had last been held in 1992. It had been nine years since I last attended a Showbus rally, but with Woburn being a simple 20 mile journey from home I felt it was worth a visit this time. Little did I know of the controversy that was about to unfold and ruin what had once been a premier event. Showbus has thrown off its old nickname of 'Showerbus' and taken on various new ones including 'Slowbus' and 'Shamblesbus'...

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.