Ipswich's Buses & Ipswich Bus Rally 2017
Motorbuses were first
operated by Ipswich Corporation as late as 1950. The Corporation operated trams until the
1920s replacing them with a fleet of trolleybuses up until the first AEC
Regents arrived in May 1950. The bus
scene in 2017 is still quite ‘traditional’.
Ipswich Buses are owned and
operated by the local council and the ‘company’ buses are operated by Firstbus as First Eastern Counties Buses Ltd.
Of course the liveries are vastly different, Ipswich Buses run in a striking purple and lime green with white
trim scheme and the First buses are
in the latest corporate style but with a dark blue-grey front third with the
fleet name of ‘IPSWICH’ in large white letters.
Vehicles in the Ipswich Buses
fleet are varied and interesting.
Double-deckers include Dennis Tridents with Alexander ALX400 and Plaxton
President bodies, from both London and Edinburgh. Other double-deckers include East Lancs
bodied DAF DB250s and Scanias with both East Lancs Omnidekka and Optare Olympus
bodies. Single-deckers include the Scania
OmniCity, ADL E200, E300, and Dennis Super Darts with various styles of East
Lancs bodywork. There are also Dennis
Darts with Alexander ALX200 bodies, Optare Versas and new Mercedes Benz
Citaros. Adding further interest are
some vehicles in the former Carters
fleet livery of red, yellow and black.
Most First buses are Alexander
ALX400 double-deckers and Wright bodied Volvo single-deckers. Our filming takes place in and around the
town centre. Beginning at the Tower
Ramparts Bus Station, used mostly by Ipswich
Buses, we move around the town in an anti-clockwise direction. Filming in High Street, Museum Street,
Princes Street, Friars Street, Dogs Head Street and then taking in the Cattle
Market Bus Station, which is used mostly by the First buses. From here we
film in Upper Brook Street and Crown Street, which returns us to our starting
point – Tower Ramparts Bus Station. All
types of buses are seen in action running around this picturesque town. We now take a look at some archive video from
the camera of Malcolm King. Filmed in
1991 at the Tower Ramparts Bus Station, we see Leyland Atlanteans, Dennis
Dominators, Dennis Falcons, Optare Metrorider and the rare Alexander bodied
Bristol B21 single-deckers operated by the Corporation. We go further back in time to 1977 with some
stills from our own archive of the Roe and ECW bodied Leyland Atlanteans, a
Massey bodied AEC Reliance of the Corporation and the ECW bodied Bristol REs,
LHs and a Bristol Lodekka FS of the National
Bus Company incarnation of Eastern
Counties. The final part of our visit
to Ipswich brings the past to life with footage filmed at the Suffolk Bus
Preservation Group’s ‘Ipswich Bus Rally’ that took place at the large car park
adjacent to the Ipswich Town football ground on Sunday 9th April
2017. Most of the participating vehicles
had a connection with the town and area, but there are some ‘gems’ from further
afield for you to enjoy! We film the
arrivals of the buses and coaches and then take a ride to the superb Ipswich
Transport Museum on board former Ipswich
Borough Transport 63 (ADX 63B), a Massey bodied AEC Regent V. Our cameras take a look around the museum
where we see a former Corporation tram, trolleybuses and buses together with a
Bristol L and K type from the Tilling era Eastern
Counties fleet. We take a ride on RL516
(EPW 516K), an Eastern Counties Bristol RELL6G and a former Eastern National
Bristol KSW5G, of which both types would be familiar to the streets of
Ipswich. The event also featured an ‘ECW
Gathering’ with a line up of some 12 ECW bodied buses and coaches. Our cameras continue to film the action on and
around the rally site as well as the departures of the vehicles as the event
closes. We hope that you enjoy your
visit to Ipswich as much as we did filming it for you!
|
|
Filmed
: |
2017 |
|
|
Duration
: |
96 mins |
|
|
Price
: |
Within UK - £16 |
|
Rest of world -
£18 |
|
|
Format
: |
DVD -R |
|
Picture Aspect 16:9 |
|
|
Order
Ref : |
D291 |