This rather smart Titan now owned by Nu venture saw service with Stagecoach Devon and Stagecoach Western after it's service life in London ended. It would certainly make a worthy preservation candidate when withdrawal finally comes...
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On Saturday 6th April we attended the South East Bus Festival at Detling near Maidstone in Kent. We took Nuw the Titan along and had a glorious day. If you've not been to this show you're missing out. There were lots of buses, free bus rides around the spacious site, lots of room for photography and lots of other things too like classic cars, commercials and miniature steam engines as well. Whilst there Nuw swapped her normal registration plates for her original number (NUW553Y) as all of the running took place on private roads. She also met up with T1101 and T 585 too. A full report will appear over the next week or so.
Bernard's ex Stagecoach and Robert's Coaches Leyland Titan NUW553Y, known to us all as Nuw, received the first strip of sticky vinyl to her interior today which will eventually turn her interior into that of a modern Stagecoach bus. All the interior panels will be blue and she will receive modern blue Stagecoach trimmed seating - hopefully swapped from other Titans that are being converted back to full London spec. Eventually her exterior will gain the original Devon General livery and as their older vehicles had blue interiors and Nuw is being restored as a provincial Stagecoach bus, the interior work should suit her well. Work begins this winter to transform Bernard's Leyland Titan (HIG5681 / NUW553Y) into a Stagecoach Titan. Most of these former buses are getting restored to their original London condition but 'Nuw' , as she is known, has a really tidy centre door conversion plus has had the blind display altered so it seemed a shame to rip all that out and put her back to look like all of the others. We all feel that telling the story of one particular type of bus doesn't mean that they all have to be restored to original factory condition and that different stages of a types history should be represented and the Titans went on to have a very successful career outside London too with Stagecoach and MTL to name but a few of the large fleet operators. We are hoping to swap some of Nuw's rather tidy LT seats for the blue 'rolling ball' Stagecoach trimmed ones whilst her inside will become blue with orange handrails. Externally she will wear a Devon General livery, which will be started once work on 7980 has finished, which will compliment the blue interior. The plan is to make her look like a Stagecoach bus in a heritage livery. Obviously this will all take time as she is due a mechanical service and a few other little job need doing too. She should also be reunited with her original registration mark of NUW553Y too.
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Current NewsHere you will find out the latest news about our buses and future events we hope to attend. In addition we will add any interesting bus and coach related news we come across.
SOUTHERN COUNTIES OMNIBUS.A collection of retired buses living in southeast England owned by a group of friends. Archives
December 2020
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