To be honest, I can't quite remember where I took this picture, but on balance I'd plump for Guarda. I recall this coach being parked in some square in the centre of a residential area, rather than on the more usual bus station lay over park.
The re-cycled AEC running units had been treated to one of the very last body styles, if not the last, produced by the famous Portuguese firm, UTIC. The end result is splendidly attractive in my opinion.
Tags: Buses Coaches Single Decker AEC Reliance Integral UTIC AH 760 Re-body Amandio Paraiso Guarda Northern Portugal Portuguese Buses Portugal
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When the UK's bus scene had been done to death, and as there became less and less worth raising ones camera at, It became necessary to begin to look elswhere to restore some interest and an element of surprise. The natural place to which most British enthusiasts gravitate is Malta, but less well known is the wealth of interest that could be found in Portugal. I was fortunate enough to make around a dozen trips between about 1995 and 2005 sometimes with Mr Semmytrailer as travelling companion. Ok so why a Volvo B58... weren't there enough of these in the UK? ... Well yes but. Latterly it became fairly common practice to re-engine AEC buses with Volvo engines as the supply of spares dried up, however, this B58 had been re-powered with an AEC engine as had several Leopards in the past.
Tags: Buses Coaches Volvo B58 AEC UTIC Auto Viacao Landim Portugese Buses Portugal Re engined
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Roaming around Portugal in the quest for Anglo Portuguese buses I stumbled upon the Mafrense fleet. At the time (mid 1990s) AEC's still made up a large proportion of the fleet. I'd first encountered their buses in the tourist trap that is Sintra, but curiosity caused me to travel to their home town of Mafra. Now Mafra turned out to be a place worth seeing in it's own right with an enormous palace taking centre stage ... some claim it to be the largest single building in Portugal. Typical of my luck was that it was under restoration whilst I was there, but here's a Mafrense UTIC AEC entering the town centre with the centre portion of the great building as a backdrop.
Tags: Buses Coaches single Decker UTIC AEC Reliance Mafrense Mafra Rodoviario Autocarro Portugal Portuguese Palace 10-86-85
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The associated fleets of Auto Viacao Landim and A.V. Pacense both had a high AEC Content even as the 20th century rolled into the 21st. The former had it's headquarters in the town of Felgueiras where a large modern but seemingly lightly used bus station also stood. A.V. Landim had several interesting buses on AEC chassis or with AEC componentry at which to point one's camera, the one in the picture having a quite late and not un stylish UTIC coachwork. There was a visually similar Volvo B58 which was also AEC powered plus an elderly re-bodied Daimler Freeline with an AEC 691... that spent a large part of its day parked on higher ground above.
The bus station itself, or more particularly it's cavernous and lock-less gents lavatory also brings a smile to my face as one of my RBW staff I took here whilst on business walked in on some Portuguese gent who was enthroned. Colin spoke no Portuguese, but gathered the bloke was unimpressed, Having caught a glance of the place, opted to 'hold it in' rather than wait!
Tags: Bus Coach Autocarro Rodoviario Portuguese Portugal Bus Station Estacio Felgueiras A V Landim AEC UTIC RR-33-91
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The one time Portuguese capital of Braga was a city I just had to keep popping back to. I'd originally ended up there in the mid 1990s as Omnibologist exploration trips took me further north. Rather like Valletta when visiting Malta, it was exceedingly difficult to break away from the gravitational pull of the bus station. Braga's was a cramped affair though, and bordered on being just a little scruffy. However you could overlook both those adverse features by the immense variety of buses and operators which could be seen there. I'll have to leave any detail as to the operator Salvador to those more knowledgeable or local, but my impression was that they were a small to medium sized independent. I'd not come across this style of body either, but the AEC badge on the grille meant that it required photographing. I'd guess that it was a re-bodied 'chassis'. It was fairly unusual to see just AEC mentioned on the badge, rather than the more common UTIC AEC.
Tags: Buses Coaches Single Decker AEC Reliance Re-body Salvador Autocarro Braga Bus Station Rodoviario Portugal Portuguese MO-86-28 J.D. Martins
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