What a great way to kick off Pride Month with my local Pride bus!

New in February 2018, 35277 was part of a large batch of Wright StreetDecks and were the first to wear the Leeds City livery with red lining indicating it was for the Headingley routes. Despite this they often escaped onto other routes around Leeds. Nowadays the route branding has been steadily phased out in favour of Connecting Leeds' colour coded lines which have caused confusion.

These 67 plated StreetDecks differed from the rest of the batch new in Leeds City colours, from the outside the buses featured orange LED destination displays, standard old style wheel arches and the lack of corner upper deck windows. Inside though, nothing much apart from an LED next stop announcements whereas the rest of the fleet have LCD screens which are still a common feature on the new electric fleet.

In June 2022, 35277 was repainted into the blue Pride livery which has been seen at a number of First depots across the UK and to this day is still in the attractive colours adorned with rainbow lines on all four sides.

The bus is still mostly on the Headingley routes to this day including route 6 linking Leeds Bus Station to Holt Park and has remained unchanged for quite a while. The only change the route has seen was in 2009 as it was known as route 96, this was when the route had brand new Wright Eclipse Gemini bodied Volvo B9TLs.

Today 1/6/2024, the bus spent the day in York kicking off Pride Month and was spotted with Transdev's own Pride bus no.2421 a Wright Eclipse Gemini 2 bodied Volvo B9TL where both were outside York Minster. The bus also gained additional branding for today which says 'Love wins'. It turns out that the bus was given a new coat of paint for the occasion.

Also albeit a little amusing is that whilst drawing the bus I spotted a small typo on the front destination as the branding says 'First Bus is proud to 'to' support PRIDE', note the extra 'to'!

Tags:   Pride

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New in May 1978, CFM 357S was new to Crosville and was one of many Leyland Nationals to wear the NBC green livery which she was painted in when new. The bus also carried fleetnumber SNL357.

The bus spent a long time in service with the bus being transferred to Beestons thus being painted into the orange and brown livery with red and yellow lining for her stay. The word Beeston wasn't the final mention of this bus as in the late 90s the bus was transferred to Geldards of Leeds and was painted into their black and yellow 'Bigfoot' livery for regular service and school work and was also numbered 403 for her stay there.

Bigfoot worked in competition with First Leeds' route 1 and 96 which both terminated at Beeston but both the 1 and 96 swapped terminus points as route 1 used to terminate at Leeds Bus Station but the 96 used to terminate where the 1 does today at Beeston, the swap happened when 403 was still working here.

The bus was also a frequent site on school services, as the bus worked a service through the cardinal estate alongside First's 46 service as I used the route to go to my primary school, also along with the other Leyland Nationals in the Bigfoot fleet, was also a frequent site on the swimming baths runs, I remember going up Churwell Hill to Morley Leisure Centre on this fine type with full revs going with the vibration and smell of old Leyland buses. One good memory from those days!

Sadly along with the bus company Geldards, it's likely that CFM 357S is sadly no more as she was presumably scrapped sometime by the mid-2000s. Geldards carried on working Leyland Nationals through to 2006 on school services, but that one National was once out on route 1 covering for First Group as the drivers were striking that day, imagine the shock of the passengers who were at the time expecting a low floor bendy bus to take them places, think of those with wheelchairs and prams! That Leyland National was also believed to be the final one working in Leeds, some still are seen here from time to time but working specials.

**Notice about copyright** - Please don't use any of my drawings without permission, feel free to share but no copying and pasting for your own gain, which includes parts. All my work is done using MS Paint and some help with Paint.NET with my latest pieces.

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My most up-to-date method of drawing buses on MS Paint really brings out the futuristic look on the StreetCars after giving one or two looks. Hehe

19013 started life as a temporary demonstrator with sister vehicle 19012 (YJ06 XLR) while the regular demo 19000 was out of use as it was being modified to make it look identical to the production models of the StreetCar after spending a couple of months in York before 19029 replaced it.

19013 is most likely part of a huge batch of Wright Volvos for First's West Yorkshire division as alongside 19012 and various Wright Eclipse Geminis, their registration plates are all 'YJ06 XL-' whereas some were registered 'YJ06 XK/M'. After I saw 19012 and 19013's reg plate I thought 19014 would carry YJ06 XLT but instead that reg plate wound up on a B7TL double decker Gemini instead.

I first saw the first photographs of 19013 (and 19012) on Fotopic.net at the 2006 Loughbrough Air Show but later in the year 19013 spent a while with First Swansea as they'd be the third operator to run the FTR service as York came first, and Leeds (which held the largest FTR fleet) second.

Later on in 2006, 19013 was used on trial runs on route 4 but before 19013 did demonstration work, FJ53 LZX the one and only articulated Hispano Habit bodied Volvo B7LA (now at Manchester Airport) did route trials on route 4 to test the use of articulated buses on there after it was used in York for the same reasons alongside a Wright Fusion bodied Volvo B10LA borrowed from First Manchester rather than borrow an identical vehicle from First Leeds as in recent years, some Wright Eclipse Fusions from Leeds' Hunslet depot were loaned to Bramley for a shortage as they often wound up on the 4 during 2012 and when the 72 started some wound up on that route too.

Exactly 8 years before this drawing was uploaded, I rode 19013 for the first time before it entered service in Leeds, I rode it from where I live somewhere in South Leeds then I rode it round passed Cottingley and onto Elland Road then up the hill towards Beeston Town Street then parked on Old Lane for photographs which can be seen in my album dedicated to this very bus as this drawing you may find is also part of that album. I've also added its destination showing First Group which 19013 was showing while I was riding it, it also shown this while on demonstration in Swansea.

Sadly (although good news in a way) in 2007 the whole FTR fleet in York and Leeds lost their ticketing machines in place of conductors (or customer service hosts) and their wheel spats at the front which were replaced by wheelcaps which are a rare feature on normal service buses. This meant more money is used up as not only paying for both driver and conductor, but also the high fuel consumption which is made worse with the weight of these top heavy buses which are much larger than any articulated bus working in the UK

6 years later, 19013 was refurbished for the 72 Hyperlink route alongside ex-York and most other Leeds based similar vehicles however during its first year in operation 19013 got a parking ticket! Its twin (as I call it) 19012 however remains out of use as its said to go through some technical work with possibly a new engine as it remains in FTR livery. It's whereabouts are a mystery, although its believed to be kept at Cherry Row.

But the FTR livery can be seen from time to time as since the 72 Hyperlink launch, 19020 and 19022 have been seeing spells on the 4 and the 72 while still wearing their original ftr livery.

Since I drew this bus, sadly 19013 has been scrapped along with many of the other StreetCars from York and Leeds which has been the big upset of 2018 where my interest in buses is concerned.

This bus is one of the reasons which inspired me to draw 35204 (a.k.a Joshua's Bus), the reasons are mentioned in the info of this upload seen here using this link. www.flickr.com/photos/73079833@N02/36751204460/in/photoli...

Any unauthorised use of my drawings used elsewhere will lead to those uploads reported.

If you have any pics of clear side shots of buses showing exactly where the seats are, please if OK with you to show me the pics.

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New in November 1984, no.597 was part of a very large batch of ECW bodied Leyland Olympians for West Riding and is understood to have spent her whole life at Castleford depot.

The bus was initially painted into the West Riding green/cream livery right through until the late 90s when Arriva bought over the Caldaire fleets. It was then when 597 was repainted into original standard Arriva livery. The bus did however retain her original fleet number.

The bus was understood to have been withdrawn sometime in the mid 2000s to make way for newer buses and unfortunately was also understood to be scrapped aswell. However around the same time in November 2006, 597 was made into model form by EFE (Exclusive First Editions) wearing this livery and destination. The bus also resides in my existing model collection since 2020. Interestingly for my 30th birthday that year I was given some cupcakes which featured a drawing of the Flying Scotsman and my own model of this bus which I posted on my personal Facebook page days prior to my 30th.

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Have to be honest, this drawing was way overdue as I had this planned back in 2017/18 to paint up a bus in this livery but I never got round to working on it, but anyway here it is...!

L404 PWR was new to Yorkshire Rider (Bradford) in the mid-90s where it was part of a batch of Volvo Olympians with Northern Counties Palatine body.

When 5404 was a few years old, Yorkshire Rider was soon bought by FirstBus, gone were the Yorkshire Rider fleetnames on the fleet and replaced by First Bradford Traveller fleetnames before the fleet were getting repainted.

There is actually quite a few variations of the Bradford Traveller livery, the colours mostly were the same two-toned blue and red and the odd white at times, but First Bradford Traveller were trialling various liveries out mainly on the Olympians. as 5604 was a good example as that bus carried such a different livery, the colours were cream/blue/orange.

Later on for 5404, it was later seen wearing an overall advert for First's Card. The bus however did wear the Barbie 2 livery and it was about this time when it was re-numbered as 30757 under First Group's national numbering scheme in late 2003.

Later on, 30757 was repainted into the standard Barbie livery until it was eventually withdrawn from use, meaning it never saw any real use outside Bradford however the bus was spotted in York once, presumably on loan for a special event.

The only reminder of the old Bradford Traveller livery is the X6 branded Wright StreetDecks which also wear a two tone blue livery but instead of red being used, its gold. Worth noting that on the 72 route prior to the X6 having new StreetDecks on, that other Leeds/Bradford route had two tone blue liveried Wright StreetCars although these were Leeds based at the time.

Unauthorised use is not allowed as your uploads with my work being used without permission will immediately be reported. My work is all done using MS Paint with no other software being used as I have never used such for my work since the beginning.

For any general enquiries, like questions, requests etc, please send me an email as my email address is michaelwindle38@yahoo.co.uk.

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