Seen on South Street, Romford, near Romford Station in late 05/1992, this Olympian was new to Ensign, Purfleet, the wellknown bus dealership, in 09/1989, in a batch of eight, 121-8, G121-8YEV. Ensign were operating tendered LRT services and the London Pride sightseeing operation under the Ensignbus banner. Now, this where the story gets convoluted a little. Capital Citybus was formerly known as Ensignbus and was the trading name of Frontrunner South East and Walthamstow Citybus Ltd. Ensignbus had been involved in tendered operations since 06/1986 with Fruntrunner South East being acquired from Stagecoach three years later with the LRT and commercial services becoming known as Ensign Citybus in 07/1990. Frontrunner was then sold to Hong Kong based CNT Group in 12/1990. The separate Walthamstow Citybus operation began in Autumn 1991. All these changes meant that this visit to Romford was a colourful if not confusing scene as there was also a change with some County Bus & Coach operations transferring to Grey-Green. So as can be seen in my other photos from here, there were Capital Citybus buses in Ensignbus livery and Grey-Green buses in County Bus & Coach livery as well as their own. Interesting times indeed.
The camera being a Praktica MTL3 with the film being the excellent 'Fujichrome' colourslide.
I would request, as with all my photos, that they are not copied or downloaded in any way, shape or form. © Peter Steel 1992.
Tags: G122YEV
© All Rights Reserved
Seen here on South Street, Romford, near Romford Station, in late 05/1992, this Olympian was new to Ensign, Purfleet, the wellknown bus dealership, in 11/1989, following on from four delivered a month earlier. Ensign were operating tendered LRT services and the London Pride sightseeing operation under the Ensignbus banner. Capital Citybus was formerly known as Ensignbus and was the trading name of Frontrunner South East and Walthamstow Citybus Ltd. Ensignbus had been involved in tendered operations since 06/1986 with Fruntrunner South East being acquired from Stagecoach three years later with the LRT and commercial services becoming known as Ensign Citybus in 07/1990. Frontrunner was then sold to Hong Kong based CNT Group in 12/1990. The separate Walthamstow Citybus operation began in Autumn 1991. All these changes meant that this visit to Romford was a colourful if not confusing scene as there was also a change with some County Bus & Coach operations transferring to Grey-Green, of which more later.
The camera being a Praktica MTL3 with the film being the excellent 'Fujichrome' colourslide.
I would request, as with all my photos, that they are not copied or downloaded in any way, shape or form. © Peter Steel 1992.
Tags: G133ATW
© All Rights Reserved
Seen here on South Street, Romford, near Romford Station, in late 05/1992, this unkempt Metrobus was new to Ensign, Purfleet, the wellknown bus dealership, in 11/1988, in a batch of sixteen, 279-94, F279-94NHJ. Ensign were operating tendered LRT services and the London Pride sightseeing operation under the Ensignbus banner. Now, this where the story gets convoluted a little. Capital Citybus was formerly known as Ensignbus and was the trading name of Frontrunner South East and Walthamstow Citybus Ltd. Ensignbus had been involved in tendered operations since 06/1986 with Fruntrunner South East being acquired from Stagecoach three years later with the LRT and commercial services becoming known as Ensign Citybus in 07/1990. Frontrunner was then sold to Hong Kong based CNT Group in 12/1990. The separate Walthamstow Citybus operation began in Autumn 1991. All these changes meant that this visit to Romford was a colourful if not confusing scene as there was also a change with some County Bus & Coach operations transferring to Grey-Green, of which more later.
The camera being a Praktica MTL3 with the film being the excellent 'Fujichrome' colourslide.
I would request, as with all my photos, that they are not copied or downloaded in any way, shape or form. © Peter Steel 1992.
Tags: F292NHJ
© All Rights Reserved
Seen here at Aldgate(Minories) Bus Station, on 28/07/1998, is this trio of Olympian buses. The odd one out is of course First Capital Citybus, Walthamstow, 247 N247CMP, a Northern Counties Countybus Palatine I bodied Volvo Olympian YN2RV18Z4. It was new to Capital Citybus, in 07/1996, and is on layover prior to making a trip to Wood Green. Capital Citybus was established on 29/12/1990, with the purchase of the London tendered bus services of Ensignbus by the Hong Kong businessman Tsui Tsin-tong's CNT Group, which also owned bus operator Hong Kong Citybus.
Citybus purchased the London tendered routes, Dagenham garage and 87 buses and rebranded the operation as Capital Citybus. In 1991, it gained a large number of routes after the collapse of London Regional Transport subsidiary London Forest and further tendering resulted in the opening of Northumberland Park garage. It also operated six commercial routes, mainly in the Romford area, and Hertfordshire County Council-contracted service 321 (Rickmansworth - Luton) on Sundays.
On 21/12/1995, CNT Group sold Capital Citybus in a management buyout backed by Lloyds Development Capital then on 08/07/1998, just three weeks before this photo was taken, Capital Citybus was sold to FirstGroup. After a period of initially operating separately, the company was integrated into the other First London operations.
The other two Olympians in this view are Arriva Leaside, L333, J433BSH, an Alexander RH bodied Cummins powered Leyland Olympian ON2R50C13Z4. This was new to London Buses, in 06/1992, and was later converted to open-top configuration, in 08/2003, for use on the Arriva Original London Sightseeing Tour, while alongside is sister L354, VLT32. It received this reg. in 01/1994. This was the last numerically in the batch, being new in 08/1992 and was originally registered J354BSH. It was also the last of the Leyland Olympians supplied to London Buses. When the London Buses subsidiaries were privatised both Olympians passed into the control of T. Cowie Group owned Leaside Buses, thus becoming Arriva Leaside Buses when the Cowie Group was re-named in 1998. Both buses were based at Clapton when seen here.
The camera being a Praktica MTL3 with the film being the Boots Colourslide II.
I would request, as with all my photos, that they are not copied or downloaded in any way, shape or form. © Peter Steel 1998.
Tags: J433BSH J354BSH VLT32 N247CMP
© All Rights Reserved
Seen on South Street, Romford, near Romford Station, in late 05/1992, this Dominator was new to Frontrunner South East although in Ensign livery, who were and still are the wellknown bus dealership, in 01/1991, in a batch of twenty-four. Ensign were operating tendered LRT services and the London Pride sightseeing operation under the Ensignbus banner. Now, this where the story gets convoluted a little. Capital Citybus was formerly known as Ensignbus and was the trading name of Frontrunner South East and Walthamstow Citybus Ltd. Ensignbus had been involved in tendered operations since 06/1986 with Fruntrunner South East being acquired from Stagecoach three years later with the LRT and commercial services becoming known as Ensign Citybus in 07/1990. Frontrunner was then sold to Hong Kong based CNT Group in 12/1990. The separate Walthamstow Citybus operation began in Autumn 1991. All these changes meant that this visit to Romford was a colourful if not confusing scene as there was also a change with some County Bus & Coach operations transferring to Grey-Green, as can be seen in the previous photo.
The camera being a Praktica MTL3 with the film being the excellent 'Fujichrome' colourslide.
I would request, as with all my photos, that they are not copied or downloaded in any way, shape or form. © Peter Steel 1992.
Tags: H258KVX
© All Rights Reserved