Demolition work on Northampton Fishmarket was due to start this week. The site is to become Northampton's new bus station. Hopefully, it will ease the bottleneck for buses between The Drapery and Greyfriars (some enforcement of the no parking area in Sheep street might be a good idea too, NBC).

Olympus OM-2/ Sigma 35-70mm zoom
Ilford FP4+ @200asa
Dev.: R09

Tags:   northampton fishmarket nbc bus station first stagecoach olympus OM-2 ilford fp4+ rodinal

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Trundling up and down on the boring 5As one Saturday morning, I thought I'd stop and grab this picture in Weston Mill Lane, where it crosses the A45 dual carriageway. Volvo 285 (85 originally) was a nice bus to drive, so the five hours would have gone fairly quickly.

2002

Minolta Dynax 505si
Fujicolor print film

Tags:   first northampton volvo citybus f85xbd 85 285 alexander

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A quick trip to town on M252 MRW. I have to say the old girl seemed to be well looked after.

Tags:   first Northampton Dennis lance plaxton verde M252MRW flickrandroidapp:filter=none

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A rather nice East Lancs bodied Dominator of Leicester Citybus loads on the Nether Hall barrier in Humberstone Gate. Behind it lurks some sort of delivery van, garishly painted in it's owner's livery. Perhaps it was delivering towels or fresh linnen to a pub. The British-built Dominator has a throaty sounding Gardner 180 engine and tuneful Voith gearbox. Little did I know that five years later, I would be driving these when Northampton had too many drivers and Leicester not enough. These 'square' Dominators were the best, IMO. They had the wonderful interior, little changed from the PD3s bought in the '60s, whilst East Lancs hadn't got to the parts bin era of the s-type body which was used from the B-reg batch onwards.

I seem to recall resting my camera on a handy litter bin as light was fading fast.

Jan 1994

Pentax ME super/ 50mm
Kodak Gold 400asa

Tags:   tbc51x leicester citybus dennis dominator 51 east lancs humberstone gate grt dusk pentax me super

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At Rectory Farm terminus, not somewhere I'd usually want to hang around with a decent camera at half eight on a Saturday night, 65563 waits to return with the 2028 service 2 back to the bus station. When I was a driver, I used to avoid waiting here, as you often got hassle from local morons.
Even the bus was giving up, note the front bumper was hanging off, somehow adding to the dismal scene.

Tags:   northampton transport first transforming travel rectory farm end sad day last journey bus scania 65563 r263dvf l113 wright

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