Old Postcards - Transport & Weather

[Ludo]

Excellent stuff, Ludo, please keep it coming. 
...Leather seats and free wi-fi - how times have changed!

  Unbelievable! a real 21st century service then - I hope it helps in some small way to make Rhyl feel proud of itself again. It's really sad what has happened there, It used to be a magical place when I was a kid.

[Ludo]

Me again! - if I can work out how to do it, I will use that Crosville button as my avatar for a bit - cool eh?.

HOORAY!! - it worked!

[hollins]

I never thought I would be so interested in Crosville buses but your personal insight on the subject is fascinating. I love your xmas card and models. Crosville were my school buses in Northwich in the sixties.
Thank you so much for sharing these. 

[Ludo]

I never thought I would be so interested in Crosville buses but your personal insight on the subject is fascinating. I love your xmas card and models. Crosville were my school buses in Northwich in the sixties.
Thank you so much for sharing these. 

You are very welcome Hollins - it is a real pleasure to share isn't it?. Crosville has such a place in all our lives who can remember them. I had a company bus pass for all the time I worked there in Chester so even at the weekends I would be 'on the buses' up and down the length and breadth of their patch. It was great fun in the summer, I had such a laugh with the crews sometimes. I ended up being a bit of an anorak (as you can probably tell  ) - I am just about recovered now though...

[SDQ]

I also recall that Crosville had a fleet of small Mercedes buses with a Dragon livery in the late 80s/early 90s?

The small Mercedes buses were branded as 'Little Dragons'
to follow the same theme. They had 20 seats except for two
which had 19 coach seats (MMM99 & MMM173 were their
fleet numbers). Originally given a life span of 2 or 3 years
they proved such a good work-horse they lasted many more.

The 'Happy Dragon' mentioned in Trojan's original post
wasn't the Coastliner but the 100 service from Conwy
to Talacre operated primarily by open-top double deckers
one of which was an old Bristol Lodekka (DFG 27) and a
closed top version (DFG 234) which was in the original pic.

[Ian]

Ludo: your contribution to this place is amazing and extremely valuable. Thanks for digging the stuff out, and we'll be happy to see whatever else you can find.

[Ludo]

I also designed a fleet of Open Toppers for seaside duty named after the Castles of North Wales. They incorporated the name of the Castle and a graphic on the front into the National Express livery which had just been launched nationwide to great fanfare. This is the only record I have of them now - the photo is of a very much younger me preparing the publicity materials for the Caernarfon Castle variant:

I still have the original drawings for these somewhere, I'll dig them out and post them here if I can find them. I just found this great colour photo of the Criccieth Castle Class open topper - good to see it again after all these years:

[Bri Roberts]

It maybe of interest but a couple of long-standing retired Crosville bus drivers, Maldwyn and Barry, had a table on Bodafon Fields during last year's Llandudno Extravaganza selling Crosville memorabilia including timetables etc.

[Ludo]

Ludo: your contribution to this place is amazing and extremely valuable. Thanks for digging the stuff out, and we'll be happy to see whatever else you can find.

Thanks Ian. I actually think the whole site is fantastic - I have spent many a dreamy hour already lost in the nostalgia of past times and fascinated by the developments of today and the possibilities for the future. Well done to all involved and a huge thank you for all your time and effort. I am really happy to contribute in some small way to this great site, and to hear that members find it interesting is reward enough. 

[Ludo]

It maybe of interest but a couple of long-standing retired Crosville bus drivers, Maldwyn and Barry, had a table on Bodafon Fields during last year's Llandudno Extravaganza selling Crosville memorabilia including timetables etc.

It is of great interest - thanks. It's a bit far away for me to go at the moment as I live in Nijmegen, Holland - but who knows, I might make it this year!.

[Ludo]

Thanks Bri, I feel motivated to spend the rest of the afternoon rooting around in my basement storeroom downstairs to see what else I can find now... I'll report back later.

[suepp]

Thank you Ludo, I've really enjoyed looking at your pics, 

[Bellringer]

Me too. In my younger days I used buses extensively in South Cheshire - Crosville, North Western and PMT (Potteries Motor Traction).

[Ludo]

Aha! thanks everyone - I am really happy to hear you enjoyed looking at these things. As there seems to be no objection to me cluttering up this fascinating thread I will post a few more gems in due course. I have just been scrambling about in my store room humping boxes around trying to find more Crosville history - with some success I must say!.

For example, speaking of the North Western Road Car Company, I have just found a poster I designed to celebrate 60 years of service between Crosville and NW - between 1923 to 1983. It is a bit big to go on my diminutive scanner so I will photograph it later and post it. I need a rest and a nice cool Dutch beer now though after all that exertion...

[Merddin Emrys]

I'm loving all of this Crossville history, as a lad I loved the green buses when we came to llandudno on holiday  D)