Heritage Bus Rides in Guildford

 13/9/25

As part of the national Heritage Open Days my friend Richard Kirwin arranged free bus rides in Guildford. I volunteered to help him and he asked me to be a bus controller and relief coductor on the saturday. 

You may remember that last year I helped Richard by being his conductor on Epsom Derby day. See here for my blog post.

The 2 images below formed the publicity for the bus event. 

The service bus was RF354 with OPC26R as backup/crew bus.

The 2 buses are seen here in Guildford bus station. 

I took one trip on the RF seen here at Guildford Business Park.

 This was formerley the site of Dennis Bros, builders of buses and other commercial vehicles.

 See here for more history of the company.

 Fortunately the weather was good with only short heavy rain shower.

 A very pleasant day helping a number of people enjoy a ride on an old bus. 

Ruislip Lido Railway

25/8/25

This trip was planned a few months ago and today was the day the stars aligned and I was able to do it. 

In hindsight a hot sunny Bank Holiday Monday was probably not the best day to do this, but I survived.

 

 

 

 

 

 

£5 for a return trip didn't break the bank.

So How did I get here? Tube to Ruislip station (Picadilly or Meropolitan Line).

Then a H13 bus to the terminus.

 A couple of photos taken on the short walk to Willow Lawn station

 Willow Lawn station.

 Woody Bay station

 Back at Willow Lawn station 

 Then I took the H13 bus back towards Ruislip, stopping off at the Hop & Vine micropub.

For more about the railway their website is here
 

 

Dartmouth Steam Railway

 9/4/25

A short train ride from Torquay to Paignton.

Torquay

Paignton GWR station

The Steam Railway is adjacent.

 Kingswear station

 Ferry to Dartmouth

former Dartmouth station

 A couple of pubs

 Then ferry back to Kingswear

 Kingswear station

I decided to pay the £3 supplement to travel in the observation car.

A pub in Paignton

 

Train from Paignton to Torquay