Following Volvo/Optare PO58KPX being involved in an accident at Canterbury Bus Station and PO58KPZ being stolen and burned out the service has been short of vehicles, 2 Enviro's being used to cover the shortfall. In January 2 VDL's arrived, one with Wright bodywork which is on loan for a few months to cover MOTs and servicing and another with Plaxton bodywork which is set to replace KPZ.

Here is Buzzline's NBZ2248 a 1994 Toyota Optimo with Caetano C18C bodywork. Ok, it'll never be a Bedford OB but it's a lovely little bus to drive and would fit on your driveway! These earlier models are so much better than the newer later ones, NBZ was so much more popular than the likes of SB04BUS and JB04BUZ. These pictures were taken in August 2008.

This year this popular event was held at William Street car park in the town and not at the Stagecoach bus garage. It was a fantastic day and congratulations are due to the folks behind it. Well done and we look forward to next year! My Bristol VR SKL681X was on some of the free bus services along with some older visiting vehicles. DON'T FORGET ON 31ST AUGUST 2009 FRIENDS OF THE EAST KENT WILL BE HOLDING THEIR ANNUAL RUNNING DAY AT FOWLMEAD COUNTRY PARK OFF THE A258 BETWEEN DEAL AND SANDWICH. ALL VEHICLE ENTRIES CAN CLAIM FUEL ON BUS SERVICES. MORE INFO AT www.friendsoftheeastkent.weebly.com

This was held at two venues, Dover Transport Museum and the East Kent Light Railway station at Eythorne with a bus service linking the two. The railway was operating a service too. I took my bus 7681 along and AEC Regent PFN867, also owned by a member of FotEK, came along too. More pictures are available on 7681 & DMS550 homepage at http://jakesbuses.weebly.com

JIL is an Alexander bodied Metrobus new to Merseyside PTE in 1982. Now running for Eastonways of Ramsgate she has even survived a lowbridge attack at Herne Bay station! I haven't seen her for a while but I believe she is still in service -just! Ripe for preservation if you want her you better act fast and contact the company! It would be nice t see her preserved, always a popular bus due her warm cab and high seating capacity.

Ex Ribble and M&D Leyland Titan PD2 / Burlingham has been acquired by an owner in Belgium. He requested that it be cut down to meet local height restrictions and fitted with platform doors. This work was carried out by OTT buses of Ramsgate who are also restoring a little Bedford J2 / Plaxton for the same owner. More on OTT at later date!

With more low floor vehicles entering service, Olympians are becoming rarer and rarer in service. As the replacement for the Bristol VRT, the earlier ones had a lot in common with that model. Later updates improved the type (which suffered from corrosion in the early ones) and when it became the Volvo Olympian the chassis was virtually redesigned. Hopefully they will be preserved in large numbers like the Bristol VR's, a number already have found good homes and have been beautifully restored. Here's a look back to when the Olympian was 'king of the road'.

On 23rd November I was greeted by the site of Travelmasters Volvo D10M/Northern Counties jammed under the railway bridge at Chesterfield & Swailcliffe railway station. Fortunately it looked like nobody was hurt but the damage to the bus was quite bad.

On 24th August to celebrate the return of open top Willowbrook bodied Bristol VRT RVB977S former 0977- named ' Pride of Thanet', a group of us got together to recreate the service 69 Thanet open top route. The weather left a lot to be desired- not really open top weather- but spirits were high. The run started at Ramsgate passed through Broadstairs, Margate, Westgate and the posher parts of Birchington's seafront before reaching Minnis Bay. We then returned to Westgate for lunch before a photo run around Margate and the run back to Ramsgate.

During July/August 2007 we took our annual family holiday, this year we went to somewhere close to my heart -the Isle of Wight. It was great to be back and catch up. It's been nearly six years but the Island had changed very little. My former London bosses at Go-Ahead had acquired Southern Vectis and have introduced a fantastic new green livery much more worthy of Vectis than the miss match of colours they were using before. Hopefully these summer pictures will chase the winter blues away and remind us of whats to come in the summer of 2008. Happy New Year!

I acquired 7681 in early 2001 and had hoped her to be ready for the rally season that year, this was to be optimistic! With her problems with the broken engine mount then the gearbox not playing the game then me working all the time put pay to this. About May/June 2001 after all of our native Thanet VR's had gone, 7664 (XJJ664V) was sent up from Dover garage for a few weeks. I asked if I could used her to take to the Southsea Spectacular on the 10th June and Stagecoach said 'yes'. I spent most of my spare time on the Saturday before the show cleaning her, I also painted the wheels blue- boy was I popular with the Thanet engineering manager! We left Thanet at 7am and arrived at Southsea for about 10.30, after a day at the show we left about 5pm travelling back via the A27 and got back about 10pm! A week after her day out 7664 was returned to Dover where she was withdrawn in the July. I managed to swap to get the job to drive her back. 7664 is now with Clynnog and Trefor and still going strong in their attractive red and cream livery.

These are some older pictures I have rescanned to a higher quality. They are of the two Eastonway's Bristol VR's, ex Maidstone and District WKO139S and ex Crosville VCA461W- both of which have since been broken up. The pictures are taken from 2000 onwards when WKO was first layed up with seized engine and VCA was plying her trade to Sandwich Tech School every day and on rail replacement every night. A third VR was operated at some point earlier - I believe it was a United Counties or a Yorkshire example but the number of it I do not know.

Between 1991 and 1997 I lived on the Isle of Wight but had spent holidays there since the early 80's. During this time Southern Vectis, the Island's main bus operator, ran a healthy fleet of Bristols- everything from VR's to Lodekka's and even a Bristol K5G too! Their highly active vintage fleet operated firstly on the 1A Ryde- Newport- Cowes service but later gravitated to the 8A circular from Ryde- Bembridge- Sandown- Shanklin- Godshill- Havenstreet- Ryde. Also at that time the famous 42 service from Yarmouth to Alum Bay and The Needles was Lodekka operated. Here are some of the highlights of what I would personally call the 'swansong' of the Bristol's. All the pictures (except one) were taken between 1990 and 1997.

The bus scene in Ramsgate, Kent around this time was really rather interesting. Eastonways were running the shuttles between the port and the railway station with various (mainly ex London) vehicles, East Kent had just been taken over by Stagecoach and most of the fleet was still in the 'EK' maroon and cream livery and J & J Coaches were running an ex LT DMS on a contract service. I lived on the Isle of Wight at the time but did manage to pop back for a short while. This gallery has been put up before but I have rescanned all of the pictures at a better quality and added a few that you haven't seen before.

Here are some former East Kent vehicles that now have new owners and in some cases new careers. Some are still based here in Kent but others have moved across the the country.