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Norwich Classic Bus Running Day. . .

This page is dedicated to the highly enjoyable and very successful Norwich Classic Bus Running Day, held in the city on Sunday, 22nd March 2015 between 10am and 6pm.

The event attracted around twenty classic buses, many from the former Eastern Counties Omnibus Company, which assembled at the park and ride bus terminal at County Hall, the home of Norfolk County Council, for which special permission was obtained by the organisers to use as a 'bus station' for the day.

Many of the vehicles attending, operated a series of four time tabled routes into and around the city and also out into the delightful Norfolk countryside on free to ride services which reached Caistor St Edmund, Stoke Holy Cross, Poringland, Arminghall, Swardeston and Mulbarton.

Some of the visiting vehicles had travelled a considerable distance to support the event. Two superbly restored former Eastern Counties vehicles, a Bristol RE, fleet number RLE 747 (GCL 349N) travelled all the way from Birmingham, whilst the equally well restored Bristol K5G, LKH 133 (HPW 133) made the journey all the way from Lincoln. Other vehicles travelled from North Essex, Ipswich, Yarmouth and Lowestoft.

Special excursions were made to Mousehold Heath by a former ECOC open topped Bristol VR and a guided tour of the First Eastern Counties Buses Ltd vehicle maintenance premises at Roundtree Way, by a former London Transport Routemaster, accompanied by a modern day FEC Volvo double decker, smartly painted in the old Eastern Counties red and cream livery.

The day was jointly organised by the East Anglia Transport Museum of Carlton Colville, Suffolk, the Eastern Transport Collection Society, of Attleborough, Norfolk and the Ipswich Transport Museum, each organisation contributing to the day's success and enjoyment by supplying and making their former ECOC vehicles available for the free to ride services.

The event was kindly supported and sponsored by First Eastern Counties Buses Ltd, who also supplied a number of their vehicles to take part in the day's proceedings.

In addition to the four services operating from the County Hall 'bus station', LL 711 (KNG 711) was busy re-creating former Eastern Counties services 13a and 13b between the city centre (St Stephens Street) and Costessey Church and Ringland Road junction, respectively. Sister vehicle LL 718 (KNG 718) from the Eastern Transport Collection Society duplicated the busier middle of the day journeys as far as the Oval public house, the former terminus of the very busy 81 service which ran on a ten minute headway from Thorpe Station via Bank Plain and Dereham Road from the mid 'thirties to the mid 'seventies. Special permission was obtained from the current landlord of the Oval, now known as the Cherry Tree, to use the pub's car park as a bus turning and waiting area during the day. Click here to view a photo gallery of LL 711 in action on the 13a and 13b and the waybill completed by LL 711's conductor! (All photographs are copyright and are reproduced courtesy of Sydney Eade of Lowestoft, Suffolk)

I wish to personally thank all the organisers, supporters, vehicle owners, visitors and enthusiasts who all eagerly clubbed together to make this very special and much enjoyed event on Sunday the 22nd of March such a great success and a day to be long remembered as one of the best bus events ever to be held in the city!

Below you will find a selection of the many photographs which were taken at the event plus links to 'YouTube' videos, newspaper articles and the publicity posters and route time tables. Click here to read a Norwich Buses Blog report on the event by Kieran Smith. Please use your browser's 'back' button to return to this page after viewing the report.

Please inform me if any of the photographs below are your work and I will either happily credit you as the photographer if you are in agreement for your photograph to remain on the site, or remove your photo and replace it with another of the same vehicle, if that is your wish.

I hope you find this page interesting and a good reflection of the day's well organised proceedings!