I feel that I must give praise to all of the people involved in organising the last few Transpire events, all of which I, together with lots of other people, have thoroughly enjoyed.

The evening trip in the Johnsons Bristol VRs was exceptionally good; where else can one ride on series 1, 2 and 3 VRs within the space of a couple of hours? The routes chosen were excellent and we found the unexpected stop at the country pub most agreeable.

Likewise, the trip to the Steeple Grange railway was greatly enjoyed by all who took part and special thanks must go to the people who so willingly gave up their time to show us round. It was good to see that such progress is being made, being very noticable since our last visit a few years ago.

That brings me on to the running day. Once again, it was probably the best one so far and special thanks must go to the organisers and the vehicle owners and drivers who again kindly gave up so much of their time. The attendance by the general public as opposed to enthusiasts was certainly higher although I know that some enthusiasts travelled many miles to attend.

However, the icing on the cake must be the Chatsworth Preserved Bus Gathering. Surely this has become, in the space of just five years, one of the premier events in the country. I know that the setting is unique, but the displays of buses and particularly the well organised bus services which are operated all give this event a "special something". Once again, many members of the general public take advantage of these free services, so much so that I believe that on at least two occasions a duplicate bus was required and within a few minutes one had been provided! Again I feel that attendance by the general public was up (as indeed was attendance by preserved buses, some of them travelling considerable distances to attend) and I am already looking forward to next year's Gathering.

This type of event must be the way forward as, in my opinion, the type of bus rally where some old buses are parked in a field all day, none of them moving and being charged a fortune to go and view them is dead.

Once again a big thanks to all involved in the organisation of these events. They know who they are but are too numerous to mention (and in any case if I did, I would be bound to miss someone out!). SO THANK YOU!

Twenty three members and friends made the journey to the Whitwell shed owned by the Rother Valley Transport Group in Leyland Panther 93 (with a further seven or so travelling by car) at the kind invitation of Tom Simpson, the owner of Cosy Coaches Bedford OB ATS 408. As well as this vehicle (which is well known to local enthusaiasts) several other vehicles of local interest were present in various states of repair. The following vehicles were on site:

In the shed itself were:

Outside, under a tarpaulin was:

CCB 300 an Albion Victor with a Duple C33F coach body, again seemingly complete, believed last operated by Cadman of Moorends, near Doncaster.

Round the back of the shed, in addition to 340 NKT, were the following:

Also outside were various lorries including the very interesting ALM 841B a Leyland Titan PD3A with a Mann Egerton body which was new to London Transport as some kind of incident vehicle (it was never a bus)

The evening was rounded off by a short trip around Whitwell in the OB ATS 408 and this was very ably driven at Tom's invitation by Dennis Vickers.

Thanks are due to Tom Simpson, Dennis Vickers and to Lee Roddis for not only making the Panther availale but also driving it.

Duncan Bingham comments (4 May 2010): Further to Neville's welcome report on the visit to Whitwell sheds, Ford Transit PWF 514X was a former Derbyshire Ambulance Service vehicle, although whether it arrived here direct or not I don't know. The PSV Circle has this batch of vehicles (PWF 513-517X) recorded with Dormobile conversions. Was there evidence on the vehicle to suggest it was actually converted by Steedrive?

Neville Whitmore replies (7 May 2010): In answer to Duncan Bingham's comment on this vehicle, it certainly had a Dormobile body shell but I could not get close enough to examine it so assume it is Dormobile. I am afraid that I assumed it might be Steedrive as they had an input into similar vehicles Sorry!

The Teesside Vintage Bus Running Day held on Sunday 25th April was attended by Transpire in conjunction with the Chesterfield 123 Preservation group. The vehicle used was former Chesterfield Transport 16 (J216 AET) a Mercedes 811D with an Alexander Sprint B31F bodywork. Last year this same vehicle was used only a few weeks after acquisition from Stagecoach and was still in Stagecoach livery. This year it has been repainted in the original Spire Sprinter livery it carried when new although fleetnames etc have still to be applied. As well as the usual network of routes operated from the unusual Transporter bridge in Middlesbrough, an additional attraction this year was a special guided tour around the Middlehaven area of Middlesbrough where there is substantial redevelopment in progress. The vehicle used was J216 AET as a larger vehicle could not access some of the sites visited. The first of the two tours had a capacity load, surely the first time a preserved bus from the Chesterfield area has been used on such a duty! The second tour of the day carried eighteen passengers. A very interesting time was had by all.

With all these photographs of Peakbus in the mid 1990's hitting the website (HERE) I thought it was time to remind ourselves what happened.

Peakbus was formed in August 1993 by a couple of enthusiasts, David Seddon and David Milson, whose names were on the licence. The legal address was Bushbury near Wolverhampton which was believed to be the home village of the owners. The first vehicle owned was an ECW bodied Bristol LHS6L which had been new to Western National (FDV 786V). It was very smartly turned out in a maroon, yellow and cream livery (see below) and from September 1993 was used on a school service between Calow and Brimington. My first contact with them was during the Christmas period 1993 when they operated journeys under contract on service 141 between Clay Cross and Mansfield. They certainly gave a very professional appearance with a driver, conductor in uniform (a very nice dog) and a hand held electronic ticket machine (I stand to be corrected, but it looked similar to those used by conductors on Blackpool trams).

A commercial service was started in March 1994 between Chesterfield and Newbold numbered 27 which was operated until the end of operations in March 1996. Another interesting service started in March 1995 was the 55 to North Wingfield which did a terminal loop around the Alma Estate. For most of the time this latter service carried a conductor, a duty on which several current Transpire members were employed, but this service ceased in December after operations had become rather erratic. Various other services were operated including a second commercial service to Newbold (29) and various school services together with some short lived services to places as far apart as Buxton and Doncaster!

The pictures show the vast array of vehicles operated, and during the time of operations enthusiasts from all over the country came to Chesterfield to see them. Some of the vehicles were on hire from other operators or dealers and only a relatively small number received the attractive livery.

The end came in March 1996 after various problems with Traffic Commisioners, Vehicle Inspectorate and other authorities which I felt was very sad after such a promising beginning.