Over 300 cars were expected and the day before the show the Ford Fanatics Car Club pleaded to come along adding a further 30! A couple of old magnificent commercial vehicles alsocame joining the 106 Field Company REME Army Reserve with one of their huge eight-wheel drive recovery vehicles. Buses from Gloucester, West Midlands and Swansea came boosting the Barry heritage bus collection on display. Mike Taylor said “I can only thank the Classic Car people with their support this year, they almost overwhelmed us with something in the order of 330 visiting vehicles, we must now be one of the biggest shows of this type in Wales. The Vale of Glamorgan council staff did a sterling job in helping us on the day. The Show Guide sold out quickly but this only had 230 cars listed, all the others booked in the last two weeks and this was in spite of many roads closed to traffic due to the Velathon cycle race”. Those that came were treated to a much more intensive free heritage bus service with 15 minute frequencies and at one point we even stepped that up with extras. Our feedback was that many, especially those with young children liked the variety of buses and coaches we operated; from our fifty-one year old 1964 open top bus to our newly restored former Cardiff Bus single decker, a twenty-four year old, 1991 Leyland Lynx number 267 – one of the last Leyland badged buses ever built”. Visiting buses included modern ones from local companies, four 1960’s Bristol buses of different types, and one of the original iconic red London AEC Routemasters – RM1357 15 June 2015 NEWS dating from 1962. The Swansea bus group brought along several and for the first time their South Wales1203 bus, a newly restored fifty-six year old 1959 AEC Bridgemaster, similar ones were operated by Western Welsh on the long Carmarthen to Cardiff route and Cardiff Corporation ran six in the1960’s. Amongst the cars a Rolls Royce and a Bentley came along but it’s the cars that mum and dad, uncle or grandpa had that perhaps brought most memories back for visitors, like the original humble Austin Mini, Ford Escort or Morris Minor, although amongst them were lots of other larger cars and a Humberside Police Car – a bit outside its area, of course! On the heritage bus side the organising Group brought out many of its collection giving free rides and amongst these running for the first time in preservation, on the Park & Ride shuttle, was former Cardiff Bus 23, a twenty year old Alexander Dash Dart. At the show ground, donated to the Group two months ago, was Stagecoach Red & White 792, a seventeen year old 1998 Volvo B10M. Whilst outside The Bus Depot was group member Martyn Evans’ thirty-six year old 1979 Bedford VAS luxury coach just a day before finished and re-painted into its original Evans of New Tredegar livery after four years of restoration.
