The South Wales Festival of Transport held on Barry Island saw large numbers of visitors last Sunday, with another grand display of classic cars and heritage buses giving free rides. The sunshine helped with over 300 cars at the show along with around 70 visiting heritage and modern buses. On the Classic car side, we had 80 cars over 50 years old with arguably the oldest being the black Model Ford T, new in 1915 at 110 years old.
Visiting preserved buses saw vehicles representing various operators, several from Bristol and Birmingham, two London buses, one from 1946 and with local operator Edwards Coaches of Llantrisant having their centenary this year, their 1931 Maudsley, was the oldest at 94 years old. Several visiting buses also operated on the free services along with examples of the Welsh heritage bus collection giving free rides on the day.
We were very busy, and so many people told us they enjoyed visiting our Festival. Our aim is to show off our restored buses provide an interesting day for visitors and raise funds mainly through donations. We still have several projects underway: we are currently restoring a 1970s local independent Cardiff luxury coach and a 1950s double decker from the Heads of the Valleys area and of course the Trolleybus Project have a way to go rebuilding their vehicles. If anyone is interested in helping us we have volunteering days mid-week and Saturdays, also if anyone is interested in cars and can help us on the engineering side or assist with next year’s Festival that would be very welcome. Mike also thanked all the volunteers who made the day possible, the transport industry and the South Wales Classic Car Club for their help on the day.
– Mike Taylor (group chairman)
Anyone interested in helping restore some of our heritage buses in a good cause, can contact
us via info@ctpg.co.uk
