The Barry heritage bus group held their third annual Twilight Event running restored classic Welsh buses last Saturday (1st November). Free heritage buses ran every 20 minutes and it was the last chance of the group to operate some of their vehicles before the closed winter season.
We know some visitors like the idea of travelling on heritage buses in the twilight and dark when the old fashioned lights get put on to brighten a November dull day. Whilst we did that this year it was also had a lot of rain, but our visitors didn’t mind
Mike Taylor, the chairman of the heritage bus collection
Many travelled on several vehicles to make the most of the day. One Coach we had planned to run was not able to, as we ran out of time for brake test but we substituted it with our 1980s Rhymney Valley chocolate, cream and yellow bus. Probably the most popular bus was our former 2006 Cardiff articulated Omni-City Scania bendy-bus as we only run it occasionally. Quite a contrast to our 1952 Leyland Tiger PS1 originally new to Caerphilly Urban District Council. Other buses that operated included our Cardiff 1964 AEC Regent V, a 1966 Rhondda AEC Regent V, our former 1968 Cardiff AEC Swift, and Bedwas & Machen Leyland Titan.
We had some kind words from some visitors who surprised us coming to Barry for our 4 hour event, from Aberystwyth, Swindon and north Manchester. We do get visitors from afar in the summer to our June Barry Festival of Transport, but we did not expect that for a half day in November.
The Cardiff Transport Preservation Group based at Barry are still looking for volunteers; to help on restoration projects, those with car truck or bus mechanics and coachwork skills are always welcome. For those who are retired can come along on a Tuesday, Thursday or Friday and we have volunteers who come on Saturdays too. Our next public event will be in the Spring next year.
