Busways was created when the Tyne and Wear PTE was broken up in 1986 during the de-regulation period, Sunderland Busways operated the Sunderland area of the PTE (ie the former Sunderland Corporation area)
Each Busways sector had different coloured bands applied to the basic Busways Yellow livery. These reflected their former Corporation liveries, with Sunderlands colours being Green.
I never got to Sunderland very often, the pictures in this collection are from two or three visits with the 500 Group in the pre Stagecoach era. Hope you enjoy them.

OK Motor Services was one of North East England's primary independants, and probably the only one I was particularly interested in.
By the 90's they had an interesting and varied fleet with several Northern General and ex PTE Vehicles.
Most of these views were taken by me on various 500 Group trips over the years, whilst others are from negatives and slides to which I hold the copyright to. Older viewers might recognise Peterlee, Team Valley, and Shotton Coillery Depots in this collection.

By Dec 85, the established operator Trimdon Motor Services accumilated a large collection of mainly Bristol LH's at a location on Teesside ready for de-regulation day. In the event TMS established a successfull network of services in Stockton on Tees, (and later in Middlesbrough) proving a major thorn in the side of Cleveland Transit for many years.
These photos were taken around 1985 - 89 and show the early days of TMS's de-regulation period. Hope you enjoy them.

This Company is the former Northern area of the United Automobile Services Empire. It was created in 1986 with the breakup of United, during the De-regulation period.
The livery is (In my opinion) one of the very few 'Supermarket' liveries to actually work. It was highly distinctive, and could be recognised anywhere, whilst the colours worked extremely well together.
Most of my photos come from the immediate post United era, with lots of former United Bristol VR's and Olympians wearing Northumbria livery, these will appear in due course. My particular favourites from this Fleet were the stretched former Greenline Olympians, and the later East Lancs bpdied Scanias. Anyway, there is plenty of variation for you to enjoy.

I lived on North Tyneside for eleven years between 1989 and 2000. I caught the Bus and Metro into work regularly for most of that time, and thus developed a great interest in the Buses of the Northern Fleet during this time. These pictures originated with either 500 Group trips, or on the various occasions when I went out with the Camera, and those which I have the copyright to.

I always used to travel on these more than then any other operator, but never developed the interest in them, such as the interest that I have in Cleveland Transit. However, they had an interesting fleet particularly during the 70's. Again, most of these are what I have taken myself, but there are (or will be) many of those that I have the copyright to. Hope there is plenty to enjoy.

This operator was one of the better ones on Teesside during the de-regulation period. They operated some very interesting vehicles including a former Maidstone & District open top Atlantean, and an unusual Tricentrol bodied Ford 'A' series Minibus.

Darlington was one of these places that was on my doorstep, but never actually got to very often. They had a hell of an interesting Fleet, and were one of the last operators in the North East, to have back loaders. These Dainlers weren't finally withdrawn until 1981.
I only went to the Bus Depot on two occasions, and these photos reflect this, however, the second time was when those ex Nottingham PAU's were around, so look out for them making an appearence (eventually!)

This collection will aim to show the many varied and interesting vehicles in the service vehicle fleet of Busways and it's predecessors.

In this collection one can find views of Cleveland Transit Double Deck vehicles between 1974 and 1982. Once again it is not going to be an exhaustive history, but rather a flavour of the vehicle types operated by Transit in it's heyday.

This collection will show single deck vehicles used by Cleveland Transit in the period 1974 - 94, it is not intended to be a detailed history as that is to be a project which I will be working on at a later date, to appear as part of the 500 Group website.

At first glance having anything in Stagecoach livery on a Classic Bus website, could be taken as a little tounge in cheek! However, many of the deregulation types were approaching midlife, and many have been replaced with vehicles from elsewhere in the Stagecoach group, (mainly Busways). There was also the takeover of Hartlepool Transport, and the new operations set up in Darlington after the demise of Darlington Tansport. Also there was much transferring between the now closely linked Busways operations, which saw Geordie vehicles working on Teesside, thus echoing a plan first proposed in the late 40's in which all of the North East's bus operators were to be brought under a central authority. In the event this didn't happen, but what is now Stagecoach North East gives a flavour of what might have been if the plan had gone ahead.
Once again a proper archive will be developed as part of the 500 Groups site in due course.

This shortlived operater was created along with the formation of the new County borough of Teesside on 1st April 1968.
It was the amalgamations of the two Corporations of Stockton and Middlesbrough, along with the Teesside Railless Traction Board. TMT introduced a smart Turquoise and cream livery derided by the enthusiasts of the day, and is chiefly remembered for the Clean Air Bus, which was a 1967 Daimler Fleetline experimentally fitted with a Rolls Royce B18G Multifuel (Diesel & LPG) engine of a type commonly found in Fire Appliances, and Military vehicles of that period.
Under TMT, the services and the fleets were rationalised, and intergrated, so that there was a unified operator in the new County. In this collection you will see the various types of vehicles operated over the years up to the formation of Cleveland Transit.

The dergulation period was a time of great upheaval in the Bus industry, and most of all that had been carefully built up since the 1930's Road Traffic Act, was thrown to the wolves!
Transit introduced new generation vehicles to deal with the severe competition from other operators (mainly TMS). In this collection you can see these 'new' vehicles. There are Lynxes, Minibuses, Volvos, and Olympians. Given that most of these are now out of service, or are in the process of being withdrawn, they can legitamately be 'Classic Buses'

A political desire to have a Municipal Presence in the then new Cleveland County, led to the acqusition in Aug74 of the independant operator Saltburn Motor Services.At the time of the Transit take over, the fleet was predominantly Bedford, although there were two AEC's, a former Yorkshire Woolen Regent 5, (DHD183) and a former Wallace Arnold Reliance, (9191NW) this last vehicle wasn't used, but the Regent became Transit's only postwar AEC Double Decker. Most of the Saltburn Fleet were out of service by the middle 80's, but two Bedfords (TPY924/5H) lasted until the early years of the deregulation period. All these vehicles can be found in this collection.

Most major Bus Companies have had various Demonstrator vehicles on trial over the years, this collection will show those that have been demonstrated for Cleveland Transit.

Newcastle Busways are one of the seperate operating companies created with the break up of the Tyne and Wear PTE in 1986. The Newcastle Busways identity covered those vehicles which operated from Slatyford Depot.
Those operating from Byker Depot carried City Busways Fleetnames. After 1993, City Busways was discontinued, and both sectors used the Newcastle Busways identity, and this title was used until the Stagecoach takeover in 1995. The photos in this collection come from either my own views, or those slides and negatives which I have acquired the copyright to. Hope you enjoy them.

Before De-regulation only a handfull of Transit's Buses escaped the cutters torch, (mainly as the result of a draconian policy of ensuring that everything went for scrap) Most of these survivors are now preserved, although there were a couple of notable escapees.
In the de-regulation period, most Bus companies sold their time expired vehicles for further use. In the Transit Fleet, almost everything from the Minibus 315 upwards, found a second, and in some cases a third home after leaving Teesside. This collection will be developed to record as many of these as possible.

This operator has long been one of my favorites. I can (just) remember the smart Yellow and cream livery from when I was very young. Most of the views here will be of surviving Newcastle vehicles, although I do have some period views which I have the copyright to, and will make their way here (eventually lol!)

Hartlepool, or West Hartlepool, (depending on which part you come from) was famous recently for it's operation of Bristol RE's in quantity. By the 90's, only Hartlepool and Delta Coaches (of Stockton) were the only two operators in Cleveland to do this. This collection will aim to show these and other extremely interesting vehicles that Hartlepool have operated over the years. The Stagecoach era will be covered seperately.

Tyne and Wear PTE originated in 1969 as the 'Tyne side PTE' with the amalgamation of Newcastle and South Shields Corporations. Sunderland Corporation joined in 1973, and was followed by two independants Armstrong Galley, and Economic of Whitburn. In 1974, as a result of further boundry changes, the County of Tyne and Wear was born, and the Buses operated under Tyne and Wear PTE. The Metro the Ferrys, and the Tyne Tunnel were also operated by the PTE, but these have their own collections. The PTE were big users of the Alexander Atlantean combination, and this collection will show these and the many other interesting buses operated over the years.

Teesside Railless Traction Board is famous as the last but one Trolleybus system in the country. It's services finished in April 1971, leaving Bradford as the UK's final system to close in 1972.
In 1919,TRTB was the first Trolley bus operator to start out from the begining with Trolley buses, as opposed to having it's origins in a Tramway system. It's Southbank Depot being the first purpose built Trolleybus garage in the country. The undertaking became part of Teesside Municipal Transport from 1968, and the Depot became Cleveland Transit's South Depot from 1974. The greater part of the Motorbus fleet during the later post war period, was made up of Roe bodied PD2's of various ages, with a final batch of six Atlanteans (again with Roe bodies) delivered new in 1967. When these last were delivered, they carried TMT's then new Turquoise livery, but with TRTB legals as the merger hadn't been formalised yet.
Single Deckers consisted of a batch of four Leyland Leopards, and two Leyland Tigers, again all with Roe bodies.
The Trolleybus fleet consisted of Sunbeam F4's which had in the sixties, been refurbished with new (Roe) bodywork. A batch of second hand ex Reading examples with front entrance Burlinghm bodies joined the fleet in 1969, but as they came after the merger, these could be more correctly regarded as TMT vehicles.
The collection shown here are mainly in the later TMT/ Cleveland Transit era, as views from this period are easier to find. I do have a vey small collection of black and white Trolleybus negatives,which I have the copyright to, and will eventually make their way onto this site. Some of the older views have come from one of our Members, Mr Andy Wood, formerly of Teesside, but now of Dorset, who has graciously given me his permission to use many of his photos on my site. Most of these date from the 1970's, and I have credited them accordingly.
I give my grateful thanks to him for allowing me to share his pictures on this site. Hope you enjoy what you see.

United Automobile have acquired many operators over the years, but the three best known to me, were the Wilkinson's and Gillet Brothers fleets acquired in the late 60's/70's, and in later years the Trimdon Motors Fleet, acquired in the early 90's. The History of United's acqusition of these fleets is too well documented elsewhere to be repeated here, so I will not try and repeat it here. Instead this collection will show the many vehicles operated by the former companies in United livery.
The views in this section only, come from the 500 Group's sales stock, so don't hesitate to have a look through our trade stand when the new season starts.

In 1972 following an increased demand for private hire, Teesside Municipal Transport evaluated three vehicles to see which of these would be suitable in this role. There were two Leyland Leopards and a Bedford YRQ, each with three different bodystyles. The Bedford (HXG6L/S370) carried a Duple Viceroy Expressway C45F body, Of the two Leopards S371 (KXG371L) carried a Plaxton Elite C51F, and S372 (KXG372L) carried an unusual Willowbrook Expressway C51F body. Of these three the Leopard/Plaxton combination was chosen, and this specification was the norm for most of Cleveland Transit's single deckers throughout the 70's and 80's. 370, and 372 were then the two non standard oddballs in the fleet. 370 spent the rest of it's life with the other Bedfords at Saltburn Depot until it's disposal in 1977, whilst 372 spent most of it's time in East Cleveland Southbank and Middlesbrough, recieving a built up destination blind, and a Plaxton window screen to it's front end. In 1983 a refurbishment and rebodying programme was instigated for a batch of fifteen Leyland Atlanteans which had been new in 1970 to TMT. This programme was sucessfull, and similar thought was given to treating some of the older single deckers. As an oddball 372 not suprisingly was selected as the protitype for this exercise. In 1985 it was withdrawn from service, and had it's old Willowbrook body removed at Middlesbrough Depot, the chassis was refurbished and it was sent to Northern Counties for rebodying. In the event, Northern Counties provided the framework, and the semi completed vehicle was returned on a low loader for completion at Middlesbrough. The new body was a very austere but attractive creation, and it carried a Dennis Dominator front panel. This was because the body number followed on from Transit's last new vehicle H222 (C222WAJ) a Dennis Dominator. 372 returned to service in 1987 complete in it's then new de-regulation livery however, it was not the success that it was hoped for, one of it's primary problems was that it was extremely heavy to steer. It was withdrawn in 1989, and passed to South Lancs Travel, and then on to White Ribbon Coaches of East Kilbride near Glasgow. It's current status is unknown.

Despite my dislike of independants, one or two on Teesside were quite interesting. This operator has had quite a variety of vehicles over the years, and I chiefly remember it for operating three ex Cleveland Transit LDC--P reg Fleetlines. Anyway, I have a small collection of pictures from this operator, and these will be added to in due course.

This magnificent vehicle arrived in 1987. It is a Royal Tiger/Roe Doyen Coach. In it's Orange and Jasmine livery this prestige vehicle very quickly became the 'Flag Ship' of Transit's Coach Fleet, and was indeed a very impressive vehicle to see.
The 500 Group took it to Showbus in 1994, where it won a 'Best in Class' award, I think it's eyecatching livery helped.
Upon the formation of the 'Cleveland Coaches' subsidury in 1994, the vehicle's livery was revised by the addition of a white roof, which complimented the orange very well. At the same time, the lettering along the body sides was changed to read 'Cleveland Coaches'. A retrograde step in late 1994, was the replacement of the vehicle's original index plate with a hideous age disguising Irish registration. At about the same time, the smart Chrome wheel trims went as well. In 1995, Stagecoach Transit (as Transit now became) sold all the Coaching operations (and the vehicles) to a Stockton independant in exchange for some stage carridge services. The vehicle's appearence soon deteriated, and it very quickly looked down at heel. When this operator ceased trading, all the Coaches were sold. 455 has recently been traced by Mr Dave Stainthorpe of Skelton Coaches, and is now a mobile home!