Welcome to my Crosville photo site. This first collection of photographs serves as a taster: it is a collection of my favourite images from all the other collections, which cover the entire Crosville operating area on a regional basis.

Note that photos have been given expanded captions which are not readable from the thumbnail pages. The captions on the thumbnail pages are now minimal. The comments can now be read by scrolling down to the foot of the page of each individual image. As I get the time, I will add more detail and opinion to these captions, as I will add more images to the site too.

You can use the facilities on this page to subscribe to an e-mail alert if you'd like to keep an eye on developments. Comments, reminiscence, corrections, etc are always welcome. I know that in the future I'll be asking for help in identifying obscure locations I haven't seen in twenty years, so please don't be shy about contributing.

During its last year of service with Crosville, a dual door RE was sent to Wales for the summer and was seen from Aberystwyth to Anglesey before going home to face its final curtain. The story in pictures.

Looking through my boxes of old prints, some prints more than others stirred up pangs of nostalgia, and this assortment begged to be uploaded as my first themed collection.

Rhyl at the start of the 1980s was where Lodekkas went for their swan song, ultimately the last bastion of crew operation and rear loaders.

Those of you who weren't there can only imagine the smell of fried onions and rotting seaweed, the caravan site holidaymakers, the pleasure of spending a day plodding around on Lodekkas then going to Les and Ritas for fish and chips before being dragged home behind a BR class 40 as the light was fading.

Unfortunately, the prints too are fading almost as fast as the memories. I can only apologise that these photos have required a lot of correction and restoration and still leave much to be desired, so please forgive the poor quality. Just relive the good old days.

Since starting to publish my photos here, it is those of Corwen which get the most comment and the most hits. Strange, perhaps, that a small depot in a sleepy little town should arouse such interest.

I have to admit a certain amount of affection for the place. Certainly, I used to pass through regularly as a D94 commuter of sorts. With one snarling exception, the drivers were most co-operative with photographers and I remember cadging lifts on light runs to Ruthin at school time, where the alternative was to wait an hour or more for a bus to Wrexham.

I also had the worst cup of coffee in my life in a café in the square. It was a beige, milky-watery concoction with brown skin floating in it. Perhaps when they extend the Llangollen railway to Corwen then provision for tourists will improve. Back in my day, it was a dull place to be stranded for an hour, but it always led onto better things!

Chester was the capital city of the Crosville empire. Enthusiasts were drawn to the large bus station at Delamere Street [lots of "back row" photos here!].

The Central Repair Works were at Sealand Road, where vehicles could be seen from all over the company visiting for major repairs or refurbishment. This was the place where the first really effective installation of a Gardner engine in a Leyland National happened. New buses were delivered here, and fifteen years later they came here to die. On any given day, all of this variety could be seen, and photographs of this location are quite intriguing. I have very few, I have to say, since my visits were few.

The company headquaqrters were housed in another building, Crane Wharf, and a large depot known as "The Rink" was situated on Liverpool Road near the now defunct Northgate Station.

Visiting Chester nowadays, it's hard to imagine just what a significant part the city played in the establishment and operation of the Crosville company.

Crosville's first territory was gained in Cheshire. My visits to the Cheshire depots were relatively few, mainly because I tended to find that the most interesting routes were operated by the least interesting vehicles, though happily this turned out not always to be the case. Evidence of this is presented here.

The Merseyside depots (including Runcorn and Warrington) tended to be the most intensive operations for Crosville. Urban and interurban routes were usually operated by double-deck vehicles. I found the staff less friendly at these depots, not particularly rude, but they had less time to spare and rarely commented on my photography, unlike the Welsh drivers who seemed to understand and sympathise more. Very few posed shots here!

A big slab of East Wales from Rhyl to Wrexham and through Oswestry [actually in England] to Welshpool and Shrewsbury. In spite of the size of the area, it represents a small fraction of my photographic collection. Apart from Wrexham and Denbigh, my visits to Wales tended to range further west...

Caernarfon to Llandudno with a look over the Menai Straits and a look over the shoulder at the Snowdon Sherpa network. Some of the finest scenery in Wales, and a strange rebellious island, but a busy coastal corridor dominates this region.

For me, this part is what it's all about. I've lumped North and South Cambrian together for now, so you get everything from Pwllheli to Newcastle Emlyn here.

The scenery was almost universally exquisite, the drivers were warm and co-operative, having the time to stop for photos here and there, allowing me to jump out and rejoin the bus on double-runs. During the 1980s a number of REs were sent out West, especially the YFM-L batch which are probably my most photographed buses. But the VRs [even the elderly ones] were well used, and the views from these vehicles were often breathtaking. My favourite and finest memories of the great Crosville company have their origin here!

Sorry, staff only in here. For health and safety reasons, the Chief Engineer is NOT issuing passes. Please do not ask for the password, there is nothing here for the public to see: this is, after all, only a virtual Sealand Road Works.

If you go round the back, you could try peeping over the fence. Bring a flask of weak lemon drink.

The gate keeper.