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2019 is the Centenary
of the first Reading Corporation motor bus service which was
heralded by a civic run on Friday 5th December 1919 and
commenced public operation on 6th December 1919. The
service ran from Tilehurst (Plough Inn) to Caversham Heights
(Harrogate Road/Albert
Road) via Caversham Bridge.
This
is a significant milestone and TV&GWOT Supporters have been
pooling their expertise and collections to produce a book
which charts the evolution of the Reading routes and buses
to be seen about town in each of the subsequent decades from
the 1920s to the present day.
 On
Friday 6 December 2019 Reading Buses, with TV&WOT and BTS
support, celebrated in style with a civic run using the
oldest preserved Reading bus (47) and a modern day vehicle.
Reading Buses even had a celebratory cake prepared.
On Sunday 8 December
the centenary will be marked by
five
Reading buses from different eras
re-tracing the original route.
TV&GWOT will
have a control & information point in St Mary’s Butts by the
entrance to the Broad Street Mall, i.e. near Burger King.
See map – downloadable
pdf.
The vehicles expected are:
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BTS’s 1935 AEC Regent No. 47, the
oldest metal framed double deck bus in preservation
(Please respect the limit
on numbers permitted on each trip on 47 in view of
its venerable status) |
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TV&GWOT’s 1976 Jumbo VR No. 38 |
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1979 Metrobus No. 162 |
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1964 Reading Mainline Routemaster No.
25 (later renumbered 425 by Reading Transport) |
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A special guest
vehicle, newly restored but not seen around for some
time. |
The
duty chart and
timetables are as follows:
TV&GWOT’s new commemorative book, “100 Years
of Reading Motorbuses” will available to purchase at the
special launch price of £11 from the stand in St Mary’s
Butts. The book has been produced with the help of TV&GWOT’s
Reading based Supporters and charts the development of the
Reading routes and fleet decade by decade from December 1919
to the present day.
The book is B5 format (between A4 and A5), 84
pages, soft bound and includes 160 illustrations, over 100
in colour. The normal book price is £11.95 and can be
purchased here (in time for Christmas) with the addition of
£2.50 post & packing.
To order by post (despatched from 9 December)
for £14.45 including p&p either:
- Send cheque payable to ‘TV&GWOT’ to
Ledger Farm, Forest Green Road, Fifield, Maidenhead SL6 2NR;
or
- Pay by Paypal (including any postal /
delivery instructions in the notes)
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British Trolleybus Society’s Reading
Corporation AEC Regent No. 47 seen on display at TV&GWOT’s
2018 Running Day [© C Billington]
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TV&GWOT’s Reading Transport ‘Jumbo’
Bristol VR No. 38 seen during the 2018 Running Day
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Information about previous Thames Valley and Reading events
can be found here.
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