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Private plates on buses and coaches

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hst43102

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My favourite local operator, Country Lion of Northampton, puts private plates onto all of the vehicles, usually when they are brand new / just purchased. The majority of the fleet have xyy CLN plates, but some are more creative - there's a few L1ONx and L10Nxx vehicles, and one with the registration BU11CLN - the company director is a Mr Bull.
 

Flange Squeal

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A few I can think of, all still current operators with said plates bar the last one....

Reptons Coaches - Coaches have 'REP ---' plates which transfer when vehicles are replaced. Buses have age appropriate 'SL-- REP' plates. I'm not sure what the significance of 'SL' is, presumably initials.

Hodges Coaches - A tradition has been the acquisition of - and subsequent transfer when vehicles replaced - plates in the format '---- PH'. The PH is reference to Peter Hodge, who took over running of the family firm in the 1960s.

Safeguard Coaches (& Farnham Coaches) - Some of the newer coaches have age appropriate plates ending 'SAF' or 'FAR' respectively.

Carlone Buses - They have 'CL-- BUS' plates on all of their buses. In some cases the digits match the age of the vehicle, but in other cases an existing plate has been transferred to a newer vehicle when the original was replaced.

Coachpoint - 'A-- CPX' plates are carried by most coaches, with 'B-- CPX' plates on buses. They've recently acquired the former England football team coach, with carries the obviously relevant 'FA12 ENG'.

Edward Thomas & Son - Their most recent additions have age appropriate 'ET-- TOM' registrations.

Regency Coaches - A few name related plates, such as 'R888 NCY' and 'R999 NCY'.

D&P Coaches - When they acquired their (I think first and only) tri-axle, they re-registered it from XK12 AOL to 'BC12 DPC' - presumably 'Big Coach 12 - D&P Coaches'.

Sullivan Buses - A number of buses have age appropriate '---- SUL' registrations.

White Bus - They have 'KFK 941' on their oldest (2005) Optare Solo. To my knowledge nothing else in the fleet wears personalised plates. It had previously been worn by coaches in the fleet of Fernhill, who acquired White Bus a few years back.

Jeakins (& Lianne) - These fleets have a mix of some seemingly random and some name appropriate registrations.

Crawley Luxury - A selection of plates featuring 'CLC'.

Seaford & District - A mix of 'SFZ ---' and plates ending 'SEA'.

Buses Excetera / Coaches Excetera - This now defunct operator used to have a lot of '--- ETC' plates.
 

Swanny200

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Wee Johns Coaches used to have WJC in their plates but they have now gone. Rigby's coaches in blackburn have a lot of RIG irish plates as well and some of the Premier League team coaches that are supplied by one of the big coach companies have personalized plates too IIRC
 
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You're quite right, it's the RM not the RT.

For those who are interested (not many I expect) RT reg letters were HLW, HLX, JXC, JXN, KGK, KGU, KLB, KXW, KYY, LLU, LUC, LYF, LYR, MLL, MXX, NLE, NLP, NXP, OLD. Don't think I missed any. Of course many of these were used on RFs, RTLs, RTWs, GSs ans several late 40s smaller classes.
 

hst43102

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Uno (University bus) has quite a lot of xyy UNO registered buses...the benefits of having a three letter name!
 

CBlue

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Dews coaches of Somerham have several personalised "DEW" registrations - DEW IV, DEW130Y, etc.

Richmonds of Barley have a large set of personalised plates, which are transferred onto new coaches from old ones as they replace them, some of which they've had in ownership for the best part of 30 years or more.

Another operator that springs to mind is Delaine of Bourne who for some time now have gone with "DBL" plates on all new purchases, for example AD68DBL.
 

LiviCrazy

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Not anyone’s favourite company, but our local operator E&M Horsburgh have loads of EMH registrations. I think they seemed to first start doing that with the four Gemini’s they had for 555 and 777 to the airport (X555 EMH, Y555 EMH, X777 EMH and Y777 EMH).
 

JonathanH

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Not quite. LT 1 is LTZ 1001, so drop the z and drop the first digit. I assume LT 1000 is LTZ 1100.
It all rather broke down though when they got to LT901 which is registered LTZ2101 and that sequence goes through to LT999.

LT1000 is LTZ1000. LT100 is LTZ1100.
 
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It all rather broke down though when they got to LT901 which is registered LTZ2101 and that sequence goes through to LT999.

LT1000 is LTZ1000. LT100 is LTZ1100.

Thanks for clarification. It is odd that in the early days the first few had the then current style of registration, and in a short while were re-registered with their LTZ numbers. I have had a qick search but cannot find any online reference. Can anyone help?

EDIT: I've found a picture of an LT with the registration LT61 AHT.
 

JonathanH

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It is odd that in the early days the first few had the then current style of registration, and in a short while were re-registered with their LTZ numbers. I have had a qick search but cannot find any online reference. Can anyone help?

Yes, a sesrch gives the following:


Registration plates
The first 900 members of the NBFL fleet carry registration plates of LTZ 1xxx, where xxx is the numerical part of the fleetnumber, with leading zeros (e.g., LT1 is LTZ 1001). The last hundred have been allocated registrations LTZ 2101-2200, leaving LTZ 1901-2100 vacant. TfL were given special dispensation to use this unusual format - while the Northern Irish 3 letter 4 digit format is used in Great Britain, the LTZ series was not due to be issued for another 10 years. This LTZ scheme was only adopted in 2012, after several buses were already in service. The eight pre-production prototypes (LT1-LT8) were originally allocated plates in the the post 2001 standard GB format - LJ61 CJE (worn by LT1 when first unveiled in Northern Ireland); LT61 A/B/CHT (worn by LT1/2/3); LT12 D/E/F/G/HHT (worn by LT4/5/6/7/8). Five of the eight protoypes, LT4-LT8 (the only ones still operating in London in 2013) were subsequently re-registered into the LTZ series. Additionally, four of the earliest production buses (LT9 onwards) initially wore standard plates (LK13 FJE/J/F/N, on LT10/11/12/16), but these have also since been changed. The design mock-up (MN0123) wore the fictional plate BU12 HHJ.
 

mainframe444

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The erstwhile operator Shelton Orsborn of Wollaston had the number 310 in all new vehicle registrations from the 60s onwards.

I’ve no idea why 310 was used, does anyone know?

The company was subsequently acquired by Midland Fox. (90s if I recall correctly)
 

507021

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Peoplesbus use registrations ending in "BUS" for their fleet.

Tours Isle of Man also have a large number of cherished registrations, with the number "111" being of an unknown significance to the operator.
 

GusB

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Peoplesbus use registrations ending in "BUS" for their fleet.

Tours Isle of Man also have a large number of cherished registrations, with the number "111" being of an unknown significance to the operator.
It's interesting that operators now opt for "BUS" plates when, under the previous registration patterns, operators in the Glasgow area could end up with "BUS" without even trying. :)
 

quarella

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It's interesting that operators now opt for "BUS" plates when, under the previous registration patterns, operators in the Glasgow area could end up with "BUS" without even trying. :)

Easyway of Bridgend have an Optare Solo registered BW53 BUS. Bws being the Welsh for bus.
 

SpeedbirdA350

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Lothian had a bit of a PR disaster with some private plates not long ago, with those on Lothian Motorcoaches such as LC19AAA, LC19RAB (AAA and RAB being rival companies), but they also have places like LC19LMC, LC19BUS, LB10BUS etc... Lothian got LB13BUS and HY13BUS for the first 2 hybrids Volvo 7905s.

I think for me i like knowing the age of the coach im on , so not a fan of private plates.
I'm the same although I think Lothian also have this thought as their private plates usually (not always but usually) are the year of the bus, i.e. changing SN19CYU to LC19BUS.
 

BVW

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The erstwhile operator Shelton Orsborn of Wollaston had the number 310 in all new vehicle registrations from the 60s onwards.

I’ve no idea why 310 was used, does anyone know?

The company was subsequently acquired by Midland Fox. (90s if I recall correctly)

In the days when smaller towns and villages had three-figure telephone numbers it wasn't unknown for coach operators to specify the same digits when registering new vehicles. Although I've no proof in this case I wouldn't be in the least surprised if Shelton-Orsborn's was Wollaston 310.
 

TheGrandWazoo

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Preston Bus has a former Wessex Scania Omnidekka that was YT61FEX but gained BU52UWE.... suggesting BUS 2 UWE for the former Wessex services to University of the West of England.

Weardale Motor Services had some with WMS marques (which are private plates) but they also had in the 1960-1980s, a traditional of having vehicles with a single 6 (e.g. UPT6N) in them that weren't technically private plates but an odd feature.
 
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Flange Squeal

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Preston Bus has a former Wessex Scania Omnidekka that was YT61FEX but gained BU52UWE.... suggesting BUS 2 UWE for the former Wessex services to University of the West of England.
Fellow Rotala division Hallmark Connections did similar with a couple of Optare Solos for the Egham to Royal Holloway University service. BU52 RHU and BU54 RHU. The former is now with Diamond, still with the plate, but the latter remains with Hallmark I believe.
 

busken

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Reading Buses have at least 10. X100 RDG, RG04 BUS, RG05 BUS, RG54 BUS, RG55 BUS, BU52 GAS, DD16 GAS (both gas powered) GO11 LDN painted in Green Line livery for route 702 to London and MRD1, used to be on the mayor's official car before the council sold it.
 

Eyersey468

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EYMS has EYC plates on some of its vehicles, though Go Ahead don't seem as keen on private plates as Peter Shipp was
 
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