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TRIVIA : Most Unusual names for bus/coach operators (current/historical)

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py_megapixel

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I've always thought Rosso sounds more like a nickname a company might get, rather than the name it actually trades under.

We can also talk about the large national companies having illfitting names:
  • Arriva (sounds like a pun on "arrive" but you're unlikely to arrive anywhere on an Arriva bus - it'll probably be a StreetLite which breaks down)
  • FirstGroup (definitely wouldn't come in first place for transport companies in my eyes - there's a reason they are commonly nicknamed "WorstGroup")
  • Stagecoach (operates only motorised vehicles, not horse-drawn carriages)
 
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martinsh

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Coastal Liner - odd choice of name for a company running a local service in Wolverhampton !
Similarly Continental Pioneer for a local service in Richmond.
And Stagecoach were originally known as Gloagtrotter !

Honorable mentions too to Athelstan, Black Prince, Comfy-lux, Bu-Val, Eccles Greys, Economic, Felix (x2), Gagg, Monty Moreton, Tricentrol, Venture ...
 

SteveM70

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Yorkshire Woollen. Great name that


Kinchbus has always seemed quite weird. It was set up by a former Leicester City Football Club owner with the surname Kinch, but I can’t remember his first name

Kinch’s Coaches would’ve been so much more pleasing
 

TheGrandWazoo

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Coastal Liner - odd choice of name for a company running a local service in Wolverhampton !
Similarly Continental Pioneer for a local service in Richmond.
And Stagecoach were originally known as Gloagtrotter !

Honorable mentions too to Athelstan, Black Prince, Comfy-lux, Bu-Val, Eccles Greys, Economic, Felix (x2), Gagg, Monty Moreton, Tricentrol, Venture ...
As well as Economic, Busways brought back Favourite! Armstrong Galley was also an odd combo.

You could have a sub genre for out of area names, such as Lowland really being in the Borders. West Riding was so bothered they added SELBY on their vehicles allocated there before Selby & District whilst Lincolnshire renamed their Newark depot at East Notts as not to offend the council. Fortunately, that stupidity was short lived!
 

jp4712

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Yorkshire Woollen. Great name that




Kinch’s Coaches would’ve been so much more pleasing
Ah, but 'Yorkshire Woollen' was originally 'Yorkshire (Woollen District)', i.e. it made sense geographically as it referred to the part of the country that was primarily associated with the wool trade.

'Wilfreda Beehive' is a well-respected company but it still brings to mind a Bet Lynch kind of mental picture.

Orange Brothers was a prewar company who painted their vehicles... green.

There was a coach subsidiary of North Western called Melba Motors - sadly their coaches weren't painted peach, but a prosaic blue and cream.

Godfrey Abbot Group of Sale proudly displayed their initials on their olive green buses and coaches. The livery wasn't very attractive so it was quite apposite that therefore their vehicles prominently displayed 'GAG' on them.

I think for sheer municipal eccentricity in names it's hard to beat the Stalybridge, Hyde, Mossley and Dukinfield Joint Transport and Electricity Board.
 

CBlue

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Strawberry Bus was a small independent operator up in the North West.

Wilfreda Beehive was a rather unusualness name for a coach operator.


Whippet? I suppose it is fairly sensible, as animal names go.
The proprietor got the idea from "Greyhound" in the USA, apparently!
 

CBlue

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Beaver Bus is another good one. Slogans on the front dash of every vehicle proclaiming "RIDE THE BEAVER"

Believe there is or was a "Bear Buses" too
 

SteveM70

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Ah, but 'Yorkshire Woollen' was originally 'Yorkshire (Woollen District)', i.e. it made sense geographically as it referred to the part of the country that was primarily associated with the wool trade.

Yeah, I was aware of the reason. There’s a Heavy Woollen Cricket League (and cup) that still exists now
 

Busaholic

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Lugg Valley Primrose, Midland Red West, Red and White, Yeomans Canyon are all carbuncles of names - but names they are, and by the nature of where they appeared they were associated with transport. None are any more or less silly than naming a supermarket “Safeway”, a chocolate bar “Snickers”, or a person “Lilibet”… a name is a name, or a brand, and you just accept it and carry on.
Seeing as you mention Safeway, there was an old-established bus company of that name in South Petherton, Somerset. Amazingly, it co-existed for decades in that village with another operator, Hutchings and Cornelius. Safeguard of Guildford continues the independent bus tradition in that part of the world.
 

MotCO

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There also used to be Knotty Bus of Staffs who had the slogan of "Get Knotty!" on a few vehicles!

This was run by the current owner of Reliance Bus Works, well known in the bus preservation field. There was a reason why it was called Knotty, but I can't recall it.

Tellings Golden Miller was strange one. It was the merger of Tellings and Golden Miller, the latter named after a winning racehorse which won the Cheltenham Gold Cup and Grand National in 1934 and the betting winnings provided the capital for the new company. TGM is now a subsidiary of Falcon Coaches.
 

KeithC

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In the late 1920's there was the Permanent Bus Co. based in Durham, it proved anything but lasting for less than 19 months
 

Deerfold

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And there's more ....

Armchair
Confidence
Quickstep
Ubique

Marchwood Motorways whose name made less sense after they moved from Soputhampton to Pembrokeshire.
First Quickstep wasn't an improvement after the takeover.

I seem to recall the original sell off of Alder Valley South went to one such peculiarly named company Frontsource Ltd (along with several other parts of NBC). The company then passed to Q Drive, with some depots (including what is now Arriva Guildford) later being sold to another such example Randomquick Ltd.
Was Blazefield also an off-the-shelf company (which tend not to be needed these days as you can usually set up a limited company within 48 hours)?
 

Journeyman

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There's a coach operator in my neck of the woods called Photoflash. Not sure why, or where that came from.
 

01d-and

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Long ceased Birmingham operator Dave Mounty used to trade as Cummings and Goeings. Not sure I would display either on my vehicles . . . . . .
 

Class45

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There used to be a company operating a rural route to the north of Reading called Chiltern Queens
 

A0wen

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Honorable mentions too to Athelstan, Black Prince, Comfy-lux, Bu-Val, Eccles Greys, Economic, Felix (x2), Gagg, Monty Moreton, Tricentrol, Venture ...

Tricentrol = Trinidad Central Oil Company.


Whippet? I suppose it is fairly sensible, as animal names go.

Compared to Buffalo, absolutely. At least you find Whippets in the UK.
 

Statto

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Go Ahead is unusual too, with subsidiaries Go North East & Go North West, Go Ireland being a new one.

Crosville was unusual name too, stands for the founders George Crosland Taylor & Georges de Ville

Happy Al's coaches in Birkenhead now known as just Al's coaches

I always thought Avon buses was an unusual name since they were from Birkenhead, & mostly operated on the Wirral until they expended into Liverpool, rather than Bristol or Towns & City's along the River Avon.
 

TheGrandWazoo

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I always thought Avon buses was an unusual name since they were from Birkenhead, & mostly operated on the Wirral until they expended into Liverpool, rather than Bristol or Towns & City's along the River Avon.
Avon being, I think, olde English or Anglo Saxon for river.... so being by the Mersey, it makes more sense than immediately apparent
 

Busaholic

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The Stalybridge, Hyde, Mossley and Dukinfield Joint Transport and Electricity Board ran trolleybuses and buses in that part of the country until taken over by SELNEC in 1969 ; catchy name, n'est ce pas?
 
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