The famous green and cream livery was born when the Southdown Motor Services Ltd was formed in 1915 as a merger between Brighton Hove and Preston United Omnibus Company, Sussex Tourist Coaches and the London and South Coast Haulage Co. Ltd. 

A memento from the era of Brighton Rock 

We have even tracked the full history of this particular bus. Southdown Motor Services acquired the new PD3 model number BUF 277C in 1965. It was one the last buses to be made by Leyland as production stopped just two years later. Assigned with the number 277, it was predominately used on all those popular Brighton bus routes that we all know and love. In the year of the Queens Silver Jubilee, BUF 277C bus was bought by OK Motor Services and entered service the same year, running all those famous routes when the Sex Pistols were blaring out their tunes on the radio and would have been running the routes on Brighton’s seafront when Quadrophenia was filmed on location there two years later.

Lost and Found - Then Recaptured in Perfect Metal Miniature.

BUF 277C remained in service until 1989, then and for a while the fate of BUF277C was unknown after it was passed on to Northumbria Motor Services as a driver training vehicle. It resurfaced in 1992, when it was picked up by a preservation society, whereupon it was given back its familiar green and cream livery of the Southdown Buses and is now a firm favourite among visitors to bus meets and heritage transport shows across the UK. Corgi Toys faithfully recreated this wonderful bus in all it’s glory, complete with authentic route 12 markings, number plate and real rubber tyres, simultaneously encapsulating a great story of this wonderful bus.

Established over century ago in Salisbury in 1915, the Wilts & Dorset Omnibus operated with a diverse fleet of vehicles throughout the picture-postcard landscape of South Wiltshire, East Dorset and North Hampshire. The Wilts & Dorset name along with its vanilla ice-cream coloured buses disappeared, only to be revived just over a decade later, much to the delight of those generations of users and tourists who regularly travelled on them.

Made by the Same Company that Built Concorde

Manufactured by the much-revered Bristol Tramways and Carriage Company that shares a common heritage with the famous West Country aircraft manufacturer based in Brislington and Filton that helped design and build Concorde. At about the same time the devolved sister aerospace division was making and testing the super-sonic aircraft, in January 1966, Bristol Lodekka 646, registration 684 AAM rolled off the production line in its cream and dark red livery for operation on the Salisbury to Bournemouth ‘limited’ 38a stop-service until May 1969.

An honest West Country Workhorse Captured Forever in this Diecast Model

This route ran between Salisbury and Bournemouth ran via Fordingbridge, Ringwood and Ferndown (the Bournemouth Spur Road from Ashley Heath to Cooper Dean having not yet been built) and did the 25-mile journey end-to-end in 78 a leisurely minutes! 684 AAM would have run two shuttles a day in each direction on weekdays, best suited for people commuting to Bournemouth or making day trips to Salisbury and the Dorset coast. No wonder they often returned to their garage needing a good clean to wash off all the muck from the wet Wiltshire road surfaces. As always, Corgi have captured the essence of this wonderful workhorse, minus the mud, naturally!

A Complete Transport Network for London’s Modern Suburbs

While the metropolitan line trains whizzed up and down to Harrow-on-the-Hill, Pinner and Amersham, the overground buses went about their daily business from Park Royal Garage to Wembley and Willesden Junction. Working in perfect unison with each other (most of the time) they faithfully served Metroland through the best and worst of times. With all those famous place names, they conjure up fond and wistful memories of a tumultuous time in our nation’s story. The Burton Corporation served generations of passengers from the 1903 until nationalisation after the Second World War.

Utility over comfort

Originally, Burton Corporation's municipal transport system relied exclusively on the tram network that straddled the capital. But in January 1924, with more residents living away from the tram stops, the decision was taken to bring in two B-type motorbuses that connected the burgeoning local population better. By 1930, trams had been completely superseded by buses and in 1943, Burton received its first double-deck vehicles: two utility Guy Arabs with Weymann H56R bodywork, built to utilitarian wartime specifications which included uncomfortable wooden slatted seating!

A Metroland Metal Masterpiece

Eight more buses were delivered in 1944, including this very model - Burton Corporation No. 34, a Guy Arab II 5LW, registration FA 7978 which was fitted with a Park Royal body. The double-deck vehicles proved more popular and useful than the single-deck versions, which became dangerously overcrowded during rush hour. Wartime utility buses like this had been built using poor quality timber and were prone to deterioration. Some were rebuilt by the Corporation themselves, whilst others went to Merthyr Tydfil bodybuilder D. J. Davies, including this bus, which was fully overhauled in 1951. And now Corgi Toys have replicated FA 7978 in its post-reconstruction form in a museum quality diecast model complete with the famous maroon livery with Burton’s coat of arms and the Number 6 route markers at the front and rear. Wonderful!