Some of the longer-distance visitors began to depart for home, including RF13. I made my way up to the dolly stop to await the arrival of the MBA.
TD95 came out, starting an afternoon foray on the 215. I was tempted, but decided to wait for the MB.
It didn't arrive. It transpired that it had a problem on its previous trip, and was no longer available. I should have gone on the TD! (again!).
We headed north-east along the road to Kingston, under the railway bridges and along beside the Thames. TD95 roared past, heading for Church Cobham. We were soon winding our way through Kingston. This is Transdev country, with plenty of their buses still in the outstanding old London United livery. We met London General's Volvo/Wright WVL61 heading for its terminal point on the 85, and Transdev's Trident/Alexander TA344 having found its point on the 65. Another Trident, TA292, now in all-red, went ahead of us on the 57 into central Kingston.
As we waited by the traffic lights outside the old Kingston Garage Dart/Plaxton DPS588 came round under the station bridge on the 216, followed by Volvo/Alexander VA303 on the 111.
Bowling back along the Portsmouth Road we met Rf491 heading in on the next 219. We passed under the railway bridges (the lower having a 13ft 3in clearance only), and passed by Sandown Park to head up into Esher.
We turned right in Esher and headed into suburban Hersham and on to Weybridge. Daffodils abounded.
We negotiated Weybridge, and climbed up to the station. There we did not go down to terminate on the Station Approach, but turned round the roundabout and pulled up at the stop.
We set off back to Esher, into Weybridge, then out across the railway and along to Hersham. We made the diversion off the main road to Hersham Green, and back out to rejoin it at the Barley Mow. Heading for Esher we dropped down to cross the River Mole, and espied RF534 ahead of us, also running back to Sandown Park. We almost caught up with it in Esher, but it slipped through the lights while we were caught.
But the delay at the traffic lights yielded dividends: RF226 purred up the hill to pause at the stop, southbound for Dorking, while RF354 came round the corner on a 206 from Claygate, before passing in front of us.
The lights changed and we ran down the bank to Sandown Park. There we turned in to an almost empty paddock. It was going home time. The Cobham collection were just departing, including T31.
It had been an excellent day.
Many thanks to Peter Osbourne and Steve Whitelegg for organising it. They didn't even get to drive their bus on their own day, of course (although they had checked out all the routes with it on the route-learning day). Great show!
Please check out their web site for several galleries of photos of the day.
All photos by Ian Smith. Click on most of them for a larger picture.
Ian's Bus-stop
Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4
Part 5
Part 6