Nottingham Heritage Vehicles Charity

23/10/2026

🚌 FREE MUSEUM OPEN DAY & STORAGE COMPOUND TOURS! 🚌

📅 Sunday 8th November 2026
⏰ 10:00am – 4:00pm
📍 The Heritage Bus Depot, Portland Road, Hucknall, NG15 7SF

Ever wanted to see the majority of our collection in one visit? Well, here’s your chance!

On Sunday 8th November, Nottingham Heritage Vehicles Charity will be opening the doors of The Heritage Bus Depot for another of our popular FREE Museum Open Days, but this time with something a little extra!

Alongside the usual activities at the museum, we’ll also be running TWO special trips to our storage compound, giving visitors a rare opportunity to see even more of our extensive collection of preserved buses and coaches, including vehicles that aren’t normally accessible to the public.

With nearly 40 preserved vehicles in our care, this is a fantastic opportunity to see the majority of our collection in one day, from beautifully restored vehicles to those awaiting their turn for restoration.

🚨We will also have a new addition on display and hopefully in use subject to availability! 🚨

What’s happening on the day?

🚌 FREE vintage bus rides throughout the day.

🚍 Storage compound tours – two special trips to see more of our collection, with departure times to be confirmed on the day.

🍰 Fantastic homemade cakes and refreshments.

🚂 Model railway layout on display.

🎟️ Tombola with plenty of prizes.

🛍️ Transport shop featuring a fantastic selection of diecast models, transport books, photographs and memorabilia – perhaps one of the best selections you’ll find under one roof!

Whether you’re a lifelong transport enthusiast, a keen photographer or simply looking for something different to do with the family, there’ll be plenty to see and enjoy.

As always, admission to the museum and vintage bus rides are completely FREE, although donations towards the continued upkeep and restoration of our collection are always very much appreciated.

Our volunteers will also be on hand throughout the day to chat about the vehicles, their histories and the ongoing work involved in keeping these important pieces of transport heritage alive.

📍 The Heritage Bus Depot
Portland Road, Hucknall, Nottinghamshire, NG15 7SF

📅 Sunday 8th November 2026
⏰ 10:00am – 4:00pm

We look forward to welcoming you for what promises to be a fantastic day!

Please share and help us spread the word! 🚌

Please note that all vehicle movements and trips are subject to availability and operational requirements on the day.

01/10/2026

🚍 THROWBACK THURSDAY 🚍

We know it’s a little late, and we’ve missed a few Throwback Thursdays recently, but here’s this week’s photo!

This picture dates back to September 2010, when both 571 and 55 were originally part of the NHV collection. A year or so after this photograph was taken, both vehicles had left the group and headed into the hands of private preservationists.

Fast forward to today and, after taking very different paths over the intervening years, both vehicles have found their way back into our care.

55 is currently undergoing a full restoration and mechanical overhaul, with plenty of progress having been made over the past few years. We are, however, still on the lookout for a pair of windscreens for her, so if you happen to know of any tucked away somewhere, please do get in touch!

Meanwhile, work is progressing on getting 571 mechanically sorted before attention eventually turns to the bodywork.

571’s cylinder heads are currently away for overhaul. Unfortunately, both of the heads removed from the vehicle have been deemed beyond repair by the overhaul company due to internal cracking, most likely caused by the engine having previously run very hot with insufficient coolant.

Thankfully, we have spare heads on the shelf at the depot, and these will be sent away to the specialists at some point next week for inspection and overhaul.

It’s great to see these two back together again after all these years, and hopefully there will be plenty more progress to report on both in the months ahead! 🚌🔧

28/09/2026

23/09/2026

On the way home from Statbus on Sunday, we decided to take 736 through Gotham. After pulling up for a quick photograph outside the former South Notts garage, the conversation soon turned to “what if?”

What if South Notts had opted for ECW-bodied Olympians instead of the two Northern Counties examples they actually ordered?

Anyway, here’s a quick mock-up from our friend ChatGPT showing what 736 might have looked like in South Notts blue and cream. It’s not 100% accurate, but it gives a pretty good representation of what could have been!

22/09/2026

🔧 ATLANTEAN 571 UPDATE 🔧

On Friday evening and throughout our Open Day on Saturday, work progressed well on Atlantean 571.

After getting her running for the first time in over seven years on Friday evening, we quickly diagnosed the issue as a blown head gasket on the right-hand cylinder head. We set to work stripping the engine down ready to remove both heads, before deciding at around 10pm that it was probably best to call it a night ahead of an early start the following morning!

Work resumed on Saturday and, despite the small matter of an Open Day going on around us, good progress continued. By the end of the day, both cylinder heads had been removed.

The heads have now gone away for pressure testing, skimming and rebuilding before being refitted. We’ve also already got a set of overhauled injectors and an overhauled fuel pump ready to be fitted while everything is apart.

A brilliant amount of progress in a relatively short space of time. Well done to Cameron, Jim and Adam for all their hard work — hopefully it won’t be too long before 571 is back up and running again!

21/09/2026

🚨PLAXTON PARAMOUNT 3200 WINDSCREENS WANTED 🚨

After weeks of searching through PSV glass suppliers, scrapyards and fellow preservationists, we’re still drawing a blank.

For one of our members’ vehicles, we urgently need a pair of 45-inch deep Plaxton Paramount 3200 windscreens. This particular EL2000 Atlantean was originally fitted with these screens and we’re determined, if at all possible, to keep the vehicle looking right.

Yes, we could modify the front end to accept something completely different, but that would significantly alter the appearance and character of the vehicle — something we’d really rather avoid.

Surely somewhere out there someone is sitting on a pair of these screens?

Perhaps there’s a Paramount languishing in a yard somewhere with good glass still fitted, or somebody has old stock tucked away that they’ve forgotten about. Any leads would be very gratefully received.

We want to see this old girl back on the road within the next few weeks, so we’re exploring every possible avenue.

🇨🇳 Alternatively, we may look at having a batch manufactured in China.

That would involve sending the existing screens away to be used as templates, but the minimum production quantity is likely to be around 10 pairs.

So we’d also like to hear from other preservationists who either:

• currently need Plaxton Paramount 3200 screens, or
• would be interested in purchasing a spare pair for the future.

If there’s enough genuine interest, a production run could become a realistic option and potentially solve the problem for several preserved vehicles rather than just ours.

Please share this far and wide amongst the bus, coach and preservation community.

If you have screens, know where some may be hiding, or would be interested in joining a batch order, please get in touch.

21/09/2026

Still available

20/09/2026

What a fantastic weekend for Nottingham Heritage Vehicles Charity! 🚌💙

A huge THANK YOU to everyone who supported us over the last couple of days.

Yesterday we had a brilliant Open Day at our museum in Hucknall, with plenty of visitors through the doors supporting the charity, enjoying the vehicles and helping us keep Nottingham’s transport heritage alive.

Then today it was another successful Great Days Out fundraising trip, with Caroline and Simon hosting a completely FULLY BOOKED coach to Holkham Hall and Wells-next-the-Sea. A lovely day out, a great atmosphere onboard and, most importantly, another fundraising event helping to support the museum and our preserved vehicle collection. Thanks to Scott for a smooth return drive to Norfolk.

Elsewhere, Adam, Tom and Gary represented us at the Statfold Barns Statbus event, taking along one of Adam’s vehicles for display — and for once without the thankless task of spending the entire day running an accompanying sales stall! 😄

It has been a very busy weekend, but a really positive one.

Every museum visitor, coach passenger, donation, purchase and bit of volunteer help makes a difference. Running the museum, maintaining the collection and keeping these vehicles preserved certainly isn’t cheap, so weekends like this are incredibly important to us.

Thank you again to everyone who came along, travelled with us, volunteered, shared our posts or supported us in any way.

Onwards to the next one! 🚌💙