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Contact information, map and directions, contact form, opening hours, services, ratings, photos, videos and announcements from Online Transport Archive, Nonprofit Organization, Unit 7 Henry Close, Shrewsbury.

Online Transport Archive is a constantly growing archive of transport related still and video images, and works to make these available to publishers, authors, researchers and film producers.

30/10/2026

Almost the very definition of a bucolic railway station in the 1950s pre-Beeching era. J15 0-6-0 65459 sits tender first at the head of a train in Aldeburgh station, preparing to work to the junction at Saxmundham, and possibly beyond. The loco was one of 289 built for the Great Eastern Railway under successive locomotive superintendents from William Wordsell onwards, between 1883 and 1913. 65459 was from midway through the production run, emerging from Stratford Works in July 1906. It was withdrawn for scrap in 1960. 65462 is the only survivor in preservation, based at the North Norfolk Railway and carrying GER blue livery with number 564.

The Aldeburgh Branch was an early conversion to dmu operation, this occurring in June 1956. Ultimately this was to no avail. Under Beeching the Branch closed with effect from 12 September 1966, the last trains having run two days previously.

27/10/2026

ALAN PEARCE (1944-2026)

OTA has received the sad news that Alan Pearce died last weekend at the age of 82. He will be greatly missed as a very active supporter of OTA and its aims. He passed over his large collection of still and moving images to the Archive over the past few years as his illness took hold. We are honoured to be able to hold his collection for future generations of enthusiasts to enjoy.

We profiled Alan in our November 2025 Newsletter, which is available for download through our website (https://www.onlinetransportarchive.org/s/newsletter-29.pdf).

He is survived by his wife Susan, to whom we send our sincere condolences. He will be missed by his many friends in such organisations as the LRTA, the LCC Tramways Trust, the Merseyside Tramway Preservation Society, the Tramway and Light Railway Society, the Pennsylvania Trolley Museum and the Seaton Tramway.

23/10/2026

Early days at the West of England Transport Collection at Winkleigh, Devon in this John Herting view. JO5403 is a 1932 Brush-bodied AEC Regent which was new to City of Oxford before being sold to Gosport and Fareham (Provincial) in 1940. It was converted to open top in 1951 – a costly exercise which wasn’t at the time approved by the company’s board, according to the PSV Circle history. Tacitly it was accepted though, and further conversions undertaken.

The vehicle, numbered 19 in the Provincial fleet, remained in service until 1964 by which time it was 32 years old like having a 1994-built (L/M-reg) bus running today. 19 was sold for preservation to Colin Shears, the leading light at Winkleigh. After a year or so, it passed to an Oxford-based owner and is now at the Oxford Bus Museum, proudly wearing COMS maroon and duck-egg green livery. The purists will say that it never authentically carried this livery as an open topper, but it gives an appropriate reminder of these attractive colours on a bus which is now not far from its centenary.

19/10/2026

Today we mark the 70th anniversary of the demise of Dundee’s trams on 20 October 1956. The system was on Chicago-based Ray DeGroote’s ambitious tour of the British Isles the previous year. Outside Maryfield depot a mix of traffic and engineering staff were happy to pose for him in front of car 55. This tram was new in 1924 and previously carried fleet numbers 79 and 93. By this time it was running on an EMB truck with ex-Sunderland motors and would be scrapped later in the year.

No classic Dundee tram was set aside for preservation, but a few earlier relics have emerged after use as sheds, huts etc. This building had a second life as a bus depot and still exists – complete with tram tracks in the stone setts – with a view to it being converted for use as a transport museum. Buses 88 (left) and 89 (YJ7997/7980) were wartime Daimler CWA6s with heavily rebuilt Utility bodies, which lasted until 1964.

16/10/2026

Images of Western Region diesel-hydraulics go down well with our followers. In this Geoffrey Tribe view, a Type 4 Warship B-B (identity not recorded by the photographer) pulls into Liskeard station in Cornwall with a London bound express. Built 1958-1962, and based on the German V200 design, the Warships were withdrawn early as a non-standard type and had all gone by the end of 1972. Two survive in preservation

14/10/2026

Sheffield 219 heads away from the camera towards the city centre along Shoreham Street, its journey probably having originated at Beauchief. 219 was new in 1935 and survived into 1960, the last year of tram operation in the city. The large number of parked cars, all British marques, is thought to be in connection with a match at nearby Bramall Lane.

09/10/2026

Edinburgh Corporation standardised on Duple-bodied Bedfords for its coaching requirements in the late 1960s and early 1970s. Ten are lined up here in the Scottish capital in this Ian Dunnet view, presumably on a large private hire contract, in the operator’s stylish black and white livery. Leading the line up is 233 (SSF233H) a VAM70 chassis with Viceroy body. Odd man out is fifth in line – a six wheel VAL, one of 15 such vehicles to run for Edinburgh. The location (subject to confirmation) is Regent Road, with the elevated Regent Terrace behind, home to some of Edinburgh’s consulates.

05/10/2026

OTA has a small proportion of the Ron Copson collection. From it comes this view of BRCW Bo-Bo Type 3 D6570 (later 33052) at the head of a short train of four-wheel tanks at Factory Junction, near Wandsworth Road station on 26 August 1969. The skyline is dominated by Battersea Power Station and one of the Battersea gas holders. The loco is one of quite a number of Class 33s to be preserved and is currently under overhaul at the Bluebell Railway.

02/10/2026

Two MacBrayne vessels at Kyle of Lochalsh for the price of one in this mid-1960s Allan Clayton view. At the railway pier (not the wagons on the left) is the mv Loch Seaforth, built by William Denny on the Clyde in 1947. She served mainly on the Stornaway – Kyle/Mallaig run as the mail vessel. She is claimed to be the only MacBrayne’s to have met an unscheduled end, being withdrawn after running aground and then sinking in 1973, thankfully without injury or loss of life.

At the slipway is the side-loading mv Portree heading for Skye. New in 1965 and built by James Lamont & Co of Port Glasgow, she was later converted to bow loading and transferred to the Kyles of Bute run before being withdrawn in late 1986.

28/09/2026

So much in this Brighton street scene of Jack Barlow’s, in addition to the Brighton, Hove and District Bristol KSW6G in the centre of the view.

The location is the top of Queens Road, basically the view you get when you leave the railway station heading for the seafront. The Queens Arms, with its first floor balcony with iron railings, is still open for business, but 5/6 (27½p) won’t get you very much today. Quite a few of the other buildings still exist in one form or another, but others have been replaced by more modern, bland affairs.

A big difference is that the road is nowadays one way, heading away from the camera. We’re estimating the view dates from 1966 as the VW Beetle on the left (KAP15D) dates from that year, and the 1965 Ford Anglia on the right (FAU121C) still has that new look about it. Behind the KSW, a Commer van can be seen manoeuvring, and there is a BH&D Lodekka and a Southdown bus beyond that, heading down the hill.

HAP988, numbered 6450 in the BH&D fleet, was one of a run of 15 such vehicles delivered in 1953/54. They lasted until the late 1960s, some long enough to pass to Southdown when BH&D ceased to be an entity in its own right. 6447 (HAP985) survives in preservation with the West Yorkshire Transport Heritage Trust and regularly appears at rallies and running days in the north of England.

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