This Gallery is a display of photographs taken in the days after the end of Black Prince Buses.
I managed to photograph some of the buses in Greenfield garage the immediate day after,some of the Scanias had already gone down to the depot of that pink bus company at Kirkstall rd,to a harsh life and lack of maintenance.
The photographs here have a very sad feeling and it is such a shame that these buses would no longer be in squadron service for Leeds' favourite bus company-Black Prince Buses. :(

After 36 years of sterling service to the people of Leeds,the final curtain was drawn on Black Prince Buses,after the last motor arrived back at Greenfield garage,in the early hours of 31st July 2005.TIL7901 was the last one back in from Wetherby,and ran private with the destination blind showing "END".
Leyland PD 702 formed the last ever departure on the X51 service from Leeds to Morley 2317-30th July and the company was drawn to a close after the vehicles had arrived.
It was a very sad evening,but very surreal,to think that when all the buses were in bed that night-they would not come out again in Black Prince service.
The photographs here show buses from 0600 on the 30th through to 201 bus bringing back the last working in the early hours of the 31st.

A special guest vehicle arrived to run on service during the last few weeks of Black Prince-A Volvo Ailsa!
A large fleet of Volvo Ailsas formerly operated at the company so it was fantastic to see JOV738P running on service and what a fantastic machine it is,too!

Here i present F428GWG-the 35 year bus.
This vehicle was painted in the wonderful livery to celebrate the company reaching its 35th birthday in 2004,adorned with a fine selection of previous vehicles from the history of Black Prince Buses.
The vehicle really turned heads and even when it passed to service with the company which took over the routes of Black Prince-it stayed in this livery for a good few eeks after take over!

Here are some snapshots,illustrating different aspects of the company,from a more unusual angle.

Scania buses had been the mainstay of the fleet at Black Prince ever since the end of the Volvo Ailsa period.
The first Scania buses to appear were ex-Newport Marshall bodied 112s and were followed by more ex-Newport East Lancs bodied 112s,then the ex-MTL Alexander 113 turbos-most of which are illustrated here.
The larger batches were supplemented by various other Scanias-some from Nottingham,some from Arriva.
A group of East Lancs Flyte single deckers also ran in service,the last of which to run was P818AWT-shown here in this gallery.
A batch of Wadham Stringer bodied Scania 112 single deckers ran in the RUH-xxY series,but all of these were withdrawn a long while ago.
Most of the Alexander bodied double deckers shown here are still in service from Kirkstall depot in Leeds,they were taken over by the firm which bought the rights to the Black Prince routes,now are painted in the awful white and pink colour of said company.

Here is "V3"-a major celebrity in the bus world!
This vehicle was built for London and as an experimental vehicle was used in trials to evaluate possible replacements for crew operated and rear open platfrom buses.
V3 is unique in that it was built with a door and staircase front and rear!
This bus arrived at Black Prince in 1992,it had been written off in a roll-over accident and was in a real state.
The bus was originally bought as a source of spares for all the other Volvo Ailsas in the fleet,but because of its historical significance,the decision was made to enter it into the body shop for a full rebuild!
12 years later and the bus emerged,looking fantastic and as good as new-a REAL credit to the staff at Black Prince.
V3 really turned heads when it came out of the body shop,on the last day it was really popular with enthusiasts.
After its last day of service,the bus entered preservation,and is now in the hands of Blue Triangle i believe who intend to restore it back to original condition and rebuild the unique rear staircase setup.

This collection of photographs celebrates FTF702F,which takes the crown of longest serving member of the fleet.
The vehicle was acquired in 1984 and ran on the final day-turning heads wherever it went.
702 was a star on the last day,everybody enjoyed a ride on it and plenty of photographs were taken.
The bus did a round trip on the 53 service,a round trip on an afternoon X49,then formed the final ever X51 from Leeds to Morley at 2317 on the 30th July 2005.
The bus was packed to the rafters and ran impeccably all day.
Crewed on the final day by Brian and David Crowther,it made the day something special-even Corgi think so,as a model has been produced to mark the occasion!

This gallery is the collection of Andy Burbidge,an ex-Black Prince bus driver working for the company up until the final days.
He has kindly made his superb photographs available for all to view.
Some fantastic images of buses in service all over the network,including Leyland Lynx 619 and other interesting liveries,vehicles and locations!.

A selection of images showing the superb Optare built "Prisma".
The Mercedes powered 12 litre buses proved excellent workhorses and a fantastic flagship vehicle for Black Prince Buses.
A comfortable ride and a powerful,quality vehicle made them a wise choice for intensive use on busy services and more long distance routes such as 770 Wetherby.
Bus number 577 ran from new on the X49/X51 and 770 routes and this vehicle ran non stop between 0645 and 0030 every day for 10 years.
A real credit to the quality of the type of vehicle.
This vehicle was unique to Black Prince as it was the only Prisma without a turbo fitted to run in the fleet.
I am proud to say buses 901/902,which were bought brand new by Black Prince,were named after my good self after i designed the liveries for the 2 vehicles on their arrival!.
The buses were named "Bradley1 and Bradley2!" and carried the names for 4 years.
Bus 441 was an ex-demonstrator and arrived in Optare demonstrator silver and blue colours.
Buses 201/2/3 were aquired from the collapsed Tillingbourne operation in the south and all proved reliable quality vehicles.

Proudly presenting Leeds City Transport.
This superb company image took over from David Crowther's Leeds Suburban Buses operation,which was set up to support his fathers' Black Prince company.
It was decided to change to LCT and the effect was fantastic.
Many comments were made by different observers and all were positive.
A fantastic historical livery and name resurrected and a proud image graced the streets of Leeds once again,really and truly putting the pink and white buses of other operators to SHAME.

Buses which were generally allocated to service 88 (Bradford-Colton) carried the blue and cream variation of fleet livery.
This colour was used to represent the livery of the previous operator of the service,Amberley Travel,taken over by Black Prince Buses in 1994.

"S113"-or in the later days,just "113",has been a sterling performer for Black Prince-this vehicle was built in 1989 as an an experimental evaluation bus for London,along with Volvo and Dennis buses,to try and see which type would be the best Leyland National replacement.
In the event,the Scania product lost out to the Dennis,and SA1-as it was known in London,got sold on to Black Prince.
The vehicle arrived in Leeds in April 1991,and stayed with Black Prince right until the end-when it put up a superb days running on the 87 route,which became its regular haunt in the final months.
The "S"prefix before the number was originally added,because of a clash with a Volvo Ailsa which was also numbered "113"-so the Ailsa turned to V113 :-)