Running heritage vehicles definitely makes being in the coach and bus industry more fun, says the Managing Director of a South Coast operator celebrating its 90th anniversary this year. Empress Coaches of Hastings has just bought its third Bedford J2, making it the largest operator of the type in the country.
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“This company ran just about every model of Bedford through the years apart from the J2,” said Steve Dine. “The vehicles are carefully and lightly used. It puts some fun back into the job and helps to keep their continued preservation prospects looking good as we regularly keep up with the many jobs that need to be attended on them.”
The first J2, EXS569F, new to Pattison of Paisley in December 1967, was acquired for the Empress fleet in 2016. “Buying a heritage vehicle is something I’d wanted to do for a long time,” said Steve.
Its success meant that a further J2, PVV888J, was added to the fleet, which like the first vehicle came from preservationists. It was new to Country Lion of Northampton, still a major operator today.
Now a third J2, 644HAA, has been bought, coming from Vallances Coaches of Kirkby-in-Ashfield. This one was new to Cooke in Stoughton and just three years later moved to Safeguard in Guildford, which bought the Cooke’s business in 1966.
In 1974 it passed to W & R M Wilkinson in Kettlewell, Yorkshire who ran it for another 18 years on school contracts up in the Dales. They retired the coach in 1992 but kept it in storage until 2015 when Vallences undertook much work to make it operational again.
Empress Coaches has remained a family business since it was set up by Harry Phillips in 1929 using a new 20-seat Dennis GL coach on tours and excursions, trips to the races, and, before long, a regular service to Hellingly Hospital near Hailsham.
The fleet grew to three in the 1960s and in 1971 the founder’s son, also called Harry Phillips, sold the business to Tony Patten, who introduced minibuses and diversified with works contracts.
Present owner Steve had worked at Empress as a trainee mechanic while still at school and worked for Cooks Coaches of Westfield for a while and as an owner driver before rejoining his original firm and buying it in 1998 when it was running 13 vehicles.
A change of policy saw a switch to smaller coaches of which there are now six Mercedes-Benz, three Renault Masters and a rare CVE Omni. Three full-time and seven part-time drivers are employed on a wide range of contracts and private hires – plus of course the three 20-seat Bedfords.
“I had a hunch that running heritage vehicles would work and had wanted to do something different,” said Steve whose son, Josh, also works for Empress. “We have a wide range of work coming in for them.”
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