As always, the Friends of King Alfred Buses (FoKAB) will once again be supporting Winchester’s Heritage Open Day on Sunday 14 September with another classic bus running day, when its fleet of former King Alfred buses will be providing a range of free rides to the villages around the city between 1000 and 1700hrs. In addition, FoKAB’s open-top double-decker bus will be running a free shuttle service between the city’s Broadway and Hyde Street for the Hyde900 celebrations on both Saturday 13 and Sunday 14 September.
In addition, three very old pre-war buses will be providing shorter trips, all for free, around the city centre, and creating a chance to sample bus travel from the 1930s. Two of these, a Leyland Lion and a 1931 Dennis 18-seater will be familiar to Winchester people, but the third is will be a special guest in the form of a 1929 Leyland double-decker. The restoration of this bus was only recently completed and this will be its first opportunity to provide free rides.
A programme, giving full details of the event, will be available on the day at £6 from our the organisation’s sales stand situated at The Broadway. “As a not-for-profit registered charity, every single penny of donations goes straight to the maintenance of our fleet,” said FoKAB Chairman James Freeman.
FoKAB is also continuing its appeal for funds towards the £500,000 cost of restoring its fire-damaged 1950 Leyland Olympic bus; full details of the appeal can be found on its website. In addition, the group has confirmed that an unusual vehicle in its posession will also be restored. The historic American automobile which long ago was the prized possession of joint Managing Director of King Alfred Motor Services Bob Chisnell, was given to FoKAB quite a few years ago and will now be restored with the help of a specialist vehicle restorer. When restored, FoKAB says the car is just as much a part of the King Alfred Motor Services story as any other vehicle in its collection, and that it is very excited and proud that the vehicle is now in the process of being restored.
