Great Western Coffee Shop

Braved the heat to pay a visit to the Reading Buses annual open day.

Usual attractions at such events - bookstalls, BBQ, rides through the bus wash and a free shuttle from the station.  Also the chance to look around the control room and, in a sign of the times, a chance to have your name in lights - on the electronic destination display on the front of a double decker.

Reading have colour coded their routes for a number of years and the range of vehicles were on display during the day before ending the afternoon with a parade around the town.

(http://www.mbob.co.uk/rforum/rdgbus2.jpg)

(http://www.mbob.co.uk/rforum/rdgbusw.jpg)

Also a chance to see some buses from Reading's past.

(http://www.mbob.co.uk/rforum/rdgbus1.jpg)

This one brought back some memories - I remembering catching it to school and it was old then and only pushed into service when there was nothing else

(http://www.mbob.co.uk/rforum/rdgbus3.jpg)

..and I had forgotten about this Videmat ticket machine.   The trick was to put as many coins to make up your fare as possible (and you could use halfpennies then).  The machine, after making a lot of clanking noises as the coins were checked, then produced a ticket with a photocopy of the coins inserted.  So the big attraction?  The more coins, the longer the ticket!

(http://www.mbob.co.uk/rforum/rdgbust.jpg)