The weekend of August 16th+17th 2008, saw the ABPG visit the open weekend event at Lathalmond the home of the Scottish Vintage Bus Museum

Friday 26th June 2009 - Warringston Vintage Cavalcade. Leyland Leopard 129 attended making its 1st show with its new registion. Jim Poots also attended with his Leyland Leopard 211, WOI 2211. A great evening out and a show that no doubt, will be attended next year.

Saturday 27th June 2009 - AOVC Classic Show, Ballymena Showgrounds. Originally held in Warrenpoint and well known as the Kilbroney 2000 Show to enthusiasts this year it was held in Ballymena Showgrounds. Due to weather in recent years this event was cancelled as there was no hard standing ground. Moving to Ballymena and good hard standing this popular show was back in force. The group had 129 and 1878 entered and were among the over 950 official entries. Other buses in attendance were the ITT's ex Ulsterbus Leyland Leopard 339, J & I Millars ex UTA Leyland PD2, D927, J. Gowdys ex London Transport Routemaster and Ulsterbus ex UTA Leyland Tiger PS1, A515. A good selection of Commercials also attended along with the usual selection of vintage an classic cars, for a first year at this new site it was an excellant show indeed.


Sunday 07/06/09 - North East Vintage & Classic Car Show 2009. Attending this show for the second time in a row, the group had 1878 and 129 attend. Also in attendance was Paul Haughey and Pat Malones Bristol RE 2589 and Leyland Leopard 334. With even more entries this year and excellant weather a thoroughly enjoyable day was had by all.


SAT 31/05/08. Organised by Ciaran Connelly, using his own Bristol RE ex Ulsterbus 2444 (WOI 2444), Jim Poot's ex Ulsterbus Leyland Leopard 211 (WOI 2211) and the group's Leyland Tiger 363, an excellant tour was had of the Antrim coast stopping off in Carnlough and Ballycastle along the way. With the sun splitting the tree's and the vehicles in top form a memorable day was had by all.

SUN 8/6/08. North East Vintage & Classic Car Show, Mosney, Co. Meath. The group's Bedford 1878 was entered in this event and took part in her first classic show appearance, also attending was Paul Haughey and Pat Malone's ex Ulsterbus Bristol RE 2589 (BXI 2589) and Leyland Leopard 334 (BXI 334) also being ex Newry buses as is 1878. Meeting up in Newry with Pat and Dundalk with Paul, 1878 was back on her original home turf briefly and all travelled down in convoy to the event. The day was well enjoyed by everyone and is well recommended to anyone into their classic cars or commercials. A selection of the show's 500+ entries is also included for your viewing.

SAT 14/6/08 Veteran's Day, Donaghadee, Co. Down. Leyland Leopard 235 and Bedford 1878 were in attendance for this event.

SUN 6/7/08 17TH Irish Classic & Vintage Motor Show, Terenure College, Dublin. Starting off with a wet forecast, the group's Leyland Leopard 129 and Bedford 1878 travelled to Dublin for this show, as usual the irish weather turned out to be unpredictable and quite the opposite upon reaching Dublin with the sun out in all it's glory. Although a few entries staying away due to the forecast an excellant day was had by everybody and some 1000 entries were still in attendance at the event. Turning 30 year's of age this year 129 made it's first classic show debut here and looked every bit the part amoungst the motoring heritage on display and took the 250 mile round trip in it's stride.

The latest addition to the ABPG fleet is in the form of ex Flexibus 26 (JXI 226).

Acquired by Ian Houston from J. Miller of Ballyclare and the 3rd of his minibuses, 26 required a tow home with the groups towbus having not been MOT tested in quite a few years. The 3 1/2 tonne of 26 made it a feather compared to the vehicles 1882 would have towed during her towing career and all went extemely well.

Plans as to 26's future will be revealed shortly.

Fleet No 2134
Reg No MOI 2134
Company Ulsterbus Ltd
Chassis No RELL-3 2164
Body No 183/14
Type Bristol RELL6G
Body Alexander (Belfast) X type B44D+30
Engine Gardner 6HLXB
Gearbox 4 speed semi auto

New 17/02/77
Smithfield 17/02/77 - 31/12/80
Detaxed with accident damage 30/11/77 and returned to service 9/1/78 at Smithfield.
Londonderry City (LY) 31/12/80 - 29/02/92
Reserve 29/02/92 - 5/03/92
Londonderry City (LY) 5/03/92 - 30/04/92
Reserve 30/04/92 -
Sold to Bus Eireann, Dublin 11/92 and numbered BG39 and reregistered 77 D 816.
Reseated to B49F before sale to Bus Eireann.

Acquired by Richard Shannon.
Purchased on the 9/03/08 for continued preservation from M.Phipps, Dublin.

Delivered new to Ulsterbus at its Smithfield depot in 1977, 2134 is now the only surviving early Ulsterbus double door RE of the later X type alloy frame design. One of a batch of 15 numbered 2121-2135, these were initially for use in Newtownabbey with the whole batch allocated to Smithfield. Unfortunately this was to prove unsuccessfull and was transfered to Londonderry and put onto the city routes along with the rest of the batch in 1980, they joined another two batches of the double doors 1051-1070 (new in 1969)and a few of the 2001-2028 batch (new in 1975) already hard at work in Londonderry. (The 1969 batch were of the earlier steel frame X type design and had Leyland 680 engines, one of these also survives with a preservationist in Lisburn and is currently under restoration) .

Like so many of this batch it nearly became a victim of the Troubles while in Derry, but luckily it was saved from being torched at the last minute by the authorities and was to go on till 1992 when it was replaced by newer buses being delivered. Only 5 remained in 1992 due to being Maliciously destroyed. Apart from that it led a normal life until withdrawal finally recieving the MK2 livery in its end days, one of the very few to do so from the early examples.

By 1992 the Irish bus operator Bus Eireann had already taken some REs and Leopards from both Citybus and Ulsterbus for use on school traffic, with the RE's this involved removing the centre door and putting in extra seats on Bus Eireann's request, 2134 was chosen for this sale and was duly rebuilt to single door configuration. This was done by Citybus engineering. 46 REs were sold to Bus Eireann over the period 1991-93.

Being exported to the south it was given the registration 77 d 816 and the BE fleetnumber BG39. Spending 10 years with Bus Eireann it was mainly used on school work, occasionally straying onto service work when needed. By the time of withdrawal in 2001 it was like many BE vehicles, it had been used to the death and was very rough bodywise. It was sold for scrap to a breaker in Northern Ireland in the area of Keady and from there was saved by Mark Phipps and taken back to the south. From there Mark set about restoring it, repaneling it etc. In 2008 it was sold to its current owners for continued restoring and was brought home under a suspended tow.

Being in very poor condition both mechanically and bodily and it will require a major restoration from top to bottom. It will require a new floor and repanel and a mechanical check over and the biggest job of all, the centre door reinstated. It is intended to restore it as new eventually after other projects have been finished.

Fleet No 1025
Reg No JXI 1025
Company Ulsterbus Ltd
Chassis No 8600087
Body No 782/6
Type Leyland Tiger TRBTL11/2RP
Body Alexander (Belfast) N type DP53F+22
Engine Leyland TL11
Gearbox 5 speed semi auto

New 01/1987
Newtownards 01/1987 - 29/02/08
Reserve 29/02/08 -

Acquired for preservation by R Shannon (Newtownards) 16/07/2008

New to Newtownards depot on the 7th of January 1987 and now the only surviving example of a batch of 30 Tigers delivered to Ulsterbus in the JXI registered seris, 1025 spent all its working life there and generally worked out of Millisle and Donaghadee sub depots. Clocking up 21 years of service 1025 was withdrawn and sold to its current owners in July 2008.

Not so much restored but tidied up to a PSV standard, 1025 has been returned to the livery it wore as new, the opportunity of a repaint seen it have any dented or damaged panels replaced and the reinstatement of the original Spec steel bumpers front and back, and of course all its badges namely the Tigers head!.

Mechancial work has seen it recieve new anti roll bar bushes and exhaust silencer along with a head gasket change.

Future plans are a full top to bottom restoration.