This morning I had the privilege of riding on a very old bus on a journey to commemorate 100 years of bus services in Oxford.  We started at the BMW museum in Cowley and travelled all the way to Oxford Station then back along Queen Street.  The old buses are looked after by the amazing volunteers of the Oxford Bus Museum Trust.  I was made to feel very welcome and learned some amazing facts about Oxford’s long bus history including how they were preceded by horse-drawn trams but that Oxford never had electric trams because colleges wouldn’t allow the hooks in their walls for the necessary cable suspension.

The bus we were in had no power steering and a “crash” gearbox, meaning no synchromesh.  Despite this it was dirven very expertly and smoothly by one of the museum trust volunteers and a long-time bus driver.