Our connections with the coaching business go back several generations. Our maternal grandfather was Mr Bill Trigg, who was a coach driver for many years from the late 1940's until his untimely death in the middle 1950's. He worked for the well-known Southsea coach company of "Don Coaches". His brother, Mr Doug Trigg, was also a coach driver, working for many years for Barton, based in Nottingham. We both remember the excitement of meeting up with Uncle Doug on those occasions when his tours would bring him to Hampshire, usually Southampton. Doug usually drove the newest and most luxurious coach in the Barton fleet and we could be sure of a guided tour.
Their mother was also involved in the passenger transport business - her family were the Cleverley's of Portsmouth who were engaged in general freight and haulage from the late 19th Century and whose vehicles were pressed into military service during the 1914-18 war carrying Dockyard workers from all over Portsmouth.
A selection of family photographs show many of the coaches that our grandfather drove while working for Don Coaches.
|
|
This coach is a 1951 Maudslay Marathon III with a Gurney Nuttall "Merton" deluxe touring coach body seating 37 passengers. The family story recounts our grandfather being sent to Wimbledon to collect this coach, complete with the cheque in payment. The cost was in the region of £3,000 - a fortune in those days and the equivalent of the £250,000 price tag of a modern luxury coach today. This photo was originally a black and white snapshot and was enhanced in the early 1960's. It was the regular sight of this picture from early childhood showing the proud driver with the spotless coat and his new luxury coach that was the inspiration to start the current business. | |
| A substantially older vehicle here, a
half-cab AEC Regal Type 622 with a body now identified as being by Wadhams
(see next block for more details on this point). The military gentleman is a Lt-Commander in the Royal
Navy. We think that the picture was taken at HMS Collingwood in
Fareham, where Don Coaches had a number of contracts for the transport of
Naval personnel.
Thanks to Neil Fraser, Dick Gilbert and Philip Lamb for help in identifying this coach. |
 |
|
|
|
The AEC again. The registration, TP
9888 dates this to the early 1930's. It is photographed
outside our grandparents home in Portsmouth. The little girl sitting
on the bonnet is now herself a grandmother and tells stories of travelling
in the cab of this vehicle, ducking down out of sight when passing the
many junctions in Portsmouth that were controlled by Policemen on Point
Duty. As the little girl looks to be about 4 or 5 years old in this
picture, we can therefore date it to 1949 or 50.
When we were working on the article that appeared in "Bus & Coach Preservation" in 2003, Philip Lamb (the Editor) was able to complete his research into the history of this vehicle and conclude that it was rebodied by Wadhams in the late 1940's. A little more research by Philip has also revealed that it was acquired by Don Coaches after the Second World War, having been previously owned by a smaller coach company in Portsmouth, Gloucester Garage, based in Fratton Road who had purchased it new in January 1931 with its original Duple 32 seat body. Quite likely, it would have been requisitioned for war service and thus presumably the reason for the new body. |
|
| The AEC, a Southdown Tiger, Grandfather and two unidentified ladies. The Southdown coach shows "Cheddar Gorge" on its radiator sign. It's possible that was the location of this picture. Notice the white coat - it also appears in the first picture in this set |
|
|
 |
A classic coach if ever there was one. This is very clearly a Bedford OB with Duple Vista bodywork. It is a little different to most OB's - notice the door sliding on the inside of the bodywork. There is some evidence to suggest that this was either a very rare pre-war OB, or else was one built under licence by SMT. The location is in Southampton. Some further research by Philip Lamb has identified this as actually being a very rare pre-war vehicle | |
|
This picture has suffered over the years. Again an OB, but this one has the door on the outside. A regular job for our grandfather was to drive an OB from Portsmouth to Cowley (Oxford) transporting factory workers to the Pressed Steel car body factory. Allegedly, at least 2 of his children had early driving lessons on the return journeys. |
|
|
|
|
A close-up of the newer OB, taken outside the family home in Bedhampton Road, North End, Portsmouth. Notice the total lack of parked cars in the road - a situation far removed from today. | |
| Pictured, we think, in the New Forest, the most modern of all the coaches in this collection. An early model Duple Vega on a Bedford SB chassis. There are a few detail differences when compared with the Valley Rambler SB - the most obvious being the lack of the "butterfly" radiator grill. |
|
