Welcome to The Ards Bus Preservation Group website
Preserving Northern Ireland's Road Transport Heritage
LAST UPDATED 16/05/12 (Pics added to 280,363,1058,1882 and 2568 galleries, Work in Progress and Events updated.)
Based in County Down, Northern Ireland, we are a small group of transport enthusiasts who are devoted to the preservation and restoration of buses of the past. Our collection comprises mainly of vehicles that were operated by Ulsterbus, Citybus and Flexibus. Our collection includes some 22 preserved buses, all of which served long lives in Northern Ireland, with the exception of one that operated in Scotland for all of its life. Some of these have been already restored while others are waiting their turn for restoration in the future. The oldest of these is now 43 years old with the youngest being 21 years of age. All of the types of vehicles in the group no longer operate in big numbers as they did in the past and are no longer found on the roads of Northern Ireland, or indeed, the United Kingdom as a whole. With the restored and road worthy examples of our collection, we attend rallies, road runs and classic shows in Northern Ireland and on mainland Britain. Not used for commercial passenger use any longer, the group hopes to keep these pieces of our transport heritage alive for future generations to see.
The aim of this website is to keep those who are interested updated with the happenings of the fleet and give an insight into what can be achieved by a few who give of their free time to keep these vehicles on the road.
In this website you will find a small history on each vehicle with an accompanying photo gallery. Due to space constraints we cant go into a full history of each vehicle and the history of the chassis and body type from start to finish. We will however try to give you an insight into the particular vehicles history from new and any details that we know of. This, of course is always up for correction and is always being constantly updated.
All of the restoration work is funded by the vehicle owners and all restoration work is carried out by group members at our base when free time permits. None of these vehicles are used for commercial passenger and only attend vintage shows, rallies and gatherings around the UK.
We will be updating the website at regular intervals so please check back very soon and please bookmark us.
If you have any enquiries, or indeed, any information or photographs of our vehicles, we would be very happy to hear from you.
Due to the demise of our original website that was hosted by fotopic who went into adminstration, we are currently building this website from scratch. This is a time consuming process and done in our free time. Some sections of this website will be changing from time to time in the coming future, so please keep checking back as we will be adding alot more to it.
Below is a few of our vehicles in the collection. Please take a browse through the drop down links at the top of the page to view the restoration of these and the other vehicles in the group collection.
Based in County Down, Northern Ireland, we are a small group of transport enthusiasts who are devoted to the preservation and restoration of buses of the past. Our collection comprises mainly of vehicles that were operated by Ulsterbus, Citybus and Flexibus. Our collection includes some 22 preserved buses, all of which served long lives in Northern Ireland, with the exception of one that operated in Scotland for all of its life. Some of these have been already restored while others are waiting their turn for restoration in the future. The oldest of these is now 43 years old with the youngest being 21 years of age. All of the types of vehicles in the group no longer operate in big numbers as they did in the past and are no longer found on the roads of Northern Ireland, or indeed, the United Kingdom as a whole. With the restored and road worthy examples of our collection, we attend rallies, road runs and classic shows in Northern Ireland and on mainland Britain. Not used for commercial passenger use any longer, the group hopes to keep these pieces of our transport heritage alive for future generations to see.
The aim of this website is to keep those who are interested updated with the happenings of the fleet and give an insight into what can be achieved by a few who give of their free time to keep these vehicles on the road.
In this website you will find a small history on each vehicle with an accompanying photo gallery. Due to space constraints we cant go into a full history of each vehicle and the history of the chassis and body type from start to finish. We will however try to give you an insight into the particular vehicles history from new and any details that we know of. This, of course is always up for correction and is always being constantly updated.
All of the restoration work is funded by the vehicle owners and all restoration work is carried out by group members at our base when free time permits. None of these vehicles are used for commercial passenger and only attend vintage shows, rallies and gatherings around the UK.
We will be updating the website at regular intervals so please check back very soon and please bookmark us.
If you have any enquiries, or indeed, any information or photographs of our vehicles, we would be very happy to hear from you.
Due to the demise of our original website that was hosted by fotopic who went into adminstration, we are currently building this website from scratch. This is a time consuming process and done in our free time. Some sections of this website will be changing from time to time in the coming future, so please keep checking back as we will be adding alot more to it.
Below is a few of our vehicles in the collection. Please take a browse through the drop down links at the top of the page to view the restoration of these and the other vehicles in the group collection.
Bristol RE, ex Ulsterbus/Citybus 2446.
One of the groups five Bristol RE's and originally an Ulsterbus, this one dating from 1980 has been restored to Citybus livery of whom it operated for in the latter half of its service life. Sold to a school in Belfast after its service life was over, it was acquired by one of the groups members who has fond memories of travelling to school on it. |
Bedford YLQ, ex Ulsterbus 1878.
The groups sole Bedford YLQ that was one of 48 new to Ulsterbus in 1976/77, operated from Newry depot its whole service life. After being withdrawn it became a recovery vehicle for Newry and Armagh depots and from there was acquired for preservation in 2006. It is now only thought to be one of a few surviving and currently the only example restored
Leyland Leopard, ex Ulsterbus 280.
Pictured here in glorious sunshine and looking very smart after the completion of painting, is one of the groups many ex Ulsterbus Leyland Leopards. This particular example was new to Antrim depot and finished its days in Bangor depot and dates from 1982. It was purchased for preservation to represent the batch of bus seated Alexander bodied X types that had chassis that were diverted from the National Bus Company in England.
The ABPG through its members seeks to promote road passenger transport, through the acquistion and restoration of vehicles manufactored and / or have been in service in Northern Ireland. In doing so, it additionally seeks to educate the wider public to the contribution such vehicles have made to the economic and social history of Northern Ireland.
The ABPG through its members seeks to promote road passenger transport, through the acquistion and restoration of vehicles manufactored and / or have been in service in Northern Ireland. In doing so, it additionally seeks to educate the wider public to the contribution such vehicles have made to the economic and social history of Northern Ireland.
Leyland Tiger, ex Ulsterbus 1025.
The group has four Leyland Tigers in its collection dating from 1984 to 1989. Pictured here is a 1987 example of a small batch of 30 that were delivered to Ulsterbus in 1986/87 and now is the sole surviving example of this batch. Allocated new to Newtownards, it was to go on to spend its whole service life at this depot before being acquired for preservation in 2008. It has been returned to the livery it wore when new.
Mercedes Benz 609D, ex Flexibus 51
One of two minibuses in the collection, this one dates from 1990 and operated for the now extinct Flexibus Limited. Having had a substantial restoration from top to bottom, it is now considered to be the only restored Flexibus vehicle in existence.
Some of the groups collection together at a local rally in 2010.
Preserving Northern Ireland's Road Transport Heritage
