Potted Histoires

Paul Statham has worked for or been associated with several coach operators since the '70s, and on this page will be recording things like fleets lists, and reminisces.
Operators to be featured include Trathens,Yelverton and Buddens, Romsey.

You will also find an article about Forces Express services, featuring Triumph Coaches, Portsmouth and Silver Star

Buddens, Romsey

I joined Buddens on a regular basis in 1983, by which time the fleet was mainly Volvo, though with 3 Bedfords, and a mixture of Duple, Plaxton, and then Jonckheere bodies.
When I started in 1983, Buddens were working for several tour operators including Global, for whom several coaches were painted in Global livery, plus a couple running in plain white with Global lettering

Buddens started pre 2nd World War originally from Tytherley, a small village north of Romsey, and ran a service to/from Salisbury as  well as private hire. In addition, in the 50s, Buddens was one of the operators involved in Forces weekend Leave services from Salisbury Plain camps, for which they used at least 1 heavyweight, namely PPE 963, which was an AEC Reliance with Burlingham body.In common with most small operators, they ran mainly Bedfords, OBs included of course, but changed to Volvos in the late '70s,The preferred body supplier moved from Duple/Plaxton to Jonckheere at about the same time, then in the 80s, Scanias joined the fleet, with a mixture of Jonckheere, Van Hool, Berkhof, and in due course the inevitable Irizar bodies. In common with Trathens, who feature in Potted Histories, it was the influence of the founder's son, in this case Simon Budden, who brought about many of these changes.

More photos of Buddens can be found in Photo Album.



D314 VVV was a Scania K112 with 53 seat Jonckheere P50 body. It was painted in Global livery for working European Tours. It was allocated to me for the 1990 season and did 7 9-day tours to Austria during that summer.


Trathens,Yelverton

I believe that Trathens started operations soon after the end of World War II, using Bedfords to carry local people to places like Tavistock and Plymouth. It should be remembered that at that time, and until probably the late 60s, lots of small country-based operators ran services once or twice a week to their local market town. The firm was run by Eric Trathen and his wife, Yvonne, and they gradually expanded in terms of fleet size, and the distances travelled. In due course they had at least 2 boys, Mike and Dave, and I remember reading an interview with Mike, in the 80s, in which he said that when he was in Rome on a trip on one of the firm's coaches, he saw the 'exotic' coaches in operation there, and decided that it was that sort of vehicles he wanted the firm to move on to. At that time, the late 60s, Trathens would have been operating Bedfords and Fords with Duple and Plaxton bodies, mainly with maximum seating capacities, i.e., 45 seats on 33' chassis, and 53 seats on 36 footers. The exotic coaches that began to appear showed a move from lightweight chassis to heavyweight, and the start of using European bodybuilders. My first contact with the firm was in 1974, when I was on tour in Devon with a 1967 Bedford VAL14-Duple of which I was a part-owner. I had some time spare whilst on the tour, so contacted Trathens to see if they needed any extra coaches during my time in Devon. They did, and I covered an evening private hire from Dartmoor Prison (Staff, not inmates!) to Launceston. A Trathens coach was also on the job, a Caetano-bodied AEC Reliance, which made the journey from Princetown to Tavistock which is downhill at about 1 in 20 average quite a challenge for the VALs brakes, as those who have driven VALs will appreciate. I continued to do occasional work for Trathens, as their work included carrying French students visiting London who crossed the Channel from Brittany to Plymouth, sometimes returning from Portsmouth to Caen. Portsmouth was of course my home at the time, so it was quite logical to use me. Unfortunately, my business folded in late 76, and at the time I owed them money for some work they had done for me, so it was agreed that I would work for them as a driver with part of my wages being retained to clear my debt. In the event, I liked the work and the coaches, so decided to carrying on working for them once the debt had been repaid, (which took about 3 or 4months). This period started in April 1977, and was my first introduction to driving Volvos, and driving in Europe. When I arrived in Devon, the fleet was 100% Volvo B58, all bodied by Duple or Plaxton, totalling about 20. The newest were LTK 428/9R, and the oldest POD 416M, a spread of only 4 years. At that time most of the coaches were still maximum capacity, but Trathens had started carrying incoming tourists to the UK, mostly American, but including Swedes, and were operating tours into Europe for various tour operators, including one called Vikings, who carried mainly Australians and New Zealanders, on tours lasting up to 6 weeks, accommodation on the tours being in tents, which we carried from site to site in the boot of the coach. My 4^th ever Continental tour was for 6 weeks to Russia and Scandinavia. This made quite a change from driving Bedfords on school contracts in the Portsmouth area.

Another regular job during my time with the firm was the carriage of Scottish trawlermen, who were fishing for mackerel off the Devon and Cornwall coasts back to their homes in the Fraserburgh area of Scotland, north of Aberdeen. This was a drive of about 15 hours, so involved 2 drivers, or 1 driver taking the coach as far as Lancaster, then handing over to a driver who was resting there for the remainder of the northward journey. This was taking place during the winters, so meant lots of night driving often with salty spray on the Motorways-not pleasant.