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(This message was updated 25th February 2009)
Hello and thank you for viewing my M&D site. I hope you'll enjoy looking at it as much as others have.
The aim has been to publish the huge number of 'official' publicity shots which I took for the erstwhile Maidstone & District company over the years from 1984 onwards, as it seemed pointless to keep them hidden away when today's technology allows me to scan the negatives and put the pictures on display for others to enjoy.
When I take photos I prefer to take too many rather than not enough, so, in many cases, there are similar views taken from slightly different angles as some people might prefer one angle to another.
The end result is a fairly comprehensive study of new deliveries and special liveries of the M&D fleet in the 1980s and 1990s, so sit back and take a look at what Maidstone & District was running in the those decades. There was plenty of variety, some of which I had forgotten about until finding the photos for this project.
I've worked for Maidstone & District and Arriva Southern Counties for well over 32 years and over that time I've taken a lot of photos of new buses plus many different liveries (including quite a lot of special adverts) and other subjects for publicity or archive use. It certainly mixes business with pleasure.
I've photographed a number of subjects which no-one else will have taken, such as complete batches of vehicles together, so that should add to the variety of what is on offer.
Most were taken on 35mm negative film and the scanning of several hundred views proved to be a lengthy project, but worthwhile now that others can see them.
For my own pleasure, my personal collection of bus photos is in transparency format and I prefer to take photos away from bus stations and depots so that they are more picturesque.
However, by virtue of the fact that I worked at Luton Road, Chatham, from 1983 to 1995, that the Paint Shop was at Gillingham depot and that many of the subjects were Medway-based vehicles, there are a lot of pictures taken at Gillingham and Luton depots and in a number of other 'favourite' spots around the Medway Towns.
This was of necessity when attempting to get photos of buses as soon as they came out of the Paint Shop or before they entered service, but you will find that other locations are represented in the Maidstone, Tonbridge, Tunbridge Wells, Swale and Weald areas.
Having worked as Marketing Manager for Arriva Southern Counties for the past few years, I continue to take 'official' photos, nowadays in digital format, and these will progressively be added to the Arriva Southern Counties gallery mentioned below.
I hope you enjoy viewing my photos and I will be pleased to answer any queries which you might wish to raise in the 'comments' section.
Keep checking the site, just in case I find some additional views hidden away which will eventually be added!
Some Kentish Bus and Londonlinks subjects have been included in this gallery as I photographed a number of new buses and liveries when M&D and Kentish Bus were brought together under common British Bus management as the Invictaway Ltd group.
I also have a small number of 'official' shots taken in the early 1980s in black & white which I will be adding as a separate gallery in due course and there will be a link from this gallery when it is available.
As already mentioned, I have followed the M&D gallery with a separate one to record the photos I've taken for Arriva Southern Counties since the M&D and Kentish Bus fleets assumed their new identity in 1998.
This will show that there have been plenty of non-corporate applications of livery, and other variety, during the Arriva period, and scanning of the negatives of the many subjects which I have taken since 1998 is underway, although pressures on my time mean that progress has been slower than intended. I hope, however, that the finished result will be worth the wait!
This gallery will cover the whole of the Arriva Southern Counties operation which spreads from Southend in the east across to Guildford in the west.
You will find a link to it in the the 'Other Galleries' box on the right-hand side of this page.
Finally, although I have completed the photographic content for this M&D gallery, I will continue to add links from it to other useful websites as I come across them. I am including those sites which are of good quality in terms of photographic coverage, and also a number of official company websites for other bus companies or bus-related organisations. |
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I am now publishing the photos I've taken for Arriva Southern Counties in a separate gallery which can be accessed by clicking the link in the 'Other Galleries' box.
Although many might think that the Arriva fleet is standardised and boring, I hope to show that there has been quite a variety of vehicles and liveries over the 11 years since the Arriva name and identity first appeared. |
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| I'm sorry that I have had to withdraw the facility to buy prints from my site, but I hope that I can reinstate the facility once Fotopic have resolved a problem of non-payment of commission and of a delay in sending prints to one of their customers who ordered copies of some of the images on this site. |
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32 comments in this gallery
Click here to read them |
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Score: 9.6 (32 votes)
Score: 10.0 (15 votes)
Score: 10.0 (12 votes)
Score: 9.7 (10 votes)
Score: 10.0 (8 votes)
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The M&D and East Kent Bus Club was established in 1952 to bring together those interested in the fleets and services of M&D and East Kent and it continues to thrive 57 years later.
The monthly magazine, 'Invicta', keeps members in touch with the latest developments in the bus fleets in Kent and East Sussex, primarily Arriva and Stagecoach as successors to M&D and East Kent, but also covering all other companies in the two counties.
For more details of the Club, please write to The M&D and East Kent Bus Club, 42 St. Alban's Hill, Hemel Hempstead, Hertfordshire, HP3 9NG or visit www.mdekbusclub.org.uk. |
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