Interesting Links
Southwestbus has business interests beyond the exciting world of model bus fleet operation. The 'owner' for instance owns a farm which makes undrinkable cider, has a French vineyard producing undrinkable wine, and seems also to partly own a radio station playing dreadful music offending the listeners of Somerset. None of these have websites (who wants to listen to dreadful music and drink undrinkable cider and wine and read about the latest goings on?)....
Southwestbus is a 50% owner of Flexicoach. It has a website and is also on facebook.
The long suffering other half of Southwestbus has long tired of being the spare part at model bus events and meetings and now has her own fleet, Dark Star Coaches.
It also has a website, and can be found on facebook.
Unlike Southwestbus, Dark Star are award winning and commended by all who encounter the fleet. The standard of painting is a lot higher too.
We're not alone in the world of model fleet operations.
Our friends at Crossways, Eldorado and Padbus are just a few of the many fleets in our industry. You can find a number of other fleets by visiting this link
I've been a member of the Model Bus Federation since 2004 (with a year's break) - founded in 1968 there are a number of local area groups across the UK almost all of whom hold regular meetings. You can find their main facebook page here.
I'm also involved with Model Bus Scotland who do excellent work promoting our hobby. They have a facebook group and hold regular meetings north of the border, but also have interests in all things model bus. They're also on youtube.
Midland Bus Kits is operated by two very good friends of mine. They produce a monthly newsletter which is free to read and is also quite informative, even after I've written some articles for it. They're also on youtube. You can find the newsletter by clicking this link.
Terry Jones' excellent coach park website is well worth a visit - a number of coach operators vehicles recreated in model form and all the models have been expertly signwritten.
Stuart Bell's excellent website contains a lot of bus photos both current and historic. You can also see an album from us which shows off the heady early days of our operation.
Other very interesting model bus sites include British Model Buses and The Model Bus Zone .