HUNDREDS of people showed up to enjoy the fifth annual Didcot Transport Extravaganza last weekend (22).
The event, organised by Didcot Railway Centre with the Thames Valley and Great Western Omnibus Trust, took place on Sunday, May 22 and saw 22 vintage buses driving through the town streets.
A vintage bus was running all day from 10am to 4pm providing free services from Didcot Parkway interchange to destinations such as Wantage, Blewbury, Wallingford and Abingdon, many passing through rural villages.
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Operational vehicles laid over in the Didcot station east car park and buses and coaches varying in year of construction from 1927 to 1990 attended.
A 1952 Southern National coach attended plus the 1927 Tilling-Stevens bus in Thames Valley livery, a 1948 Riley RMB drophead coupe, a 1934 Rolls-Royce and the City of Oxford AEC Renown built in 1967.
The Transport Rally also included ten buses and coaches displayed in Ladygrove Park, Didcot, together with a wide variety of vintage cars, some “unusual” commercial vehicles, a miniature railway, and stationary engines and traction engines.
Didcot Railway Centre was also open where the steam and diesel trains were running throughout the day offering unlimited rides alongside the exhibits.
Volunteer of the railway centre Frank Dumbleton said: “We had a great day in the sunshine for this year’s transport rally.
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“Hundreds of people turned up in Didcot to see the exhibits in the rally site and took excursions by vintage bus far and wide in south Oxfordshire.
“A carefully planned timetable devised by the Thames Valley and Great Western Omnibus Trust used eleven vintage vehicles to offer there-and-back trips to Wantage, Wallingford and Abingdon, plus a circular tour of picturesque local villages, taking in East and West Hagbourne, Blewbury, Upton and Harwell.
“At the rally site in Ladygrove park another dozen buses in colourful liveries were on display, together with vintage cars, their chrome glistening in the sunshine.
“There was a miniature railway, traction engines, a fire engine and a collection of stationary engines which belch and backfire and have clouds of steam from their tank of cooling water as they drive a flywheel to attach to belt-driven machinery.
“A shuttle bus service linked the rally site to Didcot Parkway station where the excursions set off from.
“Among the buses on the shuttle was the 95-year-old Tilling-Stevens. In reality, it is just a short walk from the station to the rally site but with such a choice of vintage vehicles, who could resist the ride?
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“There were also all the attractions of Didcot Railway Centre to visit.”
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This story was written by Gee Harland, she joined the team in 2022 as a senior multimedia reporter.
Gee covers Wallingford and Didcot.
Get in touch with her by emailing: Gee.harland@newsquest.co.uk
Follow her on Twitter @Geeharland
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