Our Fleet

Buses and coaches in our collection-

Before the Second World War,, buses and coaches in the King Alfred fleet were always referred to by a name consisting of their type and a number, thus 'Dennis 6' or 'Victor 2', seen below.

From 1945 this system started to fall out of use and was replaced by referring to the vehicles by the numbers on their registration plates. At first, these were just whatever was allocated by the Hampshire County Council licensing office, but this changed after 1949 when John Sincock, latterly Traffic Manager, joined the company.

When a new bus or coach was delivered, John would go to the licensing office and negotiate for the numbers that would suit the creation of little batches of numbers.

For example, Leyland Olympic 708 (JAA 708) was joined by JAA 705-707 (all Leyland Titans).

In this way, duplication was avoided and numbers were kept, more or less, together.