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原文传递 The wonders of a legendary Wiltshire independent

题名：	The wonders of a legendary Wiltshire independent
正文语种：	eng
作者：	ALAN MILIAR
摘要：	Nearly 60 years after it disappeared into the jaws of it state-owned rival, Silver Star Motor Services still enjoys an enthusiast following out of proportion to its small size. That in large part is because it punched above its weight and operated well beyond its Wiltshire base, which Terry Grace explains was on part of the camp site of the chemical weapons establishment at Porton Down. Given that location, it is surely no surprise that the Ministry of Defence police apprehended the local newspaper reporter and photographer on the last day of operations in June 1963 and confiscated 'unauthorised' film they had taken of staff going about their final duties. It was a product of its times, a company that prospered in the years of compulsory military national service by operating long distance express services for personnel on weekend leave from camps and airfields in the area. Its silver and red livery - originally unpainted metal - and prominent star logo on raised front roofboxes made them even more recognisable. The icing on the cake that helped deliver an immortal memory was its purchase of four new rear-engined Leyland Atlantean double-deckers between 1959 and 1962, all with lowbridge Weymann bodies, one of them equipped as a coach. The traffic commissioners' refusal to allow it to use these high capacity vehicles on the weekend expresses was a blow, but there are pictures in the book of one of them in 1961 or early 1962 on a tour of Germany with a party of Boy Scouts. A GB plate applied for that trip (along with an AA badge for continental breakdown assistance) remained after the bus changed hands.
出版年：	2021
期刊名称：	Buses
卷：	73
期：	797