YOU wait all year for one bus running day and then three come along in five months.

Winchester hosts the annual January 1 bus day organised by Friends of King Alfred Buses.

FoKAB held a special event recently to mark the 40th anniversary of the bus company’s closure.

And then on Monday (MAY27) a tribute rally was held for the pre-privatisation National Bus Company.

The city was full of the grumbling poppy red and leaf green Leyland and Bristol buses that were familiar vehicles on local streets in the 1970s and early 80s, before privatisation in 1986. King Alfred Buses was taken over in 1973 by Hants and Dorset, which was owned by the National Bus Company.

Hampshire Bus Preservation hosted the unique event in association with Stagecoach and the Winchester Vineyard church who both opened their premises at Bar End for the occasion.

There was an indoor transport fair selling books, DVDs, models, pamphlets, photos and postcards and several model railways.

The event attracted bus enthusiasts from far and wide as well a scores of children.

One five-year-old, Jacob Petersen, was asked by his mum: “Which did you like best, the model trains or the buses?” “All of it!” he said.

Free bus services were run around the city and to Alresford.