The Southern Counties Preserved Collection

09/08/2026

Our yearly outing to the Kent and East Sussex railway! They host a wonderful bus rally yearly and we took part today running 2 297’s and a 73! Very enjoyable day! If you have any photos feel free to send them in or tag us in them!

08/08/2026

We had a lovely day taking 14 out with some friends the other week, primarily to keep fluids flowing and things moving, the lovely weather out has been a plus too of course!

24/07/2026

Absolutely ecstatic to be taking part in the 500 running day! It will be a glorious day, so come along to see the Volvo, and a range of different buses running in the area!

Another day, another announcement - we are very happy to share that The Southern Counties Preserved Collection have entered their 3814 into the 500 Running Day! This marks the first B7RLE to grace the route in almost half a decade, with Arriva Aylesbury's Voith-boxed KE05 FM* batch being mainstay for many years prior. If you want to see this and many other brilliant rear-engined buses, Hemel and Aylesbury are the places to be on the 19th of September.

30/05/2026

Brands Hatch Britannia 2026!

What a great event we had much pleasure in attending with our colleagues from Arriva Kent, there was a display of Arriva’s Kent fleet split from 2 different depots and preserved buses alike. We took 3814 as it’s the first Fastrack vehicle to have attended the show! We were then lucky enough to be able to drive 3814 around the track for a lap or two 🙂 which makes for some fantastic photos! Thank you to the photographers (Will, Scott and Chris) for the images! The first time I’ve ever driven on track at brands hatch and happens to be a B7RLE!

25/05/2026

3814 on display for Brands Hatch Britannia 2026 🏁

16/05/2026

We’ve had an absolutely fantastic day at the Faversham Festival of Transport! And then latterly at the Fastrack 20th Anniversary running day! Everyone loved 3814 and gave us great support and often leaving full standing loads! If you have any photos or videos of her from today please get in touch and send them in!

As always 3814 performed utterly flawlessly and we’re so happy and proud of her! Definitely a great sounding motor for sure 👀

15/05/2026

3814 is all prepped and ready for her long day tomorrow! We’re attending the Faversham Festival of transport tomorrow morning and then onto the Fastrack 20th anniversary running day. We wanted to do both this year and it means 14 has a long day but nothing she can’t handle! She’s had some new wheel pointers and a few stickers to make her look pretty 😁

6430 also had our spares taken off it and a quick spruce up. Hopefully will be hitting the road in the not so distant future!

13/05/2026

6430 arrived safely at her home with sister 3814 waiting patiently for her arrival!

10/05/2026

6430 moves once again…

So after on and off effort and a few irritating issues, 6430 started and moved around the yard under her own power for the first time in a year.

She broke down just before detling last year and wouldn’t build any air up at all, this was traced to being a faulty air cyclone (condenser) valve. So a new one ordered, and where the bus had lost all its air we couldn’t get underneath to replace the part, so we called some assistance to get the bus lifted onto some chocks (rims in our case) so we could carry the work out. However due to her sitting so long after the condenser was fitted, 30 refused to start.

The starter had given up and was then replaced with a new unit. We then found a broken wire which was throwing up the “stop chassis failure” and “chassis data link” warnings. We replaced the 150amp fuse in the back, fixed the wire and with a new set of batteries she roared into life.

A long and slow process but we got there in the end, challenge after challenge! But that’s what bus pres is about!

After we got her off the blocks via some sleepers, a short victory lap around the yard was had before packing up to go home 🙂

24/04/2026

After SEBF its been quiet for us, but we’ve been cracking on with more jobs! Biggest one was sorting our spares container out! In addition to that we’re still making progress with replacing panels on the B7 so they’re a bit crisper than they were! We took her out for a jolly yesterday and performed great as always. Some background work on 6430 too, we haven’t forgotten about her but will be providing an update in another post soon!