BUS PEOPLE
Preservationist, author and Devon General Society co-founder Philip Platt died on 8 December, aged 68, after being diagnosed with cancer.
Brought up in Exeter in a family with railway connections, his childhood interests began with train spotting and extended to the company and corporation buses he experienced when travelling into town with his mother. He was soon able not just to distinguish between the red buses of Devon General and the green of City of Exeter, but the varying makes and models, notably AECs, Leylands, Daimlers and Guys.
His greatest interest was in the AECs of Devon General. ‘Phil was Mr AEC in the West Country,’ says John Roberts of WHOTT, the West Country Historic Omnibus & Transport Trust, of which he was a trustee for a time. He co-wrote two books on these subjects, One Hundred Years of AEC in the West Country with John Sykes and AEC Reliance with the late Gerald Truran.
After leaving school to work for Devon County Council, he and some like-minded friends formed themselves into a group that met to share an interest in the local bus scene, especially Devon General.
This interest survived the National Bus Company’s dilution of the Devon General identity, which became…
