ONLINE TRANSPORT ARCHIVE

R L Wilson

Reg poses at the wheel of ex-Birkenhead PD2 152 (GCM152E) on the occasion of its last day in service, 20 March 1977.

Reg Wilson was born in April 1928.   He had a lifelong interest in many forms of transport, but particularly buses, starting at the age of 7.   He  developed his interest in buses to become one of the foremost photographers of his era.

He was brought up in the Manchester area, but the family later moved to Wirral, where Reg worked for many years as an Industrial Chemist for the Mobil Oil Company.

He died in January 2001 at the age of 72.

Ribble Burlingham bodied Leyland Tiger Cub 975 (JRN41) at Liverpool depot in March 1957.

Reg is better known for his black and white photographs but took a relatively small number of colour shots before he changed over fully in 1996.   This is MPTE ex-Wallasey PD2 254 (AHF850) at Seacombe in February 1972.

Reg took his first photographs on 20 May 1947; we can be as precise as this because of his immaculate record keeping (see below).   His earlier notebooks faithfully recorded camera setting, film type and weather conditions, as well as the actual subject material.   His earliest photographs were in 120 black and white format but he began taking 35mm black and white in 1948 and ran the two formats in parallel for the next decade.   He also took ciné film during this period.

He began taking colour slides on 6 June 1959 and colour prints in October 1969, although the latter format was used principally for the many overseas holidays the family took from the 1970s onwards.   His last black and white photographs were taken in September 1996 (apart from one film in 1999), after which time he concentrated almost fully on colour print film.   His last photographs were taken on 1 October 2000.

An extract from one of Reg's photographic log book from the early 1950s.   Click on image to enlarge.

Reg was acknowledged as an expert on vehicle registration numbers and his photographic collection reflected this.   In July 1963, K1, the first number issued by Liverpool County Borough Council, was being carried by a Mark 2 Jaguar.   The picture is believed to have been taken in Kirby Stephen. 

As a result of Reg's record keeping, we can be fairly accurate about his output: 28195 black and white negatives, 18082 colour negatives and 11132 colour slides, a total of 57409 images.

The largest proportion of these images are of bus subjects.   Reg was particularly prolific in the North West of England and there is almost comprehensive coverage of Merseyside and Greater Manchester area municipal companies over the period.   There is equally good coverage of the area companies in the region - Crosville, Ribble and North Western.   Reg continued his photographic output in the post-deregulation era, and photographed virtually all the new operators in the same area as they came and went in the 1980s and 1990s.

Reg visited virtually every corner of the UK at some time or another and photographed bus operations there.   From the early 1970s onwards, Reg began travelling overseas and photographs of transport operations in colour.

Reg also covered other forms of transport, albeit in smaller quantity - railways, ferries, aviation and even coverage of Mobil's road haulage fleet during the years he worked for them.   Reg's collection contains a large number of photographs of registration number plates from around the world, including those which formed part of his own collection.

London Transport AEC Merlin XMS6 (JLA56D) when new at Victoria in April 1966.

Crosville 'Queen Mary' Bristol LWL CLB240 (MFM671) at Rock Ferry depot in September 1964. 

During his lifetime, Reg's photographs were published in many places.   At times, barely a month went by without at least one 'R L Wilson' photo credit appearing in Buses magazine.   The 1966 Crosville fleet list (pub Ian Allan) in the British Bus Fleets series was illustrated almost entirely by Reg's photographs.   There have been a number of other books about Crosville, and most featured pictures taken by Reg: Crosville on Merseyside (T B Maund, pub TPC 1992), Crosville Motor Services 2 (Duncan Roberts, pub NBC Books 1997), Crosville 3: the successors 1986-2001 (Duncan Roberts, pub NBC Books 2001).

Special mention must be made of Reg's own book, Municipal buses in colour 1959-1974 (pub Ian Allan 1997), and of several books on registration numbers for which Reg provided illustrations and other support (eg A history of motor vehicle registration in the United Kingdom, L H Newall, pub by the author 2001).

Under the administration of OTA, a photo feature tribute appeared in Classic Bus for October/November 2003.   Ciné footage is planned to appear in a forthcoming Online Video release - Buses on Merseyside.   On 1 March 2006, OTA director Charles Roberts gave a talk to the Merseyside Bus Club and this coincided with the release of OTA's first PhotoCD - Buses of Liverpool.   For details of how to obtain a copy of this CD, please send an email to OTA using the link in the panel on the left.   The arrangement by which copy prints and slides were available for sale through one of OTA's agents by mail order and at bus rallies was terminated in April 2006.

Some of Reg's worldwide collection of registration number plates.   Photograph taken May 1975.

Other than a single film in 1999, this was Reg's last black and white transport photograph, MTL Optare-bodied Mercedes 7943 (G803OVA) at Birkenhead Woodside bus station in September 1996.