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Simon Lang (3/11/1972 to 30/6/2024)

In memory of a dear friend. I first met Simon in 2000, during a week long visit by the Merseyside Bus Club when they brought a preserved Liverpool Atlantean to Ireland. One of their excursions was hiring Dublin Bus Bombardier KD108 for a visit to Dualway Coaches in Rathcoole and returning to the Bus Eireann Broadstone garage on board a Dualway Routemaster, both rare events. From that chance encounter (a question to me about where to find the body number plate on a Plaxton Supreme) began a 24 year friendship.

Over the years he, like myself, was very interested in researching the history of older Irish buses and we exchanged a lot of information and photo research during that time. There were also many trips (both one day and longer ones) which we undertook. Amongst them were two visits (in 2008 and 2009) to the Llandudno Transport Festival in north Wales organised by the North East Vintage Car Club. Our transport on each occasion was in my 1968 Austin A60 Countryman, which performed well, in spite of a leaky radiator cap on one of the journeys.

A few days stay in the Birmingham area in 2017 provided a chance to visit the Severn Valley Railway at Kidderminster, where we travelled on a train hauled by a class 52 diesel loco, as well as an evening trip on a DMU to Bridgenorth where fish and chip suppers were provided; we sat on a platform bench and tucked in, before returning to Kidderminster and Birmingham. On the following day a visit was made to an open day at Aston Manor transport museum with its collection of West Midlands buses and coaches.

In 2019 the visit was to the Derby area, visiting Swanwick Junction (for the 60th anniversary of the BMC Farina cars) as well as getting to Leicester and having a tour of some of the local operators courtesy of Andrew Webster. Amongst the vehicles we saw that day were several ex Dublin Bus Olympians with Confidence Bus and Coach - quite possibly we could have travelled on them in Dublin years earlier. He had also made solo trips to Malta, Guernsey and other parts of Great Britain, including the West Midlands and the North East, and took an interest in former transport undertakings in those areas.

Apart from the research, he had also amassed a collection of buses and coaches which he hoped to restore. Some of them were only fit for parts, others were later sold on and are being restored. One of these being a former Bournemouth Atlantean (SEL 247H), which years earlier I had seen in Lancaster in service there. A second returning vehicle was a former Ben Stanley Bedford YMT Plaxton coach (CTM 405T) which is now back in its original territory, and it is likely that one or more of his ex West Midlands Daimler Fleetlines will also return home. He was also a skilled model maker, completing dozens of resin kits to a far higher standard than I could ever hope to achieve with my amateurish efforts, and indeed coming to my assistance more than once to help complete projects.

By profession, he was employed for many years as a librarian in Trinity College in Dublin, working in the early printed books department of that great institution, and being awarded with a Master of Arts degree in June 2023. Following his terminal illness diagnosis, many of his friends and former colleagues rallied round and paid visits, both in the hospital and in the hospice in Harolds Cross, underlining the esteem in which he was held by all who knew him. One of the final times I met him before he entered the hospice was a car trip to Blessington Lakes, where we discovered a former Derby Volvo Ailsa serving as a pizza restaurant. The photo below shows Simon and myself standing in front of the said bus.

Despite the diagnosis, he remained stoical and upbeat about his prognosis. Even in his last weeks he managed to complete a research document on the history of Dublin City Services single deckers, and then shared that work with others. His help with, and contributions to, this website will serve as a tribute to him. The funeral took place in Saint John's Church in Clondalkin on Monday July 8th 2024. Farewell my good friend. You will be missed and never forgotten.

Some of the congregation who attended the funeral service.

EWS 744W is an Eastern Coachworks bodied Bristol VRT, new to Bristol in June 1981, and seen here in Clevedon on May 3rd 1991 in the then new Badgerline colours.

J 14645 is a Duple bodied Ford R1014, new to Jersey Motor Transport in August 1980. It was photographed at Jersey Airport on June 23rd 1994 in Pepsi Max advert livery.

Dublin Bus KD5 was new in 1981 to CIE in Clontarf garage, working here on route 30 to Dollymount. This route was the last to have Leyland OPD2s in service in 1976, and was merged in 1996 with route 44A into City Imp route 130.

Bus Eireann PL75 is a Plaxton Paramount bodied Leyland Tiger, new to Shearings Holidays as H903 DRJ in January 1991. It entered service with Bus Eireann in November 1992 and is seen here in Drogheda.

90-D-5004 was one of ten Wrights bodied Mercedes 811s new to Dublin Bus for the revamped route 83 to Kimmage. All were sold off after some years and this one was used by Heeney of Duleek on Bus Eireann contract workings in the Drogheda area.

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SB