We are most grateful for your kind message.

We would like to know for history who the drivers of 1122 and 1143 during their last service years were so we may pay tribute to them for the condition they were kept in.

Turning to 1274, she is most definitely on our list so please look after her. As we may not know when she is being withdrawn we would appreciate knowing when she is likely to go so that we can collect her straight out of service. We understand she is a super machine.

As regards a run back to Kells it would indeed be a wonderful idea. However the other side of the coin is that museums should not run preserved buses for very long distances as one runs the risk of causing a mechanical failure which would be both difficult and expensive to recover from. Maybe we might do it in the future. It would cost about 800 per bus to do the round trip which at the moment would be better spent - we think - on more Tigers!

Perhaps we could try something else. If the Portglenone men came to Cork on a given day we would love to have them and get pictures of them driving their buses around the Cork area. We would like nothing better than pictures for posterity of 1122 and 1143 and their drivers of their last years in service.

If this idea is acceptable we will pick a mutually suitable date. One idea would be for them to drive the machinbes into the Bus Eireann depot and do photographs. Bus Eireann would cooperate I am sure.

We note the suggestion re more Ballymena buses. We would be delighted. Our problem is that we do not know the good from the bad so perhaps the Portglenone men might suggest suitable candidates and we would be happy to seek them.

Thanks for looking after the buses. In turn we will try and look after them from here out. As noted earlier we plan to have eighteen Tigers and so far nine have been delivered. 400 is arriving next week.

Thanks again for the kind words.

Michael Grimes

Michael for your information.

Portglenone have a total of 5 buses allocated. For many years their allocation was 1121, 1122, 1142, 1143 and 1274. Out of this only 1142 and 1274 remain in service.

Each driver allocated their own bus in Portglenone and each looks after his bus very well.

As you requested the driver of 1122 was Colin and the driver of 1143 was John. Both Colin and John have received two 13xx Tigers in place of 1122 and 1143.

John in particular deserves a great deal of credit for the way 1143 has been looked after. John is one of the best drivers in Portglenone - he is a wild good driver!

It is great to see drivers who take a pride in their buses. 1122 and 1143 look very tidy and I guess 1274 annd 1313 will be abssoluteely fanastic buses.