Leyland National 51 returned to Whitehaven harbour for bank holiday

A range of vintage buses and other vehicles were set up along Whitehaven Harbour to celebrate the local heritage of the Leyland National bus company. 

For years thousands of buses were manufactured right here in west Cumbria and were a popular site for people living in the area. 

Now Workington Heritage Trust has worked with the local authorities to give people a chance to relive our transport heritage. 

The buses offered a park-and-ride service taking people around the area on the retro vehicles, the attraction was accompanied by a fun fair and market stalls. 

To top it off, for the first time ever, Stagecoach's Coronation bus was on display for the public. 

The new Stagecoach Coronation bus (Image: Supplied)

Also, an Ikarus bus which was manufactured in Budapest, Hungary, during the Cold War era was on display in Whitehaven. Some 75,000 were built on the other side of the Iron Curtain decades ago. 

Michael Morton, who helped to organise the event, said: "It went on over two days again, like last year, we were partly celebrating the Leyland National which was built here and secondly it was a bit of a general transport festival. 

"We had some cars and lorries, it kicked off first thing Saturday morning and finished Sunday and was pretty much nonstop. 

A rare Cold War survivor- the Ikarus 260 from Budapest was very popular with visitors (Image: Supplied)

"We were very pleased with the number of attendants, some had traveled a long way, two people came from Holland they took a boat from Dover and drove all the way up here. 

"We had two buses which came over from the Isle of Man and two buses coming from south Yorkshire, quite a lot from Merseyside and three from Scotland. 

"A lot of the people who came over were enthusiasts and they spent the weekend traveling the free buses. 

Merseyside PTE Leyland Nationals at the former Leyland National factory during LN51 (Image: Supplied)

"We had four services, one with the help of Lakes College offering a Park and Ride service, another doing a Whitehaven circular town tour, another going up to the factory at Lillyhall, and a fourth one which we thought was brilliant, a more scenic tour giving them a taste of west Cumbria. 

"We went up through Cleator to Rowrah and were dropping people off at the Ennerdale Brewery who were running a special Leyland National Blonde Ale."

A former Cumberland National climbing towards Dean Cross (Image: Supplied)

Organisers are hoping that they event will return for a third time next year.