About
The Lincolnshire Road Transport Museum at North Hykeham, south of Lincoln, houses one of the largest collections of preserved historic buses, coaches, and commercial vehicles in the East Midlands — a remarkable assembly of transport heritage spanning more than eighty years of public road transport in Lincolnshire and the surrounding counties.
The museum grew out of the preservation movement that gathered momentum in the 1960s as operators and enthusiasts began to recognise that the great fleets of double-decker and single-decker buses that had served Britain's towns and rural areas since the early twentieth century were being withdrawn and scrapped at an accelerating pace. In Lincolnshire, the dominant operator was the Lincolnshire Road Car Company, a subsidiary of the East Midland and later the National Bus Company empire that served the county's towns, villages, and rural communities from its headquarters in Lincoln from 1928 onwards. The company's distinctive dark red and cream livery — applied to an ever-changing fleet of vehicles from various British manufacturers — is the unifying thread of the museum's collections.
The core of the collection is a large fleet of preserved buses representing every era of Lincolnshire Road Car and related operations, from pre-war single-deckers through the postwar expansion of double-deck services to the National Bus Company standardised fleets of the 1970s and 1980s. Vehicle types represented include the Bristol/ECW double-deckers that were the workhorses of Lincolnshire services for decades, alongside less common types including pre-war Lincolnshire Road Car vehicles, coaches, and examples from smaller operators and predecessor companies.
The museum's displays extend beyond the vehicles themselves to encompass the rich material culture of the bus industry: route timetables and maps charting the development of Lincolnshire's public transport network, ticket machines of numerous types from the earliest Bell Punch machines to later electronic systems, uniforms from different eras, and the operational documents and records that capture the daily working life of the county's bus industry. For anyone interested in the social and economic history of rural England, the network of bus routes that connected Lincolnshire's market towns and villages in the mid-twentieth century is a powerful document of a way of life largely transformed by the private car.
Open days with vehicle rides on preserved buses are among the museum's most popular events, bringing the collection to life in a way that static display alone cannot achieve.
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Plan Your Visit
⏱️ Recommended Visit Duration
💡 Visitor Tips
- Regular public opening is Sundays only, 11am to 4pm, year round — the museum is not open on Saturdays. Tuesday and Thursday visits can be arranged in advance by phone or email, but are not walk-in.
- Check the museum website for special event and running days before visiting — these are the most rewarding visits as vehicles are operating and more volunteers are present.
- Vehicle ride days are particularly popular with families and transport enthusiasts alike; booking ahead for these events is advisable.
- Combine with a visit to Lincoln city (5 miles north) to take in the Cathedral, Lincoln Castle, and The Collection museum for a full heritage day.
- Free parking makes the museum particularly convenient for visitors arriving by car.
- The museum shop has a good range of bus preservation publications and Lincoln Road Car memorabilia.
- Restoration work is often ongoing in the workshop — enthusiasts may find it worth asking volunteers about current restoration projects.
- Bring an umbrella or wet-weather gear for open days — queuing for bus rides is an outdoor activity and unpredictable weather is part of the experience.
Highlights
Lincolnshire Road Car Company Fleet
The heart of the museum's collection is a large fleet of preserved vehicles from the Lincolnshire Road Car Company — the dark red and cream buses that served Lincolnshire's towns and villages from 1928 until the company's absorption into the National Bus Company. The collection spans the full history of the operator, from relatively early pre-war vehicles through the Bristol/ECW double-deckers that dominated services in the postwar decades to later National Bus Company standardised types.
Together they document the evolution of bus design and operation across a critically important period of British transport history.
Bristol/ECW Double-Deckers
The Bristol/Eastern Coach Works combination produced the most successful bus designs in post-war Britain, and Lincolnshire Road Car operated large fleets of these vehicles. The museum holds examples of the principal Bristol/ECW types — the K, L, LD, and Lodekka families — that gave the company a standardised, reliable fleet suited to both urban and rural services.
These vehicles, with their distinctive low build (enabling operation under low railway bridges), curved windscreens, and characteristic sound, are among the most evocative artefacts of mid-twentieth-century British transport.
Seeing them alongside contemporary timetables and route maps brings the era vividly to life.
Open Days and Vehicle Rides
The museum's most popular events are its open days, held on specific Sundays through the summer season, when volunteers drive preserved buses around the site and enthusiasts and families can experience travel in historic vehicles.
The sound and movement of a preserved double-decker — the rhythmic gear changes of a pre-synchromesh gearbox, the sway of the upper deck on curves, the slam of the platform doors — are experiences unavailable from static display alone. Open days typically feature multiple operating vehicles, sometimes including restored coaches as well as service buses, and attract transport enthusiasts from across the region.
Ticket Machines and Operating Equipment
The museum's collection of ticket machines is one of the most comprehensive in the East Midlands, tracing the evolution of bus fare collection from the earliest Bell Punch machines and their paper tickets — torn from a bundle and clipped on issue — through the Setright and Ultimate machines of the postwar era to the electronic systems of the late twentieth century.
Each generation of ticket machine represents a different approach to the fundamental problem of collecting fares quickly and accurately on a moving vehicle. The collection is accompanied by examples of bus passes, timetables, and route maps spanning the full history of the county's bus network.
Collections
The Lincolnshire Road Transport Museum holds more than sixty-five historic buses, coaches, cars and commercial vehicles representing the history of road passenger transport in Lincolnshire and surrounding counties, with emphasis on the Lincolnshire Road Car Company fleet. The vehicle collection is supplemented by an extensive archive of operational materials including timetables, route maps, fare tables, ticket machines, uniforms, and photographs.
The museum continues to acquire and restore vehicles from the Lincolnshire Road Car Company and related operators, prioritising examples not currently represented in the collection.
Lincolnshire on the Move
Permanent vehicle displays and transport history exhibits covering the history of bus and coach operation in Lincolnshire
Current Exhibitions
No current exhibitions. Please check the museum website for updates.