Corgi 1/76 OM46516A Wright Eclipse Gemini 2, Brighton & Hove Bus and Coach Company, BK13 OAU, Route 5 Patcham, The Snowman

As an operator, Brighton & Hove Bus and Coach Company can trace its lineage back to the formation of the Brighton, Hove & Preston United Bus Company on 12 September 1884, but it was 1903 before the BH&PU began operating motor buses, in the process allegedly incurring the wrath of local shopkeepers as mud splattered up from the wheels onto shop fronts and they were subjected to exhaust fumes and vibrations. The takeover, in 1915, of the BH&PU by the aggressively expanding Thomas Tilling concern was to pave the way for the formation of the Brighton, Hove & District Omnibus Company Ltd on 26 November 1935 and over the next thirteen years the BH&D enjoyed a healthy period of prosperity until, in 1948, Tilling sold out to the British Transport Commission, a result of the Government's post-war transportation nationalisation programme which, in turn, became the Transport Holding Company on 1 January 1963. In 1967, British Electric Traction sold its private bus operations to the THC, creating a state monopoly controlling 90% of bus operations in England and Wales and so the Transport Act of 1968 merged the BET and THC operations into the National Bus Company on 1 January 1969. This effectively merged the Southdown and BH&D operations and with Southdown being the bigger, more dominant concern, it did not take long for the BH&D to become a dormant company, a situation that prevailed until privatisation in 1985 and the re-emergence of the BH&D as Brighton & Hove.BK13 OAU, a Wright Eclipse Gemini 2, entered service with Brighton & Hove on 27 June 2013, named as Sir Arthur Pearson and working on Route 5. In November 2017, to mark Chestnut Tree Hospice's forthcoming tenth annual Snowman Spectacular Fundraising Ball, the bus was given a special 'Snowman' livery featuring Raymond Briggs' illustration of the Snowman and James.