Open top buses in Torbay

The following year saw an additional route along Torbay Road which terminated near Torquay railway station, then in 1911 it was extended to Paignton.

In 1955 five old buses had their roofs removed for services in Torbay and one more was converted for Exmouth, another resort served by Devon General.

It took half an hour to fit or remove a roof using the mechanism that had worked a bus washing machine which had recently been superseded.

The 12C followed the same route as the 12A from St Marychurch to Goodrington but then continued to Churston and Kingswear instead of turning down to the sea front at Broadsands.

Seasonal open top services on route 122 operate from Hoburne Devon Bay holiday park to Babbacombe but closed top buses operate all year round from South Devon College through Paignton and St Marychurch to Dawlish Warren along a similar route to the 122.

Devon General's first buses were AEC YC type with roofless double-deck bodies typical at the time.

The Torquay Tramways purchased six AEC K-type double deck buses in 1921 which were transferred to the Devon General fleet the following year.

[16] The Sea Dogs were replaced in 1978 by nine new Bristol VRTs with 74 seat Eastern Coach Works convertible bodies.

[20] From 1971 Devon General became part of Western National but services around Torbay continued to operate in the old name and buses were sometimes moved between the fleets for short-term loans or on a more permanent basis.

Two rare Bristol LDLs in the Western National fleet had their tops removed from 1972/3 for operation at Penzance[35] and one of these was swapped in 1975 for Sir Francis Drake,[36] and the other in 1977 for Admiral Blake.

[41] A heritage vehicle, in the shape of Leyland Titan PD1 LRV 992 was also sent from Portsmouth to Torbay and was often used on scheduled services alongside the Bristol VRs.

[50] Dart Pleasure Craft, trading as 'Rail River Link' started services in 2000 using Bristol VRTs (two of which were obtained from Stagecoach Devon).

More recently Devonian Motor Services and English Riviera Tours have introduced a wider variety of bus types on new routes.