I was born and lived in Nuneaton for the first 20 years of my life, and in the late 40s, 50s and early 60s relied on Midland Red buses as a major means of travel. >From what I remember, each town with a Midland Red garage had a range of local routes commencing with the initial town letter followed by two numbers, eg N for Nuneaton, L for Leicester, C for Coventry etc.. Routes between towns and cities used three numbers, usually beginning with 6 or 7. I often used the 658 bus, which ran between Coventry and Leicester through Nuneaton and Hinckley, to get to Leicester. As Midland Red operated across the whole region, some long routes had the letter X followed by two numbers. I seem to recacall a service from Leicester through Coventry to Birmingham beginning with X, and there was a X route from Nuneaton to Hereford. Of course, many young boys in the late 40s could obtain a book of all the bus fleet numbers, a parallel to trainspotting. Obviously the fleet was eventually divided into smaller geographical ares, but nowadays there seems to be a fleet of turqoise and cream Arriva buses in towns and cities all over the country!! David Hutt