Hundreds of visitors turned out for Ipswich Transport Museum’s bus gala to launch its 2016 season.

Now it is gearing up for a busy Easter with regular opening over the school holiday and an Easter Egg Hunt for children on Monday.

The first opening of the year last Sunday saw some of the museum’s own vehicles, and visiting buses, travelling around Ipswich giving visitors a taste of transport in town in the past.

One of the stars of the gala was the 1964-built Ipswich Corporation Transport AEC double-decker which was back on some of its familiar routes of earlier years.

Visitors were also attracted to the new layout and exhibits – including a Ransomes combine harvester built less than a mile away from the Cobham Road museum.

Museum chairman Mark Smith said organisers had been delighted by the success of the event: “We had more than 300 people coming to the museum and riding on the buses.

“And there were six and a half buses on the roads around the town during the day.

“It was the first time we had had an event like this to start the season – it was a joint effort with the Colne Estuary Preserved Bus group who were linking between the museum and the town centre.”

The museum is open tomorrow, Good Friday, and then on Easter Sunday and throughout the school holidays.

This year it has already planned a number of special events planned throughout the year – and is hoping that in 2016 it will improve the visitor numbers of last year when about 10,000 people visited its collection of vehicles and other industrial exhibits with a link to the Ipswich area.

For full details of opening and special events visit its website at www.ipswichtransportmuseum.co.uk