Dennis Javelin:
How I do it is by going onto this site buslistsontheweb.co.uk then go into the search menu. Click on the “registration” tab and it brings up a box for you to put in a reg no. If you put in the the letters part of the reg no in CAPITALS and then put in three underscores like SHS___, press search it will bring up a list of any buses that were registered with similar marks. You can then work out approximately how old the vehicle you are looking at is by dating the first reg of a bus with a similar mark. It’s not foolproof because it relies on a bus being registered around the same time but if that’s not the case then just use a letter either side of the one you’re looking for ie if your looking for SHS975 but nothing comes up then put in THS___ or UHS___ continuing until you get a match.
Simple and efficient, at least for buses. Thanks!