My all-time favourite bus, the only Foden double-decker ever to be fitted with their own two-stroke diesel engine. Built in 1948, fitted with a Willowbrook body and used as a demonstrator for a while. It was bought by W.A. Cawthorne for his Woolley Colliery to Barnsley service. After Mr Cawthorne died in 1952, the stage carriage service and his two buses passed to Yorkshire Traction. The other bus, a 1935 Leyland Titanic 6-wheeler, saw a few more years service, but the Foden carried on working until 1959 when it was sold to Frank Cowley, a dealer and dismantler from Salford. Unfortunately, it was scrapped soon afterwards. I travelled on it a couple of times, and saw it quite often, but it was the glorious sound of it working hard on the hills that will always remain in my memory. There were also several Foden coaches operating in and around Barnsley at the time, including those of the Barnsley British Co-operative Society (Unity Coaches), “Chippy” Rowes and Tom Roberts.
