Leyland600:
This was Foden’s Band bus.
Cheers, Leyland 600
It’s listed as a Foden FD6. Would Foden still have been producing the two-stroke engine as late as that? I assume that it was a test chassis collaboration between Foden and Northern Counties that never went into volume production and ended up with the band.
I have a particular affection for these two buses as I travelled on them every day for the first two years of attending secondary school in Glasgow. Central were very stringent in their daily duty allocations - unless there were over-riding reasons the same bus ran on the same timetable every day no matter who the crew were. HGM346E was my morning transport and BGM31 the afternoon return trip. Fortunately HGM346E was saved for preservation and currently resides in the Glasgow Vintage Vehicle Museum where this picture was taken. The pic of BGM31 was taken at the short lived Anderston Cross bus station which opened in 1972 and closed less than 20 years later.
1938 501 Isobloc coachwork no idea what the mechanical underpinnings would be. All credit to Dave Fawcett for the photo.
Oily
Isobloc usually offered three types of rear-mounted engines: Ford petrol V8; Hispano-Hercules diesel; Panhard 4 HL (80 to 100 bhp according to the model).
Dennis Javelin:
Leyland600:
This was Foden’s Band bus.
Cheers, Leyland 600It’s listed as a Foden FD6. Would Foden still have been producing the two-stroke engine as late as that? I assume that it was a test chassis collaboration between Foden and Northern Counties that never went into volume production and ended up with the band.
It was a one-off built to replace the 30- year old Band coach, which had a rear-mounted two stroke, and is now in preservation. HRF 427V didn’t have a stroker, if I remember right it had a ■■■■■■■■ It passed to Rhyl Football Club (who painted it white) and then to travellers as a caravan. It was advertised for sale a few years ago but apparently found no buyers. Last recorded somewhere in mid-Wales, unless anyone knows different.
TruckNetUK . Old Time Lorries . Buses,Motorcoaches & Lorries .Page 63 .Foden Motorcoach . Friday,18th December,2020. VALKYRIE .
Fodenway:
Dennis Javelin:
Leyland600:
This was Foden’s Band bus.
Cheers, Leyland 600It’s listed as a Foden FD6. Would Foden still have been producing the two-stroke engine as late as that? I assume that it was a test chassis collaboration between Foden and Northern Counties that never went into volume production and ended up with the band.
It was a one-off built to replace the 30- year old Band coach, which had a rear-mounted two stroke, and is now in preservation. HRF 427V didn’t have a stroker, if I remember right it had a ■■■■■■■■ It passed to Rhyl Football Club (who painted it white) and then to travellers as a caravan. It was advertised for sale a few years ago but apparently found no buyers. Last recorded somewhere in mid-Wales, unless anyone knows different.
Here is the photograph and details of the Foden motorcoach in question:it was the official transport of the Foden Motor Works Brass Band and was named BANDMASTER,
as most or all previous Foden band transporter motorcoaches were named BANDMASTER:-
Foden 4XB6/16B,Northern Counties C33F Motorcoach,Chassis No.100010,Body No.8504, HRF 427V,BANDMASTER,June 1980. Foden Motor Works Band Motorcoach. Pinterest,Chris Hall. 1#
This Foden motorcoach’s model-chassis designation 4XB6/16B indicates that its powered by a Gardner 6LXB 180 Diesel-Oil Engine.This motorcoach was last
licensed in March 1989.
I think it was in 1972 that Foden stopped fitting their FD Two Stroke Diesel-Oil Engines in their motor vehicle range,which was a great shame since they were great
engines,although they continued to make the two stroke engines for marine and industrial applications.
Merry Christmas & A Happy New Year to everyone.
VALKYRIE
Thanks for the clarification regarding the Foden coach engine. Here’s the one it replaced, happily now restored. Photographed at the Plaxton Centenary celebrations in 2007.
Glasgow Corporation Transports first two door decker PYS950G pictured here in 1973. For some unknown reason Glasgow never seemed to replace the bottom skirt from the engine cowlings if they had to be removed during maintenance, they only reappeared after the buses had went through their 7 year C.O.F. The orange dot on the front dome was to give boarding passengers advance notice that the bus approaching was one-man-operated.
fodenway:
Thanks for the clarification regarding the Foden coach engine. Here’s the one it replaced, happily now restored. Photographed at the Plaxton Centenary celebrations in 2007.
Lovely photo, I don’t care what anyone says about things being better nowadays, that coach and the one partially in the photo has way more character and style than anything today, if they could’ve kept the old style and finesse of vehicles but just improved all the mechanical side of things it would’ve been far nicer than the characterless vehicles we see today where you can hardly tell one car from another etc, all the chrome work and details. God we must’ve been a lot more well off years ago to afford all that.
Leyland600:
Here some interior views of the Central SMT Bristol VRLL BN331. cuttings from my collection.
Love the idea of putting the batteries behind the n/s/f wheel to counteract the weight of the engine behind the o/s/r wheel. That will make such an enormous difference.
cav551:
Leyland600:
Here some interior views of the Central SMT Bristol VRLL BN331. cuttings from my collection.Love the idea of putting the batteries behind the n/s/f wheel to counteract the weight of the engine behind the o/s/r wheel. That will make such an enormous difference.
Was wondering about that myself. Maybe the designers had one eye on potential sales to customers insisting on rear passenger entry/egress, like a front-engined bus?
This is from an interesting batch of 17 buses delivered to Alexander’s Midland in 1961. Officially it is a Leyland PD3/3C and this was 5 years after the introduction of that particular model but the chassis was made up of parts from the earlier PS1 and OPS2/1 model. I remember these buses operating well into the 70’s.
NMP
An extremely busy Alexanders plant in 1964. They built just under 500 bodies that year. The decker in the background looks like one of a batch of 15 destined for North Western judging by the destination box
NMP
TruckNetUK . Old Time Lorries . Buses,Motorcoaches & Lorries . Leyland Titan PD3/3C DD Omnibus . Winter Solstice - The Shortest Day,Monday,21st December,2020.
VALKYRIE .
Dennis Javelin:
This is from an interesting batch of 17 buses delivered to Alexander’s Midland in 1961. Officially it is a Leyland PD3/3C and this was 5 years after the introduction of that particular model but the chassis was made up of parts from the earlier PS1 and OPS2/1 model. I remember these buses operating well into the 70’s.NMP
Here are the main details of this particular Leyland Titan PD3/3C/Alexander Double Decker Omnibus,RMS 681,Stirling,February 1961,Alexander Midland RB249.which,
as Dennis Javelin says,was one of a batch of 17 such buses with new PD3 chassis frames,and parts from Tiger PS1 and Tiger OPS2/1 models:-
Had a brand new Leyland Titan PD3/3C chassis frame.
Refurbished parts from:-
Leyland Tiger PS1/Alexander C35F Motorcoach,Chassis No.471203,CLNo.1197,Body No.3709,CMS 207,Stirling,September 1949,W.Alexander,Falkirk,PA138.
And refurbished parts from:-
Leyland Tiger OPS2/1/Alexander C35F Motorcoach,Chassis No.481802,CLNo.30,Body No.4095,DMS 819,Stirling,December 1951,W.Alexander,Falkirk,PB6.
Almost certainly included the more powerful Leyland O.600 9.8 Litre Diesel-Oil Engine - the Leyland E181 7.4 Litre Diesel-Oil Engine of the Tiger PS1 was
less powerful
O = Overseas. Part of a cancelled and diverted export order
Leyland Titan PD3/3C/Alexander L35/32R DD Omnibus,Chassis No.6084,Body No.6582,RMS 681,Alexander Midland RB249.New PD3 frame,parts from Leyland Tiger PS1,CMS 207 & Tiger OPS2/1,DMS 819.1961.TN,OTL,BML,63.12-2020.Dennis Javelin.3#
I cannot find any photographs of the above motorcoaches that provided the parts for RMS 681,but here is a typical example of a very similar Leyland Tiger PS1
motorcoach operated and bodied by the Walter Alexander motorcoach and bus group:-
Leyland Tiger PS1/Alexander C35F Motorcoach,Chassis No.483215,CLNo.2381,Body No.3935,CWG 206,Stirling,3-1950,W.Alexander,Falkirk,PA164.TK,OTL,BML,63.12-2020.Wikimedia.3#
Merry Christmas And A Happy New Year,2021,Everyone 
VALKYRIE
The Liverpool Corporation Leyland Atlantean is heading up Hardman Street in the 1960s.
At the far end of the picture is The Roman Catholic Cathedral. Not far from the rear of
the camera is the Anglican Cathedral. The road linking the two Cathedrals is appropiately
called Hope Street.
oiltreader:
1938 501 Isobloc coachwork no idea what the mechanical underpinnings would be. All credit to Dave Fawcett for the photo.
Oily
Interesting one Oily. I did a bit of internet rummaging (‘sleuthing’ is overstating it) and it seems there’s some confusion whether this is a 1938 or 1948 coach - I’m no expert but I’ll suggest the latter. As to underpinnings, as Froggy points out Isobloc used a range of engines, but being a French charabanc (and given the results I’ve seen here myntransportblog.com/category/isobloc/) I’d suggest probably Panhard.
Dennis Javelin:
An order for 20 VRT’s was delivered in 1969 but they didn’t last long as they were swapped for Bristol FLF’s in 1973 with members of the National Bus Co. For some reason the VRT never found favour with the Scottish Bus Group.
A handful went to Southdown, for equally unfathomable reasons.
sandway:
Photo taken in Lisbon in 1981 from my hotel room in the Intercontinental.
I dunno the reasons, but it seems many Portuguese operators had a long affinity for AECs - see Martyn Hearson’s flickr album flickr.com/photos/22455491@ … 8966832006
Suedehead:
1
Call me Val.
I never understood the reasoning behind the twin-steer VAL, but I’m happy to be edumacated.
